Drafts/Pikmin & Friends: Nintendo's Lost Show from 2002

Pikmin & Friends is an animated family-comedy TV show that was made and aired on multiple channels in 2002, a year after the first Pikmin game was released. It is likely that the show originated on Nicktoons with Nintendo's permission, but others believe Nintendo had a TV channel that they used to air the show, mostly in North America, Japan and Europe. The show is about Olimar and the Pikmin getting into silly antics with random objects they find on PNF-404 while also helping Olimar get home to Hocotate. The show was based on the Pikmin franchise, a real-time strategy game in which the player, controlling Olimar, gets the help of plantlike creatures called Pikmin to get back home.
Created by Nintendo of America Inc., the same company that created the Pikmin game, it has gotten good critic and audience ratings from Rotten Tomatoes after its first airing on Nicktoons. But it was cancelled due to Nintendo wanting to focus on developing Pikmin 2 and deeming the show as a waste of time.
The show has been lost since 2007, and as of 2023, no known recordings, scripts, storyboards, plots or audio of the show exist and it is considered lost media nowadays. The only image of the show that was found is a placeholder for the title card. A forum dedicated to Pikmin, Pikmin Talk had many topics dedicated to the show. Many remember watching the show on Nicktoons, but haven't posted any recordings or audio anywhere. A post was made saying that a new clip had just dropped, but there was no video attached. The video was probably deleted since it can't be found anywhere, and it's unknown whether the clip was real or fake. The forum post and its replies weren't archived. Pikmin Talk has been closed since 2008, and the owner of the website made a Reddit post explaining why, but it was later deleted, either by the owner or Reddit moderation, but was later reposted.
The date that Pikmin & Friends was cancelled is unknown, but some believe that it didn't continue past 2005.
== The First Post ==
The text below was taken from a post on Pikmin Talk 2 years before its closure. The post was both the first to mention Pikmin & Friends and what started the hunt for the show.
December 12, 2003, 9:35 A.M.
Does anyone on this forum site remember Pikmin? That weird game about little plant creatures helping some humanoid named Oliver? I don't remember his name, I haven't played Pikmin in 2 years. Well, I recently found out that there was a planned TV show based on the Pikmin franchise meant for kids aged 11 and up, and this is what I found on the internet a week ago. The page was deleted after this post, and I found nothing of it on the Wayback Machine. It's ironic, considering how much content the Wayback Machine has archived and how far back some of it goes. There aren't any leaked stills of the show either, so if someone has some stills, can they post them here? I tried asking the owner of Pikmin Talk, but they refused to reply.
The original poster of the show didn't receive any stills because of its closure in 2008. Many people tried to find Pikmin Talk's owner themselves, but they couldn't find any trace of them on the internet since they never disclosed any contact information.
=== What Happened to Pikmin Talk's Owner? ===
Since Pikmin Talk's abrupt closure in 2008, people tried to search for any information on its owner, but when they got close, the owner went on Reddit in 2023 and told them to stop in this post below.
I know people want to know what happened to me, but stop it. I could easily report you to the FBI for cyberstalking and attempted doxing. So unless you want to be arrested, just stop it. I shut down Pikmin Talk because too many people keep asking about that goddamn Pikmin show! I kept having to tell you to stop bringing up that show. I'm doing fine, that's all you need to know. I won't tell you where I live. If you run into me on the street by coincidence, I'm more than happy to talk, but not about Pikmin Talk, alright? And stop trying to track me, that's a serious violation of privacy laws. I didn't ask to be tracked, and I'm sure you wouldn't want to be tracked either. But seriously, stop whining about Pikmin Talk closing. You're all acting like babies here. I know I said I might bring back Pikmin Talk, but with how immature you all were, I'm not bringing it back. I don't take orders from anyone. Act your age and leave me alone.
After Pikmin Talk's owner posted in 2023, people have since stopped trying to track and dox them for a while. But one persistent person decided to track them, against their wishes. When the owner found out about this, they reported the person to the FBI. A week later, the person stalking Pikmin Talk's owner was arrested.
== The Calls ==
Even though Oliver, Pikmin Talk's owner told users he didn't want to be contacted, one user decided to call his phone number to talk anyways.
Anonymous: Is this Oliver, the owner of Pikmin Talk?
Oliver: Ugh, yes, what do you want? I didn't want anyone contacting me!
Anonymous: I wanted to ask you some things regarding Pikmin Talk.
Oliver: You called me to ask about that dysfunctional cesspool of harassment? You're wasting my time here. I don't even want to talk about that site.
