Happy Tree Friends

Happy Tree Friends (Commonly abbreviated to HTF) is an adult animated black comedy flash cartoon series created by Aubrey Ankrum, Rhode Montijo, and Kenn Navarro, and developed by Montijo, Navarro, and Jeremy Viet Duong for Mondo Media. The series ran from 1998 to 2016 with more than five seasons and more than 133 episodes, as the series is one of the most common adult animated web series ever.
Disguised as a children's show, Happy Tree Friends follows the ancient adventures of 22 main characters who are anthropomorphic creatures of the forest. The series features the characters living out their wonderfully fun days until a sudden, accidentally, or deliberately brutal event leads the characters to be subjected to violence, resulting in the intense, powerful, dizzying, and gruesome deaths of the characters, regardless of the scary situations that happen and the accidents that increase trouble from these actions.
Happy Tree Friends received widespread acclaim, by receiving positive reviews from some critics and mixed to negative reviews from usual critic, although it received praise from audiences alike, praising for bloody and violent efforts, gruesome uses, black comedy, humor, and music. “Happy Tree Friends” was a more successful single and popular web series that was even popular though it gathered over 15 million hits.
Happy Tree Friends has been divided into TV series, movies, video games, comics, and more, as well as spin-offs including Ka-Pow!, even the standard modeling music community. Along with The Backyardigans megafranchise, the Flowgo Babies franchise, the Puyo Puyo video game series/media franchise and the critically-acclaimed Kogama series, Happy Tree Friends was one of the major unofficial franchises of the Disneyverse and was an example of Disney's more mature style of television and web shows.
==Overview==
As is indicated on the official site, the show is "not recommended for small children". Notwithstanding the cute appearance of its characters, the show is extremely violent, with almost every episode featuring blood, gore, and violent deaths, to the point of being taken off the air in Russia. While the violence of these deaths is comparable to that of The Itchy & Scratchy Show (the short cartoon featured on The Simpsons), Kenny McCormick from South Park, Knights-A-Lot: It's a Wonderful World!, the night soldiers from The Magic Crown and the original Japanese Popee the Performer series (later acquired by Cartoonverse Worldwide in 2001 and later be expanded as a American computer-animated television series produced by Cartoonverse Television), the portrayal of death in Happy Tree Friends is more graphic and anatomically correct, depicting bloodshed and dismemberment in more vivid, exaggerated detail. The show is nearly free of dialogue; however, when the characters do speak, their words are severely garbled. Though it is obvious what each character's reaction is, their words can barely be understood. Exceptions to this are Pop, Lumpy, and Disco Bear; they have garbled speech as well, but can actually be understood on most occasions. According to the website, the idea for Happy Tree Friends was conceived by Rhode Montijo when he drew a yellow rabbit, slightly resembling the character Cuddles, on a piece of paper and wrote "Resistance Is Futile" underneath it.
==History==
===Beginning===
While working on Mondo Mini Shows, Rhode Montijo drew on a little piece of scrap paper, a character who would later become Shifty. He then drew a yellow rabbit that bore some resemblance to Cuddles, on a piece of paper and wrote "Resistance Is Futile" underneath it. The drawing (of Cuddles) made several employees laugh. In 1998 Mondo gave Aubrey Ankrum, 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 (earlier versions of Cuddles, Giggles, and Toothy) with a banjo. From there Mondo gave them their own internet series, which they first named it Star Wars, only to be changed to Happy Tree Friends to avoid confusion with the Lucasfilm franchise of the same name. They got new writers and animators to work on the show.
===Success===
Shortly after its original debut in 1998, Happy Tree Friends became an unexpected success, getting over 15 million hits each month, and being shown in film festivals. In some countries, the episodes were shown on television, and have aired in over 114 countries worldwide. They could be seen on MTV and Comedy Central channels in Europe and Latin America, the Czech Music TV Óčko, the Russian 2x2 channel (until it was taken off the air due to controversy), the Canadian television channel Razer (plus BiteTV, CTV Comedy Channel, Omni Television and G4), the American television channel G4, the Japanese OsakaTV television station, and on the Australian Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) network. 
