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Francine Frensky

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Francine Frensky
Francine 706b
Age 8[1]
Grade 3rd

4th ("First Day")

Gender Female
Animal Monkey[2]
Birthday Within the Pisces Zodiac sign[3]
Winter[4]
Soon after Lisa's birthday party[5]
Eye color Brown[6]
Hair color Brown
Complexion Peach (Living Books)
Light brown (s1-s5)
Brown (s6-25)
Favorite color Red[1][7][8]
Purple (second favorite)[9]
Residence Westboro Apartments, Elwood City
Family *Oliver Frensky (father)
Laverne Frensky (mother)
Catherine Frensky (older sister)
Bubby (maternal grandmother; deceased)
Bubby's husband (maternal grandfather; deceased)
Francine's grandfather (paternal grandfather)
Nana (maternal or paternal great-grandmother)
Vingo Frensky (great-great-grandfather)
Seth (cousin)
Seth's mother (aunt)
Seth's father (uncle)
Francine's cousin (cousin)
Job CEO of a sneaker company ("All Grown Up")
Book debut 'Arthur's Nose'
Cartoon debut "Arthur's Eyes"
Voiced by Jodie Resther (Arthur and podcast)
Marcella Evans (Living Books games)
Bailey Lauren (AMP)
Mary Kay Bergman
Christina Muhlker (Computer Games)

Francine Alice[10] Frensky is the daughter of Oliver and Laverne Frensky and the younger sister of Catherine Frensky. She is an athletic girl in Mr. Ratburn's third grade class at Lakewood Elementary School. She is in Mr. Ratburn's class again for fourth grade.[11]

Physical appearance

Francine is an anthropomorphic monkey with a brown complexion. She has medium-length brown hair with a bob hairstyle, which she puts hairclips on to pin it up (her hairclips are red in the books, but yellow in the cartoon).

She is usually seen wearing a red shirt, blue jeans, red and white sneakers, white socks and doesn't wear any shirt underneath like some of her friends do.

Her sleepwear is a cream-colored pajama top with a big lime green #1 on the front and lime green pajama pants with stripes.

Her swimwear is a yellow maillot. In summer, she often wears a yellow T-shirt with a red stripe in the center and on the sleeves and a pair of red shorts. Her formal outfit consists of a pink collar blouse, gray pants and white shoes.

In later seasons, her formal outfit is changed to a white blouse, a black necklace, red pants and black shoes. In Season 1, she originally wears a pink T-shirt, blue overall shorts, pink socks and brown shoes.

Her basketball uniform consists of an orange T-shirt and yellow shorts, which both have reddish-orange accents, and she has a yellow #5 on the back of the shirt. Her baseball uniform consists of a yellow baseball cap and a yellow T-shirt with the orange #6 on the back. Sometimes, the LW logo is shown on the front; sometimes, the front is blank.

Her football uniform consists of a very large white shirt with a black #11 on the front and a red football helmet with a black stripe and white face mask.

During cool weather outside of winter, she wears a black button-up #5 jacket with white sleeves and the #5 on the left front end and on the rear.

During winter, she wears a white stocking cap with a fluffy red ball on top, an orange winter coat, a blue and white striped scarf, white mittens and brown boots.

She also has a pair of Dame Edna-style movie star glasses that are pink in the books, but green in the cartoon; although they do not have any glass in the frames. She wears these glasses on occasions in the books: Arthur's Eyes and Arthur's Teacher Trouble; and in the episodes "Arthur's Eyes", "Arthur's Spelling Trubble", and "Sick as a Dog". She has never worn those glasses again after Arthur's Teacher Trouble and after the cartoon series' first season.

In "Arthur's First Day", where she starts fourth grade, she wears an orange shirt with red hairclips (the way they are colored in the books) and red jeans.

In "All Grown Up", in her adult years, she has a shaved-side mohawk hairstyle, golden earrings, black jacket, pink blouse, blue jeans and sneakers (with the letter "F").

She had her hair completely flattened down to her cheeks in her first appearance in Arthur's Nose; in Arthur's Eyes and all later books and adaptations, her hairstyle is in a flip.

She also initially wore dresses in the earliest Arthur books. In Arthur's Valentine and all later books and adaptations, she mostly wore boyish clothes and only wore dresses for extra special occasions like for Picture Day in "Francine's Bad Hair Day" and for her older cousin Seth's Bar Mitzvah in "Francine's Split Decision". Her hair was initially a light brown shade, but became darkened to a medium shade in Arthur's Teacher Trouble and all later books and adaptations.

