Happy Tree Friends

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Television series
Original title Happy Tree Friends
Happytreefriends-logo.svg
Country of production United States , Canada
original language English
Year (s) Since 1999
length 5 minutes / 25 minutes
Episodes 13 in 1 season
genre Comedy , black humor , splatter
idea Kenn Navarro , Rhode Montijo , Aubrey Ankrum
First broadcast 2006 on G4
German-language
first broadcast		 September 27, 2006 on MTV

Happy Tree Friends ( Engl. Is for "Happy Tree Friends"), a US-based Flash cartoon series and an American-Canadian television series , the Mondo Mini Shows and the Canadian Center Fatkat is produced. The concept of the series is a contradicting mixture of cute design ( kawaii ) and excessive depictions of violence.

Action and conception

The cute main characters of the series live in a forest, in which there are buildings and structures, and experience adventures in each short episode that always end in the brutally depicted, bloody and often unusual death of the characters involved. Sometimes one or two characters survive an episode, but then they are often seriously injured or completely disfigured. The Happy Tree Friends episodes mostly show everyday situations such as work, cooking and school, but also tea parties, amusement parks and zoo visits, birthdays and camping. The activities of the characters are also mostly different. There is a moral saying in the credits of every episode. The series is usually set in the forest lands of North America . The episodes with the character "Buddhist Monkey", which are set in Japan, are an exception . From the starting point of an everyday situation, injury and death develop. The episode "Clause for Concern" offers an exception: In this episode not a single character is harmed, only after the credits do a death occur, also in the episodes "Nutting but the Tooth", "Out On A Limb" and " Dream Job “there is no death. Most deaths are caused by accidents involving ordinary objects. Each episode begins with the opening credits being shown in the form of a children's book, in which the logo, the name of the episode (this is usually a play on words ) and the cast are listed. The episodes are usually about 3-5 minutes in length, and few of the characters appear in an episode. Most of the characters only appear in longer episodes.

Publications

Initially, this series was only distributed as flash animations over the Internet. It soon became so popular that the episodes were released on DVD and sold worldwide. In the meantime, Happy Tree Friends has been broadcast in 25-minute episodes by the stations MTV Germany, VIVA and the pay TV station ANIMAX. T-shirts, cuddly toys and other merchandise are also marketed.

