Happy Tree Friends - Early Character Designs (2002)

Explore the early sketches and character designs of Happy Tree Friends with creators and animators sharing insights and stories.

Key Takeaways

Happy Tree Friends characters evolved from classic cartoon inspirations with a unique dark twist.
Early sketches were experimental and included many discarded or humorous ideas.
The creators used internal marketing tactics like posters to build interest before pitching the show.
Character development was collaborative, with different team members contributing distinct styles.
The video provides insight into the creative and iterative process behind an iconic animated series.

What the video covers

The video features co-creators Roie Montio and Aubrey Ingram discussing early sketches and character designs for Happy Tree Friends.
Initial concepts included a poster titled 'Resistance is Futile' used subliminally to pitch the show internally.
Early designs were inspired by 1920s-1930s cartoons and classic animation styles, with experimentation on character looks.
The development of characters like Flippy and others is explored, including humorous and embarrassing sketches.
The creators discuss influences, design decisions, and the evolution from rough concepts to finalized characters.
There is mention of playful references and potential legal jokes about similarities to other cartoon characters.
The video includes anecdotes about the creative process, including abandoned ideas and character explorations.
Some sketches show dark humor and the signature Happy Tree Friends style of cute characters in violent or absurd situations.
The creators reflect on the iterative nature of design and how certain ideas were trimmed or dropped.
The video captures the behind-the-scenes atmosphere of early development with candid commentary from the team.

Chapters

Who are the main creators featured in this video?

The video features co-creators Roie Montio and Aubrey Ingram, along with animation director Karo and sound engineer Jim.

What was the purpose of the 'Resistance is Futile' poster?

The poster was created to subliminally build interest among the office staff and help pitch the Happy Tree Friends show internally.

How did the early character designs evolve?

Early designs were inspired by 1920s-1930s cartoons, with many experimental sketches that were refined over time into the final characters.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

Welcome to the, uh, welcome, welcome Happy Tree Friends sketch and character design section. Um, we have today here Aubrey and welcome co-creator Roie Montio. Hello, director and co-creator, and myself, of course, Karo. Hello, welcome animation director and Jim.

Speaker A

Lively sound engineer. So we're going to be talking about the sketches and the early character designs right now, and, uh, here we go. Right, this here is, uh, the first one you'll be seeing. First one you'll be

Speaker A

seeing is, uh, Resistance is Futile, which was just a drawing we just did on some construction paper and hung it around the office. This subliminally, um, seeped in the minds of people at the office, and that was our plan. And they were like,

Speaker A

that'd be a great show. Well, we had this idea, but to get it through and pitch it and stuff, we just thought this poster might help things along subliminally. So it holds a special place in our hearts, kind of got things going. So that's the big

Speaker A

story behind that one. This is early concept, uh, when, uh, Roie and I were working on it. Uh, ultimately, all the stuff that you saw on the screen was drawn by Roie because his look was better than mine.

Speaker A

And this picture here demonstrates Aubrey sucked quite well. All my stuff's kind of like, it's, it's all 1930s, like 1920s, 1930s cartoon ripoff with the—I think there's even one later on in here with the macaroni elbows. Just, it's good because it served as the

Speaker A

basis of what we were trying to get there, just the cute classic cartoon characters. It was just exploring a whole bunch of stuff, and it's good. And then kind of trimming down from there. More embarrassing pictures than I drew, uh,

Speaker A

less said the better. We did get the eyeballs though, the pupils, those kind of Pacman pupils. I think the, like the, um, Woody Woodpecker studio guys are going to sue us for the Chilly Willy infringement here, I think. No.

Speaker A

LS oh see, yeah, see, you're right. Chilly Willy has legs. He has no—it's a way different. That'll hold up in court. No legs. This was, I think this was the transformation, like the flippy kind of—yeah, this must

Speaker A

have been the first Flippy character. Yeah, yeah. Tell us, tell us what you're thinking, Aubrey Ingram or not. W, I think. Yeah, I think there's a lot of, like, not think. I like that arrow goes both ways. It's very unfor— you know, 'cause he

Speaker A

could, you know, it could, you could either way. I think, you know, no in between though. Once again, I think let's let the art sit, you know, say what it has to say by itself. Yeah. Okay, another drawing

Speaker A

by me. Okay, that's good. Oh, whatever, dude. Let it go, man. I promised and then I delivered. I said you were going to see one that said macaroni elbows, and boom, made from real macaronis, cheese flavor. You may have