Gallery

Frensky Family in Winter Clothes
The full image gallery for Francine Frensky may be viewed at Francine Frensky/Gallery.

Alternate hairstyles

Even though Francine doesn't like having her hair done like her best friend Muffy does, she has had a few alternate hairstyles in the series. Her signature hairstyle is a straight flip, even though it's not flat. In Arthur's Valentine, she has wavy hair when she becomes Arthur's secret admirer while at a cinema sitting in seat 3B. In "Francine's Bad Hair Day", Muffy urges her to get her hair done for school pictures, and Francine first wants the Prom Queen hairstyle that Muffy was getting. Francine has a dream where she's playing kickball and has super-long hair that can be used to retrieve the ball or reach a base. When Francine checks out the results, she is given a tightly curled hairstyle instead. After "Francine's Bad Hair Day", she has since kept her signature hairstyle. In the end of "The Lousy Week", she and Muffy are both given a buzz cut to eliminate lice from reproducing in their hairs.

Past life

When Francine was younger, she wore an orange short-sleeved shirt and yellow overall shorts. Her hair was also a bit shorter. She started wearing hairclips when she was in preschool and wore a white shirt, pink pants, and sneakers. When she moved into second grade, she started wearing her usual red long-sleeved shirt, blue jeans, and red and white sneakers.

Future life

As a teenager and as an adult in the future, Francine appears to have grown more feminine by wearing dresses and other feminine clothing despite not originally liking to wear dresses. Also, her hairstyle is slightly different when growing up. As an elderly woman, her hairstyle is the same as when she went to Lakewood Elementary School and she's wearing a pastel blue cardigan, a white blouse with a pendant underneath the cardigan, a periwinkle dress and white high-heeled pumps. She also is wearing hairclips again. She also appears to be married to Arthur on many futuristic occasions.

Francine's love of sports comes into play as revealed in the flash forward sequence in the last episode. She becomes the owner and CEO of a company that makes sneakers and regularly tries each pair. She loves her job, as she also gets exercise while running her company.

Other media

In the Living Books computer games like Arthur's Teacher Trouble and Arthur's Birthday, which are both based on their respective books and predate the cartoon, Francine had reddish-brown hair and a light cream-colored complexion. Francine's voice sounded more feminine in those two games and was voiced by Marcella Evans before the cartoon replaced her with Jodie Resther.

In the later games during the 32-bit era of computers and software such as Arthur's Thinking Games, her appearance was the same as she looks in the cartoon show.

Personality and skills

Arthur's Perfect Christmas - Francine, Arthur, George and Muffy

Francine complaining to Arthur about Muffy ignoring her regarding Chanukah

Francine is athletic and loves sports, especially soccer, football, kickball, bowling, and baseball. The only sports she does not excel at are badminton and figure skating (which she dismisses as "girly", despite being a girl herself).

Francine is very determined, perhaps even restless, and if she doesn't have an immediate knack for a certain sport or skill, she can become frustrated.

Arthur once described her as a "sore winner" (even if she wins at something, she can get frustrated and feel she should have done even better). She also likes horses, and once accompanied Harry Mills to a horse race. She envies Catherine because she is a better horse rider. ("Francine Frensky, Olympic Rider".)

Francine is an excellent singer and drummer. However, she cannot do both at the same time very well. Even though Francine does fairly well in school, she does struggle from time to time.

At one point, she even resorts to plagiarizing an entire paper (even though one must note she never know that it was wrong at the time, and had a nightmare of herself twenty years older where she was being sued for plagiarism).

Though she claims she's the best player in every sport, she is proven wrong in some of them: in baseball, her skills needed plenty of improvement as seen in "Arthur Makes the Team". In the episode "The Big Blow-Up", she showed resentment toward Brain for his superior skills in soccer and she refused to admit that she was kicking the ball out of bounds and had an attitude when Brain called her out on it.

She always talks in a tomboyish, brash tone. At the start of the show, Francine was very rude and hot tempered. She was shown to be a bit of a bully towards the other kids particularly Arthur. She would be the main antagonist in episodes such as Arthur’s Eyes and Arthur’s Tooth.

