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Total Drama All Stars and Pahkitew Island

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Country of origin
  
Canada

Original network
  
Teletoon

No. of episodes
  
26

Total Drama All-Stars and Pahkitew Island

Original release
  
January 9 (2014-01-09) – November 20, 2014 (2014-11-20)

Total Drama All-Stars and Total Drama: Pahkitew Island are two 13-episode segments that both make up the fifth and final season of the Canadian animated television series, Total Drama. The season was commissioned by Cartoon Network in October 2012, ordering 26 episodes. It is a sequel to Total Drama Island, Total Drama Action, Total Drama World Tour, and Total Drama: Revenge of the Island. The season was produced by Fresh TV and the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network and distributed by Cake Entertainment. Owing to the series' premise, the season presents itself as a parody of reality television series, such as Survivor.

Contents

The entire season first premiered in the United States starting on September 10, 2013 on Cartoon Network for the first part, with the second part premiering in the United States on July 7, 2014 for a two-week time period. In Canada, the first part premiered on Teletoon during their "Can't Miss Thursdays" time slot starting January 9, 2014. The second part of the season also premiered during their "Can't Miss Thursdays" time slot on Teletoon starting on September 4, 2014. The second half of the season also premiered on the APTN network in 2015.

Synopsis

Just like Total Drama: Revenge of the Island before it, this season also consists of 13 episode segments; even though it brings back the traditional 26-episode length of the first three seasons. The winning characters for part 1 are either Mike or Zoey, and the winning characters for part 2 are either Shawn or Sky (depending on the countries the season finale airs). The total grand prize for this season is C$2 million, which is split in half across both parts.

Part 1

Total Drama All-Stars is the first part of the season. Christian Potenza first announced the season in an interview with Tom McGillis (the creator of the series), saying that Total Drama All-Stars would be very similar to Total Drama Island and Total Drama: Revenge of the Island, due to the high worldwide ratings of the latter. That means that this part of the season takes place back at Camp Wawanakwa; in a single location once again, unlike Total Drama World Tour. This part is also very similar to the previous season, Total Drama: Revenge of the Island (both being very similar in terms of length, location, features and cameos).

This half is an all-star season which features a return of fourteen of the strongest contestants from both the first and second generation cast. This is the first season to feature characters from two different generations competing together. The theme for this season is "Heroes vs. Villains" which means the competitors were separated into teams based on their past performance; with protagonists or "Heroes" from each season having to face off against each season's antagonists or "Villains". Both the season's first title, "All-Stars" and the "Heroes vs. Villains" theme take after respective seasons from Survivor.

Cartoon Network's official synopsis describes the first part, Total Drama All-Stars as:

Part 2

Total Drama: Pahkitew Island is the second part of the 26 episodes that Cartoon Network ordered in 2012 for the fifth season. It was first announced on June 11, 2013 as a sixth season, even though it is still part of Season 5. This part features an entire new cast considered as the third generation of Total Drama characters and takes place at a brand new island, due to the previous setting having to be retired by the production studio after serving three seasons. This new island is the first new main setting in the series since Total Drama Action.

Part 2 aired in North America throughout the second half of 2014, but Italy was the first country to air Total Drama: Pahkitew Island starting on June 13, 2014. This is the first season to air a new episode every day in the United States, and will also set the studio's record for fastest English airing for any season in the series. This part is being story edited by Terry McGurrin, while Dennis Jackson and Melanie Jackson, series creators of Wapos Bay: The Series, also helped write and consult the plot for TDPI. Total Drama: Pahkitew Island was sponsored by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, who helped with the Cree translations for the team names and various season references.

A general synopsis from Teletoon describes the second part, Total Drama: Pahkitew Island as:

Plot

Both parts feature a fictional titular reality show that follows the competition of fourteen animated teenagers at a fictional island. For Total Drama All-Stars, the original island used in the first season is featured, where the producers say it is located somewhere in Muskoka, Ontario. The second part of the season, Total Drama: Pahkitew Island, features a brand new island which producers say it is located somewhere in Western Canada. The season's animated characters are depicted as campers who is when then participate in themed challenges and must avoid being voted off the island by other fellow campers. At the end of the series, the winning contestant or the last camper to stand on the island will win C$1,000,000. The competition is hosted by Chris McLean (Christian Potenza), who is assisted by the camp's chef, Chef Hatchet (Clé Bennett).