Speaker A

seen some of my other pits I've done, Barbara Strand and PeeWee Herman. This one. Yeah, for those of you guys out there who actually been following some of our careers, Aubrey is the creator of a God and Devil, wildly

Speaker A

successful show. So hugely, that's where the macaroni comes from. Big and Bali, we—they had a lot of that German kids. Who doesn't love a German kid? I don't know what this is really. I like the guy that's floating, clinging to the wall, and

Speaker A

he's got stuff around his mouth. It's like sideways S or somebody. I don't—when I was—and then, like, a kindly, like, elderly crocodile up in the—when I was going through all the material, this was just

Speaker A

like so random that we had to throw it in 'cause I have no idea what this is. This, this is just early origin stuff here. Oh boy. Oh, now the real, the real stuff. Okay, here we go. This was, uh, just the quick, um,

Speaker A

we were trying to figure out a good situation that went bad. Your frog playing a banjo gets eaten by a fish, just trying to get the concept across to the people. That was it. Chip it, as we call it. Good. I

Speaker A

have no idea. What? I have idea. You should be embarrassed. You did this. This one's doing it pretty good. There's—it is what it is. Either you like it or you don't. I don't know if he's even juggling or

Speaker A

imitating these balls here. He's just throwing up his hands going, what the heck? He sure is happen. Don't judge that clown, that clown. Just love him. I can't explain this one. This will get us in the court. I think this is

Speaker A

another early, just early high level. Did we come up with this first? I forget. Yeah, I think so. We got ripped off in the story Power Rangers. Uh, in the story comes in and kicks the guy in the face.

Speaker A

Simple, simple, good fun. Y, he's just looking for excuses to do some violence. I look at that pose. He's so manly. Yeah, it is intimidating. Is that you? Did you draw these? These were some of mine pitching it hard. I have no, nothing

Speaker A

to say. I think splendid. Yeah, very splendid indeed. Here with an exclamation point to look like homie the aner. What? Why is he got a baby? Honest, don't remember. Yeah, that we have an urban thing going on earlier

Speaker A

that we dropped or something. He looks tired. He—yeah, okay, we'll leave it at that. All right, nap time. God. All right, um, all right, more. All right's stupid. Let's all suck her teeth in unison. Ready? One, two, three.

Speaker A

Yeah, these are, these are Ries. This is a goofy guy with a happy face on his chest. Very funny. And even funnier, these are more just explorations. It was just like whatever goes, and so, and obviously we reached that limit and

Speaker A

pulled back from it. It went nowhere. Uh, more exploration, more exploration. Here's a goofy giraffe. This guy has so much potential. You can't even wedge him into one show. I mean, you know, toys us, it's kind of getting close to Lumpy, I guess,

Speaker A

in this one, but I don't know. Giraffe business person. He's off business animal. Shines star, I think was box full o' shuriken. He can't go wrong with ninja stars and a cute bunny. Come on. That was, this is probably the, the early

Speaker A

beginnings are we're getting close, we're getting close. Yeah, things are warming up now. Stupid. This is a bunny frolicking through some flowers and runs off a cliff side pretty much. I mean, if you had to, like, distill heavy treatments

Speaker A

down to his purest form, not as true. These two frames will do you. These drawings unusually happy people suddenly just eating and dying. That is pretty much. I like, I like the note to note that it's not actually a bunny but it's

Speaker A

another creature in a bunny suit. That's good fun. It's a bunny and a bunny suit. This is pretty fun here. A bunny receiving the new space friends with a flower. Space friends come out and zap bunny and half. Didn't we go back in

Speaker A

time when you were five and had you draw this? Come, this was a happy space friends. I think we're, we're working on just more early, early concept stuff. Origins. I like the rainbows, more rainbows here and more, uh, copyright

Speaker A

in. Well, once again, I want to note the kicking on the head. There's an arrow in case you may have missed it. Case you missed it. Yeah. Oh, see. Oh, the other arrow up here, which I didn't miss. He's

Speaker A

coming in. I didn't. More concept stuff, obviously to the face. How come we didn't use the arrow as a character? He's pretty good. He's really good. Maybe we'll still bring him back. Another stupid guy in a bunny getting close though. You can see

Speaker A

getting close. Cheeks most close. What's that down there at his feet? What's going on there? He got no hands but close to a bunny. It's kind of existential. Think about it. You'll get it later. Yeah, if you think about it, really all make sense.