This attitude is attempted to be tamed by a challenge from Muffy, by the entire class rebellion during a play about Thomas Edison, but neither of these lasts permanently. It is not until Fern Walters makes drawings about Francine, which motivates everybody else to also make drawings about Francine, that she starts to calm down. ("Meek for a Week", "Francine Frensky, Superstar", "Draw!".)

Francine also has a soft side. She will try to help her friends if they are having a big problem, but sometimes, if somebody says something about her whilst she's trying to help, she misinterprets it as criticism and leaves the room.

Francine does not like wearing dresses or having her hair done, which she believes would make her look foolish and less like herself as she explains in "Francine's Bad Hair Day". She prefers to wear clothes that are normally worn by boys, thus making her a tomboy. Despite not wanting to have her hair done, her hair length remains the same.

Family

Francine lives with her father, mother and sister, Catherine, in Apartment #3 at Westboro Apartments, with the least amount of living space compared to her friends' homes. She also has a pet cat named Nemo. Francine's large family (including Bubby) has been seen on a few occasions such as in Arthur's Perfect Christmas, "Background Blues", and "Is That Kosher?". Her father works as a garbage man at the Elwood City Dump, which briefly embarrassed her ("My Dad, the Garbage Man"). Her mother is not employed and usually stays at home. She is constantly jealous of Catherine for being a more advanced horseback rider ("Francine Frensky, Olympic Rider") and acrobat ("Francine's Big Top Trouble") than she is. She and Catherine also argue over room decorations, which once led Catherine to move into the living room ("Francine Redecorates"). However, Catherine can be sometimes helpful to her. Her family does not often spend enough time together, although they do enjoy bowling ("The Frensky Family Fiasco"). Her father sometimes calls her "Franky." ("I Don't Want to Wake Up").

Due to her family not being well-off financially, they were unable to replace her old bike she had outgrown, and she left with no choice but to ride her father's old bike that had seen better days. Embarrassed by the bike, she hid it in some bushes and it was picked up by the garbage truck. (she claimed it was stolen until she tells the truth). Finally, her father finds it and manages to restore it. ("Stolen Bike")

The Frenskys are a Jewish family who celebrate religious holidays such as Hanukkah in Arthur's Perfect Christmas and Yom Kippur in "Is That Kosher?".

