YooHoo & Friends (2012 TV series)

YooHoo & Friends
Genre	Adventure Comedy
Created by	David Feiss
Based on	"유후와 친구들" by Aurora World
Directed by	David Feiss
Voices of	Flavor Flav
Theme music composer	Rich Dickerson Luigi Meroni
Composer(s)	Rich Dickerson Luigi Meroni
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	52 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	David Feiss Konnie Kwak
Producer(s)	Christine Danzo
Editor(s)	Kevin Yi
Running time	12 minutes[1]
Production company(s)	Toonzone Studios
Release
Original network	ABC Me Cartoon Network Pop
Picture format	1080i (16:9 HDTV)
First shown in	Latin America
Original release	January 8 (2012-01-08) – August 20, 2012 (2012-08-20)[2]
Chronology
Related shows	유후와 친구들

YooHoo & Friends is an American animated television adaptation of the Korean animated television series YooHoo & Friends, created by David Feiss. In Latin America, YooHoo & Friends debuted on Cartoon Network's Movimiento/Movimento Cartoon block on January 8, 2012.^[3] The series also premiered in Australia on ABC Me on February 15,^[4] and Pop in the same year.^[5]

Premise

YooHoo & Friends is about five executives who work for Nasty Corporation. Father Time decides to stop them from polluting the Earth, and turns them into five animals. Together, Lemmee, Roodee, Pammee, Chewoo, and their leader YooHoo, must save the world from all of the eco-disasters they've caused as humans, in return for the gems that Father Time planted, which, if all found, will allow them to become humans again.

History

Aurora World gave David Feiss, creator of Cow and Chicken and I Am Weasel, the permission to make an English dub of the first season of YooHoo & Friends. 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.^[6]

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 we plan to repurpose the episodes to broaden the market." The team had prepared the adaptation for a six to 12-year-old demographic.^[7]

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.^[8] Aurora World ended up breaking the deal with Toonzone, and licensed its franchise to its new distributor, Lawless Entertainment, in June 2014,^[9] and the show gained a new English dub based solely on the original.

Characters

Main characters

• Father Time (voiced by Flavor Flav) is an ogre who controls time and acts as the narrator of the series, introducing each episode. He gives the previous executives the task to find gemstones in order to become human again.
• Mother Nature (voiced by Mara Kay) is Father Time's wife. She was hurt and angered by Nasty Corporation's environmental destruction, and ordered Father Time to stop it immediately. She loves her husband, and always tries to keep him on track with the Furry 5 and their task to find the gemstones.
• YooHoo (voiced by Cedric Themole) is a bush baby, and the leader of the Furry 5 who guides the others in search for gemstones. He has cream and grey fur, blue eyes, and a blue and grey striped tail.
• Lemmee (voiced by Mark Mathison) is a ring-tailed lemur, and the sourpuss. He constantly tries to convince the others that he should be the leader instead of YooHoo. He has grey and black fur, yellow eyes, and a grey and white striped tail.
• Roodee (voiced by Jan Bos) is a capuchin monkey, and the inventor. He has brown fur and yellow eyes.
• Pammee (voiced by Michelle Brezinski) is a fennec fox, and the princess. She has a connection to nature, and can understand when an animal is hurt or a tree is thirsty. She has white fur, pink eyes, and a pink and white striped tail.
• Chewoo (voiced by Mara Kay) is a red squirrel, and the cheerleader. She is always excited and happy, even in the most dangerous of situations. She has red and white fur and pink eyes.
• Pookee 1, 2, and 16 are a trio of meerkats who try to steal the Furry 5's gems to make their wish. They have brown fur, green eyes, and purple, pink and yellow eye markings and tail tips.

Recurring characters

• Santa Claus (voiced by David Feiss) is Father Time's next door neighbor, and has a rivalry relationship with him.
• The Easter Bunny is another friend to Father Time.
• Leper is a leprechaun who's also friends with Father Time.
• Hapee is a purple lesser panda with pink eyes and a purple and white striped tail, who lives in a desert.

Minor characters

• Lio is a yellow and orange Barbary lion, who has purple eyes and purple paws. In one episode, his mane turned blue.
• Loonee is a grey and white snowy owl with yellow eyes. He loves to sing and sometimes helps YooHoo and his friends.
• Libby is a gold and purple Iberian lynx with purple eyes. He is very handsome.
• Ruby is a red fox with pink eyes.
• Lenny is a gold and purple Iberian lynx. He is a cousin of Libby and is very clever.
• RingRing is a black and white giant panda with green eyes. He has a huge crush on Chewoo.
• Sparkee is a black and pink striped skunk with pink eyes, who likes to meditate.
• Rino is a green and yellow Javan rhinoceros with pink eyes. In one episode, YooHoo and his friends have to babysit him while mother is elsewhere.
• Josee is a blue and purple tarsier with light green eyes. Roodee was jealous of him and later he became friends with him after he saved him from a carnivorous plant which nearly swallowed him.
• Sasa is a grey Japanese macaque with a pink face and yellow eyes, who is a warrior and has a tough personality.
• Shooga, Sasha and Sesha are pink and grey sugar glider siblings with yellow, blue and green eyes. They live in a paradise, and are friends with Tiki.
• Tiki is a brown platypus with yellow eyes.
• Kookee is a blue and white fairy penguin with yellow eyes. He is very playful and later reunites with his family and the other penguins.
• Lora is a red, yellow and blue scarlet macaw with blue eyes, who made up games for YooHoo and Friends and the meerkat brothers to compete against each other, along with two other macaws, which are blue and green.
• Ricky is a brown spectacled bear with yellow eyes. He has poor eyesight, so Roodee later gives him glasses, and he is friends with Sunny.
• Sunny is a golden lion tamarin with blue eyes, who is good friends with Ricky.
• Ping is a pink Amazon river dolphin with pink eyes.
• Ca and Nook are two brown and purple American beavers with yellow and purple eyes. They are brothers and like building dams.
• Koolar is a blue and purple Steller's sea lion with yellow eyes. He helps YooHoo and his friends look for the last gem.

Episodes

Series overview

References

External links

• YooHoo & Friends on ABC Me