characters

  • Lumpy: A larger, blue moose with bent antlers and limited intelligence. He is the biggest main character on Happy Tree Friends. He is mostly friendly, but also often kills other characters. His deaths are often ironic. He survives more consequences than many other characters, but is often the cause of the accidents. He lives in a trailer. Lumpy is also the only one who survived most of Flippy's attacks.
  • Cuddles: A yellow rabbit with pink bunny slippers. He is friendly and helpful, but also cocky, and when he does not break prohibitions himself, he occasionally incites others to do so. He often persuades Flaky to do things he didn't want, like riding a roller coaster. He is in love with Giggles. He was also the first character to ever appear. Cuddles survives only a few of the episodes he is featured in, and when they do, only a few short appearances. His dream is to become a rock star, as you could see in the episode "In a Jam". Like every rabbit, Cuddles likes carrots, but he also has a penchant for soft drinks and ball games.
  • Flaky: A red, very frightened porcupine with scales whose spines occasionally cause problems for others. Flaky is very fearful and cautious and appears to be the only character who is aware of the potentially deadly nature of the Happy Tree Friends world. In addition, she seems to be the only character who is intentionally killed by other characters (hinted at in "Happy Trails"). Flaky rarely kills other Happy Tree Friends, and when she does, it is by abusing her needle-like back with which she can impale others. The gender of Flaky was not clearly defined for a long time, many fans saw a female figure in Flaky. The creators finally confirmed this in a video description for "Wingin 'It", in which a "her" (English for "she") defined the gender of Flaky. Flaky shares a peanut allergy with Flippy, is lactose intolerant and suffers from all kinds of phobias .
  • Giggles: A pink chipmunk with a red bow. She was one of the first characters and is a very kind, sensitive, environmentally conscious character who likes flowers. Your name comes from their frequent giggles ( English to giggle ) ago. It is implied that she is in love with Cuddles, but also dates other male characters frequently. Petunia is her best friend and she often hangs out with her.
  • Petunia: The lovable and friendly skunk girl ironically wears a flower in her hair and a scented tree around her neck. She suffers from compulsive washing . That's why she takes a shower five times a day. This obsessive-compulsive disorder sometimes even drives her insane (whereupon she peeled off the skin (and thus the dirt) with a potato peeler in the episode "Wishy Washy" . When there is clutter in her environment, she hyperventilates . She is in love with cell phones.
  • Toothy: A purple beaver with long, protruding teeth and freckles. He tends to lose his composure and usually acts very carelessly, which often costs him his life. He is the first character to die. His role model is Splendid, and Cuddles is his best friend, the 2 like fireworks and like to play pranks.
  • Splendid: A blue flying squirrel with a red superhero mask and enormous powers. He survives almost all of the episodes he is a part in, but often makes the situation worse when he tries to help. His only weak point is a radioactive gemstone in the shape of a nut, similar to the kryptonite in Superman, which was used against him in "Gems the Break" by Shifty and Lifty. This was also the only episode in which he died.
  • Sniffles: A light blue anteater with glasses that embodies an intellectual figure. He often tries to catch ants, but is usually tortured and killed by them out of revenge. He also builds impressive machines and is very interested in science. Sniffles is often called when someone is injured or inventions are needed.
  • Nutty: A bright green squirrel with a googly eye that's morbidly addicted to candy. The latter is often his undoing, as he often puts himself in danger or overlooks dangers when trying to get hold of the delicacies. Its characteristics are lollys and candy canes that stick to its face and stomach. He seems to block out his outside world while getting new sweetener (as you can see in "Party Animal", since he prefers to eat the chocolate pieces instead of helping Flaky in an emergency). But Nutty can also be friendly, as you can see him playing chess with Sniffles in the episode "From Hero to Eternity". In the episode "False Alarm", Nutty briefly loses his addiction to sweets.
  • Cell phone: An orange beaver with all sorts of tools and a yellow helmet who has lost his hands, which usually gets him into trouble. He performs technical masterpieces with his arm stumps when he is not in the picture or when you cannot see him clearly. His characteristic is the look he puts on when he notices that he has no hands and urgently needs them. He often uses his mouth as a substitute, which puts himself in dangerous situations and / or injures himself. He is in love with Petunia.
  • Flippy: A green bear in uniform who is allergic to peanuts and suffers from PTSD due to a war trauma . He suffered this during the war due to his inability to murder the opposing troop leader of the Tiger Army, as as a result of this mishap his two comrades (Sneaky the Chameleon and Mouse Ka-Boom, a French mouse and the group's demolition expert) turned out to be cruel Wise men died, in which he was directly - albeit unintentionally - involved. On the run from the enemy, he hid in Sneaky's carcass, in which he suffered his first attack shortly afterwards and was able to win the fight. Again and again, his bad self (also called Fliqpy in the series) causes a terrible bloodbath among the other Happy Tree Friends when he is reminded of the war by something like a cake knife, a bang, or red substances like ketchup or fire . But he's not malicious. Without the influence of his disturbance, he is nice and helpful, and everyone seems to like him. In the episode “Double Whammy”, Flippy decides to seek the help of a psychologist (Lumpy), who cannot help him. Only after Flippy has won against the personified evil of himself after a bloodbath - the recipient sees Flippy's evil side as his own figure, which later turns out to be Flippy's imagination - does he seem to be healed. However, shortly after this success he dies. He survived almost all of the episodes.