On June 10, 2005, the shorts began showing during G4's "Attack of the Show!" A series, Happy Tree Friends and Friends, then began to air on August 29, 2005, as part of the late night the channel's Midnight Spank block. The series also features Pablo's Deadly Secret, Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, Retarded Animal Babies and Angry Kid. The series was then reformed into its own show, rather than as a part of a compilation as before. Happy Tree Friends has also gained a collection of Audibles and an "IMVironment" for Yahoo!'s instant messenger. It is featured on many websites on which flash cartoons can be watched, such as Newgrounds, YouTube, Atom Films, and the official Happy Tree Friends website. 
During select 2007 Ozzfests, some Happy Tree Friends episodes were even shown on the big screen, including ones at Buena Vista Theatres. Encouraged by the show's success, its creators have released multiple DVDs containing the episodes shown on the website and in the TV Series (see below) and others that have not been released. Happy Tree Friends is currently one of the most downloaded iTunes podcasts and over 1,000 fan-made videos have appeared on YouTube.
Happy Tree Friends episodes have begun airing on American television again as of April 2019, as part of The Mondo Animation Hour series on the El Rey Network.
===TV Series===
Happy Tree Friends gained its own TV show in 2005, and it was first shown at Comic-Con with some of the segments being shown on the website a few weeks later. 
The Happy Tree Friends TV series premiered on May 6, 2005 at midnight (Eastern Time) on the original incarnation of the G4 network. Each half hour episode of the TV series contains three 7-minute segments, with 39 segments having aired across 13 full episodes. Reruns would later air on MTV in 2007, followed by Adult Swim and Penguin Network starting in 2008 onwards, where it continues to air on Adult Swim until 2012 and Penguin Network until 2011. The series also airs on the Canadian MTV channel, as well as for Razer and CityTV, though it was aired simultaneously on the Canadian Adult Swim channel, as well as BiteTV, CTV Comedy Channel and Penguin Network. The Happy Tree Friends TV series have been aired mainly on the Canadian Penguin Network channel (as part of its "It's a Comedy" block), which is owned by Corus Entertainment under a licensing agreement with Splashinis Worldwide Studios.
The show also aired in over 104 countries worldwide outside the United States and Canada, most notably Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Southeast Asia, Spain, and the United Kingdom, including Latin America; MTV, Penguin Network and Comedy Central channels worldwide including Latin America (excluding on Penguin Network, due to the programming block co-produced by Televisa) and Europe (including Germany); MTV, Penguin Network and Animax (now Sony Max) in South Africa; Polsat, MTV and Penguin Network in Poland; MTV and Penguin Network in Spain; Kanal 5 in Sweden; MTV, Comedy Central, Penguin Network and FX in Southeast Asia; Bip in Israel; HBO Comedy, MTV and Paramount Comedy 1 (now Comedy Central) in the UK; and MTV and Penguin Network in the Middle East and North Africa. 
The show has been syndicated in Japan, and it was airing on MTV PLex. The series is formerly aired on MTV Japan and has been presumably aired on the Japanese Penguin Network channel as well as on Fuji TV. Japanese airings were pronounced starting on October 1, 2009 (following the original closure of the Nickelodeon), where the series have aired simultaneously on both Penguin Network, MTV (even MTV Plex) and FujiTV. 
The series was also available on Netflix until 2018 and has been available on Crunchyroll since 2015. In 2022, The Onward Company announced that the Happy Tree Friends TV series would return to air on TBS and Adult Swim, in a attempt to mark a agreement to create the new Happy Tree Friends legacy involvements. KC Global Media Asia acquired the second rerun distribution rights to the series in Asian countries, including Japan, marking the series' return to Animax, after the original reruns happened in South Africa.
The series was rated TV-14 on G4 in the US for "intense violence", while on Netflix, it was rated TV-MA. Crunchyroll rates it the same. TV Series was banned in Russia for being too violent and gory "for the kids show".
