Difference between revisions of "Todd Flanders"
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Revision as of 20:47, October 27, 2008
Todd Flanders
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Character Information
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Todd Flanders is voiced by Nancy Cartwright, Aurelia Bruno in French and Dani Chauveau in Canadian French. Todd is the youngest and most impressionable member of the happy Flanders flock. When exposed to profanity (for example, in the episode, Bart the Lover, from over the fence as Homer Simpson curses his way through mowing the lawn), little Todd starts to curse a blue streak himself ("Hell, no." and "I said I don't want any damn vegetables). When Moe Syzlak loses his temper at Uncle Moe's Family Feedbag restaurant, Todd responds with "Ow, my freaking ears!" Whether due to immaturity or relentless sheltering by his parents, whenever Todd comes into contact with anything outside of his family and their pious ways (like the time he was tricked into eating a Pixie Stick by Bart Simpson), he turns nasty, for example calling his brother a "zitface", .
Todd's proudest moments have been when he tied with Bart in the mini-golf championship and when he portrayed Jesus in the Springfield Christmas Pageant. Todd can play the violin quite well, and is a part of the Springfield Elementary band. He is also prone to bedwetting. Todd's voice is based on Sherman's from Peabody and Sherman.
Background
Todd like his parents, is very religious. He enjoy attending church, Bible stories, watching religious cartoons, and playing religious-themed board games. These games include Good Samaritan - though they do not use dice because Ned says that dice are wicked. Instead they just move one space at a time - they believe "It's less fun that way".
Maude and Ned prohibit him from consuming foods containing sugar, as they fear it will make them behave badly. He is also extremely entomophobic (particularly with moths and ladybugs), a behavior probably learned from their father, who considers an insect flying near someone a "bug attack". They enjoy stories about robots named Rod and Todd, though these also frighten them. Both play with a mock-up newspaper press, and take the activity very seriously. (One headline read: "This just in, playtime is fun!" - Bart responded to this by making his own newspaper stating that "Todd Smells!") They are both also very gullible, walking into a wall when told by "God" (actually Bart on a radio-transmitting microphone) that He would make it disappear for them.
Age discrepancy
There is also some controversy as to which of the two is the elder. In "Dead Putting Society" the commentator at the golf tournament states that Todd is 10. In Homer Bad Man, one of the corrections that the TV-magazine show Rock Bottom makes is to their claim that "the older Flanders boy is Todd, not Rod". (although this could have been included purely to stir up fans). Later, in Bart Sells His Soul, the Flanders family eat out for Rod's "big ten-oh", suggesting the two are of similar age (however, the present time in at least one other Simpsons episode has been set two years before that of others, as shown by All's Fair in Oven War). However, in "My Sister, My Sitter" Lisa, when babysitting Rod and Todd, tells a story about a robot named Todd who "had a brother named Rod, who was two space years older than him". Todd responds by saying, "I don't like this story!"
As Rod is shown to be quite a bit taller than Todd, the claim that Todd is the older brother is disputed. Both Rod and Todd were born after Lisa (who is 8), Todd appearing a younger age than Bart (who is 10) in the episode "Lisa's First Word" (when Bart was entering "the terrible twos"). This suggests the Flanders children are slightly older than the Simpson children.
Despite these discrepancies, the Simpsons official website states that “Todd is the youngest and most impressionable member of the happy Flanders clan”. This seems to trump any inconsistency concerning age seen in the episodes. On the other hand, the character profile for Rod Flanders in The Simpsons: A Complete Guide To Our Favorite Family describes him as the "youngest of the Springfield Flanders." Another possible reason for the variation is that, in the DVD commentaries for show, the writers have stated that they are never sure which Flanders sibling is Rod and which one is Todd and are often forced to check character models to be sure. According to the commentary, early show writers used two different mnemonics to identify the taller brother; first that Todd started with T and was Taller, or that Rod was long like a rod and hence taller.