Friends

  • Arthur Read - Arthur is one of Francine's best friends. Though they consider themselves to be each others' best friend (after Muffy for Francine and Buster for Arthur), Francine seems to always pick on Arthur, such as calling him a "four-eyes" when he first gets glasses in Arthur's Eyes and a "baby" for not having lost a tooth in "Arthur's Tooth". Despite the cold treatment Francine often gives to Arthur, she does care for him on occasions. In "Arthur Cleans Up", she was the only friend who supported Arthur in the Clean-Up Brigade by warning him about her father. In some episodes, it seems Francine likes Arthur, although in the episode "Arthur and the Square Dance", when Francine thinks that Arthur loves her, she says that's the grossest thing she's ever heard; in the end it is revealed that it was just a rumor and Arthur and Francine vow to not letting a silly thing like love come between them again. In the episode "And Now Let's Talk to Some Kids", Arthur and Francine are shown to be an old couple in the future watching the video of them on the Magic Toolbox segment: And Now Let's Talk to Some Kids. Another hint that Francine might have a crush on Arthur is in the 2001 book Arthur's First Kiss, when she tries to kiss him, but fails. In "Arthur Makes a Movie", Francine is desperate to film a romantic scene with Arthur where he rescues her. According to "Locked in the Library!" from Season 1, they met each other for the first time in preschool during a flashback; but she attended Arthur's third birthday party during a flashback in "Desperately Seeking Stanley" from Season 8, which means the time they met each other for the first time is a retcon.
  • Muffy Crosswire - Francine and Muffy met during second grade and became best friends when they found out they had the same middle name, Alice ("Arthur and the True Francine"). They always manage to find something to do together even though they are different in many ways: Muffy is feminine and lives in an exceedingly rich family in an overly spacious estate, while Francine is tomboyish and lives in a rather low-class family in a narrow apartment, and in the episode "Poor Muffy", the wealth differences between the two are revealed. Muffy stands up to Buster Baxter and mistakenly Binky Barnes about Francine's "unfashionable hand-me-downs" and cheap possessions, such as Francine's bicycle in "Stolen Bike". They often clash over Francine's tomboyish attitude or Muffy's selfishness, such as in the episode, "Meek for a Week", "Muffy's New Best Friend", and the holiday special, Arthur's Perfect Christmas, but they always make up in the end.
  • Buster Baxter - Buster is a frequent annoyance of Francine, but they maintain a good friendship anyway.
  • Binky Barnes - Binky plays with Francine, Fern, Molly and Mrs. MacGrady in a band called U Stink in "Arthur - It's Only Rock 'n' Roll". They both share the similarity of being bullies.
  • Fern Walters - Fern plays with Francine, Binky, Molly, and Mrs. MacGrady as U Stink in "Arthur - It's Only Rock 'n' Roll". In "Draw!" Francine insults Fern by calling her a "mouse," causing Fern to motivate herself and the others to make fun of Francine by making silly comics.
  • Jenna Morgan - In "The Good Sport", Francine makes Jenna feel guilty about winning the Athlete of the Year award instead of Francine, but they make up in the end. In "Jenna's Bedtime Blues", Francine is the only one who knows Jenna's secret about her wetting the bed because she also used to wet the bed.
  • George Lundgren - In "Vomitrocious", Francine makes fun of George's nosebleeds but learns her lesson when she vomits in front of everyone in the cafeteria. In "Dancing Fools", Francine dances with George.
  • Brain - They are on the same soccer team, yet they argue in "The Big Blow-Up". Francine tries to give Brain tips for TV in "And Now Let's Talk to Some Kids", but he's working on his science project. They are also both amazing athletes.
  • Alex Davidson - In "Francine Frensky, Superstar", he's one of the reporters in Francine's show about Thomas Edison. In "Elwood City Turns 100!", Alex asks Francine what Elwood City is like today, and she answers him through the closing number "That's Elwood City".
  • D.W. Read - There have been a few episodes in which Francine maintains an antagonistic side towards D.W. Francine created The Parade Float Club in the episode "My Club Rules" in an attempt to keep D.W. away from them. D.W. took over their club anyways, and Francine blamed Arthur for trying to get D.W. out of the club. She also expressed annoyance in D.W. Blows the Whistle, when D.W. is becoming a "safety monster" by constantly blowing her whistle. In the "Revenge of the Chip", Francine also mocked D.W. when she used to think that green potato chips were poisonous, much to D.W.'s embarrassment. Despite this, there are also a handful of episodes involving Francine and D.W. supporting each other, much to Arthur's annoyance. D.W. takes Francine's side in "Locked in the Library!", is invited to Francine's birthday party in "D.W.'s Very Bad Mood" after Lisa does not invite her, and in "Arthur's Big Hit", Francine feels very sorry for D.W. after Arthur hit her in the arm. Arthur is embarrassed by D.W. and tries to keep her away from his friends. But Francine insists on knowing what D.W. is talking about, such as in "D.W.'s Imaginary Friend" and "D.W.'s Blankie".
  • Prunella Deegan - In "Prunella Gets it Twice", Prunella helps Francine to study for her history test, earning her an A. Francine wants to return the favor by buying Prunella a Polly Locket doll for her 10th birthday. During the party, having already gotten a Polly Locket doll from her sister Rubella, Prunella ungratefully rejects the one Francine gave her, making Francine depressed as a result. Not knowing that that the doll was from Francine, Prunella simply dismissed Francine as a party pooper. However, after dreaming about how Francine worked hard to get the Polly Locket doll for her, Prunella feels guilty and decides to thank Francine by giving her the Polly Locket doll she received from Rubella, with a personalized sweater written as "#1 COOL FRIEND", referring to Francine.
  • Mrs. Pariso - Mrs. Pariso moves in as Francine's next door neighbor in "Francine Goes to War". Initially, they were both on unfriendly terms, with Francine constantly pulling pranks on Mrs. Pariso to convince her to move out. However, after meeting her for the first time, Francine realizes that she and Mrs. Pariso share a lot in common, in terms of hobby and personality. Finally realizing that Mrs. Pariso had no friends to begin with, Francine decides to help her out by asking Mrs. McGrady to go out with her on a bingo night and even introduces her own friends to her.

