Viva Piñata (TV series)
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Viva Piñata | |
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![]() The lead characters (l-r): Franklin, Hudson, Paulie, Fergy | |
Developed by | Norman J. Grossfeld Lloyd Golfdine |
Directed by | Paul Griffin Eric Stuart (voice) |
Voices of | Dan Green Marc Thompson David Wills Kathleen Delaney Jamie McGonnigal Brian Maillard |
Theme music composer | John Siegler Norman J. Grossfeld |
Composers | Louis Cortelezzi Elik Alvarez Peter Lurye Matt McGuire Ralph Schuckett Freddy Sheinfeld Dan Stein Russell Velazquez |
Country of origin | Canada United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 2 |
No. of episodes | 52 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producers | Deina Bhesania Norman J. Grossfeld Alfred R. Kahn Barry Ward Lloyd Goldfine |
Running time | 20 minutes |
Production companies | Bardel Entertainment 4Kids Entertainment Rare |
Original release | |
Network | YTV (Canada) 4Kids TV The CW4Kids |
Release | August 26, 2006 – January 18, 2009 |
Viva Piñata is a Canadian-American animated television series. It spawned an Xbox 360 game a couple months later after its release. It is produced by an American company, 4Kids Productions and Bardel Entertainment, a children's animation company in Canada.[2] It aired to high ratings as part of the 4Kids TV programming block and later moved to The CW4Kids before being removed from the schedule on October 25, 2008.[3] It is aired on YTV in Canada, Nicktoons Network and CITV in the UK and on Nickelodeon in Australia. The series began airing when Magical DoReMi (aka Ojamjo Doremi) left 4Kids TV due to TV difficulties on August 19, 2006, and the series began airing on August 26, 2006 Viva Pinata was executive produced by Lloyd Goldfine (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon) at 4Kids in New York and Paul Griffin at Bardel in Vancouver. The stories are edited by Mike deSeve, leading a team that includes the award-winning Daria head-writer Anne Bernstein and Courage the Cowardly Dog story editor David Steven Cohen.
The series has ended its run on January 18, 2009 in Canada. 4Kids TV and The CW4Kids in the United States stopped airing the show on August 2, 2008 and October 18, 2008 respectively, but it continued to air in Canada on YTV until June 24, 2011.
Characters
Main characters
- Hudson Horstachio: (voiced by Dan Green) A horse piñata with a green teal body like a pistachio, Hudson is one of the most popular piñatas in the business. As a celebrity he sometimes has to disguise himself when in public. His friends often have to keep his ego in check. He enjoys dancing and making extravagant statements about himself.
- Franklin Fizzlybear: (voiced by Marc Thompson) A brown grizzly bear with purple and yellow stripes. He enjoys surfing, and typically speaks with a surfer accent and related expressions. He is fairly laid back and occasionally has moments of intellectualism. He is not good at lying. He also draws portraits of the other pinatas. In the video game, his surfboard is an item that the player can purchase.
- Paulie Pretztail: (voiced by Brian Maillard) A cross between a pretzel and a red-tailed fox, Paulie is a no-nonsense kind of pinata who could easily be considered to be "the clever-cloggs" of the main cast (besides Les) and Fergy's best friend. He shares Fergy's aversion of being sent to parties, though it seems more of an annoyance to him, rather than Fergy's idea of thinking of going to a party as frightening, and frequently avoids them. He seems to be good at cooking as shown from the episode ' Recipe for Disaster'.
- Fergy Fudgehog: (voiced by David Wills) A cross between fudge and a hedgehog, Fergy loves candy, but fears parties and Paulie's best friend. He is frequently sought out by Langston to attend parties but always manages to escape his bugcatcher's net. His catchphrase is "Oh, fudge!"
- Tina & Teddington Twingersnap: (voiced by Kathleen Delaney and Jamie McGonnigal) A two-headed serpent crossed with gingersnap. They share a body, but argue a lot. They have both been shown to have sub-par gardening skills. Despite the fact that they appear to hate each other (after all, they are Brother and Sister), in one episode when they are accidentally separated, they end up greatly missing their other half. Teddington is the worst singer on Pinata Island and for some reason has a refined British accent.
- Les Galagoogoo: (voiced by Eric Stuart) A cross between a Galago and GooGoo, Les is smart and dextrous, however, when he speaks, it comes out as high-pitched gibberish. Les ranked second place in the 4Kids Viva Piñata character poll. It appears that the main cast may be able to understand him, but simply ignore him. In one episode, he was able to speak, but he was ignored as he always had been.
- Ella Elephanilla: (voiced by Rebecca Soler) A cross between an elephant and vanilla, Ella suffers from short-term memory loss, thus contradicting the saying that an elephant never forgets. She enjoys ballet. Because of her elegant moves, this caused Paulie and Fergy to both get huge, temporary crushes on her. They even asked her to a dance, but she forgot they had both asked her. No evidence has been shown that both Fergy and Paulie still have a crush on her, if they do, they are very subtle about it.
- Langston Lickatoad: (voiced by Mike Pollock) A cross between a licorice and a toad, Langston operates the Cannoñata. He regularly tries to catch the stealthy duo Fergy and Paulie in order to send them to parties.
