Chop Socky Chooks

Chop Socky Chooks
Genre	Action Comedy Fantasy
Format	CGI animated series
Created by	Sergio Delfino
Directed by	Sergio Delfino
Voices of	Shelley Longworth Rob Rackstraw Patterson Joseph Paul Kaye Rupert Degas
Theme music composer	Eggplant
Opening theme	"Chop Socky Chooks"
Ending theme	"Chop Socky Chooks" (Instrumental)
Composer(s)	Lou Pomanti
Country of origin	United Kingdom Canada
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	26
Production
Executive producer(s)	For Aardman: Miles Bullough, Pete Lord, and Dave Sproxton For Decode: Neil Court, Steven Denure, and Beth Stevenson Daniel Lennard (for Cartoon Network)
Producer(s)	Elana Adair Ben Lock Christine Ponzevera Janice Walker (also Decode's supervising producer) Jacqueline White (series producer)
Running time	22 minutes approx.
Production company(s)	Aardman Animations Decode Entertainment DHX Media Teletoon Productions
Broadcast
Original channel	Cartoon Network Teletoon
Original run	USA: 7 March – 28 November 2008 UK: 8 September 2008 – present
External links
Website

Chop Socky Chooks is a British/Canadian animated series produced by Aardman Animations, Decode Entertainment and DHX Media that debuted on 7 March 2008. It was created by animator Sergio Delfino, a prominent animator at Aardman. It currently airs only on Teletoon The show previously aired in the USA on Cartoon Network. The name is from "chop socky" which is slang for the Asian martial arts film genre, and "chook" which is Australian and New Zealand slang for chicken.

Plot

The show is about a trio of kung fu fighting chickens who live and work in a shopping mall.^[1]

Characters

The Chop Socky Chooks

• Chick P (voiced by Shelley Longworth) – Chick P is the most mature out of the team and probably the team's leader. In her childhood, she had a best friend named Oni (currently a villain known as Deadeye) whom she would play Blind Man's Bluff. She has personal issues with Dr. Wasabi who destroyed her home to build Wasabi World. Her daytime job is working as an electrician in the pipes of WasabiWorld. Her fighting clothes are similar to what the females wore in the old times of Japan. Her battle weapon is her razor fans.
• Chuckie Chan (voiced by Rob Rackstraw, Chris Hardwick (USA version)) – Chuckie Chan was once a student of Master Yoshi learning the fighting style "Pow Kung". His daytime job is teaching the youth of Wasabi World his martial arts. He had an old rival named Koby/Korbua. His fighting clothing is similar to what master martial artists wore. He know to use proverbs in almost every episode. His battle weapon is his spiritual chi energy.
• K.O. Joe (voiced by Paterson Joseph) – K.O. Joe is the team's funky crusader. He was shown to have a fear of bugs after they would crawl into an afro as a child. His daytime job is running a comic book shop. He has shown great skills with handling with troubled youth, a great skateboarder, and known to be a ladie's man. His fighting clothes are similar to people wore back in the 70's. His battle weapon is a grappling hook pick.

Main Villains

• Dr. Wasabi (voiced by Paul Kaye) – Dr. Wasabi is the ruler of Wasbai World and is the main antagonist of the show. He is a little piranha that has an astronaut-like attire with water filled inside. He has control of every place in Wasabi World, yet he has no idea of who the Chop Socky Chooks are. He is armed with his top henchman Bubba and his Ninja Chimps. His name is retained from his wasabi-like skin color.
  • Bubba (voiced by Rupert Degas) – Bubba is a large ape and wears a suit with a top hat. Although not intelligent, he's big in heart. He is to have the dumb and strong personality like many cartoon characters. He has proved himself very useful, besides his impressive strength. His favorite comic book hero is Captain Cockroach and enjoys reading comic books.
  • Ninja Chimps – A group of chimpanzees trained in ninjitsu that serve as Dr. Wasabi's foot soldiers.

Other Villians

• Omnioni – An ancient demon who is supposed to be so powerful and evil that he had to be bottled up by the Lord of the Underworld. In Big Bad Bubba, he possesses Bubba in an attempt to open a portal to the underworld. However, Bubba's inability to read slowed him down long enough for Chick P to make Bubba sneeze Omnioni out of him and was sucked into the portal.
• Kobi/Kobura – An cobra-like creature who was Chuckie Chan's rival since before the show's history. According to his master, Kobi is bad-tempered. After he was bitten by cobras, he changed into an insane, merciless megalomaniac and for this reason, was banished forever (he also has a fork in his tongue). Soon, years later, Kobi becomes a powerful snake-like being with the ability to possess great strength, control cobras, and deadly venom that will explode a person's heart by sunset. In "Kobura Strikes", the Chooks were poisoned by Kobura and his snakes and attempt to find the cure before sundown. When they were finally cured, Kobura lunges toward K.O. Joe only to fall off a tower where his final battle with Chuckie took place. He, however, appears again in "Snake in the Class", this time revealing the Chop Socky Chooks secret identities and appears to be able to hypnotize people. This attempt failed as well though. Kobura is shown to be even more intelligent and ruthless than Doctor Wasabi while his voice appears to be a parody of John Hurt's.
• Oni/Deadeye – She appeared in the episode "If Looks Could Kill". She is a white viper who likes wearing gothic-lolita. As a child, she used to be Chick P's best friend, but apparently had a left eye condition.She was extremely envious. She said "You win again Chickadee. You always win!" with vain as they played "Bind Mans Bluff". Dr. Wasabi used this to his advantage and taught her to use her evil eye (which is why she donned the name Deadeye). Once she came into town, she greeted her friend, but then left to settle business with Wasabi. As Deadeye, Oni is the one who actually made Chick P's father allow Wasabi to break it down, as she specializes in hypnosis and altering reality. Chick P uses a mirrior to reflect the power to her evil eye, thus destroying its rain of terror. As Chick P is about to finish her, she says "Wait! Dee, please! I can't control it, and neither can you" and then crawls up a pipe, leaving a sad Chick P and a dazed K.O. Joe and Chuckie to regret. Her eye might be a reference to the curse Evil Eye.

