AlteredBeast
Smash Lord
“The name is Quigley, Professor Quigley.”
Yes, I am REALLY pulling out a very obscure pick here from the 2000s but one who has some connection to Warner Bros but is overall a third-party character.
Who is Professor Quigley?
For those who grew up in the 2000s and were consumers of LeapFrog products, you may recognize this face from the LeapFrog video library videos. Professor Quigley is the educational and smart scientist who is a lead teacher and runs so many factories in the LeapFrog videos. Throughout the quintology of original LeapFrog videos, he has taught the main frog trio, Leap, Lily and Tad all different educational topics from letters and letter sounds, how to read words and stories and even math. This scientist has even traveled back to the Jurassic age with Leap in one of the LeapPad books being Leap and the Lost Dinosaur. He’s got quite the knowledge to teach.
What is LeapFrog again? I may remember the name from somewhere…
LeapFrog is an educational entertainment and electronics company that sells various educational products that are primarily technology-based. You may remember seeing their products like the LeapPad (the tablet computer that was basically a talking book) and the Leapster (a handheld gaming console that a good amount of 2000s kids owned, including me back in the day). These products helped children learn a variety of topics. You had various LeapPad books and Leapster games based on the original LeapFrog cast of characters but there were also licensed products based on other iconic IPs aimed towards children as well as some products based on public domain franchises.
In fact, besides their educational products, LeapFrog did have their own home video library that had direct-to-home video releases as mentioned before that taught kids various educational skills. This is where we see the original LeapFrog characters such as Leap, Lily, Tad and especially Professor Quigley in action. The primary ones where you get to see the original cast of LeapFrog characters shine were in the original pentalogy of LeapFrog videos produced by Porchlight Entertainment and LeapFrog.
These included:
- The Letter Factory which talked all about Tad and his siblings learning about letters.
- TheTalking Words Factory with the frogs learning about how words are made.
- The Talking Words Factory 2: The Code Word Caper with the frogs learning about how to read trickier words with things like silent e, digraphs like ch and sh, etc.
- The Math Circus where the frogs learn about numbers and math.
- Learn to Read at the Storybook Factory where the frog siblings and their friends make a talking storybook for a rich duck named Mr. Websley at a storybook factory built by Quigley, the story being The Three Little Pigs.
There was also A Tad of Christmas Cheer which was just LeapFrog’s version of It’s A Wonderful Life in a way and did not do anything too educational like the past five but it was the last LeapFrog video to be animated by Porchlight Entertainment.
Is there a connection between LeapFrog and Warner Bros?
Believe it or not…yes, there is. The original pentalogy of LeapFrog videos were distributed by Warner Home Video from 2003 to 2005. A Tad of Christmas Cheer was distributed solely by Porchlight Entertainment in 2007. Then, starting in 2009, newer LeapFrog videos alongside re-releases of the original pentalogy of LeapFrog videos were distributed by Lionsgate. Ever since around 2010 though or a little later, LeapFrog discontinued the usage of the frog siblings in newer products but they appear on re-releases of older LeapPad and Leapster products, even re-releases of the old videos too! Quigley has not appeared since A Tad of Christmas Cheer so there’s that too sadly.
Some of the videos did stream on Warner’s streaming service MAX/HBO Max like The Letter Factory and such so Warner Bros still recognizes them as the honorary home-video library products there.
Beyond just that home video connection, LeapFrog has made licensed products based on Warner Bros’s IPs such as Scooby-Doo and Batman for their products like the LeapPad and the Leapster so there’s that for good measure.
The article that shares the distribution agreement between LeapFrog and Warner Bros
So…why should this obscure character join MultiVersus?
Even though Professor Quigley would be considered a third-party character, Tony Hyunh and Player First Games have said that they are open to the possibility of third-party characters. But, with that said, LeapFrog is incredibly iconic. I also feel that edutainment and preschool IPs are usually not represented in grander crossovers. Note how the Smash games never got a character from an edutainment franchise, even in Spirits and such! While I do feel the bigger preschool IPs that are third-party that would be a bit higher priority than any LeapFrog character would be a character from something like Sesame Street or LazyTown (both have connections to Warner Bros, by the way), LeapFrog is still very iconic and well-known. Thus, I feel we need that edutainment and preschool representative here from LeapFrog. Also, throw in the fact you're representing a part of the brands Warner’s home video branch distributed so there’s that part of history being covered too!
I do think there are a lot of things in Quigley’s way. These include the fact that he has not been used for over 15+ years, is from an educational brand, and will go against the message of the brand, is not first priority for most of the MultiVersus fanbase and for Tony Hyunh himself. Even then, we still need to have our first third-party character join MultiVersus first! (My money is on being Barbie, Walter White or one of the Smurfs). I still think if Player First Games were REALLY to go out of their way for this…the small community of niche edutainment enthusiasts would have to market Quigley as the best choice for sure.
“Now, it’s your turn. How should I fight in battle?”-Professor Quigley
In terms of how Professor Quigley would be in MultiVersus, I can envision Professor Quigley as a mage with a lot of inventions to support his teammates. He is known for his wacky inventions and can have some form of edutainment gimmick for him. For example, one move can have him form words with the Word Whammer 3000, use Quidgets to add, and even utilizing dinosaurs in some form like how he took Leap back in Leap and The Lost Dinosaur. I can envision Quigley’s Up Special to be either the helicopter he flies at the beginning of The Talking Words Factory 2: The Code Word Caper or using that time travel invention he made in the LeapPad book Leap and The Lost Dinosaur. In fact, if his invention works, his teammate can used the finiished product the invention made to guide them in battle. Talk about a great professor! There are lots of ideas out there for sure.
“Great observations! Now, what else can I bring to this ultimate fighting tournament?”-Professor Quigley
I feel Professor Quigley has a variety of stages to choose from. There’s the Letter Factory and the other factories too seen in the LeapFrog videos. There’s also the Math Circus which can have Quidgets as hazards. You can even have a whole prehistoric-themed stage based on Leap and The Lost Dinosaur. There are lots of potential areas and locations from the LeapFrog products that can work.
Also, if LeapFrog content or Professor Quigley joins MultiVersus, HOPEFULLY, that can cause a boom in nostalgic LeapFrog and edutainment products. I would love to see some tie-in promotion done by Warner Bros and LeapFrog for MultiVersus if Professor Quigley joins by making LeapPad books and old-style Leapster games based on Warner’s IPs suitable for kids or just bringing back their older products (The Batman game for the Leapster was awesome.)
Overall, I feel edutainment characters are VERY under-discussed for big-scale crossovers. There have been character ideas posed for the Smash games like any form of JumpStart Games content, Carmen Sandiego, etc. But, in a grand scale crossover like this, it has not been discussed. Quigley can be SUCH a fun choice for a professor that is. I would also LOVE to see him team up in his reveal trailer with Spear and Fang (as both are associated with dinosaurs, well, Fang is a dino) or have some sort of wacky reveal. Here is to hoping LeapFrog can get more attention and this can start more discussion on these obscure characters from franchises you didn’t even think about having some form of connection with Warner Bros!
Quigley’s Fellow Students (Supporters)
AlteredBeast
MartianSnake
Cyborg Sun
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