Speaker A

It's true. If you really think about it, really think about it. Yeah, just take a moment. Just think about it. Well, wait, see, makes sense. See, there you go. Clear to me. I, I don't know. Bunny, bunny with a bomb.

Speaker A

Trouble, right? Is a bomb or is a hand bomb? I think, you know what? We need to flip this one over now. It works. See, see, happy, then the bomb. If you at home just stand on your head, this might—stand on

Speaker A

your head. Yeah, I think it will make more sense. I don't know what's going on here. These, I think these are just more character explorations, character exploration. Getting close though. The one on the right is almost Cuddles. Here's a

Speaker A

step back. Is the bunny in the—or the guy in the bunny suit again and good fun with a Jack in a box, but instead it has a—so stupid. And note the creepy boxing GL clown clown. All right, next one.

Speaker A

yeah stupid uh bunny guy in the bunny flow my let me ask why line paper on on this piece what does what was it calling to you why line paper if you count if you count the lines there's 14 lines in them

Speaker A

and if you divide that by two it's seven oh think about it it makes sense if you think about it yes um happy pig looking Skyward again no no arms or no arms no arms I guess I got lazy with with the

Speaker A

arms I'd get there and okay just come he can't like he can't draw hands I think that's where Andy are these Origins to andyy maybe like The Jug crown and this dog character yeah what's that guy more early character uh but it's getting

Speaker A

closer you can see the proportions are almost getting there eyes and stuff like that oh one frame it's on one frame description here pretty much trouble this is the show here we're getting close two cute animals playing with a

Speaker A

wish we've never had a bomb in had aom really didn't go that route I think we might have to or rainbows you know the the second DVD right isn't there a couple in the second DVD maybe if you

Speaker A

save your money right save your money tell your parents now another bunny lots of bun bunnies oh man look bun not just bunnies but animals in bunny costume bunny a ho maybe all right next one getting close though still

Speaker A

getting close oh this is early this is way early this is like yeah but this is it this is pretty much this is it it's on this is what did the first I guess it would be called the pilot yeah the banjo

Speaker A

frenzy which is also on this DVD quality you can go check it out later here you could see really close origins of cuddles toothy and giggles and a bear that never made a bear that never made it he EV uh he was reped he Dro out he

Speaker A

end up going to law school I think yeah yeah he had the career track school this uh uh lumpy later replaced oh actually dinosaur and then and then replaced the bear and then lumpy yeah came in but yeah this is early marshmallowy fun all

Speaker A

right what's going on here I think these are just sketches of the bear and you see the bear transformation getting angry um the how much to say just sketches more sketches closeup nice Allah rat F totally the veins of the bear here and

Speaker A

the messed up teeth very angry this is where I think the bear are supposed to flip out if you watch the banjo frenzy episode you'll see what will be revealed all will be revealed the scales will fall from your eyes oh here's the

Speaker A

replacement they called in the replacement get the dinosaur this is the dinosaur playing the banjo in front of the kids by the fire and I guess there's another one here where he's terrorizing terrorizing the city with a banjo I like the guy at at the botom

Speaker A

who's kneeling but this character eventually got music no this character eventually got evolve into um lumpy you can kind of see the similarities the buck teeth and the stupid eye look cross eyes came lat good fun Barney five good time this

Speaker A

is what started it all Ro made this sketch early on and I kept it it was a little piece of paper and I kept it and I said one day we're going to be able to make show and this is what it's going to

Speaker A

be right here this is where it's going to show up yeah this beautiful pretty much lify and or Shifty I mean he changed a little bit early early yeah note the nipples yes that's very important and the belly button so the

Speaker A

whole concept here was like the Fedora jacket of this uh kind of kleptomaniac um raccoon who rips it open Shady then shows you know the goods inside I think these are just sketches of uh character once the look was kind of nailed just

Speaker A

coming up with more characters to throw in the mix he guys are just pading this is a doodle this is like a doodle on a phone kind of thing my mom did this no no if you look there's the

Speaker A

there's a little Comic character that never made it with a little shovel little mole guy guess oh nice A little track light thing here's that Urban look again dude that's Hip-Hop hipop Hip-Hop hius and here's a little I guess this is

Speaker A

early Giggles with otom some crutches for those of you following at home yeah God please go get a job already this guy we still might it may be one day wow with your help friends at home out there um this viewers a character