  • The Mole: A blind, pink mole that never speaks. He wears glasses for the blind and a purple collar sweater that he has pulled up over his mouth. Often he survives, but causes major accidents himself that cost at least one Happy Tree Friend their lives. It is often portrayed in connection with activities or work processes (e.g. driving a car, drawing blood or reading) that as a blind person are actually impossible or very difficult to carry out, which makes the whole thing even more ridiculous. These activities are usually the basis for the accidents or minor mishaps that it causes. He seems like a very kind character, and he is never killed by Flippy either.
  • Mime: The made-up purple mime - reindeer that never speaks, but always tries to express itself through pantomime movements. He is often the first to notice or cause dangers and then tries to warn everyone with the help of his pantomime, which is seldom understood. The furniture in his house is invisible and can only be used by him. Sometimes Mime is drawn to the circus, where he is a professional at juggling and fire-breathing.
  • Russell: A sea ​​otter - pirate with wooden legs, an eye patch and a hook instead of a hand, who often has problems with marine life. His favorite foods are seafood and fish.
  • Disco Bear: A dancing grizzly bear that looks like a lion thanks to its head of hair . He is very pushy and imagines that he and his dance moves are well received, but mostly they cause disinterest first and then accidents. In addition, he suffers from overweight and a heart problem due to his unhealthy diet, which often causes him difficulties, so he only survived in the episode "Chance of Heart" because Lumpy implanted the heart of a dead whale in him, as Lumpy had eaten the actual donor heart.
  • Lifty: A greedy, green raccoon whose kleptomania is often his undoing. He and his brother Shifty are always doing all sorts of mischief; especially often they steal things from others. Its characteristic is a crooked, mean grin.
  • Shifty: The second thieving raccoon brother. He and his brother often fight when something doesn't go according to plan. Apart from the fact that he wears a hat, he looks exactly like Lifty and has the same characteristics.
  • Pop: An elderly brown bear who goes about his duty to take care of his son Cub as well as possible, but puts himself and Cub in mortal danger in the process. If he notices that his son is in (life) danger, he tries to save him by all means, but this usually only makes the situation worse and often puts himself and other Happy Tree Friends in danger. His trademarks are his dressing gown and his pipe, which he even smokes in his sleep.
  • Cub : Pop's little bear offspring who, due to their clumsy hand, are constantly overwhelming their father when it comes to choosing toys. Most of the time he dies. This is not least due to his curiosity and / or recklessness, but often his father Pop also contributes, albeit unintentionally and sometimes unconsciously. Although depicted as a baby, he sometimes has the intelligence of a toddler. Cub likes ice cream and lollipops.
  • Cro-Marmot : A prehistoric marmot that is frozen in a block of ice. The name is based on the Cro-Magnon people . He is the only non-animated character. Although he cannot move, he will perform actions when not in the picture (e.g. throwing snowballs, selling ice cream, or surfing). He has only died in one episode so far (Dino-Sore Days), but otherwise he never dies due to the ice.
  • Buddhist Monkey : A normally peaceful Buddhist monkey monk . But if ninjas disturb his peace, they are mercilessly killed. In a sense, he has his own show, which so far only consists of three episodes. In connection with the previous Happy Tree Friends, it only appears in two movies and as an imprint on a slot machine. Buddhist Monkey is one of the few characters in Happy Tree Friends who has never been killed or seriously injured. He lives in Japan.
  • Truffles: A gray-blue wild boar with a hat, similar to Donald Duck. Although he lost the vote-or-die election against Lammy and is therefore not a fixed character on Happy Tree Friends, he still has cameo appearances in some episodes.
  • The idol: The idol is not a figure, it is a small Mayan statue (which has a strong resemblance to the statue that Indiana Jones brings out of the temple at the beginning of the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark , whereupon he is pursued by a huge stone ball ) . Everywhere it appears, it brings death and disaster.
  • Lammy: A friendly, female sheep who likes to spend time with her friend “Mr. Pickles ”, a living cucumber, holds tea parties. She is regularly brought into trouble by Mr. Pickles, who puts other Happy Tree Friends in mortal danger, kills her and threads it so that the other Happy Tree Friends, who can only see Mr. Pickles as a normal cucumber, perceive Lammy as the murderer . However, the viewer does not find out whether Mr. Pickles is just hiding from the other characters or whether Lammy, like Flippy, suffers from a mental illness that lets her kill the other characters and these murders with the help of the imaginary character “Mr. Pickles “tried to displace. But you can also see that Lammy tries in vain to stop Mr. Pickles from killing other Happy Tree Friends. She was the winner of the "Vote-or-Die" election, where she won against Truffles and thus joined the series as a new character. In her first appearances, Lammy survived unscathed, but she also died in later episodes.

music

For the song The Carpal Tunnel Of Love by Fall Out Boy , a music video in the style of the Happy Tree Friends was produced, in which, in addition to many characters from the series, the members of the band drawn in the same style appear. As usual in the series, all characters die a brutal death.

Web links

swell

  1. ^ Kenn Commandments Part 1
  2. ↑ Overview of the characters