Kukeleku

Minstrel Kukeleku
Character
Kukeleku in Episode 4
Species	Rooster
Birthplace	Unknown
First appearance	Episode 4
Character Model Sheet number	261/4, sheet 150
Character Model Sheet name	Kukeleku
Name in different languages
Dutch name	Kukeleku
Japanese name	No name given
German name	No name given
English name	No name given

Kukeleku (lit. "cock-a-doodle-doo") is a fictional character from the animated show. He is a minstrel from Alfred Jodocus Kwak's imagination as he daydreams during the class from Meester Bas Buldog. He gets his name and more character backstory in the Dutch book De Droom van Alfred Jodocus Kwak, where he has more interaction with Alfred in his dream, which seems to have somehow influenced the minstrel in the actual history of the story as in his collected works he seems to refer to Alfred in his final song. Kukeleku appears once more when Alfred daydreams about living in the 800 years ago and being banished from Polderstad we see Kukeleku look from a rooftop window judging what is happening.

Appearance

He looks like an orange cat with a big dark brown moustache and a dark brown beard goatee. His nose is large and pink and he has a furry striped tail. In his one appearance in the animated series he wears a thick purple night gown or bath robe with a sleeping cap, as well as a yellow scarf with brown spots, likely something he put on because he was going outside to check on the noise.

Personality

Anton Snorman is a cat born in nobility, who looks down on the normal working man, and even more on animals that live on the street, like Krabnagel de Kater. Especially the way they speak makes them repulsive to Snorman. Snorman's financial situation is bothersome to him as he lives in large Anton Snorman's mansion with a large number of antiques, that require many hours and a lot of money to maintain. This requires Snorman to drop his education and focus on making money, which puts him in contact with animals like Krabnagel, even though he would prefer to work with real actors. He also dismisses his guest, Meester Bas Buldog, quite quickly in favor of his fiancée arriving.

He can play the piano and would've preferred to be an actor himself.

Storyline

After failing his entrance exam for theater school, Anton Snorman got his doctorandus degree studying dramaturgy in Waterslag aan Zee with a minor in literature. His interest in literature is what interested Meester Bas Buldog, the primary school teacher from Polderstad, to visit Anton in his Anton Snorman's mansion in Polderstad-West, after previously having met him on the Vorige Burgemeesterplantsoen. Anton and Bas bonded over their mutual interest into minstrel Kukeleku who Bas had just discovered, but he had intimate knowledge of.

His mansion is filled with antiques that require a lot of maintenance, causing Anton to need to fire his mansion staff and needing to find a free-lance job in directing voice-overs for an advertising agency. One of the people from the street that he uses the voice of for Nijlrok Hap-in-slik-door is Krabnagel. Usually Krabnagel comes scrounging for food and it takes a whole day to get the proper lines out of him.

Anton Snorman's fiancée

Anton also has a girlfriend, a (according to him) beautiful Angora cat with whom he has a long-distance relationship. She sings in a commercial catchoir. One of their weekly meetings was reason to prematurely kick out Bas Buldog out of his house. In the episode, only her voice is heard, coming from inside the mansion.

Burglary

As Alfred Jodocus Kwak flies over Polderstad using the magic of the white chess queen he spots Dolf de Kraai breaking into Anton Snorman's mansion. The two take a closer look, but find Krabnagel who has it out for Alfred. The white chess queen fools Krabnagel in trying to eat her, but changes back to her chess piece form and makes Krabnagel break his teeth missing biting her. All this commotion wakes Anton and - likely - his visiting girlfriend up and he walks outside to see what is happening. Dolf then runs past him carrying some stolen antiques. Dolf is spotted by Alfred, but this causes Anton to confuse Alfred as a possible partner in crime to Dolf and Alfred flees away.

In the alternate retelling from De Droom van Alfred Jodocus Kwak, this story takes place in the summer holiday, rather than in the winter. In this retelling Krabnagel is only visiting, because of the voice-over job and the need to get some food at Anton Snorman's mansion. Also, someone, presumably Dolf de Kraai, gets arrested by Holmes de Hond. The white chess queen assures Alfred that this could all be a dream.

Voice actors

Japanese	¦	???	¦	No name given
Dutch	¦	Herman van Veen	¦	Kukeleku
German	¦	???	¦	No name given
English	¦	???	¦	No name given
Finnish	¦	???	¦	No name given
Hungarian	¦	???	¦	No name given

Appearances

TV Series

• Alfred J. Kwak Episode 4
  Alfred J. Kwak Episode 4

Books

• De wonderlijke avonturen van Alfred J. Kwak: De witte koningin (1990) (Dutch)
  De wonderlijke avonturen van Alfred J. Kwak: De witte koningin (1990) (Dutch)
• 
  De Droom van Alfred Jodocus Kwak (1991) (Dutch)
• 
  De wonderlijke avonturen van Alfred J. Kwak: het grote voorleesboek (2010) (Dutch)

Production background

Kukeleku watches as Alfred Jodocus Kwak is taken away by guard Dolf de Kraai in Alfred's dream.