3.4 /10 1 Votes
Directed by JC Little, Mr. Niko Original language(s) FrenchEnglish No. of episodes 26 (52 shorts) Final episode date 30 September 2011 | 3.4/10 IMDb Country of origin CanadaFrance No. of seasons 2 First episode date 19 September 2010 Director Mr. Niko | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Created by JC LittleCindy FilipenkoSvetlana Chmakova Similar Olliver's Adventures, Pig City, John Callahan's Quads!, Fred's Head, Sons of Butcher |
My Life Me is a Canadian-French Cartoon television series created by JC Little, Cindy Filipenko and Svetlana Chmakova, co-directed by Mr. Niko. The teen slice-of-life comedy follows Birch Small, a manga and anime fan with aspirations of being a comic artist, as she tries to survive high school. The show features manga symbols such as sweatdrops, speech bubbles, and super-deformed chibi characters.
Contents

The series first aired on the French-language Télétoon on September 19, 2010. It was shown on the English-language channel Teletoon from September 5, 2011 to September 30, 2011.

Production

My Life Me received a development deal in 2006 from Teletoon. The series was a co-production between Canadian and French companies. The episodes were animated using ToonBoom Harmony, and the animation was split episodically between Toutenkartoon in Montreal, Canada, and Caribara in Angoulême, France. Backgrounds were created in Maya, then toonshaded, rendered and imported into Harmony. The animators did a hybrid of digital and hand drawn to help the fluidity in the animation.

Animated digitally, manga aesthetics were given homage "using various comic book manga codes and language such as stylish black and white comic book panels dropping behind the characters to express their suppressed feelings on screen." Even before production began My Life Me was planned to be "developed as a lifestyle brand, there will be a licensing and merchandising program to support the brand with a strong emphasis on publishing, accessories, gifts, stationery, apparel as well as a strong online component with a fully interactive website currently in production." The planned delivery of the series, shorts, and website was fall 2009.
My Life Me was "at the top of [German co-production group TV-Loonland's] offering in the 2009 autumn TV markets". In early 2010, TV-Loonland filed for bankruptcy/insolvency and its assets were sold off. My Life Me, at the time still in production, was one of such properties. The series was acquired by Classic Media in February. Classic Media embraced the show with enthusiasm and took control of all media iterations of the property including the planned "heavily interactive" website. "Other than the television series, fifty-two eleven-minute episodes, the property is reported to include music video clips and more for mobile, online, and video on-demand distribution."
Premise
Birch Small's school system requires her and her classmates, Liam, Sandra, and Raffi to work together in a group known around the school as a "Pod." The students don't get to choose who they are partnered up with; they must work together, despite their differences and shortcomings.
Characters
Cast
Episodes
Teletoon original airdates follow the episode titles in parentheses:
- Misconcepted Deceptions (September 5, 2011 (2011-09-05))
- Reach for the Pod (September 5, 2011 (2011-09-05))
- Big Man on Canvas (September 5, 2011 (2011-09-05))
- The Pencil Assassin (September 5, 2011 (2011-09-05))
- The Makeover (September 6, 2011 (2011-09-06))
- The Pom-Pom Girl (September 6, 2011 (2011-09-06))
- Unreasonable Facsimiles (September 6, 2011 (2011-09-06))
- Planets Maligned (September 6, 2011 (2011-09-06))
- The Big Flap (September 7, 2011 (2011-09-07))
- Finding Neko (September 7, 2011 (2011-09-07))
- The Raffi Raffle (September 7, 2011 (2011-09-07))
- Crushed (September 7, 2011 (2011-09-07))
- Friday the 13th (September 8, 2011 (2011-09-08))
- Bossman’s Blues (September 8, 2011 (2011-09-08))
- Birch’s Beef (September 8, 2011 (2011-09-08))
- A Fine Balance (September 8, 2011 (2011-09-08))
- Liam the Hero (September 9, 2011 (2011-09-09))
- True Colors (September 9, 2011 (2011-09-09))
- Love Lessons (September 9, 2011 (2011-09-09))
- Miss President (September 9, 2011 (2011-09-09))
- Bad Company (September 12, 2011 (2011-09-12))
- Manga Slam (September 12, 2011 (2011-09-12))
- They’re Watching Us (September 12, 2011 (2011-09-12))
- The Mascot (September 12, 2011 (2011-09-12))
- Holiday Hijinx (September 13, 2011 (2011-09-13))
- Rope Burn (September 13, 2011 (2011-09-13))
- There’s No Business… (September 22, 2011 (2011-09-22))
- Growing Pains (September 22, 2011 (2011-09-22))
- Comic Chaos (September 22, 2011 (2011-09-22))
- Working Stiff (September 22, 2011 (2011-09-22))
- Star-Struck (September 23, 2011 (2011-09-23))
- The Big Switch (September 23, 2011 (2011-09-23))
- A Bed for Raffi (September 23, 2011 (2011-09-23))
- Back to the Stone Age (September 23, 2011 (2011-09-23))
- The Costume Party (September 26, 2011 (2011-09-26))
- Integrity Insmegrity (September 26, 2011 (2011-09-26))
- Making a Mountain of a Molehill (September 26, 2011 (2011-09-26))
- Here’s Liam (September 26, 2011 (2011-09-26))
- The Diary (September 27, 2011 (2011-09-27))
- Raffi’s Secret Love (September 27, 2011 (2011-09-27))
- Skate Club (September 27, 2011 (2011-09-27))
- Pinged and Ponged (September 27, 2011 (2011-09-27))
- Love is in the Air (September 28, 2011 (2011-09-28))
- Cyranette (September 28, 2011 (2011-09-28))
- Liam and the Kid’s Big Day Out (September 28, 2011 (2011-09-28))
- Cut Out the Sarkasm (September 28, 2011 (2011-09-28))
- Family Tree (September 29, 2011 (2011-09-29))
- Just Say Nooo (September 29, 2011 (2011-09-29))
- At Odds with the Pad (September 29, 2011 (2011-09-29))
- Accept No Substitutes (September 29, 2011 (2011-09-29))
- Fish Fiasco (September 30, 2011 (2011-09-30))
- Birch’s Trial (September 30, 2011 (2011-09-30))
Reception
It was nominated for a Kidscreen Award 2010. The MyLifeME.com website was nominated for Best Kids Interactive for the Canada New Media Awards in 2010. My Life ME was nominated for two Gemini Awards in 2011; in Internet and New Media, Best Website for a Program or Series: Youth and in Television, Best Animation Program or Series.