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Rattles
Age 9 [1]
Grade 4th

5th (“Arthur's First Day")

Gender Male
Animal Cat[2] (s1-8)
Dog[3](s8-15)
Bear[4](s16-present)
Hair color Brown (s1-7; 9)
Gray (s8; some of 9; 10-present)
Complexion Gray
Residence Rattles' house, Elwood City
Family *Rattles' mother
Book debut 'Muffy's Secret Admirer'
Cartoon debut "Arthur Accused!"
Voiced by Scott Beaudin (s14 (at least) - present)

Rattles is a fourth grader at Lakewood Elementary School, and a member of the Tough Customers.

Physical appearance[]

Rattles has a tuft of hair sticking out of his red baseball hat, which he always wears backwards. He wears a black leather jacket with two pockets at the front, a pale yellow T-shirt, green jeans and high tops. In the first seven seasons and the ninth season, his tuft of hair was dark brown. For the eighth season, his tuft of hair became gray like the rest of his body. In the tenth season, this change became permanent.

For his alternative outfit, he wears a dark blue T-shirt over a pale yellow sleeved shirt instead of a T-shirt and leather jacket.

He is shown to be taller than Binky, Slink, and Molly, but skinnier than Binky.

Species[]

There is much confusion as to exactly what animal Rattles is. He so rarely takes off his hat that the producers have actually changed what animal he is multiple times. In "D.W., Dancing Queen," he takes off his hat while dancing and has dog ears. This is interesting compared to "Brother, Can You Spare a Clarinet?," where he sticks his earplugs into the sides of his head. Also, in an imagination scene of "Thanks a Lot, Binky," he has small ears on the top of his head, although they were hidden under a full-body cast, so they could be cat ears. When playing sports, he sometimes takes off his hat and has cat ears, such as in "Arthur the Loser," "Meek for a Week," and "Arthur Cleans Up." In "Whip. Mix. Blend.," he clearly is seen with bear ears.

Personality[]

In early seasons, Rattles started off as a tough, generic school bully. After he got an expanded role in Season 8, he becomes the most consistently antagonistic force in the show, with his directly malicious and petty behavior. However, like his friends, Binky and Molly, he started displaying a softer and more intelligent side, with his own personal hobbies that he (secretly) enjoys.

In the episode "Love Notes for Muffy", he teamed up with Muffy into scaring Francine and Brain to teach them a lesson.

In the episode "Bugged," he is seen with the other kids at the playground playing marbles. This shows Rattles does indeed hang out with other kids in the school despite being a bully.

He has helped D.W. on a few occasions; in "D.W., Dancing Queen," he and Molly helped D.W. do ballet for a school project after Binky twisted his ankle during practice, both serving as D.W.'s backup dancers. In "D.W., Queen of the Comeback," when the Tibble twins start teasing D.W. over her botched haircut, Rattles tries to come up with good insults for D.W. to use against them, though he thinks their feud is ridiculous and initially suggests to D.W. that she ignore them.

He's interested in knitting. For example, he is a member of Dr. Fugue's knitting club in "Arthur Unravels." Also, it is mentioned throughout the series, though more recently than before, that he is skilled at sewing.

In the episode "Brain's Chess Mess," Rattles reveals he is a skilled chess player, able to beat Brain quite easily, and tutor him and the other members of the Chess Club.

In "Carl's Concerto," Rattles willingly helped George and Carl rehearse for a children's puppet show, alongside Buster and Binky; he played as Mama Bear in George's "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" play. Although Carl's autism made rehearsals difficult, Rattles willingly put up with it without complaint until the day of the puppet show.

Interestingly enough, he doesn't seem to consider himself a bully or at least does not like the label. In several episodes when other characters refer to him as such he counters by saying that he's just "misunderstood." At several points, he also seems to be smarter than he appears, sometimes using shockingly advanced words to describe or explain something; however, as revealed in "D.W., Queen of the Comeback," he doesn't know the definitions of some of said words, such as "bibliophile," and thinks they make good insults. When Brain offered to do his homework for a month in order to get him to join the Chess Club, he refused by saying that it would deprive him of his education. This could show that like Binky his tough guy personality is just for appearances or to cover up his other hobbies.

Since giving up bullying, Rattles has had his more positive traits emphasized more in later episodes. In "Slink's Secret Talent", when he temporarily took over Slink's paper route, he was shown to take the job very seriously and professionally, waking up on time, making sure every newspaper was folded properly and making sure each paper was delivered to the doorstep safely. He even went so far as to learn the names of the customers on the route and have polite conversation with them while delivering their newspaper. He also printed out a proper map of the route (Slink had only given him a poorly hand drawn one) and found a way to cut time off of his bike ride to deliver the papers faster. He did such a good job that he was offered the job full time. When Slink expressed that he wanted the job back, Rattles was compassionate and understanding, first trying to help Slink find something different he was good at, and then giving him a test to earn the paper route back. Even though Slink failed to pass the test, Rattles saw his determination and was impressed by how serious he took it and gave the job back to him anyway.

In "Arthur's First Day", Rattles put together "Project Icebreaker", which in involved an elaborate scavenger hunt and series of clues in order to help the person who sat at his old desk make new friends. He stated that the reason for doing this is because he remembered how nervous he was on his first day of the 4th Grade and how hard it could be to make friends, once more showing his compassionate side. He also appeared to be much more intelligent than in some previous episodes, correctly using the word "Neophytes" and accurately explaining to Slink (who thought it meant "worms") the meaning of the word. He also put together a clever series of clues, using the works of a famous poet and coming up with a cipher that had to be decoded. This is different from his portrayal in previous episodes where he was shown to use words without apparently knowing their meaning, and his habit of being bad at spelling (though he did misspell the word "knowledge", this was intentional for the sake of the cipher he created). In the same episode, he and Molly were upset with Muffy for letting Emily get lost, saying that even though it was an accident it could have ruined her first day.

Trivia[]

  • In many of his appearances, he speaks with a Northern New Jersey accent.
  • In the episode "The Last Tough Customer," Rattles revealed his dad is in marketing.
  • Later in the series, he had a dog called Crusher, who first appeared in "Pet Peeved."
  • He's lactose intolerant, as revealed in both "Too Much of a Good Thing," and "Brain's Chess Mess." Eating dairy products gives him gas, and he likes to eat peach-flavored sorbet for dessert.
  • In the episode "Whip. Mix. Blend.," it is revealed that his mother is getting remarried and that the twins Ansel and Angie will become his stepbrother and stepsister, respectively.
    • Before this episode, he was the only Tough Customers member to not have any siblings.
  • In "Take a Hike, Molly," it is revealed that Rattles is afraid of snakes, which inspired his nickname. When he was little, he would cry out, "Ah! It's a rattler!" whenever he thought he saw a snake. His real name remains unknown.

Appearances[]

Arthur

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5

Season 6

Season 7

Season 8

Season 9

Season 10

Season 13

Season 14

Season 15

Season 16

Season 17

Season 18

Season 19

Season 20

Season 21

Specials

Books

The Arthur Podcast

Season 1

Gallery[]

Main article: Rattles/Gallery

References[]


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