Marianne, Lady Thornberry (née Hunter) is main character of The Wild Thornberrys. She is the wife of Nigel Thornberry, and the mother of Debbie, Eliza, and Donnie Thornberry. She operates the film camera and edits their nature show.
Description
It takes quite a woman to travel around the world filming a television show about wild animals, and Marianne Thornberry is definitely quite a woman. Marianne hikes, climbs, dives and drives anywhere she needs to in order to get the perfect shot of the animals that she and Nigel need to capture on film for their show. Besides all this, she’s a loving mother and loves her two lovely daughters Eliza and Debbie, as well as her adopted sons Donnie and Darwin. Marianne is always ready for a new adventure, and despite her beauty is able to keep a cool head in the midst of stampedes, earthquakes, floods, and other would-be catastrophes. She’s often voice of reason, an example of this is in one episode she convinces Nigel to just shoot (film) from the bushes they were in that morning. She has shown her fearful side when Eliza got sick and nearly died in "Operation: Valentine". In the episode "The Anniversary", Marianne, despite her disagreements with her mother, Sophie, sided with her on her father's, Frank's and Eliza's attempted escape to collect wood for the bonfire festival in Japan.
Looks
Marianne has peach skin and a pair of white eyes with black pupils. She wears transparent glasses, an orange vest, and blue pants. In colder climates like the Andes, she wears a long sleeve black sweater under her orange vest. Her oldest daughter Debbie inherited her blonde hair, whereas her youngest daughter Eliza inherited her father's red hair, albeit a lighter shade. Eliza gained her impaired vision from Marianne, although it is not known how bad Marianne's vision is.
Personality
Marianne is a strong woman, often the voice of reason and sometimes loses patience with Nigel. She is usually the one to take on disciplinary duties, trying to keep the girls out of trouble and finish their homework.
Appearances
Marianne appears in every episode of The Wild Thornberrys. Her first appearance was in Pilot. Her last appearance was in Eliza Unplugged. Marianne appears in The Wild Thornberrys Movie and Rugrats Go Wild!.
She also appeared on a few video games.
Relationships
- Nigel Thornberry: Marianne's husband.
- Debbie Thornberry: Marianne's older daughter. At times, Marianne often disapproves of Debbie's sassy and selfish attitude or off color remarks. Despite this, Marianne cares alot for her daughter.
- Eliza Thornberry: Marianne's younger daughter. Marianne often fears for Eliza's safety as the young girl often disregaurd her own safety in her excitment to see a new wild animal. Marianne is afraid of losing Eliza as seen in "Operation Valentine" and "Cheetahs Never Prosper". Marianne once threatened to send Eliza back to the US if she disobeyed her ("Cheetahs Never Prosper").
- Donnie Thornberry: Marianne's adopted son.
- Darwin Thornberry:: Darwin is Eliza's "pet chimpanzee".
Trivia
- In "Blood Sisters", she mentions that she attended the University of California, Berkeley.
- She, Darwin, Debbie, Nigel, and Eliza are the only main characters to appear in every episode.
- Marianne and Debbie are the only main characters who never had their names feature in an episode title.