At the beginning of the competition, the fourteen campers are evenly placed into two teams which are themed to the genre of the competition. In each episode, the two teams participate in a challenge, in which one or more campers can win invincibility for their team. The losing team is called to the campfire at night, where they must vote one of their members off the island. The camper with the most votes is eliminated from the competition. At this campfire, McLean passes out marshmallows to the campers who have not been voted off, while the one who does not get a marshmallow is eliminated. That eliminated person must then walk to the island's dock and will be forced off of the island, and told to "never, ever come back", according to Chris.

About halfway through the competition, the teams are disbanded, after which the challenges continue; the winner of each challenge then only receives invincibility for him or herself, whereupon a camper without invincibility is voted off the island. This process of elimination continues on until two players remains on the island. These two players, are now then subject to a final contest. At the end, a camper wins the competition, while the loser ends up being the runner-up. However, the runner-up is the winner in the other ending of the finale, as there are always two endings to Total Drama seasons. This season, along with every other season in the series, is a parody of the reality show Survivor while the host, Chris McLean is very similar to Survivor host Jeff Probst with the evil persona of Fear Factor's Joe Rogan.

Episodes

The first thirteen episodes is an all-star season using fourteen returning characters from the two previous seasons, while the last thirteen episodes will consist of a new cast introducing fourteen new characters. Both halves are part of the 26 episodes that Cartoon Network ordered in 2012. Cartoon Network aired the whole season first starting on September 10, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. EST in the United States, with Teletoon airing the season later on January 9, 2014 at 7:00 p.m. EST.

This season also features the 100th episode of the entire series which was aired in Canada on February 27, 2014. The 100th episode of the series is the 9th episode of this season, "Zeek and Ye Shall Find". All episodes for the fifth season are 21 minutes and 20 seconds long, all of them much shorter than previous seasons. This is the first season to feature a 20-second intro, as every other previous season had a full one-minute intro section.

Part 1 characters

The first part features many returning characters from previous seasons.

Other characters

  • Katie Crown as Izzy from Episode 7
  • Brian Froud as "The Killer" from Episode 1
  • Alex House as "José", Alejandro's brother from Episode 7
  • Scott McCord as Owen from Episode 13
  • Peter Oldring as Ezekiel from Episodes 1 and 9 and an "Intern" from Episode 9
  • James Wallis as "Cop #1" from Episode 8

    • Part 2 characters

    For this segment of the season, many new voice actors had to be hired in order to voice new characters. The only two characters that returned are Chris McLean and Chef Hatchet.

    Characters

    There are 28 characters overall who competed in this season. This sets the series record of having the most characters ever in a single season, the previous record being 22 characters in Total Drama Island.

    Total Drama All-Stars

    Seven characters from Total Drama World Tour and seven characters from Total Drama: Revenge of the Island returned to compete in Total Drama All-Stars. They all competed together during several "Heroes vs. Villains" themed challenges, which means that all the protagonists (heroes) competed against all the antagonists (villains).

    The fourteen returning characters who competed in Total Drama All-Stars are Alejandro, Cameron, Courtney, Duncan, Gwen, Heather, Jo, Lightning, Lindsay, Mike, Sam, Scott, Sierra, and Zoey. The winners are Mike and Zoey, both of them from the second generation cast and both on the Heroes team.

    Main characters

    Main characters appear in every episode of the segment they compete in:

  • Mike (labeled the "Multiple Personality Disorder") is the winner in Total Drama All-Stars. Mike is the only character in the whole series to have multiple voices in the same season all with the same voice actor. The animators had to illustrate five different faces and personalities in the character's body, making Mike the most complicated and diverse character in the series. Cory Doran had to record six different types of voices for Mike. In Total Drama All-Stars, the character Mike serves as the season's main protagonist, while his evil alternate personality, Mal (short for "The Malevolent One"), serves as the main antagonist. Mike's evil personality is a close reference to Yami Marik from Yu-Gi-Oh!, as both are evil split personalities who reside within a person and eventually take over their host, as well as undergoing a change in hairstyle and voice when assuming control. Mal's name and personality was also inspired by the character, Mal Cobb from the movie, Inception. Voiced by Cory Doran.
  • Zoey (labeled the "Indie Chick") is a close reference to Katy Perry or Zoey Deschanel and is one of the main protagonists of this season. She's super fun, cute and easy to get along with all wrapped up in a rockabilly fashion sense. She has an incredibly big heart and only cares about the best for everyone... hero OR villain. Zoey has a tendency to apologize A LOT (even when there's nothing to apologize for) and may come across as a pushover but don't be fooled; push her too far (like separating her from her one true love) and you'll find beneath that passive and cheery demeanor lurks a fierce warrior with MAD SKILLS, known as Commando Zoey. Zoey is the runner-up of this season in Canada and the United States. Voiced by Barbara Mamabolo.

