| Creator: | David Feiss |
| Director: | David Feiss |
| Country: | United States Canada South Korea |
| Language: | English |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 26 (52 segments) |
| List Episodes: |
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| Producer: | Christine Danzo |
| Editor: | Kevin Yi |
| Runtime: | 22 minutes[1] |
| Company: | Toonzone Studios |
| Network: | Cartoon Network (Latin America) ABC (Australia) Pop (UK) |
YooHoo & Friends is an animated series, produced by Toonzone Studios and is loosely based on the Korean children's toyline of the same name by Aurora World. Created by David Feiss, known for his work on Cow and Chicken, the series both serves as a gag dub and retelling of the original 2009 South Korean animated series based on the YooHoo and Friends franchise, with comedic and satirical changes being made in order for western audiences to relate to the series more.[2] The series follows a group of corrupt corporate executives who are turned into the eponymous animal gang by Father Time and are tasked with traveling around the world to fix all of the environmental disasters that they caused. The series debuted on January 8, 2012, airing in Latin America on Cartoon Network, in the UK on Pop and in Australia on ABC.[3]
YooHoo & Friends is about five executives who work for a fictional corporation called Nasty Corp. When Mother Nature notices that they've been slowly destroying the earth through water, air, and land pollution, she pressures Father Time to stop them from completely destroying the Earth by turning them into five baby animals. Together, Lemmee the sourpuss, Roodee the inventor, Pammee the princess, Chewoo the optimist, and YooHoo the leader save the world from all the environmental disasters they caused as their human-selves, in return for the gemstones Father Time planted in the locations they visit. When all of the gems are found, the Furry 5 can make a wish to become human again.
Each episode includes a narration from Father Time as he goes back to certain past time periods and adjusts them.
David Feiss stated in an interview that he was contacted by Konnie Kwak, the president of Toonzone Studios, to make the original YooHoo & Friends series 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 Flavor Flav, the voice of Father Time and he agreed to be on the show.[2]
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 South 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.[4]
On October 14, 2010, Flav narrated a sneak peek of the series for MIPJunior that was uploaded by Toonzone to YouTube. By 2013, the video was privated.
Eventually, the opportunity to fully develop another season for the series was postponed, causing Toonzone Studios to take legal action against Aurora World over the contractual copyrights of the series,[5] that caused Aurora World to end up breaking the deal with Toonzone and licensing its franchise to Lawless Entertainment in June 2014.[6]
YooHoo & Friends debuted on Cartoon Network's Movimiento/Movimento Cartoon block in Latin America on January 8, 2012,[3] and later on Boomerang. The second season of the original series also premiered on Boomerang on March 1, 2015,[7] advertised as if it were the same series. The series also premiered on ABC Me in Australia on February 15, 2012,[8] and on Pop in the United Kingdom in the same year.[9]
The series' 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,"[10] but this never happened.
A game for the series called "Fling the Furry 5" was released on the now defunct YooHooWorldWide website. Toonzone Studios also planned to release a new line of plush toys, playsets, and light up dolls for the series[11] that never happened.