| “ | Come with me, Frances. I'll help you light up the night! | „ |
| ~ Cocky Roach. |
Cocky Roach is the main antagonist of the 1991 public information film Frances the Firefly (which teaches children to not play with matches).
He is a young mischievous cockroach who lived in an insect kingdom ruled by a butterfly named King Chrysalis. One day, Cocky learned that a young firefly named Frances wished to join the other fireflies, but could not as her tail did not light up, due to her age.
Cocky offers to help Frances and takes her back to his house and reveals a box of matches that his mother left out and gives Frances one to light in place of her tail. Despite knowing how dangerous matches are, Frances takes the match and lights it.
Cocky then watches as Frances flies into the sky with the match, watching as the flame reaches her wings and burns her. However, his happiness turns to horror as Frances drops the match, which causes a fire in the kingdom and destroys it. Fortunetly, no one is killed in the fire and the kingdom is eventually rebuilt with Frances being told by King Chrysalis not to play with matches.
After it was discovered that Cocky was the one who convinced Frances to use the match, he is banished from the kingdom forever and is forced to live in litter bins in the towns and villages, looking for something to eat and never daring to show his face again.
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Trivia[]
- A 60-second version of the film that aired on television tones him down, as it doesn't say he knew the match would burn Frances, making it seem he was just having fun and actually wanted to help her.
- In the film's novelization, Cocky is renamed Charlie.