    • Other characters

    Other than the main season winners, other characters from previous seasons also return in Part 1 of this season. Here is a list of all the characters as described by Teletoon for Total Drama All-Stars:

    Out of all the fourteen contestants, half are male and half are female. Seven of them are part of the first generation cast who have all been in Total Drama World Tour, while the other seven are part of the second generation cast who have all competed in Total Drama: Revenge of the Island (the seven being the highest ranking for their season). Out of the seven original contestants, only Alejandro and Sierra have competed in one previous season; the other five have all competed in the first three seasons before Total Drama All-Stars.

    Total Drama: Pahkitew Island

    Previous contestants from past seasons do not compete in Total Drama: Pahkitew Island because this part of the season features an entire new cast. This is the second time the series completely replaces any existing cast with an all new cast, the previous time being in Total Drama: Revenge of the Island. There are fourteen contestants as seen in an official season promo. The new characters competing are Amy, Beardo, Dave, Ella, Jasmine, Leonard, Max, Rodney, Samey, Scarlett, Shawn, Sky, Sugar, and Topher. In October 2013, the second half of the first episode was leaked, revealing Beardo was the first to be eliminated.

    Main characters

    Main characters appear in every episode of the segment they compete in:

  • Shawn, known as the zombie conspiracy nut, is an eccentric homeschooled boy. Growing up he watched too many zombie films, played too many zombie games and read too many zombie books, leading him to be paranoid about zombies. In fact he believes the world has already succumbed to a zombie apocalypse and signed up to Total Drama as he believed residing on an island would increase his chances of survival. He becomes involved with a relationship with Jasmine. His character is a close reference to the main character of the movie, Shaun of the Dead (with his name also mixed with Dawn of the Dead), while his appearance and personality is similar to that of Jude Lizowski from 6teen (another one of Fresh TV's shows). Later, this was show was shown is the United States. Shawn won. He got Jasmine mad because he did not believe in her dream. So to get back with her he shares the money with her and uses his half to make a zombie bunker. Voiced by Zachary Bennett.
  • Sky, known as the athlete, is a kind, athletic, sports girl. She is the first female winner to win in Canada, the country of origin, although she only won in the English version. She is a natural born leader and pulls the team through many challenges. Dave has a crush on her, which Sky originally did not share, however over time the feeling became mutual. Despite this Sky still values winning the competition over a relationship, the two are currently on uneasy terms. In the first episode it's possible that she is fluent in Cree as she rightly translated the team names. Voiced by Sarah Podemski.

    • Other characters

    Two of the characters, Amy and Samey, will be twins, being the first time where related contestants compete in a season together. Scarlett is the first character in the new cast to have her final design revealed. Unlike the first part of the season, the second part of the season will feature no cameos, meaning that any previous contestants will not be seen for the entire season's segment.

    Teams

    Just like the previous four seasons, all of the characters depicted as contestants will be split into two teams for each segment:

    Part 1 teams

    All the fourteen heroes and villains in Total Drama All-Stars are separated evenly into two teams. The first team is called the Heroic Hamsters, which consists of heroes while the second team is called the Villainous Vultures, which consists of villains. There will be seven contestants in Team Heroes and seven on Team Villains as seen in an official Episode 1 preview. Here are the original members of each team, as of Episode 1:

  • Heroic Hamsters: Cameron, Courtney, Lindsay, Mike, Sam, Sierra, and Zoey.
  • Villainous Vultures: Alejandro, Duncan, Gwen, Heather, Jo, Lightning, and Scott.

    • In Episode 3, "Saving Private Leechball", both Duncan and Courtney switch teams due to the former's heroic actions and the latter's villainous actions during the episode's challenge. In Episode 5, "Moon Madness", Cameron tried to vote himself out, but Chris wouldn't let him so Chris switched Cameron instead to the Villainous Vultures (despite Cameron not being a villain).

    Part 2 teams

    There are two teams in Total Drama: Pahkitew Island (both in the Cree language) which are Pimâpotew Kinosewak (translation: Floating Salmons) and Waneyihtam Maskwak (translation: Confused Bears), both of which have seven contestants with a team logo, which is either a green salmon logo or a red bear logo. Here are the original members for each team:

  • Pimâpotew Kinosewak: Amy, Jasmine, Max, Rodney, Samey, Scarlett, and Topher.
  • Waneyihtam Maskwak: Beardo, Dave, Ella, Leonard, Shawn, Sky, and Sugar.

    • Max and Sky switched teams in Episode 20, "This is the Pits!", instead of there being an elimination.

    Cameos

    On July 2013, Cartoon Network started airing season promos that introduced non-competitors like Ezekiel, Izzy, and Owen. Even though they never competed in All-Stars, these characters still went on to have cameo appearances in the season.

