Zebedee (Zébulon in the French version) the jack-in-the-box-like fire wizard, is who everyone at the Magic Roundabout asks help for. He is one of the main characters of "The Magic Roundabout" franchise.
By calling out his name, he will magically come from where ever he came from. His catchphrase is "Time for bed" in the original series. However, in the 2007 revival series, he says "It's time to party!" when all the problems are solved.
Background[]
Concept and creation[]
Zebedee is created by Serge Danot as a magical character for the show to help the characters solve their problems. In the original French version, Zebedee was portrayed as a good-hearted, but sometimes mischievous wizard whilst in the English version provided by Eric Thompson, Zebedee's personality was changed. While keeping his good-hearted nature, he is portrayed as being calm, no-nonsense and helpful.
Personality[]
Zebedee is a good-hearted wizard who rules the Enchanted Gardens where he bring happiness and joy to the inhabitants who live there. He is quite mischievous where he tends to play tricks on others as a joke where he usually gets found out in the end by Florence and everyone else, or to try and teach Dougal a lesson for his actions. As much as he is joyful and happy, Zebedee can be quite fearful about his arch-nemesis Zeebad, who he locked away 10,000 years ago to stop him from freezing the world again, and his fear worsened when he learns that Zeebad escaped. Regardless, he faces Zeebad once more and doesn't hesitate to battle him again until Zebedee gets overpowered.
There are times when Zebedee would be rendered powerless without his magic, such as when his magic mustache is stolen by Buxton and he cannot use his magic to escape or when Mr Rusty takes the magic gasket from the Magic Roundabout whilst doing maintenance repairs, leaving his magical powers to suffer with side effects.
Physical appearance[]
Zebedee is a small heat wizard with red skin where he has a circle of white freckle-like dots on each side of his head, a black tuff of hair at the top of his head and a matching mustache, wide blue eyes and has a metallic spring at the bottom instead of legs. He wears a yellow sweater with a green collar and purple buttons, and white gloves.
In the original series, his sweater was a jacket that has a white bowtie with blue dots and his gloves were blue.
Relationships[]
He would meet up with Mr Rusty at the Magic Roundabout and spend his time with him. Zebedee first met Mr Rusty when he was sent to help him with his dilemma of trying to attract the children to his Magic Roundabout and the two became good friends after Zebedee's plan to attract the children to the roundabout succeeded.
He is good friends with Florence, Dougal, Dylan, Brian, Ermintrude and Mr McHenry where he helps them out with their situations. Zebedee meets up with Florence at the roundabout as he teleports her to the garden and although he does make her annoyed with his mischievous tricks he deliberately pulled on anyone, Florence still loves him.
His sworn enemy is Zeebad, a evil ice wizard who Zebedee imprisoned him in his lava-filled cavern prison long ago to stop him from freezing the world again. Once the gang is at the mercy of Zeebad at his ice lair, Zebedee doesn't hesitate to spring into action and battle his arch-enemy.
Abilities and talents[]
- Magic: Zebedee is particularly good at producing magic and with a snap of his fingers, he would make something magically appear. Other times, he would have a magic box that has a button that magically summons Train or turns his carriage into different forms. During his battle with Zeebad, Zebedee is shown to blast fiery magic from his mustache which he uses to try and defeat Zeebad, but he fails.
- Reanimation: Zebedee can also reanimate and give life to inanimate objects such as when he revives Sam by placing the third diamond back inside his hollow body and returns him back to his inanimate form before placing him back in his place on top of the roundabout.
- Teleportation: He can magically arrive or appear in magical swirls when a character calls out his name. Other times, he would arrive in one bounce with his spring.
Biography[]
Dougal and the Blue Cat[]
In the film, Zebedee first appears, while conducting a singing group of French lollipops. Dougal arrives, having ridden the Train to talk with him. After the lollipops leave on the Train, in the French version, Zebedee begins to notice his mustache itching and prickling, which he senses as a bad omen. Dougal then tells him about what happened last night, in which he heard strange noises and voices coming from the old factory, which had shut down. Zebedee thinks it might've been just a dream, but Dougal is convinced otherwise. Zebedee then suggests that Dougal should talk to Florence about the matter, and leaves to escort her to the garden.
Zebedee then arrives at the roundabout, where Mr Rusty and the kids have discovered a blue cat named Buxton. In the French version, his mustache begins itching again, while in the English version, he tells the group that Dougal has a bit of a problem, which nobody seems to be interested in. Florence agrees to talk with him anyway, as she, Zebedee, and Buxton leave for the garden.