Speaker A

that might still make it into the show this is bunny bump K and I think there's a better sketch of him later on H him in later on he's just like a hillbilly type of character um you'll see more of later

Speaker A

on early concepts for mole left was the early one and the right one was pretty much pretty much what he looks like now there he is looking quite dashing look at note the mole he's all grown up now W early concept on MIM it's pretty

Speaker A

close here um he looks a lot creepier I didn't know what that stuff is around his lip it's blood blood of the it's not makeup it's blood and he's he's got the scary uh animal balloons those are always scary so M with a

Speaker A

question mark I guess we were still figuring it out there what his name was going to be I guess we just lay out hey I'm good mime the mime wa he's not even in this batch of episodes right

Speaker A

he's in part two save your box tops wink wink so here's uh the evolved Shifty and or lify from that earlier sketch really close we just turned him into a raccoon he's got Rolex watching nice I think earlier I think

Speaker A

earlier he was just some shady character then later we made them kleptomaniacs he's pedaling uh axes and knives before now he's got still keeping the ni didn't Joel Joel Schumacher call us and say hey those characters have to have nipples

Speaker A

yep and so you know we said sure you know what you're doing early uh flippy Concepts um Aubrey being the voice of philippy here yeah how do they talk he forgot you know very nice Oscar Oscar worthy not to be confused

Speaker A

with pirate I stab you like that right I stab you I got a go to shoot you right pretty much so this was uh he he's actually injured can just whip that out anytime too it's we I can just like that

Speaker A

it's weird it's just in there Talent it's in me here he's just the war torn uh this is a Vietnam vet type of character that flips out whenever he hears or sees anything anything yeah shiny or doll objects o oh this is early Russell we

Speaker A

have Russell the Pirates this was fun I think at first I was really trying hard to um have them have names like lify Shifty um Giggles cute names and we had no name for this guy and Ken suggested

Speaker A

what about Russell we're like all right you know this not note that on the left side there's a note at the bottom crack stuff on his on his chest These are nice did he ever do that any of show yeah I

Speaker A

never did actually in this on this DVD there's a there's a bonus episode Whose Line is in anyways that was never aired and it's on this DVD and it has Russell in it and you'll see him CRA cracking

Speaker A

cracking stuff on his chest that was one of the original Concepts he wanted for him to do is um like he would have this compulsive habit of just cracking stuff on his chest whatever he'd find you crack it on chest like SE crack it and

Speaker A

throughout this all these sketches you'll see random frantic notes on the bottom of the papers why he why is he a pirate we're still fig out because Pirates are funny y Popp and Cub um early sketches look really close but

Speaker A

notice the early names here's the bad example of me trying to keep the stupid cute names here's fuzzy and Poppy fuzzy clever it's brilliant you know it's brilliant oh that's how about fuzzy and opium opium that' be good poppy come on

Speaker A

but these guys are pretty much they're pretty much uh there they're already they're there some sort want do the voice for I'll throw it out hey son don't leave any more of those conspicuously anything forgot know I always see I'd come in and do it and you

Speaker A

gave me those lines like you talk there was no talking there's never any understandable language in happy tree friend wow we wanted a father and and son so you guys basically are exploiting my speech impairment whatever hey you

Speaker A

know exploding it's fun that's what you call it the kids love it so anyways we wanted to a a father and son um combo kind of Duo Dynamic so we can have an episode like first bike ride or first

Speaker A

anything just trouble that ended up getting ugly here we have early sniffles early sniffles to the left um who used to be a squirrel who was a squirrel I guess and uh you know we're going for the nerd look and here we have did he

Speaker A

ever use the no the inhaler there's more notes on the side there you got the asthma inhaler here's some more brilliant uh um frantic writings here that I wrote down he his ants shoot out ants ants on girls face that's

Speaker A

that's pretty much how we um take down notes Here for this show actually later on I scanned in some notes that we uh that we will see in the end there that uh that we were working off of and crazy

Speaker A

I think this is when we were early in development and I'd be uh I'd get up from from sleep and try to jot down some notes of what these guys would do and some of them really stupid but there's the origins uh nutty and it

Speaker A

looks like Giggles oh yeah Giggles we originally had rolling around in roller skates like what's her name from Facts of Life but toy toy toy sure good thing I was here yeah anyways so we eventually scrapped that for unknown reasons I guess it was

