Cartoon
YooHoo & Friends (2012 TV series)
The story
YooHoo & Friends is an animated series produced by Toonzone Studios, and is loosely based on the Korean children's toyline of the same name by Aurora World. Created by David Feiss, known for his work on Cow and Chicken, the series both serves as a gag dub and retelling of the original 2009 South Korean preschool animated series based on the YooHoo & Friends toyline, with comedic and satirical changes being made in order for western audiences to relate to the series more, also being aimed for older children.
The series follows a group of corrupt corporate executives who were turned into the eponymous animal gang by Father Time (Flavor Flav), and are tasked with traveling around the world to fix all of the environmental disasters that they caused. It first premiered on Cartoon Network in Latin America on January 8, 2012, airing in Spanish and Portuguese; it would air in its original English-language on Pop in the UK and on ABC in Australia in the same year.
Plot
YooHoo & Friends is about five executives who once worked for a fictional corporation called Nasty Corp. When Mother Nature notices that they've been slowly destroying the earth through water, air, and land pollution, she pressures Father Time to stop them from completely destroying the Earth by turning them into five animals with big eyes and long, furry tails. Together, Lemmee the sourpuss ring-tailed lemur, Roodee the capuchin monkey inventor, Pammee the girly fennec fox, Chewoo the optimistic red squirrel, and YooHoo the leader, a bush baby, save the world from all the environmental disasters they caused as their human selves and help a group of endangered animals in return for the gemstones Father Time planted in the locations they visit. Once all of the gems were found, the Furry 5 are allowed to make a wish to become human again.
Each episode also includes a narration from Father Time as he goes back to certain past time periods and adjusts them.
Main characters
Father Time (voiced by Flavor Flav) controls time and acts as the narrator of the series, introducing each episode. He gives the Furry 5 the task to fix all the environmental destruction they caused as executives and find gemstones along the way that will allow them to make a wish and become human again.
Mother Nature (voiced by Jillian Michaels, credited as "Mara Kay") is Father Time's wife. She was hurt and angered by Nasty Corporation's environmental destruction and ordered Father Time to stop them immediately. She loves her husband and always tries to keep him on track with the Furry 5 and their task to find the gemstones.
YooHoo (voiced by Paul Dobson, credited as "Cedric Themole") – A bush baby and the leader of the Furry 5 who guides the others in search for gemstones. He has cream and grey fur, blue eyes and a blue and grey striped tail.
Lemmee (voiced by Alistair Abell, credited as "Mark Mathison") – A ring-tailed lemur and the sourpuss. He constantly tries to convince the others that he should be the leader instead of YooHoo. He has grey and white fur, yellow eyes, black eye markings and a grey and white striped tail.
Roodee (voiced by Jan Bos) – A capuchin monkey and the inventor of the group. He has brown fur and yellow eyes.
Pammee (voiced by Michelle Brezinski) – A fennec fox who is a girly girl and has a connection to nature. She can understand when an animal is hurt or a plant is thirsty. She has white fur, pink eyes and a pink and white striped tail.
Chewoo (voiced by Michaels) – A red squirrel and the cheerleader of the group. She is always excited and happy, even in the most dangerous of situations. She has red and white fur and pink eyes.
Recurring characters
Pookee 1, 2 and 16 (voiced by Abell, Jesse Inocalla and Dobson respectively) – A trio of meerkats who try to steal the Furry 5's gems to make their wish. They have brown fur, green eyes and purple, pink and yellow eye markings and tail tips.
Santa Claus (voiced by Feiss) – Father Time's next door neighbour and has a friend-enemy relationship with him.
The Easter Bunny (voiced by Inocalla) – Another friend of Father Time.
Leper (voiced by Dobson) – A leprechaun who's also friends with Father Time.
Happy (voiced by Inocalla) – A red panda and a frequent guest companion of YooHoo & Friends. He's married to a sea cow named Martha. He has purple and white fur and pink eyes.
Loonee (voiced by Inocalla) – A delusional snowy owl who wants to be a pop star and constantly sings, despite being tone-deaf.
Production
David Feiss stated in an interview that he was contacted by Konnie Kwak, the president of Toonzone Studios, to make the original YooHoo & Friends series into something he could sell to western television. He then approached it similarly to Woody Allen's What's Up, Tiger Lily?, where "a foreign language film is re-dubbed in English with an entirely different story, it could be funny." He proposed rewriting the dialogue from the original series, and creating 4 minutes of new animation per episode. Feiss has also said that he moved to a house across from Flavor Flav, the voice of Father Time, and after Feiss befriended him, Flav agreed to be on the show.
Kwak once saw YooHoo & Friends stuffed toys and thought "they looked pretty cute. The toys had already inspired a 52-episode animated series for younger kids, which aired in South Korea and had received many prestigious awards in that country. But like many Korean properties, it doesn't translate well overseas. So [they planned] to repurpose the episodes to broaden the market." The team had prepared the adaptation for a six to 12-year-old demographic, unlike the original YooHoo & Friends series which was aimed mainly for preschoolers.
On October 14, 2010, Flav narrated a sneak peek of the series for MIPJunior that was uploaded by Toonzone to YouTube. By 2013, the video was privated.
Eventually, the opportunity to fully develop another season for the series was postponed, causing Toonzone Studios to take legal action against Aurora World over the contractual copyrights of the series, which led Aurora World to end up breaking the deal with Toonzone and licensing its franchise to Lawless Entertainment in June 2014. This also resulted in Aurora World commissioning a faithful English dub of the original 2009 series in the same year, which is widely distributed compared to the 2012 adaptation.
Despite the troubled production, YooHoo & Friends is notable for being one of the few animated TV series by Toonzone Studios that saw release before its eventual closure (and the most recognized show among them in retrospect), alongside Action Dad and Guardians of the Power Masks. The studio had other animated series in development that never saw the light of day, including Bigfoot Littlefoot, another show by Feiss produced for the company. Tangentially, the company which financed the show, Animation Development Company, was also caught illegally raising money by conducting unlicensed, unregistered offerings of securities, and giving misleading statements to its investors. As a result, Animation Development Company stopped being included in the show's credits after the 14th episode.
Broadcast
YooHoo & Friends debuted on Cartoon Network's Movimiento/Movimento Cartoon block in Latin America on January 8, 2012, and later on Boomerang. The second season of the original series also premiered on Boomerang on March 1, 2015, advertised as if it were the same series. The series also premiered on ABC Me in Australia on February 15, 2012, and on Pop in the United Kingdom the same year.
The series' distributor, MoonScoop US, originally planned for the show to air on French and German-speaking territories across Europe, "with hopes to reach televisions in next summer," but this never happened. Despite the series being aimed for a Western audience, and being primarily produced in the United States and Canada, the series notably never aired in either country due to its cancellation.
Media information
A game for the series called "Fling the Furry 5" was released on the now defunct YooHooWorldWide website. Toonzone Studios also planned to release a new line of plush toys, playsets, and light up dolls for the series, although that never happened.