Eddsworld
| Eddsworld | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Comedy / Action / Animation |
| Created by | Edd Gould |
| Written by |
Edd Gould (2004–2012) Thomas Ridgewell(2012–present) Eddie Bowley (2013–present) |
| Directed by |
Edd Gould (2004–2012) Thomas Ridgewell (2012–present) |
| Voices of |
Edd Gould (2004–2012) Tim Hautekiet (2012–present) Thomas Ridgewell Matt Hargreaves Tord Larsson (2005–2008) Alex Labbe (2004–2005) |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 8 |
| No. of episodes | 50 (46 aired) (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) |
Edd Gould (2004-2012) Thomas Ridgewell (2004-present) |
| Running time | 30 seconds – 10 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
CakeBomb (2006-2008) TurboPunch (2012 - present) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel |
YouTube Newgrounds Syndicated on AlbinoBlackSheep and DeviantArt |
| Picture format | Flash cartoon |
| Original run | 22 December 2004 – present |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows |
Hellbenders Super Average Bumming Crew |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Eddsworld is an independent British comedic flash cartoon production company that was created by Edd Gould in 2004. Eddsworld was also part of the CakeBomb network from 2006-2008, when it dissolved.[1] Eddsworld currently consists of over thirty-five episodes (called eddisodes), over 150 comics, flash games, and various art work distributed on the home website, YouTube, Albino Blacksheep, Newgrounds, DeviantArt, and the BBC.[2] The episodes are the focal point of the organization, which star Edd, Tom, Matt, and previously Tord, and run anywhere from 30 seconds to 10 minutes. Before his death, animations were created solely by Edd Gould and co-written by himself and colleagues Thomas Ridgewell, Matthew Hargreaves, Thomas Bown, and Tord Larsson. It is currently under direction of Thomas Ridgewell. Eddsworld is created using Adobe Flash, a computer animation program.
Characters
Eddsworld centres around the main character Edd and his friends Matt, Tom, and formerly Tord. In most episodes, all are voiced by their real life counterparts, with minor characters being voiced by Gould, or guest YouTubers. The main characters all live in the same house in an unspecified suburban town in the UK (addressed as 27 Dirdum Lane, brought up in Hammer and Fail) where most of the episodes take place.
Main characters
The main characters are loosely based on their real life counterparts. This, with exaggerated addictions being a constant theme for each character, along with catchphrases, sets the dynamics between the characters.
- Edd is the main character of Eddsworld. He wears a green hoodie and/or a T-shirt referencing the British sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf (it says "smeg head" on it), has brown hair and enjoys Coca-Cola, bacon, and making puns; much to the annoyance of the other characters. Throughout, Edd is shown to be an optimist and the natural leader of the group. In the episode Space Face, his voice is altered accidentally by Matt (in order to explain the change in voice actor, due to Edd Gould's passing).
- Tom is one of Edd’s friends and wears a blue hoodie or a T-shirt featuring a character from asdf (which is Tom Ridgewell's own YouTube series). He also has brown spiky hair, which he refers to as "Steve", and is known for being an alcoholic: his favourite beverage being Smirnoff. Tom is recognised for having no discernible eyes, but empty black circles (formerly black unibrow and full white circles from Zombeh Attack) in place of them, which does not affect his sight (a reference to lead singer 2D from Gorillaz). A running joke is that Tom will regain his eyes, yet somehow lose them before the end of the episode, preferably by some sort of laser. He has a deep hatred of the holiday Christmas, causing him to be an anti-hero or antagonist in holiday specials. Tom is known for exclaiming "Holy ‘Noun’ on a ‘Noun’" when surprised (with noun representing two unrelated, but usually alliterative objects), and is shown to deeply love his bass guitar, which he names Susan. Tom is crazy for kitten shopping and, due to him being half-gibberish, says a lot of crazy things. His Personality is similar to Brian Griffin from Family Guy.
- Matt is Edd’s other friend and wears a purple hoodie (originally black) with a green overcoat, or a black T-shirt. He has ginger hair and a square chin, yet he is known for being an egomaniac and is obsessed with his own looks (sometimes going as far as being sexually attracted to his own appearance) his catchphrase "Not the face!" is yelled when something threatens him (the catchphrase even saves his, Edd's, and Tom's lives in Space Face Part 2). Matt is often shown to be the least intelligent of the group, and tries to compensate with his other catchphrase: "indubitably" and is allergic to explosions (it is said in the eddisode "Fan Service" that Matt is fatally allergic to dogs, but he is not, as said in the credits,"No Matt is not really allergic to dogs...").
- Tord is a former member of the group who wore a black jacket in the first episodes and later wore a red hoodie or a black tank top. He was known for being the most violent character, often the first to pull out firearms when threatened. A running joke was his hatred of the song "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows" by Lesley Gore. He was the only non-British character, as he hailed from Norway, but has not been in an Eddsworld episode since 2008's episode 25 Ft. Under the Seat after leaving the series, only being mentioned in Zanta Claws II and being in a flashback in Power Edd. He rarely spoke during the show and had little to no lines after an eddisode titled Ruined.
Episodes
See List of Eddsworld episodes
Comics
Before his death, Gould had created over 170 comics that appeared on a weekly basis. They are normally four panels long and follow the same plot structure as the episodes with comedy focusing much more on puns and word play. The characters in the comics are almost exclusively Edd, Matt, Tom, and in the earliest comics Tord. Eighty of these comics were collected in a book called Toaster Brains,[3] which also features guest comics by colleagues and friends of Gould. There are currently over 180 comics. After Edd Gould's death, Paul Ter Voorde took over making the comics which were supposed to have been released on DeviantArt every Sunday. However, the Eddsworld Comics were discontinued shortly after for an unknown reason. A Toaster Brains sequel was one of the perks in their Eddsworld: Legacy fundraiser, which was 100 U.S. Dollars.
