A cute, cuddly cartoon bunny goes skateboarding with an icecream cone down the street may seem innocent at first, but thecreators of "Happy Tree Friends" tainted that innocence with a gorydemise.
Shortly into the cartoon, the bunny, named Cuddles, is chaseddown the street by a sugar-crazed squirrel named Candy. Candy isstung to death by bees, and Cuddles unsuspectedly skates straightinto concrete steps.
The steps tear Cuddles' body into three bloody pieces; theepisode ends when the falling ice cream cone pierces Cuddles'eyeball.
"It's blood and guts under the hood," Kenn Navarro, animationdirector of "Happy Tree Friends," said.
Tuesday, Studio Works Entertainment and Mondo Media released thesecond installment of the Internet-based cartoon on a DVD titled"Second Serving."
"The outrageous, demented humor of 'Happy Tree Friends' hasgarnered a huge underground fan base among the college crowd andyoung adults," Don Gold, co-president of Studio WorksEntertainment, said. "Judging by the ever-increasing sales of'First Blood' and the online views of the new episodes, we'recertain that the blood, gore and giggles of the 'Second Serving'DVD will be a big success."
Rhode Montijo and Aubrey Ankrum came up with the idea for "HappyTree Friends" while working on a television-commercial project.Montijo took a break, found yellow construction paper and cut out acute bunny (Cuddles). He wrote underneath it, "Resistance isfutile." This cute, yellow bunny spawn 19 original characters andenough death to give someone nightmares for a long time.
"Happy Tree Friends" started with more generic characters,according to Navarro. Cuddles, the yellow bunny, was born first,and then Lumpy, a dim-witted, blue moose, came.
Other characters eventually populated the "Happy Tree Friends,"including Toothy, a freckle-faced pink beaver; Petunia, asweet-smelling skunk; Sniffles, a brainy anteater; and Flaky, adandruff-laden porcupine.
With the second DVD came new characters.
Russell, a sea-otter pirate with a right hook, and Mime, asilent deer that keeps on talking, are just a couple new charactersin "Second Serving."
The "Tree Friends" creators spend a lot of time in bookstoreslooking at children's books and watching television shows like"Leave it to Beaver" and "The Little Rascals" to generate most oftheir ideas.
"Sometimes we work backwards and come up with a funny deathfirst," Navarro said.
"Second Serving" features 17 gruesome regular-episode endings;some reflect the title of the episode. Titles include "You'reBaking Me Crazy," "Me at Me For Lunch," "This Is Your Knife" and"Tongue Twister."
The DVD also includes two episodes never shown before, foursmoochies, an interactive death machine where the viewer gets tochoose the demise of the "Happy Tree Friends" character, and sixholiday kringles, short episodes with extra blood and guts madeinto a christmas card.
Documentaries, a Buddhist-monkey episode, character interviewsand a sing-a-long are included with "Second Serving" as well.
The DVD is not the only "Happy Tree Friends" merchandise. "HappyTree Friends" clothing and merchandise will hit the Hot Topicstores on Friday, and creators hope to continue making moreepisodes and shoot for a third DVD.
Like all the "Happy Tree Friends" episodes, Navarro likes to endwith a positive message: "Stay in school, and don't breathe underwater."
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