==Episodes==
Season	Season 	Episodes	Originally aired 	Originally aired
Season	Season 	Episodes	First aired 	Last aired
 	1 	27 	June 25, 1998 	September 4, 1999
 	2 	27 	September 11, 1999	October 11, 2004
 	3 	39 	May 6, 2005 	April 7, 2006
 	4 	25 	November 2, 2007 	March 29, 2013
 	5 	9 	June 14, 2013 	March 6, 2014
 	6 	5 	December 7, 2016 	December 22, 2016
 	Irregular Episodes	17 	1998 	2013
 	Ka-Pow! 	3 	2008 	2011
 	HTF Break 	13 	2008 	2012
 	Smoochies 	15 	2003 	2008
 	Love Bites 	15 	2009 	2012
 	Kringles 	15 	2004 	2004
==Show Characteristics==
All of the show's main characters are anthropomorphic woodland creatures. Many of them show two front large buckteeth when they smile. All of the Happy Tree Friends, with the exceptions of Lumpy, Mr. Pickels, and Sniffles, have the same pink Care Bear or Care Bear Cousin heart-shaped noses. In early episodes, most characters played the roles of children doing childish games. However, as the series progressed the age concept was dropped, and now characters act variously like children, teenagers and adults in different episodes. The only characters who are unaffected by this concept are Lumpy, Handy, Disco Bear, The Mole, Cro-Marmot, Lifty, Shifty, Pop, Cub, Flippy, and Splendid, who always act like adults (except for Cub, who is always a child) respectively. At the beginning of each episode, the characters are typically found in everyday situations. However, these situations always escalate into violence and the inevitable deaths of those involved and/or innocent bystanders, mostly because of very unfortunate, surprising accidents with otherwise harmless instruments. The show's characters sometimes appear not to notice other character's deaths/injuries, despite clear indications (such as blood coming out of the latter's mouths), or they seem to quickly overcome their fellows' deaths. The only regular episodes where none of the characters died were Nuttin' but the Tooth, Out on a Limb, Dream Job, and House Warming. Other than those, every episode has had at least one death. Kenn Navarro has stated that, despite all of deaths in the show, no character is going to be killed directly by a gun as that would be "too easy".https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2afqop/comment/ciun4sx/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 The continuity of the series does not seem to be affected by the frequent deaths of the characters, as they always appear alive and well in episodes subsequent to those in which they were killed.
Each episode starts with introduction credits resembling a children's book, which portray the show's logo, the episode's name, which is usually a pun, and cast. Internet episodes have a typical duration of less than three minutes. Usually only a few of the characters are used in a single episode, but occasionally larger episodes have been released where most of the characters appear. TV episodes last about half an hour, having three segments of about seven minutes. Each episode ends with a moral that has some (or sometimes not) connection to the story.
Although most of the characters are mammals, there are few that are not. Those characters are Sneaky, Mr. Pickels, The Ants, Man-O-War, Webster, and Tick-Talk. This leaves the possibility that more non mammals characters will be featured in future episodes.﻿
==Films==
Happy Tree Friends was later introduced as a original theatrical film series with Happy Tree Friends: The Movie, released by Warner Bros. Pictures on June 23, 2006. Co-produced by Mondo Media and Village Roadshow Pictures, the film series later grew with three sequels: Happy Tree Friends 2: The Return of Cheesy (released July 4 2008), Happy Tree Friends 3: Gone for Nutty (released June 10, 2011) and Happy Tree Friends: The Last Bowl (released June 10, 2011). August 2012). The film series continued with the spin-offs Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm (released March 20, 2009) and Happy Tree Friends: Blood Fest (released May 21, 2010).
Fatkat provided animation for the first film, while Hayo Pictures will provide animation for the second, third, and fourth films. Rough Draft Korea provided animation for False Alarm, while Bardel Entertainment provided animation for Blood Fest.
Happy Tree Friends: The Movie and Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm received generally positive reviews from critics, while Happy Tree Friends 2: The Return of Cheesy and Happy Tree Friends: Blood Fest received mixed reviews, with Happy Tree Friends 3: Gone for Nutty and Happy Tree Friends: The Last Bowl receiving mostly negative reviews. Each film was a hit, grossing over $214.2 million domestically and $356.8 million internationally, for a total of $571.5 million worldwide. The Happy Tree Friends film series is also the highest-grossing film series in history.
