ChalkZone

ChalkZone
Created by	Bill Burnett Larry Huber
Voices of	E. G. Daily Hynden Walch Candi Milo Robert Cait Jess Harnell Miriam Flynn Rodger Bumpass Jim Cummings Rosslynn Taylor Rob Paulsen
Opening theme	"Rudy's Got the Chalk" by Bill Burnett
Ending theme	"Rudy's Got the Chalk"
Composer(s)	Guy Moon
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	40 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Bill Burnett Larry Huber Fred Seibert
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Wild Canary Animation Nickelodeon Animation Studio
Distributor	Mike Young Productions Nelvana (International)
Release
Original network	Nickelodeon
Original release	March 22, 2002 – August 23, 2008
Chronology
Preceded by	Oh Yeah! Cartoons

ChalkZone is an American animated television series created by Bill Burnett and Larry Huber for Nickelodeon. The series follows Rudy Tabootie, an elementary school student whose magic chalk allows him into the ChalkZone, an alternate dimension where everything drawn on a blackboard and erased becomes real. The show concentrates on the adventures of Rudy, his sidekick Snap, and classmate, Penny Sanchez, within the zone.

ChalkZone originally aired as part of Fred Seibert's Oh Yeah! Cartoons animated shorts showcase in 1998. The series ran on Nickelodeon from March 22, 2002 through August 23, 2008, with 40 episodes in total. It was produced by Frederator Studios and Nickelodeon Animation Studio.

Premise

Rudy Tabootie (voiced by E. G. Daily) is a 10-year-old^[1] fifth-grader who loves to draw, but Reggie Bullnerd (Candi Milo), the school bully, is always teasing him or getting him into trouble with Mr. Wilter (Robert Cait), Rudy's grumpy school teacher who strongly dislikes cartoons. One day Rudy discovers a piece of "White Lightning" chalk, which allows access to the ChalkZone, a place where everything and everyone that has ever been drawn in chalk and erased takes form as living or is tangible. He soon makes friends with Snap (Candi Milo), a small, blue, humanoid drawing made by Rudy when he was only eight. Snap wears a superhero uniform and is very adventurous and witty. Rudy only lets one other person know about ChalkZone, his best friend and crush Penny Sanchez (speaking voice, Hynden Walch; singing voice, Robbyn Kirmsse), who acts as the genius of the group.

While in ChalkZone, the trio are introduced to Cyclops (Rodger Bumpass), the kilt-wearing guardian of the magic chalk mines where Rudy obtains his magic chalk (Rudy later draws a second eye for him and renames him "Biclops"); Queen Rapsheeba (Rosslynn Taylor), ChalkZone's song artist whom Snap has a crush on; and Blocky (Candi Milo; Robert Cait), a light green block friend of Snap's and Rudy's first-ever drawing. They are also faced with villains such as Skrawl (Jim Cummings), a drawing who blames Rudy for being ugly and wants to destroy him; and the Craniacs (Rob Paulsen), a series of robot drawings obsessed with collecting futuristic devices.

Episodes

Season		Episodes	Originally aired
			Start date	End date
	1	6	March 22, 2002	April 26, 2002
	2	8	May 30, 2003	November 2, 2003
	3	15	February 2, 2004	December 9, 2004
	4	11	June 6, 2005	August 23, 2008

Production

ChalkZone was originally featured as a short on Nickelodeon's Oh Yeah! Cartoons in 1998.^[2] The series was announced in 1999, but was delayed.

Broadcast

The series premiered on March 22, 2002, as the highest-rated premiere in Nickelodeon's history up to that point.^[3][4]

The show went on hiatus in 2005, midway through the fourth season. The remaining episodes aired on Nick from June 13 to August 23, 2008. Reruns have aired on Nicktoons from May 1, 2002 to October 28, 2013.

Home media

During the show's original run, there weren't any DVD releases specifically for ChalkZone, the "Christmas" episode was featured on the 2006 DVD Nick Picks Holiday. Two episodes and a music video ("Gift Adrift", "French Fry Falls", and "Escucha Mi Corazón") were released for the Nickstravaganza! 2 DVD. On October 13, 2014, ChalkZone: The Complete Series was released on DVD as a manufacture-on-demand title on Amazon, however the episode "The Smooch" was excluded from the set due to music licensing issues. A soundtrack album In the Zone has also been released.^[5] The entire series is now available on Amazon Video and the PlayStation Store.

References

1. Liebenson, Donald (March 17, 2002). "'ChalkZone' ventures behind the blackboard". Chicago Tribune (Tribune Company). Retrieved 2012-12-12.
2. Ellin, Harlene (July 18, 1998). "New Cartoon Show Will Honor Irreverence". Chicago Tribune (Tribune Company). Retrieved 2012-12-12.
3. Ball, Ryan (May 8, 2003). "Nickelodeon Chalks Up More Chalkzone". Animation Magazine. Retrieved 2012-12-12.
4. "Nickelodeon Draws Best Kid Ratings in Four Years, Ranks as Number-One Net for First Quarter '02, SpongeBob SquarePants and ChalkZone Etch Out Top-Rated Territory, Kids Find The Fairly OddParents Fairly Fascinating". Viacom. April 2, 2002. Archived from the original on 17 August 2002. Retrieved 2012-12-12.
5. "Rudy & Chalkzone Gang: In the Zone [EP, Soundtrack]". Amazon.com. ASIN B000084U51.

External links

• ChalkZone at Frederator Studios
• ChalkZone at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• ChalkZone at the Internet Movie Database