Happy Tree Friends

Happy Tree Friends
Genre	Adult animation Comedy
Created by	Aubrey Ankrum Rhode Montijo Kenn Navarro
Developed by	Rhode Montijo Kenn Navarro Warren Graff
Voices of	Kenn Navarro Rhode Montijo (1999–2005) David Winn Dana Belben (2000–05) Ellen Connell (2005–09) Lori Jee (2009–present) Warren Graff Aubrey Ankrum Liz Stuart Nica Lorber Jeff Biancalana (2002–05) Peter Herrmann Michael "Lippy" Lipman Francis Carr Renée T. MacDonald
Theme music composer	rj Eleven
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	127 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	John Evershed
Producer(s)	Liz Stuart
Running time	Internet: 1–7 minutes Television: 3 7-minute segments
Production company(s)	Mondo Media
Release
Original network	Mondo Media (internet) G4 (television)
Picture format	Flash cartoon
Original release	December 24, 1999 – present (Internet) September 25, 2006 – December 25, 2006 (TV series)

Happy Tree Friends (HTF) is an American flash cartoon created and developed by Aubrey Ankrum, Rhode Montijo, Kenn Navarro and Warren Graff for Mondo Media. The show is cited as an early example of a popular Internet phenomenon achieving a cult following.^[1]

The action and adventure comedy is composed of simple drawings and juxtaposes cute forest animals with extreme graphic violence.^[2] Each episode revolves around the characters enduring accidental events of bloodshed, pain, dismemberment, and/or death. At one point, the warning "Cartoon Violence: Not recommended for small children, or big babies" was given on the official website.^[3]

The episodes last from 1 to 7 minutes. In 2006, a television series featuring longer episodes aired. A spin-off called Ka-Pow! premiered on September 2, 2008.

Characters

Happy Tree Friends features a variety of characters, each with varying appearances and personalities. However, almost all share identical Pac-Man eyes, buckteeth, and pink heart-shaped noses. Lumpy makes up one of the four primary characters along with Cuddles, Giggles and Toothy.

History

1999: Beginning

While working on Mondo Mini Shows, Rhode Montijo drew on a piece of scrap paper a character who would later become Shifty. He then drew on a spreadsheet poster a yellow rabbit that bore some resemblance to Cuddles and wrote "Resistance is futile" underneath it. Rhode hung the drawing up in his workstation so other people could see his idea, and eventually the idea was pitched to and accepted by the Mondo Media executives.^[4] In 1999, Mondo gave Aubrey Ankrum, Rhode Montijo and Kenn Navarro a chance to do a short for them. They came up with a short named Banjo Frenzy, which featured a dinosaur (an earlier version of Lumpy) killing three woodland animals, a rabbit, squirrel and beaver (earlier versions of Cuddles, Giggles and Toothy) with a banjo. From there, Mondo gave them their own internet series, which they named Happy Tree Friends. They got new writers and animators to work on the show.

2000–present: Success

After its internet debut in 1999, Happy Tree Friends became an unexpected success, getting over 15 million hits each month^[5] and being shown at film festivals.^[6] In some countries, the episodes can be seen on television. The series has been reformed into its own show, rather than as a part of a compilation as before.

Encouraged by the show's success, its creators have released four DVDs (First Blood, Second Serving, Third Strike and Winter Break) containing the episodes shown on the website and others that have not been released. A collection consisting of the first three DVDs and five bonus episodes, Overkill, has also been released. Two episodes, "Stealing the Spotlight" and "Ski Ya, Wouldn't Wanna Be Ya!", were originally only available in the Happy Tree Friends: Winter Break DVD, but are now on YouTube and the Happy Tree Friends website.

Mondo Media CEO John Evershed attributes the success of the series to animator Kenn Navarro. "He had a clear vision for that show and he's just a brilliant animator. He has created something that is pretty universal. I envision kids watching Happy Tree Friends 20 or 30 years from now the same way that they watch Tom and Jerry now. So really it's Kenn Navarro."^[7]

Television series

The Happy Tree Friends television series was first shown at Comic-Con 2006 and some of the episodes were shown on the website a few weeks prior the show's television premiere, September 25, 2006 at midnight on the G4 network (Web episodes of Happy Tree Friends also aired on the network's animation anthology series Happy Tree Friends and Friends and G4's Late Night Peepshow). Each half-hour episode of the television series contains three seven-minute segments. 39 segments were made, making 13 full episodes for season one. Pictures from the first six episodes can be seen on G4's website. The Canadian channel Razer aired the show in syndication as did the Citytv stations throughout Canada.^[8] The show was also broadcast on MTV in Europe and Latin America and on Animax in South Africa.^[9] It was also shown on Paramount Comedy 1 in the UK from May 11, 2007 for a short time, with occasional reruns afterward with the channel, now branded as Comedy Central UK. It was rated TV-MA V.

Fall Out Boy music video

In 2007, American rock band Fall Out Boy created the music video for their song "The Carpal Tunnel of Love." All of the characters die the same type of graphic, bloody deaths that are featured in the series. The Fall Out Boy band members cameo as special Happy Tree Friends characters.^[10]

Video game

A video game titled Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm was released on June 25, 2008. It was developed by Stainless Games and Sega for Xbox Live Arcade on the Xbox 360 and the PC.^[11] Writer Ken Pontac previously posted a blog entry on the Happy Tree Friends website telling fans about the adventures of the staff making the game, but it was ended before the game's first slated release date in spring 2008.^[12]

Spin-offs

Three spin-off series have aired as of September 2008. The Ka-Pow! series is about adventures of three popular characters, Flippy, Splendid and Buddhist Monkey. As of 2012, three episodes have been aired.

Crew

Happy Tree Friends creator Kenn Navarro

Cast

Film

Mondo announced plans to produce a feature film based on the series, expected to be released in early 2016. ^[13][14]

See also

• Mondo film
• The Itchy & Scratchy Show
• Squeak the Mouse
• The God & Devil Show
• Don't Hug Me I'm Scared

References

External links

• Happy Tree Friends at Mondo Media
• Happy Tree Friends at the Internet Movie Database