The Raccoons: Canada’s Forgotten Cartoon Empire (History)

Every country has at least one cartoon that feels like home.

For Canada, that cartoon was The Raccoons.

What looked like a modest children’s series was really a Canadian animation empire hiding in plain sight. It was produced in Ottawa, sold to more than 180 countries and introduced environmental themes years before green storytelling became fashionable.

I can still hear the first three notes of its closing theme without even trying.

Despite that remarkable legacy, The Raccoons is often treated as little more than a nostalgic footnote today, even in Canada. It deserves far more recognition. Long before ReBoot became an international symbol of Canadian animation, The Raccoons had already proven that a homegrown series could travel around the world.

Consider this the hometown record, finally set straight.

What Was The Raccoons?

The Raccoons aired on CBC from 1985 to 1991, following four television specials that introduced the characters and the Evergreen Forest. Its American television run continued into 1992.

The series was created by Kevin Gillis and animated by two Ottawa studios over the course of its production: Atkinson Film-Arts and, later, Hinton Animation Studios.

The basic premise sounded almost like a woodland sitcom.

Bert Raccoon, an energetic and impulsive bachelor, lived with his married friends Ralph and Melissa in the Evergreen Forest. Their peaceful lives were regularly threatened by Cyril Sneer, a pink aardvark and ruthless industrialist who was always plotting to log, mine or pave another part of their home.

The supporting cast was equally memorable.

Schaeffer, the gentle sheepdog voiced by Carl Banas, served as the group’s dependable giant. Cyril’s trio of pig henchmen provided much of the slapstick, while later seasons expanded the world by giving Ralph his own newspaper, the Evergreen Standard.

Wikipedia files it under dramedy, a label almost no other 1985 cartoon earns. Because underneath the slapstick, the show ran on money, loyalty, and loss. That tone is why adults kept watching.

It Started With a Christmas Special

The idea dates to the 1970s, when Gillis worked on Celebrity Cooks with columnist Gary Dunford. A raccoon standoff at an Ottawa area cottage planted the seed. At first, they imagined it as live action.

Instead, it became The Christmas Raccoons, a one shot animated special that aired on 17 December 1980. The plot: Cyril Sneer is clear cutting the Evergreen Forest, and the raccoons fight back. So the environmental spine was there from the first frame.

Soon, broadcasters in Australia, Denmark, New Zealand, the Philippines, Spain, and the UK bought it.

Gillis told CBC in 1985 the plan was a single special: “As the demand grew, we grew with it”. Two more specials followed in 1981 and 1983, then a music video release in 1984, then the series.

The Strangest Guest List in 80s Animation

Look at who worked on those early specials. This was not standard kids’ television casting. It was closer to a variety show with a raccoon budget.

Gallivan is my favorite detail.

The Raccoons on Ice hinges on a winner take all hockey match for Evergreen Lake. So the producers hired the most famous play by play voice in the country to call it. That is a joke built entirely for Canadian parents, planted in a cartoon.

Bert Raccoon, the Engine of the Whole Thing

Bert was the character many young viewers naturally connected with.

Len Carlson voiced him as a bundle of restless energy: loud, loyal, impulsive and rarely willing to think before leaping into trouble. Much of the series revolved around his enthusiasm, with Bert often filling the role of the well-meaning troublemaker who kept every story moving.

The more unusual element was his place within the household. Bert lived with Ralph and Melissa, a married couple, yet the series never treated him as an unwanted guest or a permanent punchline. He was simply part of the family.

That may not sound especially radical today, but it gave The Raccoons a warmer and less conventional home life than many cartoons of its era. Its central family was built as much on friendship and loyalty as it was on marriage or blood.

Cyril Sneer, the Villain Who Grew a Soul

Michael Magee gave Cyril Sneer a gravel voice that could strip bark. On paper, Cyril is the greedy industrialist: a pink aardvark with a cigar, a fortune, and a demolition habit. In the early seasons, nearly every scheme aims at the Evergreen Forest.

Then the show did something no eco cartoon dared. It let its villain become a person. Across five seasons, Cyril softens, mostly through his gentle bookworm son Cedric, without ever losing his edge.

So the capitalist stayed in the story, and the story got richer for it.

My take: that is the smartest call the series ever made.

A villain with a face, a family, and a balance sheet teaches more than a smog monster ever could.

Green Years Before Captain Planet

Now put the dates side by side, because the timeline is the argument.

The Raccoons cartoon built its first plot on clear cutting in December 1980.

Captain Planet did not premiere until September 1990.

Fairness note: The Lorax got there first as a special. But The Raccoons made environmental conflict the standing premise of a weekly series, five years ahead of the trend. Also, it skipped the lecture.