Tord's Departure
The character Tord officially left the series in the beginning of the episode "25 Feet Under The Seat" in 2008, but nothing was said by him. This caused many rumours to originate from fans about his disappearance and is still a point of discussion for many. Impersonators posing as Tord Larsson or as a friend of Tord also arose from this on social networking sites (such as Facebook) and blogs in attempts to troll or mislead fans. Most speculations over the reason for Tord’s departure include that he and Tom became too angered with each other, as they would often fight (as revealed in an earlier episode), leading to Tord quitting the group, and running over Tom in "25 Feet Under the Seat". In a video of Tom's called Ritalin'd, starring Tom and his friend Chris Bingham (Bing or slomozovo), he was seen wearing a shirt saying "I NEVER LIKED TORD ANYWAY." In reality, Tord Larsson left Eddsworld to pursue his own artistic career and to distance himself from the franchise, requesting that his likeness also be removed from future episodes. Gould has voiced his displeasure in not explaining Tord’s departure in more detail, but he had no plans to bring the subject up in future work.
In response to Edd Gould's death, Tord posted a video on YouTube (from the former channel KalashniCock, now unavailable) entitled "Tord explains why he left Eddsworld (RIP Edd Gould)" on 30 March 2012 giving his reasons for leaving the series, discussed his relationships with the other cast members, and touched on the many frauds claiming to be him on various Internet accounts. In this video he also explained that the stress of school and his poor relationship with Tom had little to no effect on him leaving the series, pointing out that taking his name from the series and building his own persona, independently of Eddsworld, was his main focus. At the end of the video he gave his respects to Edd and his family, saying "To Edd" and then drinking from a bottle of Coca-Cola. He has since closed his YouTube account, making all videos uploaded from that account unavailable, due to many curious fans rudely questioning his reasons, as they were explained in his video.
On 13 June 2012, Ridgewell vlogged from his YouTube account DarkSquidge about Eddsworld, explaining that Tord "Was shown driving away at the beginning of an eddisode... opening a Pandora's Box of crazy fans that never left him alone to the extent that he can't even use his real name. Please leave him alone." as well as referencing Tord's own video mentioned above. It is currently being discussed that Tord will be on the show for an episode or two, but not reappearing as his counterpart of animated Tord Larsson. Tom said that Tord would never be joining the show again, even if he does a voice cameo in an upcoming eddisode, however he also said that he will think about bringing the character of Tord back.
There have been hints on Tord's return to the series as he has been appearing in the backgrounds of some Eddisodes, and while not many of them were confirmed to be him, there are a few hints towards the fact it is him. For example;
- In, "The Snogre" On the plane on one of the doors, it says NOR5K1, which is Tord's numberplate on his car in 25 ft under the seat.
- Also in "The Snogre" On the plane's tail, a red spray painted portrait of Tord's hair can be seen.
- In the above-mentioned episode, there are only two people seen on the plane, but when it crashes, there are three people in parachutes seen.
- In the episode "Fun Dead", a silhouette of Tord can be seen on the television when it showed soldiers fighting away Zombehs.
- Tord appears in a flashback scene in the Eddisode "PowerEdd" when in a class of children, Tord can be seen just behind Edd.
- Tord is reportedly going to appear in the future Eddisode "Saloonatics"
- The current artist for Eddsworld, Paul ter Voorde, hinted at Tord's return as Paul drew a picture of Tord.
Death of Edd Gould
On 25 March 2012, Gould died at the age of 23 after a six-year-long battle with Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia that he was originally diagnosed with in 2006. Ridgewell later announced on a live stream that Edd had asked him to take over the series in the event of his death. Under Ridgewell's direction, the series will continue with Paul ter Voorde as the new lead animator and a new voice actor replacing Edd, being Ridgewell's friend Tim Hautekiet.[4] After Gould's passing, new developer TurboPunch started the Eddsworld: Legacy fundraiser on Indiegogo, which is intended to help raise funds for another season of Eddsworld. Under Ridgewell's direction, profits made from the Eddsworld series are now intended to go towards charities that focus on non-medical care for adult cancer patients (after initial expenses are paid).
Cast
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Reception
Eddsworld first became popular with young British viewers, as well as mid-American teens.[5] Episodes typically receive between one and four million views on YouTube, the most popular of these videos being WTFuture with currently 5,136,000 views. His YouTube channel currently has over 743,200 subscribers, with total video views of 125,595,565. At the time of his death, his channel had the most subscribers in the comedian category in the United Kingdom and was the fourth most viewed comedian of the United Kingdom. Eddsworld was noticed by the organizers of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference who requested the creation of an episode about climate change, which was used in the opening ceremony of the conference. That video is available on the channel tvelnspringChange.[6][7]
According to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) Eddsworld has a mean average rating of 7.6/10.[8]
References
- ↑ "CakeBomb". CakeBomb. 2010. Retrieved 21 March 2011.
- ↑ "BBC Comedy Clips: Almeratron". British Broadcasting Corporation. 6 July 2010. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
- ↑ Gould, Edd (27 February 2011). Toaster Brains. Lulu.
- ↑ "TomSka is alright". Vokle. 2012-04-01. Retrieved 2012-07-21.
- ↑ Crispin Rolfe (News Anchor/Presenter) (November 2009). Eddsworld (News Broadcast). London England: The British Broadcasting Corporation. Unknown ID:(0H0TM)L1.
- ↑ Vaughan, Adam (5 November 2009). "Guardian: One Minute To Save The World". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 4 February 2011.
- ↑ "A Million Views on Copenhagen" (Press release). TVE. October 2010. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
- ↑ "Eddsworld". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2013-03-17.