Noddy is a fictional character created by British children's author Enid Blyton.
One of the most enduring and best-loved of children's characters, Noddy is a little wooden doll who lives in Toyland . His best friend is Big-Ears - a brownie. Noddy lives next to a family of teddy bears, and owns a self-aware car. Noddy originally appeared in a series of illustrated books, but later became popular with a new generation of children as a result of an animated television adaptation.
Written at a time of segregation, the original Noddy stories featured Golliwogs - black-faced woollen dolls. These dolls were popular in the UK at the time the stories were written, but have fallen out of favour because of a better awareness of race relations .
Recently, in the TV series and a new series of books, Noddy has been updated, with the original Gollywog characters replaced by other sorts of toys (for example Mr.Golly who ran the Toytown garage was replaced by a teddybear), and with the addition of ethnic dolls.
Cultural References
In The Navy Lark, Lt. Phillips is sometimes called Noddy, since he can usually be found reading a Noddy book instead of studying the art of navigation. Lt. Phillips once said he was frightened of Big Ears.
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