Except for Dougal, everyone is unaware of Buxton's true evil intentions to take over the garden and get rid of anything that isn't blue. Sometime later, at Ermintrude's art exhibition, just as the group starts to become somewhat suspicious, Zebedee shows up, hiding behind some trees and calling for help. His mustache had been stolen, leaving him powerless without it. As everyone goes to look for it, Buxton leaves for the factory. He orders his army to capture everyone and get rid of anything that isn't blue. Zebedee ends up being the fifth to be captured by Buxton's army, and taken prisoner in the factory's dungeon. He's chained in-between Florence on the left and Ermintrude on the right. Buxton then reveals to have Zebedee's mustache, which makes the angry magician seethe with revenge. He later cries with the others to Florence's sad song, before Dougal arrives, having come to rescue them, disguised as "Blue Peter". Buxton arrives, having crowed "Blue Peter" as Prime Minister, as the dog pretends to insult his friends. Zebedee also plays along, mocking Buxton and Dougal and, in the French version, remarking that shame makes one go red. Madam Blue then sends Dougal and Buxton to conquer the moon, but there, the dog's true identity is eventually revealed.
Later, as an enraged Madam Blue strikes a lightning storm in the castle, Dougal goes back to free the others. He bites off Zebedee's chain, making him the fifth member to be freed. As the others leave through the gate, Zebedee somewhat ends up springing back to the garden on his own, despite not having his mustache. Back in the garden, he watches as the factory collapses and Dougal tearfully tells them that Brian went back inside. Thankfully, the snail returns with Zebedee's mustache, which everyone had forgotten about as they were escaping. Zebedee is beside himself with joy, and does some excited twirling. Mr McHenry then uses magic to make it snow around the garden, and Zebedee joins his friends for a ride on the roundabout.
The 2005 film[]
Zebedee was having a nightmare about him being chased by Zeebad, and after waking up, he checks up on the Magic Garden and is relived that everything is fine. However, he was summoned by Dougal and his friends to the village where he discovers the Magic Roundabout wrecked and frozen solid with it turned into a icy prison for Mr Rusty, Florence, Basil and Coral and is openly shocked to discover that Zeebad has escaped which was the day Zebedee feared. He explains to Dougal and everybody about Zeebad, revealing that the roundabout acts to keep Zeebad imprisoned, and now Dougal had accidentally released him, he is free to wreak havoc with his powers. Zebedee instructs the gang to find three enchanted diamonds and place them into their slots on the roundabout to re-imprison Zeebad, but warns them if Zeebad obtained all three, he will fully finish freezing the world by freezing the sun. Zebedee reveals that one of the diamonds is supposedly hidden here on the roundabout where he will stay behind to guard it, and sends the gang off on their quest to find the other two.
However, the gang are cornered by Zeebad at Zeebad's lair, Zebedee was summoned and confronts his arch-enemy where the two battle by firing their respective magic to each other with their mustaches. Halfway through the battle and seemingly sent Zeebad off the cliff, Zebedee discovers that Sam is working as Zeebad's henchman when seeing Sam prevents the gang from leaving, Zebedee intervenes and tries to remind Sam of his true duty until Zeebad fires an ice blast at Zebedee's arm. This weakens Zebedee's strength and he is overpowered by Zeebad who then traps him by freezing him on the cliff where he stands. As Zeebad uses his mustache to break off the cliff, Dougal and the gang rush to save Zebedee, but the good wizard stops them from doing so by using his mustache to break off chunks of ice that block their path. The cliff collapses and Zebedee falls into the abyss while telling the gang to get the diamonds.
To the gang and Zeebad, Zebedee is presumed dead after falling into the abyss, and was shown in Dougal's dream halfway through the film. However, after Zeebad was re-imprisoned, it turns out that Zebedee had survived the fall, but remains trapped in the ice until he sees that the ice is start to melt as Dougal and his friends had managed to re-imprison Zeebad and reversed his evil magic. Zebedee is able to break himself free and bounces back to the village to Dougal, Florence and everybody's joy. When everyone discovers that the roundabout is still non-functional, Zebedee explains that it is missing something to make it fully operational and that is Sam, who was killed by Zeebad earlier when he tried to make a stand against his former boss. Zebedee removes the third diamond from its slot and returns it into Sam's body, reviving him and returning him back to his place on the roundabout allowing it to function again.
Trivia[]
- In the original French series, he has a catchphrase, "Tournicoti, tournicoton!" which translates to something along the lines of "Twirly Whirly". It is also a verbal tic, in which after a sentence, he would usually say "Tournico-" and then the last part of the last word he says; for example, "Pollux (Dougal) has been waiting! Tournico-taiting!"
- In the original French series, Zebedee sometimes has the tendency to play tricks on others. In the 2007 revival series, his voice and mannerisms are mainly borrowed from the original French version, including this trickster trait, as opposed to the original English version, as well as the 2005 film, where he's much more calm, collected, dignified, and even suave.
- In the 2007 CGI series, Zebedee's magic was powered by the Magic Roundabout (which wasn't mentioned in the original 1964 series) and if it was broken down due to any parts of the mechanism missing or when the magic gasket is taken out from the roundabout while Mr Rusty does repairs, Zebedee's magic wouldn't be working properly.
- He and Zeebad are the last of the Springer species to be alive.