The research on how cartoons shape children shows kids absorb modeled behavior.

In contrast, this one taught stewardship through story instead of sermons.

Run With Us: The Song That Outlived the Show

Then there is the song. “Run with Us” was written by Kevin Gillis, Jon Stroll, and Steve Lunt. Lunt sang it through season one. But the version everyone remembers belongs to Lisa Lougheed, an Etobicoke teenager who took over from season two.

Lougheed became part of the show itself, voicing Lisa Raccoon in the final two seasons.

Her single dropped in 1987.

Then the Evergreen Nights album followed in 1988. Since then, the song has refused to die.

Original vinyl trades for serious collector money, and it even landed in the closing credits of Hobo with a Shotgun.

Play it today and the synths still hit like a sunrise. In the end, one 80s TV theme in a hundred earns an afterlife. This one earned it twice.

How Big the Empire Got

Empire sounds like an exaggeration until the numbers come out.

In its third week on CBC, the Raccoons cartoon pulled over two million viewers. That made it the ninth most watched show in Canada at the time, cartoons or otherwise.

Also, note the strange export order. Disney Channel premiered the series in the United States on 4 July 1985, months before CBC aired it at home. Canada’s defining cartoon debuted in America, on Independence Day.

You could not script a better Canadian punchline.

Why 60 Episodes and Not 65

Here is a detail for the format nerds. The series stopped at 60 episodes. That is five short of the magic number covered in why old cartoons all have exactly 65 episodes. The likely reason: it never needed strip syndication math.

Because CBC and Disney Channel funded and scheduled it directly, the show ran on seasons, not station contracts. A small number, but it tells you the whole business model.

The Long Fade

The final CBC episode aired in March 1991, and American reruns wound down in 1992. After that came the quiet years. Reruns thinned out, the specials became hard to find, and the Raccoons cartoon slipped into memory.

But Kevin Gillis never let go. He kept the original 35mm film for every episode and special. In 2017 he announced a reboot was in development, and redesigned characters surfaced online in 2018. Then, during the pandemic, he backed a full HD restoration, which reached streaming services worldwide in 2023.

The 2026 Comeback Is Real

This year the revival became official, and it started with the music. In partnership with Vancouver’s 604 Records, the franchise launched its catalogue digitally for the first time. Lougheed’s remastered “Run With Us” hit streaming on Earth Day, 22 April 2026.

Fittingly, that was the first official Raccoons release of any kind since 1988.

The Evergreen Nights reissue followed on 5 June, carrying a new cover of the theme by Vancouver duo Fionn. Three music albums and two storybook albums are scheduled through 2026, all with bonus material.

Meanwhile, the label says further Raccoons projects sit in early stages.

The forest, in short, is stirring.

My Take: The Canadian Wing Starts Here

The Raccoons cartoon proved a Canadian studio could sell an original animated world to the planet. Nelvana in Toronto was building its own export machine, and ReBoot would later make Vancouver the CGI capital.

But the Evergreen Forest got there on CBC money and Ottawa ink.

And the personal part, since this one is personal.

Plenty of cartoons entertained me.

The Raccoons cartoon is the one that felt like it knew my postal code. Snow that looked like our snow, and a villain in a boardroom. Above all, a song that made the credits feel like the best scene.

 

Quick Answers About The Raccoons

Is The Raccoons a Canadian cartoon?
Completely. The series was created by Kevin Gillis in partnership with the CBC and animated in Ottawa. It aired on CBC in Canada, the Disney Channel in the United States and BBC1 in the United Kingdom.

How many episodes were produced?
The series ran for 60 episodes across five seasons between 1985 and 1991. Before the regular series began, four television specials were produced, starting with The Christmas Raccoons in 1980.

Who sings “Run With Us”?
Lisa Lougheed performs the best-known version of the song, which was used from the second season onward. Steve Lunt, one of the song’s three writers, sang the original version heard during the first season.

Is Cyril Sneer an aardvark or an anteater?
Officially, Cyril Sneer is an aardvark. However, generations of viewers remember him as an anteater, and the debate continues to this day.

Is The Raccoons coming back?
A restored version of the series arrived on streaming services in 2023, followed by remastered music releases in 2026. Additional projects have reportedly entered the early stages of development.

The Raccoons built its legacy in a distinctly Canadian way.

There was no need for noise or spectacle. Just a memorable group of characters, an unforgettable song and a quiet forest that audiences around the world wanted to visit.

Four decades later, the music has returned to streaming platforms, the series is finding new viewers and the Evergreen Forest is beginning to feel alive again.

What do you remember first: the theme song, Cyril Sneer’s growl or the snow-covered Evergreen Forest?

Share your memory in the comments. The best responses may help determine the next stop in our journey through Canadian animation history.