Ethel is a character featured in the 1993 Disney educational short Recycle Rex.
Background[]
Personality[]
Ethel is shown to be good friends with a group of dinosaur children led by Rex. Everywhere Rex leads them, she follows to wherever he goes, especially when it comes to them trying to find a solution in keeping the Earth clean. When she and the rest of Rex's friends arrived at the big city at the Dino Store, Ethel and the rest of Rex's friends become inspired to help recycle and keep the planet clean, causing Ethel and the others to show good citizenship in taking care of the planet through the recycling method.
Physical appearance[]
Ethel is a pink slender ceratopsian dinosaur, specifically resembling a Triceratops who wears a pale purple sleeveless dress around her body as well as having a pair of eyes with three eyelashes on both sides as well as wearing a pair of light blue shoes.
Role in the short[]
Ethel is first seen happily commenting on the field being clean, fresh, and perfect while Knock and Ping watch from behind with Tucker telling his friends that he would use his Book of Everything to suggest a good name for the field they are present, much to Knock and Ping's jealousness, just before being approached by an engineer riding his Trash-o-Matic dumping garbage on the field. Rex orders the engineer to stop, but he refuses - explaining that everyone throws out too much stuff with a lot of insufficient places to put away the trash, only for Ethel to tell him that there is another solution and compromise for cleaning up the mess he put. Amongst one of the objects Ethel finds is a shampoo bottle, just as she tells the engineer that she is one of the children who threw away the trash. This, however, inspires Rex and his friends to take out the trash without throwing it away so that the engineer won't have to start dumping the trash on the field. as they arrive at some place in the big city where they can get rid of the trash.
As Rex and his friends arrive at the big city, Ethel, Turbo, and Edsel become distracted in trying to find a snack at the Dino Store, much to Rex's worry of telling his team to stay focused. Ethel intervenes, explaining to Rex that he may be right, but the rest of Rex's friends did not eat yet. Just as Ethel, Turbo, and Edsel, rush inside, Rex feels worried about his friends' goal of recycling the garbage. Just as Rex arrives, he tells Ethel to not sneak her empty bottle back on the shelf, which she tells him that she is more of a decent, upstanding citizen who plays by the rules, showing him and Bunsen a refillable bottle of shampoo, saying that she will reuse it. Rex happily notices Ethel that when she reuses the bottle of shampoo, it causes less garbage from being littered, reminding him of the field Rex and his friends hang out.
Later, as Rex and his friends are having a problem with the garbage they have, he finds a solution to get rid of the garbage, just as he sees a recycle symbol on a bottle, which Ethel and Turbo explain that they should learn how to reuse, especially with all the junk. Rex then educates Ethel and the rest of his friends the importance of being good citizens by recycling, leading Rex and his friends to recycle. Ethel and the rest of Rex's friends then participate in the musical sequence "Close the Loop", which is about the importance of recycling. Ethel is last seen at the baseball field with his friends playing baseball just before Rose encourages them the importance of recycling so that they can help clean the Earth.
Trivia[]
- Ethel is a female name from Old English origin meaning "noble", which is a possible reference of Ethel herself being an decent and upright citizen which was shown during the part where she tells Rex who told her not to sneak her empty bottle back on the shelf.
- Ethel is said to have a mother during the part where she is planning to ask her mother to try the Huge Dino Max shampoo while talking to Rex about recycling her bottle, although Ethel's mother does not appear onscreen.