YooHoo & Friends

YooHoo & Friends

Official Logo of the franchise
Genre Preschool
Comedy
Adventure
Developed by Aurora World
Written by Yi Jae-Hyo
Ga Seong-Jin
Geum Seon-Hwa
Yi Ji-Hui
Directed by Choe Gyeong-Jun
Yill Ung
Gim Seung-Hwa
Voices of See Cast List Below
Composer(s) Lucymedia
Lee Hak-Lae (Recording)
Izumi (Sound Design)
Kim Ki-Hyun (Mixing)
Gim Yeong-Ho (Recording Production)
Yi Tae-Jun (Recording Production)
I Seong-Jang
Country of origin South Korea
Original language(s) Korean
No. of seasons 3
No. of episodes 65
Production
Producer(s) Yi Sun-Ju
Im Ji-Yeon
Ill Ung
Running time 24 Minutes (Each Segment: 11 Minutes)
Production company(s)

nSac Entertainment (Season 1)[1]
Studio Vandal (Season 2)[2]
Magic Image Co., Ltd. (Season 2 Beyond)
MICO Animation Studio. Ltd (Season 2 Beyond)
ADC Licensing (Dub)[3]

Neon Pumpkin (Dub)[3]
Collective Animation (Dub)[3]
Distributor Aurora World (Korea)
MoonScoop Group (Worldwide)[4]
Lawless Entertainment (United States, Current)[5]
Release
Original network KBS2 (Season 1)
KBS1 (Season 2 & 3)
Picture format HDTV (720i, 16:9)
Original release July 7, 2009 (2009-07-07) – April 11, 2015 (2015-04-11)
External links
Website
YooHoo & Friends
Hangul 유후와 친구들
Hanja 유후와 親舊들
Revised Romanization Yuhuwa Chingudeul

YooHoo & Friends (Hangul: 유후와 친구들; RR: Yuhuwa Chingudeul) (Officially subtitled Travel Around the World to Find Greens (Hangul: 그린을 찾아 함께 떠나는 세계여행; RR: Geulin-eul chaj-a hamkke tteonaneun segyeyeohaeng)) is a 2009 Flash animation series based on the toy line of the same name, created by Korean toy manufacturer Aurora World.[6] The series was animated by nSac Entertainment for season 1 and by Studio Vandal and by both Magic Image Co., Ltd. and MICO Animation Studio. Ltd for season 2. It first premiered on the Korean broadcasting channel KBS2 and later on KBS1 from July 7, 2009 to April 11, 2015.

Officially developed back in 2007, the series was created to educate children about protection and preservation of the environment and encourages parents and their children to appreciate friendship, harmony, honesty and courage. ADC Licensing picked up the license to dub the first season with new animation done by Toon Zone Studios, Neon Pumpkin, and Collective Animation. It was produced by David Feiss of Cow and Chicken and I Am Weasel fame and writing by Thomas Krajewski.[3] The dub premiered on July 1, 2011 and ended on December 23, 2011 and received mostly mixed to negative reviews from critics.

Lawless Entertainment now currently owns the license for the series's distribution in North America.

Story

Season 1

YooHoo & Friends is a story about a group of animals, mostly based on endangered species, who, along with their habitat Yootopia, where they grow the "Tree of Life", are at risk of extinction because of worsening environmental conditions. But when all the seeds are accidentally blown away to Earth, the group got accidentally sent down as well. Now being separated from their home, YooHoo and his friends must go on adventures to find the missing magical seeds of the Tree of Life, avoiding danger and receiving help from new friends made along the journey as they retrieve each green seed one by one.

The Dub version centers around five corrupted corporate executives from Nasty Corp, who had a long habit of destroying nature for money. To put an end to this they are visited by Father Time who turns them into cute animals, which can become human again, only if they get the 500 gems Father Time has scattered across the Earth. To get the gems they must fix the problems they created for Earth when they were human.