Anonymous: Wait! I've heard of the site, but have never been on it, so I'd like to ask you a few questions for research purposes.
Oliver: Are you one of those people who researches the 2000s era of the internet? (sighing) Fine, I'm listening.
Anonymous: When you made your post regarding Pikmin Talk's shutdown, why was your language insulting?
Oliver: Let me make this clear, I wasn't trying to be rude in any regard. But anyone would be mad if a bunch of people were acting immature over something stupid.
Anonymous: You didn't need to call them immature. You should have just calmly explained why you were closing the site.
Oliver: I know, but they were acting immaturely, so I was just being brutally honest.
Anonymous: Okay... Well, I have a few more questions, like what sort of harassment made you shut down Pikmin Talk and why you didn't want anyone contacting you.
Oliver: Well, I shut down Pikmin Talk not just because of harassment, but also because I was getting sick of Pikmin & Friends posts popping up in the feed. They always harassed me whenever I told them I don't know anything about Pikmin & Friends. They decided to act like little kids, but they were just embarrassing themselves. The userbase was very dysfunctional, so it had to end. Oh, before I hang up, I didn't want anyone contacting me because I wanted to be left alone. But if you ever want to talk with me, you know my number.
Anonymous: Okay, bye.
Oliver: Bye.
(Call ended)
=== Oliver's Health ===
After Oliver's talk with the anonymous former Pikmin Talk user, his mental health began improving as he talked more with them and finally got to relax and get away from Pikmin Talk's incredibly dysfunctional userbase. The same user also made a call to Nintendo to find out more about Pikmin & Friends further. When Nintendo was called, they claimed not to remember anything about Pikmin & Friends.
== After the Calls ==
After the anonymous user called Oliver, they decided to do some digging on their own and found Pikmin & Friends on the Wayback Machine archive of Nick Jr.'s website, scheduled as one of the shows to air tomorrow in 2002, despite Pikmin & Friends being meant for older children. This raised speculation that Pikmin & Friends was originally intended for young children before it was changed for older children. This speculation was proven to be true, as Pikmin & Friends used to have a series branching off from it that was made for younger children, but it was taken off the air due to the pilot episode not being well-received.
== Pikmin Talk ==
Pikmin Talk (formerly pikmin-talk.us) was a forum where you could talk about anything Pikmin-related with other people. Oliver developed it in 2001 for people to talk about anything Pikmin-related and look for tips on how to beat the Pikmin games. One of the posts on Pikmin Talk, titled "I'm looking for Pikmin & Friends", was one of the most popular discussions on the site, with many users asking if anyone had shots of the show or copies of it.
=== The Pikmin Talk Controversy ===
As Pikmin & Friends beame a more popular topic, the userbase became more dysfunctional and they began harassing each other apart over the topic. Whenever someone denied having any shots of the show, the users only accused them of being secretive. Oliver wasn't answering any questions about Pikmin Talk either, so the userbase also made him a target of their harassment, which they ultimately paid the price for. Because of their behavior, Pikmin Talk was shut down on January 1st, 2008.
April 7th, 2004, 12:32 PM
This is becoming a major problem. I keep seeing posts of Pikmin & Friends popping up faster than I can remove them. Stop posting about Pikmin Talk Your behavior is juvenile. You're tearing each other apart over this stupid show! I'm tired of putting up with your bullshit. What used to be a place to talk about Pikmin, is nothing more than hell. Pikmin Talk is now a husk of its former self. It will be closing in 2008, on New Year's Day. Until then, enjoy it while it lasts. Or don't. I'm done.
After Oliver made the post, he stayed offline until January 1st, 2008. When he came online, the Pikmin & Friends talk had died down drastically, but he followed through with his threat. Anyone who visited Pikmin Talk was met with a shutdown page with some art of the S.S. Dolphin flying into space with the Onions following alongside and text reading "Pikmin Talk has already taken off". Nowadays, visiting the URL takes you to a URL not found page. Internet Archive didn't archive Pikmin Talk or its pages as per Oliver's request.
== Continued Search ==
Because of the lack of screenshots that Pikmin & Friends had, many people took to file-sharing sites, desperately trying to find anything they could, like screenshots of the show's episodes, audio, storyboards and even the full episodes, but they were going on a wild goose chase. None of the sites people searched had any files directly related to the show. Because of the show's apparent obscurity on the surface web, people went to the deep web to search across the Tor Browser.
Category:Drafts