Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
| Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends | |
|---|---|
| File:FostersLogo2.jpg | |
| Created by | Craig McCracken |
| Starring | Keith Ferguson Sean Marquette Candi Milo Tom Kenny Phil LaMarr Grey DeLisle Tom Kane Tara Strong |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 61 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 22 minutes approx. |
| Original release | |
| Network | Cartoon Network |
| Release | August 13, 2004 – Present |
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (sometimes called Foster's for short, and abbreviated as "FHIF"/"FHFIF") is an Emmy-Winning American animated television series created and produced at Cartoon Network Studios by animator Craig McCracken, who also created The Powerpuff Girls. It first premiered on Cartoon Network on August 13, 2004, as a 90-minute television movie, which led to a series of half-hour episodes. The series currently airs on Cartoon Network and its affiliates worldwide, except in Canada where it currently airs on English and Francophone Teletoon networks due to Canadian television ownership regulations.
Overview
Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends is a cartoon that takes place in a home where imaginary friends go when their creators outgrow them. The inspiration came when McCracken and his wife, Lauren Faust, adopted a pair of dogs from an adoption shelter. McCracken wondered how things would be if there was a similar place for childhood imaginary friends.
The World of Foster's
In this world, imaginary friends become real the instant a child imagines them; unlike how the concept often works on other shows, an Imaginary Friend is totally real, and can be seen, heard and felt by all under most circumstances. Unfortunately for the imaginary friends, the children outgrow them. When that happens, the friends are left to fend for themselves. Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends was founded by the elderly Madame Foster to provide a foster home (hence the title) for abandoned imaginary friends; their motto is "Where good ideas are not forgotten." There are (according to "Setting A President") 1,340 imaginary friends at Foster's Home. It has been suggested that the house itself may be imaginary, as well. In the end of "Emancipation Complication" Madame Foster states that there are 2,038 imaginary friends currently residing in the house plus Bloo and Mr. Herriman, suggesting that the house may have grown larger during the time. This is probably why they were very busy and overcrowded in that same episode.
Geography
Foster's home for imaginary friends is set in an unknown state and city on 1123 Wilson Way. The founder of the town is revealed in the episode "Challenge of the Superfriends" to be Elwood P. Dowd, the main character in the play "Harvey". There is a 1123 Wilson Way in Stockton, California, but this could simply be a coincidence. In the episode "Squeeze The Day," the Foster's friends are at a beach while Bloo watches a weather station on cable, which is reporting on the weather in Spokane, Washington, but it also says the weather in Topeka, Kansas at least five times in the episode, whereas Spokane is mentioned once. In "A Lost Claus," it is seen that in winter there is snow. In "Imposter's Home For Um…Make 'Em Up Pals," the new imaginary friend, Goofball John McGee, says he is from Canada. And when his creator came with his parents to pick him up, they mentioned that they took train A, and that it only took 45 minutes, along with two stops. These clues place the setting somewhere vaguely in the northern half of United States.
In the episode "Bus The Two Of Us," a sign for Northern New Hampshire is partially seen during Bloo's road trip. In "Good Wilt Hunting", Wilt's destination on a road map resembles Nevada. Frankie exclaims that the destination is across the country. Judging by the bus schedule in the movie, the bus route on Nina Valarosa's map, and where she points to on it in reference to Wilt's first stop, Foster's Home (or at least, the bus depot) is roughly 600-700 miles east-northeast of Wilt's destination. Also in "Good Wilt Hunting", Nina Valarosa has a flashback to when she was little and is bullied by gangsters; it appears that the park where this occurred is the famous Downtown Los Angeles park, McArthur park. Foster's may be near Los Angeles; then again, in one episode, Bloo mentions that he received a letter "all the way from Los Angeles", and in another episode, Bloo receives two 5 dollar bills from the bank and says they're "all the way from San Francisco." So it's possible Nina could have once lived in Los Angeles, but moved to the city Foster's take place in. But again, it is also entirely possible she was only visiting the city for a few days because of the reunion between friend and creator held every five years. However due to Craig McCracken being from Detroit, Michigan there has been several references to the city and state, such as the climate (it snows, and it's very misty during the winter), the nearest interstate being I-75, and in one episode Bloo reveals hes a "Detroit Lions fan".
Facts About Friends
The exact information about Imaginary Friends (or "Friends" for short) is given in bits and pieces throughout the show. Imaginary Friends are fully "real" once created, and can be seen by anyone, not only their creators. Often, they take the form of something strange and bizarre from the child's imagination---examples include Dutchess or Coco. Other Imaginary Friends seem to be very simple, especially those made by younger children, such as Bloo or the Scribbles. Many Friends (particularly unimportant ones) seem to be nothing more than normal objects brought to life---for example, Foster's Home has a fridge Friend named Fridgey, an oven Friend named Oveny, etc. Still other Friends look human---for example, at Christmas time children often become so excited they imagine up Friends who look like Santa Claus, leading to a high concentration of them at Foster's each December.
