Happy Tree Friends: Complete Season One

I first came across Happy Tree Friends 10 years ago, on MTV2, and, though I enjoyed it, never subsequently gave it much thought. I thought it was an extremely innovative and funny mix of sadistic violence and flash animation to create something that I had never seen before.

Created by Rhode Montijo, Kenn Navarro, Warren Graff and Aubrey Ankrum, Happy Tree Friends is a cartoon that follows the adventures of a group of cute woodland critters who die in particularly nasty and graphic ways in each 7-minute episode. It may take your while to figure out exactly what animal each character is supposed to be and why a moose would hang around with a beaver, mole or chipmunk and why a couple of raccoons would career criminals. In the end, it doesn't really matter as you are really watching it for is to figure out which one is going to die first, and how!

The show began on the Internet and was featured in many television shows, before gaining its own series in 2006. It now has a huge following, with millions of hits on YouTube and iTunes.

This first season contains the episodes:
Disc One:
1. The Wrong Side Of The Tracks
2. From Hero To Eternity
3. And The Kitchen Sink
4. Party Animal
5. Ipso Fatso
6. Don't Yank My Chain!
7. Dog Gone It!
8. Concrete Solution
9. Sea What I Found


Disc Two:
1. Easy for You to Sleigh
2. Wishy Washy
3. Who's to Flame?
4. Every Litter Bit Hurts
5. As You Wish!
6. Take a Hike
7. Show Place to Go
8. Dunce Upon a Time
9. Gems The Breaks


Disc Three:
1. A Change of Heart
2. Hole Lotta Love
3. Mime to Five
4. Blast from the Past
5. Chew Said a Mouthful
6. See What Develops
7. Idol Curiosity
8. Home Is Where the Hurt Is
9. Aw Shucks!


Disc Four:
1. Sight for Sore Eyes
2. Wipe Out!
3. Letter Late Than Never
4. Wingin' It
5. Tongue in Cheek
6. Easy Comb, Easy Go
7. I've Got You Under My Skin
8. In a Jam
9. Junk in the Trunk
10. Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow
11. Double Whammy Autopsy Turvy


Every episode tends to feature a different character as the 'lead' and involve a different selection of the approximately 20 different characters, some of whom, like Pop & Cub and Lifty & Shifty, are never seen apart. This means that you never get tired of one particular character as it can be several episodes from one appearance to the next and, when you do see them, they will be teamed with a different selection of their 'friends' and acquaintances.

I don't really think I could pick out a favourite episode or one that I disliked as they all tend to be about the same quality and with the same amount of ridiculously brutal kills and accidental deaths. The only character that does puzzle me is Mole as he always seems to have an occupation in which sight would be one of the most important qualities you would look for in a candidate. Anyway, logic is hardly one of the show's strong points as it is just something that you can watch without having to think about it too strongly, go with the flow and laugh at the many funny moments.

The Disc

Extra Features
Each episode has a commentary which do tend to get a little samey after a while so it is probably better to dip in and out rather than do them all in a marathon sitting. What the guys have to say is interesting and informative, but I wouldn't recommend spending hours watching them!

There is also a storyboard for every episode which has to be manually navigated but does show the level of detail than the animators go into prior to having the show finalised.

There are a variety of different featurettes across the four discs covering such strange things as a tour of the office, a selection of hate mail, some of the cast and crew wondering about what happened to Pop's wife and the voice actors talking about their characters and how they became involved in the show.


The Picture
The flash animation is extremely simple with very bright and vibrant colours so it does take on a slightly surreal and bizarre quality with the weird character designs and strange situations. Edges are very sharp and there is no sign of any flaws from an NTSC-to-PAL transfer so I can only imagine this is from the source material.

The writers are a great job in creating and changing locations so you never really get bored with the death scenes happening in one place as they move from our house to a restaurant to an outdoor location and then back again. This allows different characters to become involved in different ways and, of course, to maximise the different ways to kill people!


The Sound
This isn't exactly the sort of show that demands a 5.1 surround soundtrack but the one that is there has positives as well as negatives. Although the rear surrounds are used to good effect to really emphasise the violence with crunching bones, skin tearing and high-pitched screaming, it occasionally gets a little bit too much and you feel as if the mix is employing the rear speakers too much and that sounds that should be delivered through the centre and front surrounds are being filtered through the rear surrounds almost for the sheer hell of it.

The voice acting is extremely strange as it isn't really an identifiable language despite the odd phrase clearly being in English. The animals all have their own fairly distinctive 'voice' although a great deal of what the voice actors actually do is just scream!

Final Thoughts
Happy Tree Friends is far from the most sophisticated, intelligent and highbrow TV show you will ever see, but that's not what it is designed to be; it is a show that has outrageous cartoon violence and a level of sadism that I thought didn't really exist! It's funny how quickly you become immune to the violence and find yourself looking forward to the next death scene rather than being shocked by what you have just seen.

This is the perfect sort of show to put on late one night for about an hour of animated extremes whilst you wind down before heading off to bed as it is relatively untaxing and you will undoubtedly find yourself laughing out loud at some of the more extreme elements. As there is no continuity, you don't need to follow a narrative arc or really engage with the characters -- just watch it and enjoy it for the outrageous and gratuitous amounts of violence.