Genre AdventureComedy | ||
Based on "유후와 친구들"by Aurora World Voices of Flavor FlavMara KayCedric ThemoleMark MathisonJan BosMichelle Brezinski Theme music composer Rich DickersonGigi Meroni |
YooHoo & Friends is an American animated television adaptation of the Korean animated television series YooHoo & Friends, created by David Feiss. The series debuted on Cartoon Network's Movimiento/Movimento Cartoon block in Latin America on January 8, 2012. The series also premiered on ABC Me on February 15, and on Pop in the same year.
Contents
Premise
YooHoo & Friends is about five executives who worked for Nasty Corporation. When Mother Nature notices that they've been slowly destroying the world, she pressures Father Time to stop them from polluting the Earth by turning them into five animals. Together, Lemmee, Roodee, Pammee, Chewoo, and their leader YooHoo, save the world from all of the environmental disasters they caused as their former human selves, in return for the gems Father Time planted in the locations they visit. If all of them are found, the Furry 5 will be able to make a wish to become humans again.
Main characters
Recurring characters
Production
David Feiss stated in an interview that he was contacted by Konnie Kwak, the president of Toonzone Studios, to make the show into something he could sell to western television. He then 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." He rewrote dialogue, and created 4 minutes of new animation per episode. Feiss has also said that he moved to a house across from Flava Flav, the voice of Father Time, and he agreed to be on the show.
Kwak once saw YooHoo & Friends stuffed toys, and thought "they looked pretty cute. 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 [they planned] to repurpose the episodes to broaden the market." The team had prepared the adaptation for a six to 12-year-old demographic.
The distributor, Moonscoop US, originally planned for the show to air on French and German-speaking territories across Europe, "with hopes to reach televisions in next summer," but this never happened. In addition, Toonzone Studios also planned to release a new line of plush toys, playsets, and light up dolls. Eventually, the series wasn't renewed for another season, causing Toonzone Studios to take legal action against Aurora World over the contractual rights of the series. Aurora World ended up breaking the deal with Toonzone, and licensed its franchise to its new distributor, Lawless Entertainment, in June 2014.