Two "subspecies" of Imaginary Friend are known: Scribbles, which are created by very small children, and Extremosauruses, created by teenagers. The former are small and look, essentially, like scribbled lines a child might draw; they are very bothersome and, as a result, Foster's kept them locked in a single room of the house for a long while. They are not very intelligent, but the other Friends of the house eventually realized they could teach each one a single task to do. Extremosauruses are more varied, and are incredibly dangerous; they usually appear as monsters. They are normally locked up in a cage behind the house.
Imaginary Friends very rarely age or change their appearance at any point in their lives. It is unknown if Friends marry or have children---a character once thought Mr. Herriman and Coco were married, however, he was also shown to be very ignorant about Friends, so this may have been an error on his part. There is some indication Imaginary Friends can have children---such as Bloo, pretending to be an old man, claiming Mac was his descendant (with no one even arguing about the issue of species). Imaginary Friends imagined by the same person can be called "siblings," however, as if their creators were a parent (though, in one case, Imaginary Friends created by real-life siblings referred to each other as brother and sister, rather than cousins). It is unknown how old Imaginary Friends can live to be, or indeed, if they die at all. Imaginary Friends may only 'die' if they are forgotten entirely, hence the Foster's motto. But apparently in the episode "Seeing Red", Terrence creates an imaginary friend that is literally a slice of pizza, where he proceeds to eat him. It's unknown if this is supposed to be a joke, or imaginary friends made to become food items and be eaten, and killed.
Imaginary Friends are created by humans, and their creation seems to be a mixture of conscious and subconscious on the part of the creator---for example, Nina Valarossa (Eduardo's creator) explained that she consciously created Eduardo to protect her from bullies and be her playmate; however, she unconsciously created his timid personality because it allowed her to stand up in defense of him, teaching her to be braver. It is interesting to note that often, Friends and their creators have differing personalities (such as well-behaved Mac producing selfish Bloo, or wild Madame Foster creating stuffy Mr. Herriman); this may be related to how a Friend is made in a child's mind.
Imaginary friend are often created when a child need something,like Terrence imagined two imaginary friends in "Seeing Red",a talking slice of pizza because he was hungry and Red because he needed someone to beat up Bloo. In the episodes of "Good Wilt Hunting" another fact about imaginary friends is discovered,that they can lose or break their limbs,like Wilt,when he played with his creator against a heavy basketball-headed friend that almost crushed his creator. Wilt quickly pushed his creator and got his arm severely crushed and his eye-stalk broken. Imaginary Food friends are the most endangered Imaginary friends of all because they can be eaten,as seen in "The Dinner Is Swerved" where a chicken leg like friend told Mac and Bloo that he escaped from fat camp because they ate them there.
Characters
Episode list
The show currently has 56 episodes spanning across five seasons. Along with full episodes the show also has 19 shorts. New episodes will start for the 2nd week in HullabaNew.
Awards
Annie Awards
The show was nominated for four Annie Awards in 2004, and five more in 2005, winning two awards that year for Best Original Music in a Television Series (James L. Venable and Jennifer Kes Remington for "Duchess of Wails") and Production Design in an Animated TV Series (McCracken with Mike Moon, David Dunnet and Martin Ansolabehere for the Christmas episode "A Lost Claus"). Five more nominations came in 2006, with three wins as Best Animated Television Production, Best Original Music in a TV Series (Venable and Remington winning again for "One False Movie") and Production Design in a TV Series (Ansolabehere by himself for the one-hour "Good Wilt Hunting" episode).
Emmy Awards
The show has won a total of four Emmy Awards. The episode "House of Bloo's" won two Emmy Awards for art direction (Mike Moon) and character design (Craig McCracken). "World Wide Wabbit" won an Emmy for best storyboard (Ed Baker). The show's theme song (described by McCracken as "psychedelic ragtime" and written by Venable) was nominated for Best TV Show Theme in 2005, but lost to Danny Elfman's theme to Desperate Housewives. The episode "Go Goo Go" was nominated for Best Animated Program Under One Hour in 2006, and Character Design supervisor Shannon Tindle won an Emmy that same year for that same episode. The 2006 episode "Good Wilt Hunting" is nominated in 2007 for Best Animated Program One Hour or Longer.