Season 2

After reclaiming all of the green seeds and went back to Yootopia, YooHoo and his friends were now living peacefully. However this peace didn't last long when two mysterious persons: Oops and Coops, crocodile hunters working for the corrupt leader Big Boss arrived at YooHoo's world to capture him and his friends and sell them to the black market. YooHoo must team up with his friends in order to foil their plans as well as saving their home.

Characters

Main characters

YooHoo (Hangul: 유후; RR: Yuhu)

Voiced by: Jeon Suk-gyeong (Korean), Cedric Themole (English)

A cream and grey bush baby with blue eyes and a blue and grey striped tail. He is the main protagonist of the series, he is usually an excellent leader; being the maturest and nicest to everyone of his friends and keeps the team together. His goal is to save Yootopia and find all of the green seeds and has a crush on Pammee, usually hiding this in front of his friends. His catchphrase is "YooHoo!" As of season 2, he now carries a small brown bag at important situations.

Pammee (Hangul: 패미; RR: Paemi)

Voiced by: Yu Ji-won (Korean), Michelle Brezinski (English)

A pink and white fennec fox with pink eyes, and a pink and white striped tail. She's described as a princess due to her shy and girly nature, constantly finding random things romantic. She is also very optimistic, usually is the voice of reason to the entire group. Pammee can hear things that her friends can't due to her huge ears, and she is able to converse with the nature. As of season 2, she now officially wears a pink bow at the right side of her head.

Roodee (Hangul: 루디; RR: Ludi)

Voiced by: Um Sang-hyun (Korean), Jan Bos (English)

A yellow and brown capuchin monkey with yellow eyes and a orange and brown striped tail, described as the inventor. He is the smartest of the team, able to construct complex inventions from twigs and leaves and usually reads his guide book for clues. He holds a persistent antagonism with Lemmee and consistently argues with him. As of season 2, he is now seen wearing glasses.

Chewoo (Hangul: 츄우; RR: Chyuu)

Voiced by: Han Shin-jeong (Korean), Mara Kay (English)

A red squirrel with white stripes and pink eyes. She is described as the cheerleader, and keeping to her role, she is immature, hyperactive, always cheerful. Her childishness constantly gets her into trouble. But sometimes she never think twice about her actions; more often than not she helps the team accomplish their task. She is usually the cause of the events of the first season and the reason why all the Green Seeds are scattered around the world. At the second season, she is now shown wearing a green hat.

Lemmee (Hangul: 레미; RR: Lemi)

Voiced by: Song Jeong-hui (Korean, season 1), Lee Won-chan (Korean, season 2), Mark Mathison (English)

A grey and white ring-tailed lemur with yellow eyes, black eye markings, and a grey and white striped tail. He is described as a sourpuss, and is in general the outcast of the group. Unsurprisingly he is narcissistic, selfish and sadistic, sometimes often argues with Roodee and later, with Yoohoo. However, despite being grumpy, he sometimes display his nice side to his friends, often giving them some good advice at some situations. As of season 2, he now wears a red bowtie.

Antagonists

Pookee (Hangul: 푸키; RR: Puki), Poppee (Hangul: 포피; RR: Popi) and Peppee (Hangul: 페피; RR: Pepi)

Voiced by: Um Sang-hyun (Pookee), Han Shin-jeong (Poppee), Yu Ji-won (Peppee)
English Actors: Mark Mathison (Pookee), Jesse Inocalla (Poppee), Cedric Themole (Peppee)

A trio of meerkats with green eyes. They are different sized and have purple, magenta and yellow eyebrows and tail tips to tell them apart but are otherwise completely identical. They always trying to steal the green seed pouch from YooHoo and his friends to go to YooTopia. Pookee is the eldest brother and is also the most unfortunate with all of the bad things befalling upon him. Although he always blames his brothers for their failures. Poppee is the middle brother who follows Pookee's insane instructions and unhesitatingly accepts the blame when he clearly did nothing wrong. Peppee is the youngest of the trio who appears to be the brightest and most skilled of the meerkats and is also frequently described as being the cutest. If the Pookees ever accomplish anything, it is almost always due to him. YooHoo, Lemmee and Chewoo (except Pammee and Roodee) are sometimes against them.