Speaker A

just hard to keep that going throughout the show a life's preserver yeah and she's got a a floating animal thing for the pool here for no reason and nutty nutty's pretty much way he is I think we just came up with the concept

Speaker A

and we kind of knew what he would wanted to be and and it stuck just this sugar freak sugar freak with all this candy stuck onto him Lippy really did a good voice doing him actually here's a another naming thing Corky ladies and

Speaker A

gentlemen who became is flaky now I mean it's obvious I just pictured a porcupine porcupine with dandruff severe case of d yeah by the way for those you out there those little those little square things are dandr okay cor I thought it was like

Speaker A

I thought said all if you're on the East Coast Jim yes Aubrey and I had big discussion yes yes we should have an East Coast West Coast version of track and we'll say sprinkles on one it'll be able to

Speaker A

say notice the sprinkles on jimmies so pretty close it's all it's it was already there except for the name we switched it out to flaky flaky uh here's uh skunk who later became petunia patun proportions are wow I didn't even add a

Speaker A

y to that skunky did she still have the tree thing nice call that was a little touch that was a little ification you know keep the smell and the dreaded disco bear there yep disco bear not even going to talk about dude if you give me

Speaker A

five bucks I'll talk him up disco bear I will give some little money disco bear disco I like the song Disco bear I really wanted a a 70s uh the platform character in there and uh he only got

Speaker A

one shot at the big time there but there's a early sketch there oh here we go we had um early origin of Buddhist monkey which never made it in Buddhist monkey we all thought was so good that he deserved his own show so we didn't

Speaker A

put him in basically it was a monkey amongst monkey a monk monkey amongst all happy friends and uh he just float around too float around with his power and the power of his mind and have like this was just a silly excuse for like

Speaker A

Dragon Ball type chaos and again back to the Power Rangers thing you saw earlier maybe some head kicking yeah head kicking always good and to the right is one of the most brilliant characters is Crow marmit the animation on this guy

Speaker A

he's not actually on this DVD another reason to save your money to get volume two Shameless plug this you're gonna get the mermet the C Buddhist [Laughter] monkey but our joke with cor mermit was we always wanted to sneak him in he

Speaker A

didn't do anything cuz he was obviously he's Frozen in a block of ice meanderthal happy tree friend Frozen in a block of ice and we're going to try to sneak him in but he would always do weird stuff like you would find like

Speaker A

they would be missing like say a ball and you'd see it in there Frozen with him you'd be like how' to get in there I don't know who cares he'd be working the register at a store just for no reason

Speaker A

in a block of ice he's a lot of fun by the way cor is the only character in Happy Tree Friends that never dies that was heard it here first for the kids big trivia isn't that isn't that worth the

Speaker A

price of admission right there I think it is I think it is totally here we go more Buddhist monkey Buddhist monkey notice the glowing action the radiance around him oh remember was a four remember the racist conversation we had

Speaker A

about his eyes Ro what remember the way we were going to draw his eyes was oh the other way I don't understand was it going we had this whole discussion about how we were going to draw his eyes cuz he was going to be

Speaker A

always has his eyes shut oh convex concave to not have the yeah there you go enough said racism right here in Happy Tree Friends we're not afraid to tackle the hard stuff it runs deep he's half asian he can say that deep this was

Speaker A

a fun character actually never made it into the show cookie SL the sloth he was a chef and he was going to have his own uh um cooking show bur he go so slow well some of the ideas we had for the

Speaker A

show is they would be watching TV and they would always be cookie with a cooking show but it would take him forever to like milk or something the salt forever like changing channels and he'd still be there you know really slow

Speaker A

but the whole show would have taken up like hours if we threw this guy in there so he actually he was part of the final lineup but he just kind of never made an episode cuz it just took D too damn long

Speaker A

for the one minute episodes for him to do it or cookie but he may still make it once again Shameless plug yep check in part two he might there might be a bonus episode sign those checks oh boy pranky

Speaker A

here's one of the better ones that got C this guy's an idiot look at this guy he's got I I think I hate him more than disco guy say yeah this guy I just it's just Frank who also went around by by

Speaker A

jokey too for a little bit reminds me of what was that on The Simpsons when they had the scratchy and Scratchy dude that Homer played the voice of oh poochie it's poochie man it's like poochie he's like he pull out all the stops it'ss