DVDs
Season Sets
| Artwork | Title | Release date | Episodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| File:Foster'sHome S1.jpg | Season 1 | March 6, 2007 | 1-13 |
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All 13 episodes from Season One, including the Pilot movie, "House of Bloos" (released here as three separate parts). Also included:
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| Artwork | Title | Release date | Episodes |
| File:RevisedFostersSeason2DVDcover.jpg | Season 2 | September 11, 2007 | 14-26 |
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All 13 episodes from Season Two. Also included:
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| Artwork | Title | Release date | Episodes |
| Season 3 | March 5, 2008 | 27-39 | |
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Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: The Complete Season 3, is scheduled to be released sometime in March of 2008, according to reports. Included in The Complete Season Three will be:
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Other DVDs
- Cartoon Network Halloween Vol. 3: Sweet, Sweet Fear! — "Bloooo"
- Cartoon Network Fridays, Vol. 1 — "Bloo's Brothers"
- Cartoon Network Christmas Vol. 3 — "Store Wars"
Merchandising
Other than in-house items such as Cartoon Network's internet shop (T-Shirts, a Bloo plush, etc.), there has not been much as far as major products. As of 2006, there has been a statue series with Bloo, Mac, and Eduardo featured in the first statue. A second statue features Frankie, Madame Foster, and Mr. Herriman released in December of 2006, and the third in the series featuring Wilt and Coco was released in January of 2007. Two limited edition giclée cels — one with the cast posing for a picture, the other styled like a cross-stitch — were also created. Since then, the merchandising has begun to pick up steam. Burger King had nine toys in a kids meal give-away promotion in April and May of 2006, Scholastic Books has printed activity and story books based on episodes, and the complete first season of episodes were made available on Apple's iTunes downloading service as well as a Game Boy Advance game created by CRAVE Entertainment made its' debut in the Fall of 2006. A new game for Nintendo DS will debut in the fall of 2007 titled "Imagination Invaders". In September, a Foster's toy was part of a McDonald's Happy Meal toy giveaway.
Since January of 2007, as part of an overall deal with Cartoon Network, Mattel has released items related to the mass marketing of the show. Additionally, t-shirts and other merchandise featuring the characters made by punk rock clothing and accessory maker Loungefly have been appearing in popular stores such as Hot Topic.
Big Fat Awesome House Party
On May 15, 2006, Cartoon Network introduced a new online game, Big Fat Awesome House Party, which allows players to create an online friend to join Bloo and the others in a one-year game online, and earn points that would give them gifts cards and other on-line "merchandise" for their albums and that friend made from one of over 900,000 possible characters could wind up in a future episode of Foster's. The game has become so popular, in May of 2007, Cartoon Network announced that the game would continue for six more months, into November of that year. BFAHP web site
Other Online Games
- Midflight Snack: Catapult Mac, Bloo, and Eduardo into the air for a high-flying late-night kitchen raid.
- Outer Space Trace: Create constellations and score big combos by connecting stars in the night sky.
- Scared Sweet: It's Halloween and Mac and the gang are playing "Trick or Treat". Help them scare up some Halloween treats. If each level is failed, you'll always start it again.
- Wheeeee!: Take Cheese on a daredevil, downhill go-kart ride. Just don't go too fast.
- Utter Nonsense: Use your microphone to chat with Cheese in the silliest conversation ever.
- Coco's Egg Scramble: Coco runs around and lays her colorful eggs. Help Mac crack open Coco's falling eggs and catch the crazy prizes inside.
- Door to Door: Use your memory to match the imaginary friends as you make your way deeper into the mansion. Be careful! You play on time. Good Luck!
- Wilt's Wash n' Swoosh: Wilt takes the laundry to the hoop for a basketball-style day at the cleaners! Help him throw the laundry clothes to the washing machines.
- A Friend in Need: Help Wilt, Edurado and Coco throw Bloo safetly and don't let millionaire's spoiled daughter get him. Keep doing it until Mac gets to Foster's!
- Simply Smashing: Duchess is breaking all the Foster's possessions. Make sure you don't drop 5 items and get the biggest score you can get!
- Big Shot Checkers: It's the first Player versus Computer game. Play as Mac or Bloo in an action-packed game of checkers with a twist.
- Teamwork: Help Mac capture all the bombs with Coco's eggs and help Bloo outrun to Extreme-o-Saures.
Other countries
Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends can be seen in many languages on various channels worldwide. While most of these are Cartoon Network affiliates (except in Canada, where due to Canadian television rules the show airs on the English and French Teletoon networks), a few are not, mostly over-the-air or terrestrial channels.
In France, it airs on France 3 during the France Truc block, in Brazil on SBT, in Mexico on Televisa, in Spain on Cuatro TV, in Ireland on TG4, in Germany on Super RTL, and in the Philippines on GMA Network.
Because of translation, the title for the show is not always the same in each language. The titles for the show vary from country to country.
Parodies
- The Grim Reaper, from the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, was insisted by Billy's mother to watch some cartoons. An obvious parody of the show, named "Fister's House for Crazy Weirdo Made-Up People", shows misdrawn recreations of the imaginary creatures, including Bloo (in Pink, shorter, and more uneducated), and included Mac, shown with a different-shaped head. Seconds later, after no apparent reason, to show the mishaps on the show, the differently-designed house blows up.[2]
- An episode of The Buzz on Maggie called "Le Termite", where there is a termite restaurant, serves a dish made of a miniature wooden model of the house in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.
References
External links
- Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends at IMDb
- Official UK Website
- Super Cartoon Network
- BLOGregard Q. Kazoo, the official production blog for the show.
- The Very Unofficial Guide to Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, a fan site with an interview with McCracken and show information hosted by Toon Zone.
- Never Forgotten, A Foster's fansite maintained by Cynthia "Sparky" Read.
- Official US Website
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