In the last episode of Season 1, they join YooHoo and his friends back to Yootopia. There are called The Pookees in the English Dub.

Oops (Hangul: 웁스; RR: Ubseu) and Coops (Hangul: 쿱스; RR: Kubseu)

Voiced by: Lee Won-chan (Oops), Kim Do-hui (Coops)

The main antagonists of season 2, a pair of crocodiles who work for Big Boss in order to capture YooHoo and his friends.

Big Boss (Hangul: 빅 보스; RR: Big Boseu)

Voiced by: Kim Do-hui

The mysterious leader of a company who employs Oops and Coops on capturing Yoohoo and his friends.

Other characters

New characters that only appeared as toys

Dub-only characters

NOTE: The characters appearing in the dub version were created without Aurora World's supervision and are not considered canon to the entire series.

Father Time
Voiced by: Flavor Flav

Based on the deity of the same name, he is portrayed as a Viking with blue skin and yellow eyes. He controls time and acts as the narrator of the series, introducing each episode. He gives YooHoo and friends their missions to earn gems.

Mother Nature
Voiced by: Mara Kay

Based on the deity of the same name, Mother Nature controls and is in charge of safe guarding nature, which is why she is hurt and angered by Nasty Corp's environmental destruction. She is married to Father Time and is the one who pushed him into dealing with Nasty Corp. She is only ever shown using her powers once, where she made it rain on a "stupidly hot day" when Father Time and Santa Claus accidentally drank extremely hot drinks.

Santa Claus
Voiced by: David Feiss

A recurring character who is the next-door neighbour of Father Time and has a constant rivalry/whacked friendship with him.

Episodes

Season No. Episode Season Premiere Season finale
1 26 July 7, 2009 January 5, 2010
2 28 October 26, 2013 May 24, 2014
3 11 January 10, 2015 April 11, 2015

History

The animated series was first developed in 2007 and was first aired in South Korea on KBS2, and later on KBS1 from July 7, 2009 to April 11, 2015, lasting for three seasons and 65 episodes. The series has also aired on Al Jazeera in the United Arab Emirates, Detskiy in Russia and BBC World News in Croatia.

In 2011, an official English dub of the series was greenlited by ADC Licensing and with extra animation done by both Toon Zone Studios and Collective Animation.[3] The dubbing project was handled by David Feiss and Thomas Krajewski[7] alongside an all new music soundtrack for the series. Certain parts of the series were cut and edited for the new animation as well.

Konnie Kwak stated during the development of the show Toon Zone Studios that "I saw the plush toys and they looked really cute," she says. "The toys had already inspired a 52-episode animated series for younger kids, which aired in Korea and had received many prestigious awards in that country. But like many Korean properties, it doesn’t translate well overseas. So we plan to repurpose the episodes to broaden the market. We are preparing the show for a six to 12 demographic,’ says Kwak. ‘We are also quite thrilled to have animation veteran David Feiss, who is the creator of Cartoon Network’s Cow and Chicken and has worked on a long list of top animated shows and movies, including Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Ren & Stimpy Show and Open Season on board as the series director. His sense of comedy and creativity will bring this series to new heights."[8]

Feiss stated in an interview that he was contacted by Konnie Kwak in producing the series and that "She wanted me to make this really young Korean language kid show into something that she could sell to Western TV. The style wasn't my style at all, and at first I was worried about what I could do with it. But then it occurred to me that if I 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. I proposed taking the existing 11 minute Korean shorts, and rewriting the dialogue, and creating 4 minutes of new animation per episode (cutting out 4 minutes of old footage)." Feiss also said that "Working with Flava Flav was awesome. He's a great guy. I met Flav by moving into a house across the street from him! We became friends, and that's how I got him involved in "Yoohoo and Friends."".[9]

The dub aired on July 1, 2011 and ended on December 23, 2011 on POP in the UK, Cartoon Network in the Latin America and in ABC3 on Australia, adapting the first season.

