Viva Piñata (TV series)

For the Xbox 360 game that this series is based on, see Viva Piñata.
Viva Piñata

The lead characters (l-r): Franklin, Hudson, Paulie, Fergy
Developed by Norman J. Grossfeld
Lloyd Golfdine
Directed by Paul Griffin
Voices of Dan Green
Marc Thompson
David Wills
Kathleen Delaney
Jamie McGonnigal
Brian Maillard
Theme music composer John Siegler
Norman J. Grossfeld
Composer(s) Louis Cortelezzi
Elik Alvarez
Peter Lurye
Matt McGuire
Ralph Schuckett
Freddy Sheinfeld
Dan Stein
Russell Velazquez
Country of origin Canada
United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 2
No. of episodes 52 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) Deina Bhesania
Norman Grossfeld
Alfred R. Kahn
Barry Ward
Running time 20 minutes
Production company(s) Bardel Entertainment
4Kids Entertainment
Rare Ltd.
Release
Original network YTV (Canada)
4Kids TV
The CW4Kids
Original release August 26, 2006 – January 18, 2009
Website

Viva Piñata is a Canadian-American animated television series seen around the world. It is based upon the Xbox 360 video game of the same name. It is produced by an American company, 4Kids Productions and Bardel Entertainment, a children's animation company in Canada. It aired to high ratings as part of the 4Kids TV programming block and later moved to The CW4Kids before being removed from the schedule on October 25, 2008.[1] It is aired on YTV in Canada, Nicktoons Network and CITV in the UK, TV Tokyo in Japan and on Nickelodeon in Australia.

Viva Pinata was executive produced by Lloyd Goldfine (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon) at 4Kids in New York and Paul Griffin at Bardel in Vancouver. The stories are edited by Mike deSeve, leading a team that includes the award-winning Daria head-writer Anne Bernstein and Courage the Cowardly Dog story editor David Steven Cohen.

The series has ended its run on January 18, 2009 in Canada. 4Kids TV and The CW4Kids in the United States stopped airing the show on August 2, 2008 and October 25, 2008 respectively, but it continued to air in Canada on YTV until June 24, 2011.

Synopsis

In a garden on Piñata Island, a multitude of happy, colorful Piñata species live, frolic, dance, and grow. The goal of the piñatas is to fill themselves with candy, so they can be chosen by Piñata Central to entertain at birthday parties or retirement parties and other special celebrations. The piñatas have their own gardens and love to party. Each species is a portmanteau of an animal and a sweet type of food.

It is here in the garden, among the burrowing Profitamole, the bovine Moozipan and the tree-swinging Cinnamonkey that we will find a small band of Piñata friends that have known one another since they were children when they first came to the garden.

Being a piñata means something different for piñatas. Some Piñatas can't wait to reach their maximum candy level so they can leave the Piñata Factory over and over again, bringing joy to children and partygoers all over the world. Others are not happy about the prospect of being shipped off to a strange place where happy children in festive hats hang them from a tree, bludgeon them until their limbs fall off, and devour their innards. Still others physically train for the parties as if they were off to the Olympic Games—hardening their bodies to create a challenge for the children clamoring to get at their candy.

Why is it that Piñata Island is the only place in the world Piñatas can be found? Even the Piñatas don't really know—but with so much happening in the garden, what with weird new Piñatas arriving all the time, crazed black-market Piñata poachers trying to muscle in on Piñata Central action, mysteries to solve, violent garden pests known as sours to contend with, and constant opportunities to dance—who has time to worry about it?

The only thing upon which these Piñatas can agree is that on Piñata Island, anything can happen.

Characters

Main characters

Recurring characters

Episodes

The program has also made the leap to DVD via Shout! Factory with the release of The Piñatas Must Be Crazy And Other Stories. This release includes the following episodes: "Cocoadile Tears," "Candiosity," "Queen For A Day," "A Chewnicorn In The Garden" and "Legs."[2] In addition, "Lights, Camera, Action" was released in May 2009. This is the second DVD in the series. The program has also made the leap to British DVDs for Walt Disney Pictures with the release of Viva Piñata: Franklingestion. This release includes the following episodes: "Royal Visit," "Crimes Of Passion Fruit," and "Piñatas Must Be Crazy."[3] In addition, Viva Piñata 2: Arctic Invasion was released with the episodes: "High Plains Drafter", "Her Royal Forgetfullness" and "Talented Mr.Hack". This is the second British DVD in the series. In addition, Viva Piñata 3: The Antlers Are Blowing in the Wind was released with the episodes: "Pig Out-Mountain", "A Match Made In Court", "Mr. Unbustable" and "Candibalism". This is the third DVD Movie in the series. Recently, Hulu has added episodes that aired in both United Kingdom, United States and Canada.

Xbox Live sneak peeks

Two episodes have been released on the Xbox Live Marketplace as sneak peeks. These episodes were "Chewnicorn in the Garden" and "Horstachio of a Different Colour". Over the past couple of months, more episodes of the show have been added to the Marketplace for download. All the episodes are in High Definition (Although one can watch them on an SD TV as well), and are between 550-600MB of space on the Hard Drive. The Special Edition version of the Viva Piñata game came with a bonus disc, which, among demos of Xbox Live Arcade games and Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, contained the "Horstachio of a Different Colour" episode.

References

  1. http://pinataisland.info/forum/showthread.php?p=232006
  2. Shout! Factory Kids DVD release: http://web.archive.org/web/20120723101459/http://www.shoutfactorystore.com/prod.aspx?pfid=5256969&sid=8D782ABB387B4A14A3D4B7C8649787BA. Archived from the original on July 23, 2012. Retrieved January 26, 2014. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. Diney DVD release: http://web.archive.org/web/20120723101459/http://www.shoutfactorystore.com/prod.aspx?pfid=5256969&sid=8D782ABB387B4A14A3D4B7C8649787BA. Archived from the original on July 23, 2012. Retrieved January 26, 2014. Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

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