"Looney Tunes." "Spongebob Squarepants." "The Smurfs." "Care Bears." What do these four childrens' cartoons have to do with a violent animated series that is definitely not geared toward a family viewing audience? A lot more than one might expect.
"Happy Tree Friends," created by Kenn Navarro and Rhode Montijo for Mondo Media, is essentially a series about cute, cuddly creatures who happen to have daily misadventures. It just so happens that these misadventures routinely lead to dismemberment and other forms of bloody deaths for the animated creatures. Navarro and Christina Chavez, the series' marketing director, were able to explain what "Happy Tree Friends" is all about: "A lot of people identify with leading an everyday life, and [unpleasant stuff] happens, and a lot of it is completely out of control, and it's taken to the extreme," Chavez said.
The cartoon started as a joke between Navarro and Montijo when they hit on the idea of taking cute creatures and putting them in all sorts of horrible situations that would lead them to a gory demise. Both were working on other shows for Mondo at the time. When they got the chance to pitch "Happy Tree Friends" as part of a larger advertising project, they pitched it internally - to a lot of head scratching and very confused looks. Eventually, however, they gained the trust of each executive and enough to get the show greenlit.
"Happy Tree Friends" is heavily influenced by Navarro and Montijo's love of cartoons.
"The biggest influence would be the ['Looney Tunes'] Road Runner shorts, with its slapstick humor," Navarro said. "And then, obviously ['The Simpsons'] Itchy & Scratchy, and I really love 'Spongebob Squarepants'' physical humor. And 'The Smurfs' and 'Care Bears' has influence in how cute the characters [are]."
In some ways, "Happy Tree Friends" exists as Navarro and Montigo's revenge for having to watch "Care Bears" in their youth. Navarro's love of cartoons, comics and video games also lends itself to innumerable homages and references that he and Montijo are able to sneak into the series. "Aside from the violence part, everybody involved brings something to the table in ['Happy Tree Friends'] in their [life] experiences so far, and a lot of the stuff they grew up with in their generation, things, people in their peer group, the core age group sees it too."
Chavez loves the concept of "Happy Tree Friends," because with "animation in and of itself, there's an assumption that it's for a younger audience, but with 'South Park,' 'The Simpsons,' [and Cartoon Network's] Adult Swim, people are realizing it's more of a way to express yourself."
It may look like it's for kids, but when one watches "Happy Tree Friends" for the first time, it soon becomes pretty clear, that it's definitely for adults.
"It has adorable looking characters, and we understand that the bigger 'Happy Tree Friends' gets, we have to make sure we're advertising properly," Chavez said.
"We're on at midnight, not daytime or primetime," Navarro joked. "But we are going to start selling cigarettes."
To see "Happy Tree Friends," tune in to channel G4 or visit happytreefriends.com.
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