Other characters

• Professor Shericon – Chick P's old mentor. He has a spider-like appearance and a Jimmy Stewart-like voice. He appeared in the episode "Double Trouble" where Dr. Wasabi used him to create robotic clones of the Chop Socky Chooks. His name is a play on "Shuriken" and "Silicon".
• Citizens of Wasabi World – An assortment of these appear in every episode.
  • The most commonly seen one is a large, fat lady with white skin, a green kimono, red lipstick, and black hair tied in a bun. Who appears to have a huge crush on Chuckie Chan when his cover was blown, shown in the episode "Snake in the Class".
• The Cabbage Lady – A woman with a cabbage. She appeared in "If Looks Could Kill" when Deadeye disguised herself as her. Her only line was "Cabbage?" She appears again in "Snake in the Class" when she is being mugged by hoodlums. In this episode, she appears without her cabbage and says other things than what she said in the past. Voiced by Jules de Jongh.
• Siren Sung – A mermaid songstress who can't sing very well. Chuckie Chan had a HUGE crush on her and thought that she had the best voice in the world (in the episode Karaoke Zombies then you would find out they were both tone deaf). She almost married Dr. Wasabi (Chuckie Chan and Dr. Wasabi fought over her), only because of his wealth, later in the episode she dumps him after realizing what a selfish materialist he is, but got sucked down a drain. She fell down when Chuckie Chan accidentally let go of her while reaching for the six dollars he owed her (Chuckie Chan got her to sign something and she wrote 'To a special someone' and she said that it was $5 for the CD and $1 for the love huck). Voiced by Jules de Jongh.
• Chuckie's Master – A one-eyed old Chinese man who was the master of Chuckie and Kobi when they were kids. He first appears in "Kobura Strikes". He appears in person in "His Master's Choice". He also appears in "The Lamest Show on Earth".
• Chuckie's Students – Recurring characters in the show. These include a germaphobe boy with green skin named Itchi, a skater/gamer girl with yellow skin named Ume, a boy with dark skin and always appears with a basketball named Stroose, a kimono girl named Cho, and a boy with blue skin named Raco. Raco (Dung Beetle), Stroose (Slaying Mantis), and Cho (Lady Bug - voiced by Jules de Jongh) briefly became Junior Chooks in "Snake in the Class". In "Game Over Chooks!" its revealed that Ume and Itchi are related.
• Iron Butt Monks – A trio of Chinese monks with fat iron butts (as their name suggests). In "Return the Other Cheek", Wasabi enlists Bubba to steal the Twin Cheeks, but was only able to steal one, and Bubba leaves behind one of Joe's 'fro combs as proof that the Chooks were responsible for stealing the Twin Cheeks. Their iron butts, as Chuckie explained in both episodes in which they appeared, came from their training; they threw their bitts onto buckets of sand, hot coals, and finally, open lava. This gave them their steel derrières, which are extremely hard, and they honed their powers, learning their most powerful attack, the Fiery Butt-Blast of Fury.
• Hairy Sumo Brothers – A duo of sumos with hair all over their bodies (as their name suggests). In "The Codfather", Wasabi fires Bubba for the Hairy Sumo Brothers and aids Wasabi in stealing money for himself.
• Mother Superior – A one-eyed Squid dressed up as a nun who is the mother of the Iron Butt Monks. She has only got one eye.
• Bantam – He is an enemy of Wasabi. He is possibly K.O. Joe's father and has a striking resemblance to Batman (his name is even an anagram).
• Squirt – He is a little teddy bear type thing who helps the Chop Socky Chooks get out of the jungle. K.O. calls him Cuddley sidekick. He is pink with brown stripes.
• House Seller – He is a fish type thing who appears in episode 12 that sells houses to the enemy. Voiced by Jared Stamm.

Episode guide

Cast

• Rupert Degas – Bubba
• Chris Hardwick – Chuckie Chan (USA version)
• Paterson Joseph – K.O. Joe
• Paul Kaye – Dr. Wasabi
• Shelley Longworth – Chick P.
• Rob Rackstraw – Chuckie Chan

Crew

• Kris Zimmerman – Voice Director

DVD release

Reception

Common Sense Media gave the show 2 out of 5 stars, complaining the show was too violent for children.^[3]

References

1. ↑ http://www.animationmagazine.net/tv/cartoon-network-kicks-off-chop-socky-chooks/
2. ↑ http://www.animationmagazine.net/home-entertainment/disney-debuts-diamond-dwarfs/
3. ↑ http://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/chop-socky-chooks

External links

• Chop Socky Chooks at TV.com
• Chop Socky Chooks on Internet Movie Database