Sammy & Co

—the official ZAG website in 2016

***Sammy & Co*** (French: ***Sammy et Co***) is a CGI animated television series from the ZAG Toon brand. It is a co-production of Zagtoon, StudioCanal, Nexus Factory, and nWave Pictures.

The first season premiered on M6 on September 1, 2014. The second and final season premiered on October 20, 2016.

## Synopsis

*For an episode list, see List of Sammy & Co episodes.*

*A series filled with action and humor, following the story of young turtles, Ricky and Ella, and their friends, Annabel the Octopus and Pipo the Butterfly Fish. Within the many fun, exciting adventures, we learn that life underwater is quite similar to life on Earth and likewise, things rarely go as planned! Even if they live with the wise Sammy in the safe happy setting of a warm reef, our little turtles "just like little kids" won't be able to resist the appeal of the big blue ocean!*
## Main characters

*Main article: List of Sammy & Co characters*
### Ricky

**Ricky** (voiced by Barbara Weber-Scaff in the English dub) is a young leatherback sea turtle. He is an adventurous little sea turtle with a big dream of being a famous explorer, wanting to explore outside the reef despite knowing how dangerous it is. However, his impulsiveness often leads to him, his family, and his friends in danger. Whenever he realizes this, Ricky always tries his best to fix his mistakes to save everyone he loves. Ricky is the grandson of Ray and Rita, who are both best friends with Sammy and Shelly. He also has a secret crush on his best friend Ella.

### Ella

**Ella** (voiced by Kaycie Chase in the English dub) is a young female green sea turtle. She is Lulu's best student at the shell school. She is also Ricky's best friend, but unlike Ricky, she is a more sensible and pragmatic young turtle who prefers studying rather than going out on adventures. Ella is the granddaughter of Sammy and Shelly, who both serve as the de facto leaders of the reef village.

### Pipo

**Pipo** (voiced by Matthew Géczy in the English dub) is a young male yellow longnose butterfly. Though very cynical, grumpy, and a complainer, he is very loyal to his friends and he's always there to help them in need. Pipo lives with his father Arthur who is very blind, but caring towards his son. In the second season, Pipo becomes a stepbrother to Mya after his father gets into a relationship with another fish named Rose.

### Annabel

**Annabel** (voiced by Tiffany Hofstetter in the English dub) is a young female pink octopus. She is very naive, cheerful, and innocent about the world around her, unaware of the dangers outside the reef and she often gets herself into trouble without realizing it. Despite her naivety, she nonetheless deeply cares about her friends during their many adventures.

### Big Boss

**Big Boss** (voiced by Matthew Géczy in the English dub) is the main antagonist of the series. He is a tyrannical red seahorse who lives on the outskirts of the reef village along with his minions; two moray eels Marco and Philippe, and a jailfish named Jax. Big Boss is Sammy's arch-nemesis who wants to take over the reef village as revenge after the turtles freed everyone from the Tank after the events of *A Turtle's Tale 2: Sammy's Escape from Paradise*. He is determined to get his revenge and would usually come up with schemes that can overthrow Sammy as leader of the reef village. However, his schemes are constantly foiled, usually because of his minions' incompetence and/or they get outsmarted by Ricky and his friends.

### The Rockfish

**The Rockfish**, sometimes called **the Scorpfish**, are the secondary antagonists of the series. They are a trio of stonefish who are the bullies at the shell school as well as Big Boss's loyal followers.

The ringleader of the trio is **Glitz** (voiced by Barbara Weber-Scaff in the English dub), also known as **Strass** in the French version. She is a snobby and mean coral-pink stonefish with a fondness for shiny objects. She likes to cause trouble around the reef village with her fellow stonefish, especially towards her rival Ricky and his friends.

The second-in-command is **Crudd** (voiced by Matthew Géczy in the English dub), also known as **Crass** in the French version. He is a brutish brown stonefish who wants to be seen as the most fearsome fish in the village. He also has a secret crush on his leader Glitz.

The third member is **Babbles** (voiced by Matthew Géczy in the English dub), also known as **Bavass** in the French version. He is an orange stonefish who is more of a follower of both Glitz and Crudd. However, Babbles isn't the smartest fish in the village and he often gets himself and his friends in trouble whenever he unintentionally reveals their plans to their rivals. Even though he's a school bully, Babbles sometimes has a remorseful side towards his actions. He has a huge crush on Ella, despite she's one of the trio's rivals, and he gets easily jealous whenever she's paying attention to her best friend Ricky instead of him.

