Cartoon
Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart
The story
Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart is an American animated television series created by Parker Simmons for Cartoon Network. It was co-produced between Cartoon Network Studios and Titmouse, Inc. The series follows the adventures of the titular character, Mao Mao, along with Badgerclops and Adorabat as they protect the citizens of Pure Heart Valley from the forces of evil, after accidentally being broken by Mao Mao and Badgerclops.
The series is based on the short, which was produced for the annual Titmouse Inc. "5-Second Day" event in 2014. Following positive feedback from the audience and interest from Chris Prynoski, a 7-minute pilot was developed for the pitch from the Cartoon Network in 2017, for a full series. It was greenlit for the 95-week deadline for the Television release schedule. The show's animation was done in Adobe Animate and After Effects, produced by Titmouse, Inc. with the support from animation studio Inspidea. Its music was done by Mint Potion Studios, led by Jake Kaufman.
Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart was announced on May 20, 2019 alongside Tig n' Seek, and later debuted on July 1, 2019. The first 30 episodes were released on HBO Max in September 1, 2020, with the final 10 episodes on January 1, 2021. It was received positively by critics, getting praise for its narrative, storytelling, action, and character dynamics. It received five nominations, one of which was won, for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program by Parker Simmons for his voice acting performance. A second season was confirmed to be in production during the San Diego Comic-Con at Home event on July 23, 2020. In August 2022, the show was removed from HBO Max, as a result of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, along with all references to the show from Cartoon Network's official websites, YouTube channels, and Twitter feeds.
Premise
Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart centers on the title character, Mao Mao, a daring cat who has high intentions for action and adventure. During one of his adventures, he gets stuck in a cute and cuddly town called Pure Heart Valley with his co-hero Badgerclops, a cyborg-armed badger, and meets Adorabat, a cute little bat. Together, the three go on adventures to protect the citizens of Pure Heart Valley from the forces of evil.
Main characters
Mao Mao (voiced by Parker Simmons) a righteous yet uptight cat who gets stuck in Pure Heart Valley, where he spends time helping the citizens while also finding a way to fix the Ruby Pure Heart, which he inadvertently broke.
Colleen Clinkenbeard voices a young Mao Mao.
Badgerclops (voiced by Griffith Kimmins) a sassy cyborg badger with a robotic arm and an eyepatch, and Mao Mao's co-hero and partner.
Adorabat (voiced by Lika Leong) a cute, blue bat, with a yellow heart symbol and peg leg in place of her right leg.
Sky Pirates
Orangusnake (voiced by Christopher McCulloch) an orangutan-snake hybrid pirate captain who wants to steal the Ruby Pure Heart to take over the world.
Boss Hosstrich (voiced by Christopher McCulloch) a gentleman cybernetic ostrich pirate, that can shoot eggs from a cannon on his chest.
Ramaraffe (voiced by Debra Wilson) a cybernetic giraffe pirate who can stretch her neck.
Ratarang (voiced by Parker Simmons) a small rat pirate who can turn into a boomerang.
Steel Wing (voiced by Tommy Blacha) a wyvern with metallic wings.
Beef Master is a large water buffalo with a necklace made of bones.
Thunder Fist is a gorilla who can produce electricity from his hands.
Thicket Thieves
Tiny Toad (voiced by Mark Sheppard) a cyborg frog and the leader of the Thicket Thieves.
Bullmozer (voiced by Parker Simmons) a mole with cybernetic arms and glasses.
Ratracer (voiced by Lisa O'Hare) a female rat with a wheel in place of legs.
Others
Rufus (voiced by Julian Barratt) a sly and cunning fox who swindles the Sweetypies of Pure Heart Valley.
Reggie (voiced by Rich Fulcher) a raccoon and Rufus' sidekick.
Pure Heart Valley Residents
King Snugglemagne (voiced by Parker Simmons) a foppish lion king of Pure Heart Valley.
Scoops (voiced by Debra Wilson) a small donkey who runs the news in Pure Heart Valley.
Camille (voiced by Debra Wilson) a chameleon and royal magic-user in Pure Heart Valley.
Honey is a flying squirrel and Camille's silent apprentice.
Chef Rhett (voiced by Tommy Blacha) a royal chef of Pure Heart Valley.
Pinky (voiced by Griffith Kimmins) a small pink rhinoceros who is considered disturbing by the residents of Pure Heart Valley.
Ketchup (voiced by Debra Wilson) a pink fluffy gopher with strange interests.
Kevin (voiced by Griffith Kimmins) a small blue porcupine with no fingers. He is afraid of everything.
Chubbum (voiced by Tommy Blacha) is a friendly frog. His father sounds exactly like Mao Mao.
Lucky (voiced by Tommy Blacha) a green hamster with glasses.
Gary (voiced by Tommy Blacha) a crocodile who works as a cameraman.