The film series will be rebooted as 2023 animated film produced by Mondo Media and co-produced by redknot and Alibaba Pictures, and will be released both in theaters and streaming on Netflix for simultaneous release on November 24, 2023.
==Fall Out Boy Music Video==
Fall Out Boy's music video for "The Carpal Tunnel of Love", which has been released in 2007, is an episode of Happy Tree Friends. Fall Out Boy is featured in the music video, appearing as cartoon bears, along with Cuddles, Giggles, Nutty, Toothy and the Mole. Lumpy causes the death of all the characters in the video, including himself. All of them die the same type of graphic, bloody deaths that are featured in the TV show.
==Characters==
There are 22 main characters (formerly 20 until 2010 when Lammy and Mr. Pickels were added to the show) in the Happy Tree Friends series, all of which have unique personalities and appearances, but there have been many 'minor' characters that have appeared on the show, some appearing many times and some have only appeared once.
==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 and for the PC. Before the game was released, writer Ken Pontac posted a blog on the Happy Tree Friends website telling fans about the adventures of the staff making the game.
==Controversies==
Many parents were concerned about the graphic content of Happy Tree Friends. One parent even complained about the show in a letter to the Washington Post when she saw her 6-year old son watching the show. The warning "(CV CARTOON VIOLENCE Not recommended for small children or big babies)" is displayed in two places on the home page of the Happy Tree Friends website in very small type in the bottom left hand corner, and in larger, but subdued type on the right hand side under the bulletin board section. Neither the "About the Show" nor the FAQ page indicates that the show is not appropriate for young children. However, the episodes themselves contain the warning in large font before the cartoon begins. In February 2008 Russian Media Culture Protection Department (Rossvyazohrankultura, a regulatory body for TV in Russia) issued warnings about Happy Tree Friends and The Adventures of Big Jeff, claiming that the shows "promote violence and brutality, harm the psychic health and moral development of children, attack the social morality; all of this being a violation of license agreement". The department warned the 2x2 TV Channel, which broadcasts the show, to remove it from air to avoid legal issues. The channel appealed to the evaluation ordered to Versia company (versia.org), which denied the accusations.
==Music and sound-effects==
*Sound Engineer Jim Lively: The music featured before, after, and during each and every episode of Happy Tree Friends is composed by Jim Lively, the sound engineer for Happy Tree Friends. Lively has been in the sound business since the age of 16, and plans to continue his career of "making sounds for a living," as described by Jim Lively himself. Jim Lively primarily works in sound design and dialog editing, although he continues to mix music.
*Foley Artist Francis Carr" Foley artist Francis Carr joined the team later on in development. Usually working with sound engineer Jim Lively, he has been able to expand his career. Francis Carr is also noted for being the voice of the character Russell.