Trivia

  • She is modeled after Marc Brown's sister, Bonnie,[12] and her last name "Frensky" is a play on author Stephen Krensky's last name,[citation needed] a friend of Marc Brown's.
  • She is voiced by the Afro-Canadian Jodie Resther and is one of the few characters whose voice actor remains unchanged since Season 1.
  • Francine and her family are shown to be Jewish. They celebrate traditional religious holidays like Hanukkah and Yom Kippur and are also seen having a Bar Mitzvah for Francine's cousin, Seth.
  • Francine is a big fan of horses.[13][14]
  • Her favorite color is red, as she stated in "And Now Let's Talk to Some Kids".[1]
  • The first sport Francine was seen playing is basketball.
  • In the earlier Arthur books, Francine was a fanatic of a series known as Rat Woman (a play on Catwoman), but that series has never been seen or mentioned in any of the later books or cartoon.
  • Her birthday is mentioned in "D.W.'s Very Bad Mood", but the month and day of her birthday have never been confirmed (although it apparently falls within the Pisces zodiac sign). However, she's eight years old, especially when the episode or book would take place during the second semester of third grade.
  • She enjoys journalism and once launched a school newspaper called The Frensky Star.
  • The place Francine wants to visit the most is the World Cup Finals.[1]
  • Francine wants to be a singer, actress, drummer, stage director and soccer star when she grows up.
  • She dislikes cherry soda.[15]
  • In the Play Maker section on the cartoon's website, her shirt color is erroneously referred to as brown when it is actually red.
  • Besides Arthur and his family, Francine is the only character from Arthur's Nose who appears in the television series, making her one of the oldest characters in the Arthur canon.
  • It is revealed in the episode Sue Ellen Vegges Out that one of Francine's favorite foods is Peking Duck.
  • She used to wet the bed.[16]
  • She can both sing and play drums, but not at the same time.[17]
  • Francine is shown to be ticklish.

Appearances (some in bold)

Books

Specials

Episodes

Arthur

Postcards from Buster

The Arthur Podcast

Quotes

"Arthur's a four eyes!" - Francine, sing-song voice, "Arthur's Eyes"

"I'm sick of being perfect." - Francine, "Francine's Bad Hair Day"

"What kind of stupid word is that? 'Pleasant'..." - Francine, "Arthur's Spelling Trubble"

"My inventions are not boring! Without lights, you'd have to shop in the dark! Oh, sorry, I guess you already do." - Francine, "Francine Frensky, Superstar"

"I'm one of the nicest people in the whole school, and if you don't know that, you're a dope!" - Francine, "Meek for a Week"

"Come on, Arthur. I'm not mad at you anymore." - Francine, "Arthur, World's Greatest Gleeper"

"But Buster was a P-I-G, pig!" - Francine, "D.W.'s Snow Mystery"

"Would you relax! It's only a boy!" - Francine to Catherine, "Francine Frensky, Olympic Rider"

"Come on, he wears glasses! Are you going to trust what he sees?" - Francine, "The Big Blow-Up"

"She's like bacteria from a space meteorite! She spreads everywhere!" - Francine speaking of Catherine, "Francine Redecorates"

"I won't say anything about you watching Love Ducks every day!" - Francine to Arthur, "That's a Baby Show!"

"Muffy Crosswire, you're the most selfish, spoiled brat I've ever met!" - Francine, "Spoiled Rotten!"

I'm not your mother, Arthur Read! I mean, how dumb does a person have to be to get locked in a library? Anyway, I have no time for childish bickering. I have to get out of here. - Francine, "Locked in the Library! "

"Well, why were you worried about me? I'm just a marshmallow, remember?"' - Francine, "Locked in the Library!"

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Trading Cards
  2. ↑ FAQS ABOUT ARTHUR AND FRIENDS. PBS Parents. Archived from the original on November 2, 2017.
  3. ↑ In "Arthur - It's Only Rock 'n' Roll", Mrs. MacGrady says Francine is a Pisces. The duration of this zodiac sign is on average between February 20 and March 20 in the real world.
  4. ↑ In "The Friend Who Wasn't There", Muffy is shopping for Francine's birthday.
  5. ↑ "D.W.'s Very Bad Mood"
  6. ↑ "Buster's Growing Grudge" (see picture)
  7. ↑ "Francine Redecorates"
  8. ↑ "And Now Let's Talk to Some Kids"
  9. ↑ Francine Redecorates
  10. ↑ "Arthur and the True Francine"
  11. ↑ "Arthur's First Day"
  12. ↑ Teaching With Favorite Marc Brown Books (Scholastic Professional Books)
  13. ↑ "Francine Frensky, Olympic Rider"
  14. ↑ "Francine Goes to War"
  15. ↑ "Meek for a Week"
  16. ↑ "Jenna's Bedtime Blues"
  17. ↑ "To Beat or Not to Beat"



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