Cluckins (voiced by Christopher McCulloch) a chicken. Despite his appearance, he is 30 years old.
Slim Pigguns (voiced by Parker Simmons) a yellow pig who works as a Pizza delivery man, who drives a monster truck.
Chester Nutz (voiced by Griffith Kimmins) a tall brown porcupine. He is Kevin's older brother.
Mail Mole (voiced by Chris Prynoski) a mole who is eager to get jobs done.
Ol' Blue (voiced by Tommy Blacha) a blue dog who is a citizen of Pure Heart Valley. He is also a therapist and not easily impressed.
Marion (voiced by Debra Wilson) a horse in Pure Heart Valley who is always working out.
Benny (voiced by Christopher McCulloch) a yellow dog who is a citizen of Pure Heart Valley and Penny's husband.
Penny (voiced by Lika Leong) a pink dog who is a citizen of Pure Heart Valley and Benny's wife.
Farmer Bun (voiced by Parker Simmons) a pink rabbit who works at a farm.
Muffins (voiced by Debra Wilson) a mouse in Pure Heart Valley who bakes muffins.
Clark Lockjaw (voiced by Lika Leong) a small blue seal who is a news reporter in Pure Heart Valley.
Silly Billy (voiced by Tommy Blacha) a violet elephant who is a news anchor in Pure Heart Valley.
Teacher (voiced by Andy Daly) a teacher at Adorabat's school in Pure Heart Valley.
Mao Mao's family
Shin Mao (voiced by Clancy Brown) a Mao Mao's father, has a strained relationship with him. He gifted Mao Mao his golden sword while giving his sisters more impressive weapons. It is revealed that he is small like Mao Mao and ultimately learns to be more appreciative of his son.
Brunhilde, Mao a large knight with a golden spear that can pierce anything.
Amala, a ninja with a golden scarf that grants the wearer supersonic flight.
Minori, a monk with a golden hat that can store infinite items.
A martial, an artist with golden bangles that grant impenetrable defense.
A sorcerer with golden eye contact that offers incredible sight.
Mao Mao's mother, who once informed her son that his father was visiting.
Uncle Jim Jim (voiced by Parker Simmons) Mao Mao's uncle, who despite being a spirit, is still technically alive and possibly a barbarian.
Great-Great Paternal Grandfather Twig (voiced by Griffith Kimmins) Mao Mao's grandfather, who was a sumo warrior.
Great-Great Aunt Blackbeard (voiced by Colleen Clinkenbeard) Mao Mao's aunt, who was a pirate warrior.
Aunt Gloria, Mao Mao's aunt and a secondary character who appears in "Lonely Kid".
Others
Bao Bao (voiced by Chris Prynoski) a Shiba Inu dog and Mao Mao's old partner.
Bobo Chan (voiced by Debra Wilson) a young monster who Badgerclops adopts after seeing her hatch from an egg. She quickly grows to full size after Badgerclops had to leave her in the wild. Bobo Chan rescues the heroes when the Sky Pirates toss them off a cliff.
Tanya Keys (voiced by Ming-Na Wen) a female tanuki and former lover of Mao Mao, who makes a living as a bounty hunter. She can transform herself and leafs into people and objects.
Meditatin' Melvin (voiced by Dana Snyder) a meditating monkey who achieved the ability to astral project to avoid going to the dentist.
Eugene (voiced by Randall Park) Adorabat's father. He has had a strained relationship with his daughter ever since his wife was killed by a cave dragon.
Sonara, Adorabat's mother. A cave dragon from Pure Heart Valley attacked and killed her before the events of the series.
Development
Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart was created by Parker Simmons, hired at Titmouse, Inc. in 2009 as an animator, for his first work Black Panther for Black Entertainment Television (BET). In the following years, he was involved in other projects, including Metalocalypse, Superjail!, Black Dynamite, Motorcity, and a couple of animation shorts on the Internet. Following the completion of Turbo Fast, Parker and his colleagues wanted to do their individual work. When someone asked Parker to make a show, he started drawing and putting ideas together. He was concerned with its concept being limited, so he converted it into a short, it screened at the theater on the "5 Second Day" event in 2014. Parker voiced Mao Mao, using his low-pitched voice in similar way to how Batman is portrayed in the media. Griffith Kimmins, who worked previously with Parker on Titmouse Inc. projects, voiced Bearclops. And Lika Leong, previously a production coordinator on Turbo Fast, voiced Adorabat. Doug Vito provided sound editing and later served as a series animatic editor. Brian Pak also animated a brief skit and was later involved as a series board revisionist.