Toyline

Inspired by a bush baby, the first YooHoo & Friends toys introduced were five and eight-inch plush animals with big button eyes and long, soft tails. The off white color plush animal bodies featured yellow, pink, purple or turquoise colors, primarily around the eyes and as color rings on a solid grey tail. The company expanded the line beginning in July 2007 to include Valentine's and graduation themed YooHoos, eventually leading to the launch of Easter, Halloween and holiday-themed YooHoos.[10] The company continues to expand its merchandising and licensed products worldwide. Other merchandise include educational books, umbrellas, apparel, bedding, room decor and accessories for children, as well as stationery and giftware.[7] Except for the keychain toys, YooHoo & Friends plush animals make sounds when squeezed.

Reception

The original series and the franchise received several awards from several Korean and International awards. The toys won the Korea Contents Design Award in 2009, received the 2010 Seal of Excellence Award by Creative Child Magazine in the United States and won the Parents’ Choice Award. It also ranked 2 in the GiftBeat Survey for Brand Awareness and won the Independent Toy Award in the United Kingdom in 2011. It later got nominated for Best Asian Property in 2013 and won the Tillywig Top Fun award in the US in 2013.

The dub version, however, was critically panned from its release in the UK and Australia, due to how the studio badly adapted the scenes with newly animated scenes and changing some of the theme's elements, while removing references to the source material and cutting off scenes originally from the Korean Version. As a result, the series never got renewed into another season, causing Toon Zone Studios on wanting to forcefully claim the rights of the series from Aurora World.[11] However Aurora World broke the deal with Toon Zone Studios and licensed the franchise to its new distributor, Lawless Entertainment in June 2014.[12]

Federal copyright lawsuit

Aurora World, Inc. filed a federal copyright lawsuit against competitor Ty Inc., alleging Ty's Beanie Boos infringe on YooHoo & Friends. Among Aurora's claims: Ty is in violation of the Copyright Act, Lanham Act, section 17200 of the California Business and Professions Code; common law misappropriation; and common law unfair competition. Ty contends it did not intend to sell "Cleo" and "Bubblegum" in the United States. Ty also advised the court that the company had ceased sending out display racks and sell sheets containing images of "Cleo" and "Bubblegum".[13]

Aurora's court documents include comparisons of YooHoo & Friends characters with "Bubblegum" and "Cleo" Beanie Boos. Through its court filings, Aurora says, "Ty's unlawful imitations of the YooHoo & Friends products and blatant infringement are damaging Aurora, not only by causing actual confusion and likelihood of confusion in the marketplace...but also by diminishing the value of the YooHoo & Friends products by diluting their distinct and unique nature and erroneously associating them with Ty rather than Aurora." A pre-trial was scheduled to begin on December 20, 2010.[13]

References

  1. ↑ "nSac: Porfolio" (in Korean). Retrieved 2014-06-24.
  2. ↑ http://studiovandal.com/xe/14577
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 J. McLean, Thomas (July 1, 2011). "Toonzone's 'Yoohoo & Friends' to Air on CN Latin America". Animation Magazine. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
  4. ↑ http://www.animationmagazine.net/tv/moonscoop-nabs-toonzones-action-dad-yoohoo/
  5. ↑ http://lawlessent.com/blog_mod/lawless-entertainment-appointed-representatives-for-yoohoo-friends/
  6. ↑ Arrant, Chris (June 6, 2011). "ADC's "Yoohoo And Friends" Gets Picked Up By UK Channel Pop". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
  7. 1 2 "Production Profile: YooHoo & Friends". Animation World Network. February 13, 2010. Retrieved October 7, 2010.
  8. ↑ Zahed, Ramin (April 23, 2010). "The Plush Life". Animation Magazine. Retrieved October 7, 2010.
  9. ↑ http://www.platypuscomix.net/people/davefeiss.html
  10. ↑ http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-218311250.html
  11. ↑ http://www.animationmagazine.net/events/toonzone-takes-legal-action-aurora/
  12. ↑ http://www.licensemag.com/license-global/lawless-rep-yoohoo-friends
  13. 1 2 "Court date set for Aurora vs. Ty copyright case". Kids Today. March 30, 2010. Retrieved October 7, 2010.

External links

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