## Production

*Sammy & Co* was first announced to be in development as a television spin-off for the then-upcoming sequel of *A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventures* on June 11, 2011. The television series is going to be a co-production between nWave Pictures, StudioCanal, Nexus Factory, and Zagtoon, with a budget of 8 million euros ($11.5 million USD). According to the Animation World Network, the series "will follow Sammy the sea turtle's grandchildren's underwater adventures" and it will "follow the same eco-friendly theme as" the two feature films.

In September 2011, the working title for the television series was said to be "Bienvenue à Turtle Island". It roughly translated to "Welcome to Turtle Island" in English.

Following the release of *A Turtle's Tale 2: Sammy's Escape from Paradise*, production of the television series began either around late 2012 or early-to-mid 2013.

## International release

*Sammy & Co* first premiered in France on September 1, 2014, on M6. The series later aired on TiJi on February 28, 2015.

The English dub of the series premiered on December 25, 2015, on Netflix. It was released in five English-speaking countries, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.

## Related media

### Home release

On September 6, 2016, Momentum Pictures released the Region 1 DVD *Turtle Reef*, which features a selection of six episodes from the series' first season. Following this, *Turtle Paradise* was later released on June 27, 2017, which features another selection of six episodes from the first season. These are the only DVD releases for the series in the USA and Canada.

Both the first and second seasons are available on DVD, iTunes, and Amazon Prime in a few selected international countries.

The first half of the first season was made available on Netflix in English-speaking countries on December 25, 2015. The second half was later available on February 29, 2016. The entire first season was later removed from Netflix on March 1, 2023. However, the series is still available for streaming in France after it was available on March 1, 2019.

### Literature

*Sammy & Co* has its own book series in France that was published by Dragon D'or. It adapts selected episodes from both the first and second seasons of the TV series.

### Merchandise

In 2015, StudioCanal partnered with Gipsy to license official plush toys of Ricky, Ella, Pipo, and Annabel. The plushes were released in February 2016.

## Trivia

* Despite Zagtoon's involvement with the production of *Sammy & Co*, ZAG doesn't own the full rights to the series. Instead, it is StudioCanal since the latter studio also produced its prequel films, thus owning the full rights to the *A Turtle's Tale* franchise.
* This is the first ZAG-produced series to be a spin-off of a feature film. In this case: it's a spin-off/sequel to *A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventures* and *A Turtle's Tale 2: Sammy's Escape from Paradise*, both films that ZAG didn't have any involvement in.
* The series premiered exactly one year before *Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir* made its worldwide premiere in South Korea in 2015.
	+ Coincidentally, SAMG Animation happened to be animated both *Sammy & Co* and selected episodes of *Miraculous Ladybug*.
* This is the first ZAG-produced televsion series to be animated in CGI instead of 2D like *Rosie* and *Kobushi*.
	+ The series was originally going to be animated in 2D instead of CGI.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.animationmagazine.net/tv/zodiak-kids-snaps-up-sammy-co-rights-ahead-of-miptv/
2. ↑ https://playtv.fr/programmes-tv/m6/01-09-2014/
3. ↑ https://playtv.fr/programmes-tv/m6/20-10-2016/
4. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20160917004807/http://www.zag-inc.com/brands/sammy
5. ↑ https://variety.com/2011/digital/news/zag-joins-sammy-s-adventure-series-1118038386/
6. ↑ https://www.awn.com/news/sammys-adventure-coming-tv
7. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20190323213850/http://animation-france.fr/newsletter/43/
8. ↑ https://playtv.fr/programmes-tv/tiji/28-02-2015/
9. ↑ https://www.amazon.com/Sammy-Co-Turtle-voice-talent/dp/B01JKOL65O
10. ↑ https://www.amazon.com/Sammy-Co-Paradise-Nicolas-Neve/dp/B071YCP21X
11. ↑ https://instantwatcher.com/title/80042306
12. ↑ https://usa.newonnetflix.info/info/80042177
13. ↑ https://fr.flixable.com/title/80042177/
14. ↑ https://twitter.com/zaganimation/status/695421355668295680
15. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20121106101506/http://univergroup.com/

## External links

* Official website (Archive)
* *Sammy & Co* on the Sammy Wiki

**Possibly cancelled/Status unknown:** **Arthur and the Book of Life** • **Balloons** • **Basile and Melba** • **Job Academy** • **Kosmic Dancer** • **Legendary Books** • **Powearth** • **Sweet Power** • **Touftouf & Kenotte** • **Transylmaniac**

**Films**: ***A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventures*** • ***A Turtle's Tale 2: Sammy's Escape from Paradise***