Cricket Ernest Green is one of the main characters from the Disney Channel animated series Big City Greens. He is an optimistic, mischievous, impulsive, adventure-seeking country boy who moved to Big City with his older sister Tilly and their father, Bill, to live with their grandmother Alice. Cricket's enthusiasm and curiosity tends to lead him and his family on numerous misadventures in the city, as well as in his old hometown of Smallton after Bill purchased back their old house during the show's third season.
Appearances in Christmas specials[]
Big City Greens[]
As the series' central protagonist, Cricket is the main focus of the show's Christmas episode, "Green Christmas". Cricket and his family are excited about Christmas, but Cricket is shocked when Tilly does a tally of their good and bad deeds throughout the year, and because of all the bad deeds he's done, he might be on the naughty list. Tilly believes there's good in him, and Cricket decides to do good deeds throughout town to see if he can be considered nice instead of naughty. However, Cricket suffers a major case of selfishness, and the only reason he wants to be on the nice list is to get presents from Santa Claus like everyone else. After a big accident with the department store Santa in Hudkins, he is considered naughty indeed. Cricket then starts resorting to pulling naughty pranks on the townsfolk, saying that if he cannot have Christmas, then no one else will.
Cricket meets the real Santa Claus in "Green Christmas".
As his ultimate naughty prank, Cricket decides to steal the Big City Christmas star and moon the city. Tilly tries to stop him, but they wrestle over the tree and end up destroying it, and Tilly is caught in the act and blamed for the destruction, deeming her naughty as well. At first Cricket is content, but upon seeing how upset she is to end up on the naughty list and her blaming him for it, he begins to have mixed feelings. After some hesitation, Cricket finally comes to the conclusion it was indeed all his fault he got into this mess, and his selfishness nearly ruined the holiday. He meets the real Santa Claus on a bench and tells him his problem; Santa understands Cricket's feelings and gives him a magical gift which can be any present he wishes for. However, Cricket refuses and instead wishes for Tilly to be back on the nice list, because the one thing he wants doesn't come in a box. He also wishes to be out of the blizzard, which comes true as Bill finds him. On Christmas Day, Cricket discovers not only Tilly got presents from Santa, but he did as well, because of his selfless act of putting Tilly's needs before his. Realizing the true meaning of Christmas, Cricket happily celebrates with his family.
Cricket in CGI animation in "Virtually Christmas".
Cricket has the central role again in the series' second Christmas episode, "Virtually Christmas", in which he goes to his best friend Remy's mansion on Christmas Eve to play the virtual reality game Outpost Infinity, against Bill's wishes worrying he will miss the family Christmas Eve traditions. When Cricket ends up snowed in at the mansion, he has the family meet up inside the game (Remy had gotten Cricket a copy of the game as a Christmas gift) so they can build their house and carry out the traditions from there. However, Cricket soon learns that Outpost Infinity is really a defense game where waves of increasing monsters keep destroying whatever they build, so he tries to keep the game's true nature a secret from the family while Remy fights off the hordes. The family starts off well, but when it came time to place the star on the tree, Remy is outnumbered and the monsters end up following him back to the house, exposing Cricket's lie, and Bill calls him out for leaving the family. Upon discovering what the holiday is truly about, Cricket and his family work to fight the monster swarm but still end up losing their game house in return. The family decides to start over, but since the monsters will keep coming in never ending waves, Cricket realizes he needs to truly be with his family and manages to brave the snowstorm all the way back to the Green house, where he makes up with the Greens and, along with the Remingtons, takes part in the traditions the true way.
Cricket finds his "Dream Tree".
Cricket once again stars in the series' third Christmas episode, "Dream Tree", in which he and Bill go searching for the perfect Christmas tree, using clues from a dream he had. As it turns out, the tree from Cricket's dream is a very tiny one.
Other Christmas productions[]
In the Chibi Tiny Tales short "Christmas Crashers", Cricket and Gramma capture Santa Claus, making him unable to complete his deliveries on time, so Cricket takes over for him. Bill manages to free him while he delivers the presents, and when he comes home, he is about to enjoy cookies with the two, but falls into his own trap, which was set by Bill and Santa to get back at him.
Cricket's Random Rings appearance in Disney Channel: Holidays Unwrapped.
Cricket makes several appearances throughout Disney Channel: Holidays Unwrapped, in the vein of the Random Rings spinoff short-form series. Along with Tilly, he appears three times throughout the special, begging Raven-Symoné to give him and Tilly a part on the show, before finding out in the end that they were part of it the whole time. At one point, he pretends to be Shawn Mendes; said part was later made into an installment of Random Rings, titled "Tilly and Cricket Call Raven Symoné!" Coincidentally, Raven herself is the voice of Maria Media, which she lampshades at the end of the short "Cricket Pranks Raven".
Cricket appeared in another Christmas-themed Random Rings short, titled "Cricket Pranks Chandler", where he pretends to be Santa Claus and prank calls Chandler Kinney that she's on the naughty list unless she mails him money. Unfortunately, he instantly drops his act upon realizing from Chandler that unauthorized Santa impersonation is extremely illegal.
Cricket putting the star on Meg Donnely's tree in the "Put the Happy in the Holidays" music video.
Cricket makes a cameo in the Disney Channel music video "Put the Happy in the Holidays", placing the Big City Christmas star atop the big tree as Meg Donnelly watches.
Cricket makes another cameo appearance in Disney Channel's Epic Holiday Showdown under the same vein of Random Rings, as part of the last challenge of the show. In the last challenge, he is put on the "so-so" list and is challenged to prank call Ebenezer Scrooge into saying she loves the holidays with help from Gramma to get back on the nice list. This scene was later incorporated into the short "Santa Calls Cricket".
In the Broken Karaoke short "Santa Gave My Grandson Coal for Christmas", Alice relates the story of how, when Cricket was a baby, his receiving coal from Santa led her to seek revenge against the big guy.
Cricket and his family provide hosting duties for the compilation special Shortsmas with Big City Greens.
Gallery[]
