Doodle Toons

***Doodle Toons*** is an Irish web cartoon/comic created by Jack C. The comics and the cartoon were directed, produced, and animated primarily in the bedroom of *Clever Clover Productions.*

The pilot, "*Rabbit for Dinner*", premiered on YouTube on November 16, 2014, more than half a year later, on August 21, 2015, the series officially premiered with "*Clock Sucker*".

Later, the YouTube channel *Clever Clover Productions* was created in 2016 as the new home of the series. The original uploads on the *Cartoonlover98 YouTube channel* were removed and put on the new channel.

The final fully finished episode of *Doodle Toons*, "*Fast Food Follies*", premiered on October 26, 2017. The series was originally going to continue with new episodes in 2018, however, on June 18, 2018, the animatic for "*Monkey Business*" was released along with the announcement of the series' cancellation.

Despite Jack claiming the series would remain available on the *Clever Clover Productions* YouTube channel, as of January 2019, the entire series was removed from public view due to Jack personally not liking them anymore. However, the pilot episode through "*The Way the Cruncher Crumbles*" are still available on the official Vimeo page and several users have reuploaded the series on YouTube.

Despite the animated series ending, the show still lives on through the comics posted to Twitter and Deviantart.

## Plot

The series revolves around the life of Bellybutton, an anthropomorphic rabbit who lives in a small cottage (created from a now-rotting banana), in a small forest. Accompanied by his girlfriend, and sweetheart, Jellybean, he frequently finds himself involved in various shenanigans around the woodlands, during which he interacts with various friends and enemies, and the occasional un-named citizens.

## Development

### Early concept

Evidence of early concepts from *Doodle Toons* can be found within the pilot episode of the show as well as some deleted scenes from the official series. Overall, these changes aren't too incredibly vast, only touching on minor detail changes that made the series what is has become.

#### Changes to episodes/layouts

* The pilot episode begins not with the main title intro, but simply with a still image reading "Cartoonlover98's Bellybutton The Rabbit" and unveiling concept logo art.
* After the intro, the pilot cuts right to the title card of the episode, which oddly enough does not reveal any title credits; only the episode's name is shown.
* The pilot episode includes a title reading "CartoonLover98" on the bottom-right of the screen for the majority of the episode.
* Instead of end credits, the pilot episode simply pans out and displays a simple "The End" slide featuring Bellybutton and Jellybean with a caption reading "A Bellybutton Cartoon", and "Made in My Bedroom, Ireland: 2014."
* The pilot episode features no dialogue, with the exception of archival recordings of Tom's screams from the Hanna-Barbara series, "Tom and Jerry," and crying sounds from an unknown source; the auditions for voice acting for the series had not yet taken place.

### Character designs

On September 6, 2017, the cast of Doodle Toons were given a major redesign, retiring the old versions of the characters,

The pilot episode through The Way the Cruncher Crumbles are still available on the show’s Vimeo page, but the final episode's animatic is presumably lost.

## Production

The series aired only one season, which aired from 2015-2017. Season 2 was planned, but was ultimately cancelled.

Since the show is a web-series produced by few people, there were long gaps inbetween episodes due to long production time. One episode was released in 2015, three in 2016 *(one of which was an April Fools Joke)*, and two in 2017.

In June of 2018, Jack C. announced via a Youtube video that production would be ending on the Doodle Toons franchise (at least, in cartoon form.) The reason for the sudden cancellation was, according to Jack, his college work's need for attention, as well as his declining interest in animation. The comics, which were being posted regularly during the show's run, were slated to continue.

Season 2 was notable for being the first season to feature a MAJOR re-tool of the character designs and general style of the show, before being scrapped.

## Animation of *Doodle Toons*

The early episodes were roughly sketched by hand, and were then transferred into *Colors 3D* to be animated, refined, layered, and shaded. The finished file was then sent to *Sony Vegas: Pro* to add voices, sound effects, music, and practical effects. The animations and overall designs of the characters have become increasingly detailed, and significantly more fluid over time. Additionally, characters' eyes and expressions have become increasingly exaggerated and cartoon-like as the series has progressed, when compared to the initial pilot. The backgrounds consist of standard painted backdrops of generic locations, though the backgrounds will take on different feels based on character moods and situations when needed. As the animation process is done by a single person (Jack. C), the episodes are released inconsistently, depending on how long or detailed an individual episode may become.

The final completed episode, Fast Food Follies, was storyboarded by hand, and was uploaded to Toon Boom Harmony to be animated and edited.

The planned and storyboarded first episode of Season 2, Monkey Business was abandoned.

Despite the show only lasting one season, it was a success.

## Voice Actors

* **Jack C.** *(Formerly cartoonlover98)* as Bellybutton, Pudgy the Elephant, Huntin' Bucky, Washy, Worm, Frank, Sid, and various other voices.
* **The-Ginger-Sky** as Jellybean, Goldie, Soo, Violet, Inkblot, and Gingerbread.
* **Thomasfan101** as Cruncher, Additional Voices.
* **Kryssieness** as Pip.
* **Lemurboy123** **(Jacob Lenard)** as Ringo, Additional Voices
* **PIEGUYRULZ** as Game Show Host and TV Announcer.
* **Lotusbandicoot** **(Owen Fishback)** as Crowd Member, Additional Voices, Decoy Cruncher.
* **itoruna** as Crumbles, Additional Voices
* **Ian Asaph** as Sgt. Pigskin

## Trivia

* The series was originally going to be a cartoon called Bellybutton's Stupendous Escapade, and would have featured Bellybutton (with a sword for some reason) saving Jellybean from a strange purple ghost. Why it was cancelled is unknown, but it likely didn't have the tone Jack was going for.

* Bellybutton had originally made a small appearance on cartoonlover98's Q + A videos before officially debuting on the series.
* The series, as well as animation in general, had caused Jack C. to resign from what was his current line of work, Youtube Poops.
* Voice auditions were held online, as many of the cast members are located at various parts of the world.
* This series to be produced in widescreen have fullscreen (Not Fast Food Follies)
* Depending on the actor's recording microphone, there sometimes can be a rather large contrast between characters' audio quality.
* The voice acting, while initially sounding forced, has seemed to become more natural overtime. Take Bellybutton's dialogue from "Clock Sucker." for example, and compare it to that of "What's in a Name?".
* The music, as well as the sound effects, are not created by Jack C., but instead are taken from various soundboards and music clips from popular cartoons, mostly from the 1940s-1960s.
* The expressions of the characters and the overall feel of the cartoon bears a striking resemblance to theatrical Warner Brothers cartoons, right down to the intro even including the Hawaiian-like twang when the logo appears.
* The character designs for Season 2 were initially revealed on June 7th, 2017, four months before the last Season 1 episode premiered.
* On September 6th, 2017, it was revealed that the majority of the secondary Doodle Toons characters were going to be thrown out. This included Soo, Inkblot, the Bear, Crumbles, Clarabelle, and Violet.
* Jack C. once came up with a concept for an animated series centered around Ringo and Manny. Nothing ever came out of it, and all that was produced was a single piece of concept art.
* The show's sudden cancellation in June of 2018 was apparently caused by a multitude of reasons. These being the fact that Jack C. needed to pay more attention to college work, the fact that he isn't satisfied with the cartoons thus far, and that his interest in animation had declined in general. An animatic for the first episode of Season 2 , Monkey Business, was completed before being shut down.

## References

1. ↑ https://vimeo.com/user64035668
2. ↑ concept art