Speaker A

love fake noes and cowboys and IND and star fighting what I don't know it's got everything pranky yeah pranky you could see why he didn't fly he stayed on The Cutting Room floor oh the downright most ugliest thing I've

Speaker A

ever this was already in production you guys were already like like doing stuff when you made no no no this is early on still I guess we were trying to work in a centaur character for no reason Greek

Speaker A

myths but he's all bummed remember was his deal his whole deal was he was always depressed through through the shows actually this rooted from a a prank gift we had floating around the office I had that for a while it

Speaker A

exchanged it exchanged many hands it was a it was a depressed looking Centaur and it got passed around many Christmas uh parties um but it's just sad to see this thing it is it's really sad he's missing a get a

Speaker A

clean here's a more early sketches of the convict the mole that never made it he looks Shady doesn't he great though he may yet make it I like this guy may make it so yeah what do you think

Speaker A

Diggy sure and then why perfect take you the I like it sure ship it oh no oh boy roie fought for this guy so hard this guy never made it I really wanted to have a a character that was just perfect

Speaker A

and ended up being not the detail everything perfect kids get jealous that's the Frantic frantic more frantic notes written written at like we hours in the morning I'm leaving I'm just I'm leaving so so yeah just uh was a cyborg

Speaker A

animal and I I really wanted to go all out with this one and have like 3D effects and everything and it just would have gotten way out of control put put the sound in 3D when you like that'll be like whoa I got good

Speaker A

money for that turn up the speakers right now you guys that's Hightech that's Hightech it is Hightech oh Mafia doctor Mafia doctor was the best made it and this is Aubrey I think thought of this guy Mafia that's a great idea ma when

Speaker A

somebody got injured Happ could get injured they'd go see Mafia doctor and he would make it even worse make it worse really painful to watch but if you look closely he's got the cement shoe the bandaged up arm like he's been

Speaker A

through some stuff himself the I don't remember coming up with that is keep it for Ling yourself in I don't know who these two other character I know that guy's got a big head he does enough said I guess here's a penny who I don't

Speaker A

remember at all but that was a good idea man Penny dude crown and she has a crown and and a dead mink with a tongue sticking is that a tongue or an arm I have no idea just more random characters more random

Speaker A

characters that didn't make it gu prin princess not a far stretch from penny back there but I really really trying you were getting paid for this I was trying to hold on to basically you're just taking other drawings and

Speaker A

putting Crown ears on them look at that Shameless Shameless sad the kids love it I don't know who this is it looks like an early uh s early snipples more like the other one um hog he never made it

Speaker A

did he he never made it chargie he could have been chargy that would have been great just started charging it would have been no you invited charie charie is here it's running season you invited charie R I know what the hell that

Speaker A

means this guy was someone calls out my house it's running season you have to par man the warhog what look look out for charie he may be coming out a theater near you it's as far as that guy

Speaker A

went Jing Jing here we go oh here's the uh finished uh bunny bumpkin bum wen't they supposed to be brothers there's two brothers and they drive around pretty much like the the Duke the Dukes of Hazard the Duke boys in a ratty car

Speaker A

notice the uh the X the triple X botle of a moonshine Yeehaw and pretty much we just wanted to do like duah Hazard type episodes with lumpy as the sheriff and stupid it it might still happen oh and uh I don't know you might

Speaker A

note this uh that the hay seed is colored differently because this is when when Ro brought this to me I said oh it needed an editorial touch so I added the hay seed that was it it was like ship it see

Speaker A

before it's like what's this dude doing with his hat over his head drinking a pornographic apple juice or whatever but now I see oh he's a simple country pumpkin well that's why I get Ed that's what editing does it's good Ken put this

Speaker A

in here here's a here's a road warrior type of happy treat friend and he looks depressed actually why wasn't you wearing that I don't know what he's wearing I see Commando that guy who played this guy was in that

Speaker A

movie he's going to get the pipe right through him that's right I don't know what I was thinking with this guy but that's sneaky there you go see exposing all all we're sharing all at the good and the bad I like this

Speaker A

guy this guy's great I don't know why he never some kind of shady he AUM it looks like AUM AUM something I don't know Detective I have no idea oh oh yeah yeah yeah this guy was supposed to be like I

Speaker A

think uh mle's uh arch nemesis that would um he's great which we never really got to do any of the James Bond type stuff with mole that we wanted to but um this guy was supposed to be guy

