Happy Tree Friends
American adult animated series
Happy Tree Friends (HTF) is an adult-oriented Flash-animated web series created by Aubrey Ankrum, Rhode Montijo, and Kenn Navarro, and developed by Montijo, Navarro, and Warren Graff for Mondo Media. A parody of the kids' show genre, the series follows the misadventures of cute anthropomorphic forest animals, who live initially peaceful lives until they are killed or injured in sudden, usually accidental, and extremely graphically violent incidents. Debuting in December 2000, Happy Tree Friends has achieved a cult following on Mondo's website and YouTube channel and expanded into a multimedia franchise, which includes the television series of the same name.
History
While working with Mondo Media, Rhode Montijo drew a character on a piece of scrap paper, who would later become Shifty. He then drew a yellow rabbit that bore some resemblance to Cuddles, writing "Resistance is futile" underneath it on a spreadsheet poster. Montijo hung the drawing up in his workstation so other people could see his idea, and eventually, the idea was pitched to and accepted by the Mondo Media executives. In 1999, Mondo gave Aubrey Ankrum, Rhode Montijo, and Kenn Navarro a chance to do a short for them. They came up with a short named "Banjo Frenzy," which featured a dinosaur (an earlier version of Lumpy) murdering three woodland animals, a squirrel, a rabbit, and a beaver (earlier versions of Giggles, Cuddles, and Toothy) with a banjo. From there, Mondo gave them their own Internet series, which they named Happy Tree Friends.
Although the first episodes of Happy Tree Friends were produced in 1999, they weren't released online until sometime in 2000 and became an unexpected success, getting over 15 million hits each month, along with screenings at film festivals.
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