- Professor Pester: (voiced by Michael Alston Baley) The main villain of the series. In all the episodes he appears in, he and his Ruffians try to capture and destroy a piñata, (usually Hudson) if not all of them, to obtain their candy. Note that he does not appear to be a piñata. When he had his personality reversed and happily gobbled up all of Fergy's candy, he was scanned on the way to the Cannoñata and found to have no candy. Nor do any of his ruffians appear to be piñatas; an episode shows that they resided on the island before the arrival of Pester and were partially responsible for the failure of his Sours experiment. His catchphrase is "I have no regrets", and he always says it when his plans backfire and he ends up losing. He and the Ruffians are the only non-pinatas from the games to have made it to the show, though to be noted Leafos makes a split second cameo in the theme song right when the announcer states "Welcome to Pinata Island" as the screen is panning over a field.
Recurring characters
- Beverly Badgesicle: Hudson's biggest, very obsessive fan.
- Cecil Cocoadile: Cecil is the only piñata on the island who thinks Chortles' jokes are funny, causing him to burst into tears laughing. In the piñata world, cocoadile tears make excellent fertilizer, so while laughing and crying at his bad jokes, he is also helping Chortles with his garden.
- Chortles Chippopotamus: (voiced by Sean Schemmel) Chortles has a horrible sense of humor, but fantastic gardening skills. Only Cecil Cocoadile thinks his jokes are funny, and Chortles uses Cecil's tears to help his garden grow.
- Dr. Quincy Quackberry: A doctor and psychiatrist with a Groucho Marx-like personality. He wears glasses and a tie, and he customarily tells poor jokes.
- The Great Bonboon (or just "The Bonboon"): A creature who pretends to be an all-knowing guru to steal candy from gullible piñatas like Professor Pester. He is usually meditating, but when no one is present, he talks to his friend Sid on the phone in his normal voice. Paulie is the only pinata who sees through his ruse.
- King Roario: (voiced by Dan Green) The King of Pinata Island.
- Mabel Moozipan: She owns a well-kept vegetable garden and despises trespassers. She is friends with Florence Fizzlybear.
- Pecky Pudgeon: (voiced by Eric Stuart) Pecky takes photos for the local newspaper of Piñata Island, the Pinata Yada Yada. He loves gossiping about everyone and will go to great lengths to bring in a juicy scoop for the paper. (He makes a cameo in the game taking a photo of Gretchen when she first appears)
- Pierre Parrybo: (voiced by Pete Zarustica) Pierre organizes various activities on Piñata Island. He's also the DJ for a call-in radio show.
- Ruffians: Professor Pester's bumbling henchmen who usually ruin his plans, since they don't comprehend orders well. They waddle from side to side in their walk, and they love to prank one another. According to Pester, three are boys and one is a girl.
- Petunia Pretztail: (voiced by Sieko Shih) A kung-fu warrior who is friends with Florence Fizzlybear, Francine Fudgehog, and especially Haily Hostachio, and teaches Fergy and Paulie how to find their own "fu"
- Prewitt Profitamole: (voiced by Mike MacRae) A brilliant animal who seems to be the only mechanic on the island and he is a wonder at inventing. He also has a love for soaps, and watches them avidly.
- Shirley Shellybean: Shirly is optimistic and always is ready to start a new adventure.
- Simone Cinnamonkey: (voiced by Rebecca Soler) Hudson's brisk and resourceful agent. He speaks very quickly, rapidly counting off Hudson's schedule. Sometimes, he seems to want his pay more than Hudson's fame, but he is occasionally shown to care for him in both stern and encouraging ways.
Episodes
The program has also made the leap to DVD via Shout! Factory with the release of The Piñatas Must Be Crazy And Other Stories. This release includes the following episodes: "Cocoadile Tears," "Candiosity," "Queen For A Day," "A Chewnicorn In The Garden" and "Legs.[4] In addition, "Lights, Camera, Action" was released in May 2009. This is the second DVD in the series.
Xbox Live sneak peeks
Two episodes have been released on the Xbox Live Marketplace as sneak peeks. These episodes were "Chewnicorn in the Garden" and "Horstachio of a Different Colour". The Special Edition version of the Viva Piñata game came with a bonus disc, which, along with demos of Xbox 360 games Sonic The Hedgehog (2006) and Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, also contained the "Horstachio of a Different Colour" episode.
References
- ^ "Viva Piñata". 4Licensing Corporation. Retrieved 2016-10-06.
- ^ "4Kids Entertainment Adds To The Growing Viva Pinata Licensing Program With Three New Licensing Deals" (PDF). 4kidsentertainment.com. January 2, 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 4, 2007. Retrieved August 26, 2016.
- ^ "No season 3 for Viva Pinata?". August 14, 2008. Archived from the original on February 27, 2009. Retrieved August 26, 2016.
- ^ "Viva Pinata: The Pinatas Must Be Crazy and Other Stories". shoutfactorystore.com. Archived from the original on July 23, 2012. Retrieved January 26, 2014.
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External links
- Official website (archive)
- Viva Piñata at IMDb
- Template:Tv.com show
- Viva Piñata
- Fox network shows
- American computer-animated television series
- 2000s American animated television series
- 2006 American television series debuts
- 2009 American television series endings
- 2000s Canadian animated television series
- 2006 Canadian television series debuts
- 2009 Canadian television series endings
- Animated series based on video games
- CW4Kids original programs
- YTV shows
- Nicktoons
- American animated television programs featuring anthropomorphic characters
- Canadian animated television programs featuring anthropomorphic characters
- American children's animated comedy television series
- American children's animated fantasy television series
- Canadian children's animated comedy television series
- Canadian children's animated fantasy television series