Gruffman is the supporting character in the 2015 French reboot series of Popples, serving as a supporting antagonist. He is a student at Popplementary School, the Best Popple Pals' arch-rival, who also serves as a school bully.
He is voiced by Ezra Weisz in the English dubbed version.
Appearance[]
Gruffman is a large dark red and yellow Popple with neon green ears, short scarlet red hair and eyebrows, red nose, and green eyes.
Personality[]
True to his name, Gruffman is grumpy and speaks in a gruff manner. He is often seen in a bad mood and is the Popplementary School bully. As a partner-in-crime of Mike Mine, Gruffman would always try to get on his good side by helping him with his many schemes to sabotage the Best Popple Pals. But Gruffman isn't the brightest of the pair and would often get force to be involve with Mike's plans which lead to him getting himself into trouble and get unfairly punish. This is seen in "The Great Pop Race" when Gruffman was forced to help Mike cheat the Popplementary School Pop Race, but Gruffman is the only one who get punished due to a lack of evidence if Mike planned it with him and the judges can't disqualify Mike from the competition despite he crossed the finish line.
Outside of Mike's presence and assistance, however, Gruffman has a hidden heart of gold and he is a very insecure person who always get put down by others. The only reason why he bullies his classmates is out of fear for being judge as a loser with a low self-esteem. He only shows his kindness to Bubbles, the only Popple who's aware of his insecurity.
Powers & Abilities[]
Gruffman possesses standard Popple abilities, such as transforming himself into a ball to roll around.
Antagonistic side[]
While he's the Popplementary School bully and he would sometimes be shown being friendly to his rivals the Best Popple Pals, Gruffman would sometimes portrayed as an antagonist to them whenever he's Mike Mine's lackey/assistant/partner-in-crime.
- "Camp Out Freak Out": Throughout the episode, they both worked together to sabotage the Best Popple Pals when they're all having a bet: if the Popple Pals could stay in the Popple Park overnight without leaving it on the night of the Popple Park Ghost, then Mike and Gruffman would be forced to carry their supplies on their next nature walk. Mike attempted to trick the Popple Pals into thinking that the Popple Park Ghost is real by making Gruffman disguises himself as one.
- "The Great Pop Race": Mike enlisted Gruffman to tamper the Popplementary School Pop Race so that he could cheat to win against Sunny. However when the judges punished Gruffman for sabotage the race at the end of the episode, they lack any evidences if Mike planned the sabotage with him which lead to Mike's victory.
- "Pop Marks the Spot": When he and Mike heard that Izzy, Sunny, and Yikes are searching for Coach Loudly's buried treasure chest, they both followed them so they could try to steal it from them, unaware that Bubbles and Lulu were secretly following them too to foil their plan.
- "The Popple Who Knew Too Much": In the final episode of the series, Gruffman helps Mike ruin Yikes' reputation by framing him for stealing from his friends which lead to Mike almost destroys the Best Popple Pals' friendship with Yikes altogether. When Izzy and Yikes both found out about Gruffman stealing a pie that Bubbles is delivering to Mrs. Snooply and frames it on Yikes, Gruffman confesses for his crime and said that it's Mike's idea.
Trivia[]
- In the original French version, he is called "Brutus", which fitting his brute appearance.
- "It Takes Two to Tangle" is the only Season 3 in which Gruffman doesn't portrayed as an antagonist despite having a major role. The episode also revealed his insecurity and he manages to befriend one of his school rivals, Bubbles.
- Because "The Popple Who Knew Too Much" is the final episode of the series without any punishments for Gruffman for assisting his partner's crimes and he didn't get fully redeemed by betraying Mike yet, it's possible Gruffman is still working for Mike Mine who's still continuing his goal to destroy the Best Popple Pals' friendship.
- Because of his design, Gruffman might be the oldest student in the Popplementary School class.
- Whenever he and Mike are working together, they both serve as parallels to Pinky and the Brain. Gruffman and Pinky are both tall but dim-witted partners who follow their "friend's" many schemes who're manipulative and egotistical schemers.
- It's possible that Mike is responsible for Gruffman's bullying and mean behavior. Because of Gruffman's insecurity, the latter might have been manipulated by Mike to be friends with him despite being treated poorly by him and it lead to Gruffman becoming one of the Best Popple Pals' enemies and rivals. Though rarely, Gruffman would often stand up to Mike and based on his comments to Bubbles about him "don't have any friends" in "It Takes Two to Tangle", he doesn't consider Mike a real friend to him at all for being a bad influence to him.
- Gruffman befriends Bubbles in "It Takes Two to Tangle" after she found out about his insecurity. However, he's seen insulting her in "Camp Out Freak Out", though it might be because of Mike Mine's presence.
See also[]
[]
 Villains
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