Following screening, the short has received positive feedback from the audience and gained interest from the chief executive officer (CEO) and founder of Titmouse Inc., Chris Prynoski, who saw potential in the project. Parker pitched to him a 7-minute short serving as a pilot that would be sold to the Television network. Prynoski agreed with the pitch, providing budget, schedule, and a spare year for the team to expand upon characters and worldbuilding. Parker took inspiration from the media that he grew up with, such as Batman: The Animated Series and Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball, Dr. Slump, and Chrono Trigger (1995). Alongwith his personal experiences with family and friends. The pilot was pitched in June 2017 to Cartoon Network's CEO, Rob Sorcher, to become a full-fledged series. Ultimately the network green-lighted the project, giving the staff a total of 95 weeks (roughly 22 months) to produce the series for the Television Release Schedule.
Animation
Animation for Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart was produced by Los Angeles department of Titmouse, Inc., involving from 40 to 55 people; with the additional support from a Malaysia-based team at animtaion studio, Inspidea. The show was animated in Adobe Animate, with After Effects for the compositing. Each episode took 40 weeks (about 9 months) to be produce, with many developed in parallel. Its production for a single team took 4–5 months for pre-production, (2–3 months for production) and 2 months for post-production.
The staff used tweening for the animation frames and "symbols" (reusable assets) to streamline the process. The latter allowed them to easily create head turns or a variety of mouth shapes for characters. Many shots, backgrounds were either more polished or cut. For many episodes, retakes were made by Parker and other staff artists for quality control of the animation; that was doable due to openess of the respective animation software. Parker later noted that he had done over 50 retakes for a single episode.
Music
Music for Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart was provided by Mint Potion Studios, a company founded by Jake Kaufman, who also provided a score for the series pilot. Sam Lustig Tommy Pedriniwere and Jake Kaufman were respective composers. Alongwith Robert Altschuler who served as an audio engineer and audio mixer, Brian Burwell as a drummer, while Kyle Tormey performed music for the end credits. The opening theme, "I Love You Mao Mao", Parker provided lyrics, Kaho Kidoguchi was a vocalist, and Tommy Pedrini and Chiyoko Yamasato were backup vocalists. Kidoguchi also served as a lead vocalist for "No More Waiting" in the episode "Lonely Kid".
Broadcast
Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart was announced by Cartoon Network on May 20, 2019, for a full series alongside Tig n' Seek (originally titled Tiggle Winks). The first 8 episodes were released on June 28 on the Cartoon Network app, website, and VOD. The show debuted on Cartoon Network, on July 1, 2019. It also premiered in Nigeria on January 18, 2020 (via GOtv). In Africa on January 27. And in Japan in April. The first 30 episodes of the show were added to HBO Max, on September 1, 2020. The last 10 episodes being added on January 1, 2021. The series was later removed from the service in August 2022.
Critical reception
Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart was well received by critics. Nick Valdez of ComicBook.com, stated that the show "has the potential to become a massive success for Cartoon Network." Dave Trumbore of Collider, said he'll be "cautiously optimistic with this one. It's got a good start and great heart, it just remains to be seen how much original mythology will make its way into the narrative. Just like Adventure Time, Steven Universe, and OK K.O.! took some time to build up the behind-the-scenes drama, Mao Mao could benefit from a deeper storytelling well in the long run."
Dave praised dynamic between Mao Mao and Badgerclops, describing it as "if a comedic duo like Batman and Robin (think LEGO Batman) landed in Care Bear country". Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media praised the sharp writing and dynamic between the protagonists and their personalities, providing appeal across the generations. She also found the series to be more suitable for tweens than younger kids, due to the intensity of the action scenes.
Retrospective
Retrospectively, journalists praised the distinction that set the show apart from conventional children's programming. Jason Tyler Van Duine of GameRant, considered Mao Mao's character "in every way act the opposite of how a typical kid's show protagonist would. Mao Mao's ego and frustration end up driving much of the conflict, and his contrast with the otherwise innocent setting provides a nice backdrop for its humor". Similarly thought Judy Black of Collider, who considered Heroes of Pure Heart as "a breath of fresh air from childish mediocrity".
Future
A second season was confirmed to be in production at the Cartoon Network Studios First Look Panel during the San Diego Comic-Con at Home event on July 23, 2020; the animatic was shown alongside it. Around June 2021, assets for the second season were leaked online, after being privately available in the artist and show crew's portfolios. The show's creator, Parker Simmons had expressed his frustration about the situation on Twitter, warning fans about the potential danger for the show that could lead to.
In August 2022, the show was removed from HBO Max as a result of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger. Cartoon Network subsequently removed all references to the show from their official websites, YouTube channels, and Twitter feeds, along with the second season announcement. The series Infinity Train faced a similar fate, with only VOD platforms and digital purchase remaining available to access the series. Due to the long hiatus since the release of its last episode, "Strange Bedfellows", and the series' removal following the merger, fans believed that the series had been quietly cancelled. Simmons was uncertain about the series future, adding "it was unclear to him whether the series was officially canceled or if another season could be made".