==Crew==
Name 	Position 	Years
Kenn Navarro 	Director, Animation Director, Writer 	1998 - 2016
Rhode Montijo 	Director, Art Director, Writer 	1998 - 2004
Aubrey Ankrum 	Director, Writer, Storyboard artist 	1998 - 2006
Warren Graff 	Story Editor, Writer 	1998 - 2016
Ken Pontac 	Story Editor, Writer 	2004 - 2016
Dana Belben 	Story Editor 	1998 - 2003
Jeff Biancalana 	Writer, Animator, Storyboard artist 	2001 - 2005
David Winn 	Writer, Animator 	2003 - 2016
Alan Lau 	Animator, Writer, Director, Storyboard artist	2001 - 2016
Jason Sadler 	Animator, Writer, Director 	2001 - 2016
Mark Fiorenza 	Writer 	2000 - 2003
Brad Rau 	Animator, Storyboard artist 	2001 - 2016
Roque Ballesteros 	Writer, Animator, Director, Storyboard artist	2001 - 2016
Paul Allan 	Writer, Animator, Director 	2000 - 2016
Nica Lorber 	Animator 	1998 - 2016
Michael "Lippy" Lipman	Storyboard artist, Animator, Director, Writer	1998 - 2016
Peter Herrmann 	Storyboard artist 	1998 - 2016
Jim Lively 	Sound Designer, Music 	2000 - 2016
Francis Carr 	Foley artist 	2004 - 2016
LJerome Rossen 	Music Composer 	2005 - 2016
John Evershed 	Executive Producer 	2000 - 2016
Liz Stuart 	Producer 	1998 - 2016
==Awards==
Show 	Year	Category 	Episode
Buena Vista Awards 	2002	Best Adult Animated Series 	
Annecy International Animated Film Festival	2003	Best Animated Short Film Made for the Internet	Eye Candy
Annecy International Animated Film Festival	2007	Best Television Series for Adults 	From Hero to Eternity
Ottawa International Animation Festival 	2004	Best Animated Short Film Made for the Internet	Out on a Limb
Ottawa International Animation Festival 	2005	Best Animated Short Film Made for the Internet	Mole in the City
Ottawa International Animation Festival 	2007	Best Television Series for Adults 	"Autopsy Turvy (Double Whammy, Part 2)"
==Gallery==
File:Happy Tree Friends Complete Disaster.jpeg|The wallpaper of the Complete Disaster set.
File:Happy Tree Friends Chaos.jpeg|The chaos street scene with Happy Tree Friends characters.
File:Happy Tree Friends Wallpaper (-5).jpeg|A Happy Tree Friends wallpaper featuring Cuddles.
File:Happy Tree Friends Wallpaper (-4).jpeg|A Happy Tree Friends wallpaper featuring Nutty.
File:Happy Tree Friends Wallpaper (-3).jpeg|A Happy Tree Friends wallpaper featuring Giggles.
File:The Happy Tree Friends' Drawing.jpeg|The Happy Tree Friends drawing set featuring the main cast.
File:The Happy Tree Friends Wallpaper with Main Characters.jpeg|The wallpaper featuring the main cast.
File:The Happy Tree Friends' Own Green Icon with Giggles.jpeg|The icon featuring Giggles.
File:Another Icon of Happy Tree Friends.png|Another icon featuring some characters.
File:The Epic Happy Tree Friends Poster.jpeg|The epic Happy Tree Friends poster including Buddhist Monkey, The Ants and Whistle.
File:The Happy Tree Friends Poster with the slogan.jpeg|The poster featuring a slogan.
File:The Happy Tree Friends' Picture.jpeg|The picture set featuring Cuddles, Giggles, Lumpy, Flaky and Nutty.
==Trivia==
*Kenn Navarro said on a tweet the the cartoon Peanuts served as some inspiration for the show.
**Warren Graff has also stated in a Reddit AMAhttps://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2afqop/were_kenn_navarro_and_warren_graff_we_created/ciumhfo/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 that Looney Tunes and inoffensive saccharine 80s cartoons (i.e.Care Bears and The Smurfs) were major inspirations for the show.
**As a fun fact, it is also the one item that Flaky is highly allergic to, as is shown in Party Animal.
*Aside from Happy Tree Friends, Kenn Navarro and Warren Graff created a series for their channel, Zwak, known as D_Void, which also involves animals dying in humorous ways. Only two episodes of it have been created, and it is most likely discontinued.
*An advertisement for the show was podcast on MTV, where an advertisement for Alejo and Valentina was also being presented. It exclusively aired in foreign countries. The advertisement can be found here.
*Happy Tree Friends is one of the most viewed animated web series in the world, with over a billion views and counting.https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130624005458/en/Cinedigm-and-Mondo-Media-Announce-Strategic-Distribution-Relationshiphttps://www.aes.org/events/135/presenters/?ID=1852
==External links==
*Official Happy Tree Friends Website
*Mondo Minishows Official Site
==References==
Category:1998 Debuts
Category:2016 Endings
Category:Adult animated web series
Category:Adult animated series about animals
Category:Animated shows with blood and gore
Category:Animated shows with graphic violence
Category:Mondo Media shows
Category:G4 shows
Category:YouTube shows
Category:The Onward Company franchises