Speaker A

he'd go up against more more possum humor possum humor can't get enough of them possum there's pretty good backstory with these little Poss there right oh I didn't even know I I I thought she was wearing like a New

Speaker A

Jersey Mafia she would she would go around it was the pasta mom and she'd have her kids um hang it off but the the bonus the bonus thing was she would use them as hand grenades is what Ken thought of everyone

Speaker A

knows that possums are explosive went well only only when they're young yeah and she would pull the Tails like a grenade and Chuck them and then they explode obviously it didn't go anywhere because of that man yeah nobody likes

Speaker A

grenade humor anymore I don't know stupid [ __ ] entertainment comites Swami swamy skunk I guess here he almost made it too this guy I really fought for but uh um a lot of people ruled him out um

Speaker A

just thought it'd be fun to have a Swami in there Swami versus Buddhist monkey can you see the epic battle there's a floating monkey there on the side with a piz I don't know what that's about but it's the best Swami here you go this was

Speaker A

mine I really pushed hard for this guy this never happened look at the Frantic look at the Frantic writing down there the ugly was crossed out like for meat face not ugly dig deeper K meat face meat face

Speaker A

how do you say no to meat face Ken really pushed hard for this character it was a guy with a bag over his head a paper bag a paper bag and uh his name would be meat face and if you look

Speaker A

inside the bag there he's got googly eyes even there he's just deranged well his supposedly his face is all mangled and they could never look at him he never directly never made it I think that I think all the kids at home they

Speaker A

had bags on their faces were hurt by the by the test screenings we had with this guy this guy should not have made it in here this is horrible this is shout out to the wuang clan right come on come on

Speaker A

excuse me on my Jizzy Izzy skinny squirrel with ribs exposed leave come on there's something dark going on all right all right tell all was all right here we go tell all this was a character I did from my College

Speaker A

Newspaper I'm secretly trying to sneak him in there I didn't even know I'm sharing with you and he was a he was just pretty much a starving a starving squirrel just stealing Ro from yourself which is the worst kind of I'm giving it

Speaker A

for the people okay fair enough for the kids I don't know who this is go a platypus uh Maniac guy that we were trying to oh he's in a straight check and he's foaming at the mouth if you look closely

Speaker A

but the eyes are going wonky go that's as far as that went there too oh Lord more platypus platypus if you look here you could see Ken's fine editing again editorial where he just added a swimming uh fin fins at the

Speaker A

bottom there hey it makes it all come together closure I like the Hat I like the swim Gear with the hat for no reason oh so here was here was what I was talking about earlier the Frantic notes

Speaker A

that we had for the show this was pretty much all we worked from this fun we get paid to do this stuff here oh we get we get paid you guys are getting paid for this you getting no no no no I wasn't

Speaker A

getting no money what's up wait a minute we need to talk about this you got that fruit basket fruit yeah that's mostly what I I work fruit and you know I just got bread soap you get heade soap I work

Speaker A

for soap anyway just frantic notes that we would get paid to do these are more notes good fun here dud you should just specialize in balloon rids only dude that's that's it after that it's all downhill from find your Niche and just

Speaker A

fill it baby the the paddle ball in the face yeah that's just trouble waiting to happen and here to the left or left bottom bottom left is a kid blowing out some candles and I guess they're going to light up the balloon strings there

Speaker A

and some wackiness would ensue there and also one of those B uh birthday what are those things even called that you blow into it's on fire though whatever it is comedy anything on fire is good sad oh more racial stereotypes that's good can

Speaker A

hear I just threw this I was just Irish people they're always drunk and punching people there we were exp I was just exploring the limits of cuddles and his character I think Ken was secretly trying to get some gigs in Japan with

Speaker A

this thing and get some toys made I was trying to play up cuddles I do his voice he's got some Samurai cuddles blast cuddles and line paper and just tore it out of the notebook line paper and here at the

Speaker A

bottom is this this is the Spider-Man SL Daredevil Action Line flips very nice action flips it all makes sense if you if you think about it if you think about it really I guess that's it that's about it well there you go thanks for hanging

Speaker A

around with the sketches and kicking back as we unveil the deepest darkest most embarrassing Secret of the Happy Tree Friends let's talk about you guys getting paid again how do that work I don't know man

Topics:Happy Tree Friendscharacter designanimationearly sketchesRoie MontioAubrey Ingramcartoon developmentanimation historycreative processdark humor

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