    A list of all the cameos in Total Drama All-Stars and their roles during their cameos are shown below:

    There are no cameos in Total Drama: Pahkitew Island as no characters from previous seasons are seen in this segment. The only reference to an original character is Cody's shoe in the episode, "Mo' Monkey, Mo' Problems".

    Production

    On June 28, 2011, Christian Potenza mentioned an upcoming season of Total Drama. This was the first time a cast member mentioned a fifth season to the public. One year later on July 19, 2012, Christian Potenza announced a fifth season of Total Drama in an interview with Tom McGillis, saying that Season 5 will be just like Seasons 1 and 4. This hinted that this season will take place back at an island.

    As shown in the Fresh TV official Website, it seems that there will be 26 new episodes to be aired in 2013–2014 for Season 5. Tom McGillis later stated that the new 26 episodes will be split into two 13-episode seasons; where the first part will feature some of existing cast, while the second part will consist of only new cast which are yet to be introduced. Voice actors began recording lines for Season 5 in December 2012.

    Total Drama All-Stars

    On January 28, 2013, Cartoon Network confirmed that the new season title will be Total Drama All-Stars for Part 1. One day later on January 30, both Christian Potenza and Drew Nelson confirmed the title for Episode 4 which is "Food Fright" Drew Nelson also confirmed that the two new teams for this season are the Heroic Hamsters and the Villainous Vultures. Rumors started floating in early 2010 about the season being "Heroes vs. Villains" and that both the original and the new cast would compete together, but it wasn't until December 19, 2012 when Tom McGillis confirmed on ABC3 Australia that the theme for this season will indeed be "Heroes vs. Villains".

    On February 1, 2013, Christian Potenza released a new video that contains several new information about Total Drama All-Stars, including season episode titles, new voice actors, and plot information. That same day, Christian Potenza also released the first lines of the season from Episode 4:

    On June 11, 2013 it was confirmed that the airdate for the whole season will take place in early 2014; mostly during the winter of 2014. Tom McGillis later confirmed on Twitter that the Canadian airdate will be on January 2014, while the U.S. airdate will be on September 2013. On August 19, 2013, Cartoon Network released the first official trailer for TDAS along with a new website that reveals all the characters. Lindsay's and Jo's elimination were leaked via episode scripts and trailers long before the season started airing.

    Total Drama: Pahkitew Island

    As for Total Drama: Pahkitew Island, production is done and it has been released in the United States. The season was first announced to air on May 27, but was later delayed to July 7. This part is under the same production code as the previous part, Total Drama All-Stars. However, the script for the entire first episode was leaked online about a year before the season's release. Scarlett's final design along with one second of the fully animated first episode was also leaked on Instagram by her Venezuelan Spanish voice actor.

    On March 21, 2014, the entire cast design was revealed by Fresh TV along with new promotions for the season. Bryn McAuley who will be voicing the twins, Amy and Samey, was the first confirmed voice actress. On April 9, 2014, Fresh TV Inc. celebrated the International Day of Pink by making the TDPI cast all wear pink clothing, symbolizing the support for anti-bullying. Before the official cast release Sunday Muse was also confirmed to voice Ella, while Ian Ronningen was set to voice Rodney. On May 30, 2014 a new teaser trailer was released for TDPI in Italy, marking the first time fully animated scenes were released to the public. Several trailers in English were released later in Cake Entertainment's website. On June 16, Cartoon Network posted the Pahkitew Island website, along with the audition tapes for Sugar, Samey, Amy, Leonard, and Max. Italy was the first country to air full episodes for Pahkitew Island. On June 23, the audition tapes of Beardo, Rodney, Ella, Topher, and Dave were released. On June 26, the entire cast and the characters they voiced were released via Fresh's re:fresh blog. On July 1, ABC3 announced that Total Drama: Pahkitew Island will air July 14, 2014 in Australia.

    Ratings

    Total Drama All-Stars was the #1 telecast on Cartoon Network with the highest ratings for the week of the season premiere. Additionally, it ranked as the #1 telecast on all television among boys 6–11 and 9–14 for Tuesday prime-time airings. It also claimed #1 in its 7 p.m. time period among kids 9–14 and boys 6–11 and 9–14.

    Critical reaction

    Total Drama All Stars has received mostly negative reviews. It currently holds a 5.4 rating on Metacritic based on 9 reviews. Total Drama: Pahkitew Island, however, was considerably more positive. The season currently holds a 73% approval rating according to Rotten Tomatoes.

    References

    Total Drama All-Stars and Pahkitew Island Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA