Grojband

Grojband
A promotional poster depicting the main characters; from left to right: Laney, Corey, Kin and Kon.
Genre	Comedy Musical
Created by	Todd Kauffman Mark Thornton
Written by	Mike Kiss Craig Martin Kyle Hart Laurie Elliott Amy Cole Meghan Read
Voices of	Lyon Smith Alyson Court Bryn McAuley Tim Beresford Sergio Di Zio Denise Oliver Graeme Cornies Dwayne Hill
Composers	Brian Pickett Graeme Cornies
Country of origin	Canada
Original languages	English French
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	26 (52 shorts) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Tom McGillis Jennifer Pertsch Brian Irving George Elliott Bob Higgins Sander Schwartz
Running time	22 minutes (11 minutes per short)
Production companies	Fresh TV Neptoon Studios Teletoon Original Production
Original release
Network	Teletoon/ Cartoon Network (Canada) (CAN) Cartoon Network/ Boomerang (USA) Netflix (online streaming)
Release	June 10, 2013 (2013-06-10) – April 12, 2015? (2015?-04-12)

Grojband is a Canadian educational animated series developed by Fresh TV and distributed by FremantleMedia, Ltd. (FME). The series is created and co-directed by Todd Kauffman (co-creator of Sidekick) and Mark Thornton. Executive Producers are Tom McGillis, Jennifer Pertsch, creators of the hit animated reality franchise Total Drama. It is geared toward children ages 6 to 11. The series premiered on June 10, 2013 in the United States and on September 5, 2013 in Canada.

Synopsis

Grojband follows an indie rock band formed by Corey and his three best friends, Laney and twin brothers Kin and Kon, as they work to propel their garage band to international stardom. When they don't have the lyrics, Corey and his friends get Trina, Corey's sister, into an emotional mode to write entries in her diary that Corey can use for lyrical inspiration, so that Corey and his friends can perform a perfect song.

Characters

Grojband

• Corey Jaron Riffin (voiced by Lyon Smith) – Corey is the charming, laid-back and quirky 13-year-old leader, vocalist, occasional rapper, and guitarist of Grojband. Although kind, he will do whatever it takes to play music, which is usually by angering his sister, Trina, who will write in her diary. He then translates her venting into lyrics for their songs.
• Laney Penn (voiced by Bryn McAuley) – Short in stature, but tall in ambition. Laney is the bassist and self-proclaimed band manager of Grojband. She is a fiery redhead, and is the only female in the band, the latter which everyone else aren't able to acknowledge. She tends to be the most rational member of the band, mainly because she cares about the others, but is usually prone to giving in to Corey and his schemes. This is because she has a crush on Corey, to which Corey is oblivious to. Laney also plays the violin, as seen in several episodes. Her name is a pun on the Beatles song Penny Lane.
• Kin Kujira (voiced by Sergio Di Zio) – Kin is the keyboardist of the band, and Kon's twin brother. He has a knack for technology, and usually builds strange gadgets that help the band.
• Kon Kujira (voiced by Tim Beresford) – Kon is the drummer of the band, and Kin's twin brother. Kon is overweight and sometimes dense, but is usually well-meaning with a childish demeanor. He sometimes "pecks" on the drums.

The Newmans

The Newmans are a gender-reversed doppelgänger band to Grojband. The voice actors are the same as the original Grojband

• Carrie Beff – Corey's doppelgänger: the leader, guitarist, and vocalist of The Newmans. She is also Mina's younger sister. As seen throughout the show, Corey and Carrie are bitter enemies, as one would love to see the other go down. However, both have shown a slight tolerance for each other, and will work together if the situation calls for it.
• Larry Nepp – Laney's gender-bend rival: bassist and band manager of The Newmans. Similar to Laney, Larry has a visible crush on Carrie, Corey's gender-warped rival, as seen in one episode. He isn't as courageous as her, though.
• Kim Kagami – Kin's gender-bend rival, who is also the keyboardist of The Newmans. When Grojband and the Newmans fused together in one episode, Kin fused with Kim and both showed some jealousy against their respective twin for being such great friends with each other.
• Konnie Kagami – Kon's gender-bend rival, who is also the drummer of The Newmans. In one episode, it is shown that under certain circumstances, Kon and Konnie are able to get along.

Other major characters

• Trina Riffin (voiced by Alyson Court) – Trina is Corey's 16-year-old sister. She is mean and cruel, and always determined to make Corey's life miserable. Whenever she is overcome with emotion (usually rage, sometimes joy, fear, or despair), she impulsively writes her diary in an angsty way, which provides Corey with lyrical inspiration for their songs. She had a crush on the cute neighborhood boy, Nick Mallory. Her full first name is Katrina, and she was kind with others at one point in her life.
• Mina Beff (voiced by Denise Oliver) – Mina thinks of herself as Trina's best friend (or BFF as she likes to call it), but in reality is more like her slave. Despite wanting to express her own opinion, she wishes to be as cool as Trina, and does whatever she tells her to do. Her real name is Bernadette, but Trina forced her to legally change it so their names would rhyme.
• Nick Mallory (voiced by Graeme Cornies) – Nick is the coolest kid in school, whom all the girls in school adore, especially Trina. He is sometimes referred to as "Hunky Nick Mallory" by Trina and many others around him. He always refers to himself in the third person, but isn't inherently antagonistic, and will sometimes aid the band when they see use of him.
• Kate Persky and Allie Day (voiced by Addison Holley and Madelyn May respectively) – Allie and Kate are Grojband's adorable groupies and their biggest fans. They are head over heels in love with Corey, and are willing to do anything for him, but they can be creepy at times.
• Mayor Mellow (voiced by Kedar Brown) – The mayor of Peaceville, who is always seen carrying a picture of his mother around, and speaks in rhymes. He's good-intentioned and wants what's best for his town, but his ways to do it are questionable. He also has a somewhat short fuse, and he jumps to the conclusion too soon at times.
• Buzz Newsworthy and Chance Happening (voiced by Dwayne Hill and Julie Lemieux respectively) – The news anchors of the Peaceville News, they are quick on the scene to cover important news events, however they have a habit of exaggerating the stories. They also sometimes have feuds over who is more proficient.

Recurring characters

• Barney (voiced by Rob Tinkler) – A very rich billionaire who owns multiple businesses around Peaceville. He is always addressed by the name of the business in front of his real name: such as while he works at the salad restaurant he is referred to as "Salad Barney", or at the coffee house he is referred to as "Bean Barney".
• Party Danimal (voiced by Christian Potenza) – The school party critic who first appeared in the episode "Pox N' Roll", he rates other people's parties with a score out of "10 Awesomes".
• Captain Tighty Whitey (voiced by Rob Tinkler) – A pirate captain who enjoys stealing things from people and finding treasure. He first appeared in the episode "On the Air and Out to Sea"
• G'ORB (voiced by Rob Tinkler) – An evil alien space orb who is bent on destroying the world. He is the leader of a band called The Orb Experience, made up of three other space orbs named T'ORB, Z'ORB, and N'ORB. He first appeared in the episode "Space Jammin'" where he challenged Grojband to a battle of the bands and lost. He was only a minor one-time character with the rest of the band until he returned in the season 1 finale episode "Hear Us Rock Part 2" where he returned and challenged Grojband to a rematch and threatened to destroy the world with an apocalyptic meteor if they lost. G'ORB cheated in the battle of the bands to make him win but at the end of the episode, T'ORB had become fed up with putting up with all of his plans and he stood up to him and overthrew him and let Grojband win. After this, T'ORB broke up the band, forced G'ORB to apologize, and made him give up evil and become good.

Episodes

Grojband consists of 26 episodes (52 segments).

Main article: List of Grojband episodes

Broadcast

In the United States, the series first aired on June 10, 2013 on Cartoon Network and June 25, 2013 on Boomerang. The second half was released online on March 31, 2014, and were shown on Boomerang from February 23, 2015 to April 12, 2015. In Canada, it debuted on September 5, 2013 on Teletoon and Télétoon. Grojband debuted on February 10, 2014 on ABC3 in Australia and in April 2014 on Pop in the United Kingdom. The show started airing on April 7, 2014 on Cartoon Network in Africa.

In 2017, an official Youtube channel featuring clips from the series was launched.

Home media

In Australia, Grojband was released on DVD on June 4, 2014 by Shock Entertainment. Two volumes were released: Rock On (containing episodes 1-13) and Hear Us Rock! (containing episodes 14-26). The package claims that they are Region 4 DVDs, but they are actually region-free, so they will play on any DVD-playing device.

In December 2015, all 26 episodes of Grojband were added to Netflix in the US.

Critical reception

Grojband has received mixed reviews by critics. As of 2017, it currently has an average rating of 6.5/10 on IMDb, as a result of 268 voters, and an average rating of 7.4/10 on TV.com A positive review came from Yunha Kim of the former site, who called it "A Fresh Approach to A Tired Subject", saying that "Grojband is one of those cartoons that make you laugh or giggle for all the right reasons. The writers, given that each "episode" is normally 10-12 minutes long, do an excellent job of pacing and keeping the humor & story consistent while maintaining the characters well." Another positive review came from another IMBd review by James Smith, saying that "Grojband is a very cleverly-written and finely-executed show. For a show that revolves around music, this show definitely doesn't disappoint with the different song styles done each episode. Whether it's traditional rock, or something different like polka, banjo, romantic ballad, gospel, and even light elevator music, the show branches out to appeal to every music fan."

A mixed review came from the YouTube channel, Squirrel Talk, saying that some episodes are better than others, saying that episodes like "Myme Disease" are good, while others, like "Kon-Fusion", are bad, but the channel still recommended checking the series out.

A negative review came from a fellow YouTuber, MonstersReview, saying that "It's not really the same as Total Drama, by any means, and a lot of its humor is based on stereotypes".

Despite the mixed reception, Grojband has a small but loyal fanbase on the internet, and there have been petitions to bring the series back after its cancellation.