Remember that one day when you could wake up without an alarm? When you would get your favorite bowl of cereal and sit between the hours of 8 and 12? This is a blog dedicated to the greatest time of our childhood: Saturday mornings. The television programs you watched, the memories attached to them, and maybe introducing you to something you didn't realize existed. Updated every weekend.
Many years ago, a
Dragon (Rod Goodall) was charged with protecting a Valley and its inhabitants.
One day, he overstepped his bounds and was punished by Heaven. He lost his
power over fire and was banished to remain inside an extinct volcano submerged
in an icy lake lest he succumb to his own flames. Turned evil by bitterness,
Dragon aligned himself Baboon (Paul McLoone, using an Australian accent) and
his endless army of inept Ninja Monkeys (Tony Acworth) in order to conquer the
Valley (a reversal as dragons were typically heroic in Chinese legends).
Skunk: the destined hero of the Valley.
Dragon’s once best friend, Panda
(Paul Tylak), asked Heaven for help against Dragon and into his lap fell Skunk
(Jules de Jongh); accidentally delivered by a stork since both of them were
black and white. Panda took Skunk under his wing and trained him in the ways of
Kung-fu. However, Skunk was overexcitable and lazy, unable to match Panda’s
teachings of patience and always looking for an easier way to accomplish the
lessons (which often backfired and required him to learn the lesson anyway).
Because there were no other skunks in China, Skunk never learned how to control
his natural spray and often exuded when he was embarrassed (which was also caused
by his spraying), scared or suddenly surprised.
Residents of the Valley: Mantis, Ox, Ms. Duck, Fox, Bird, Killer Bee, Panda, Skunk, Dr. Turtle, Pig and Rabbit.
Other residents of the Valley
included Rabbit (Tylak), who considered himself the strongest animal in the
Valley and often fought against Panda’s teachings, wanting to take the battle
right to Dragon. He tried to hide his crush on Fox (Patricia Rodriguez), an
effective and graceful fighter whose level-headedness was only matched by her
fiery temper. She had an attraction towards Rabbit as well (in spite of
himself), but wasn’t above smacking him whenever he picked on Skunk, whom she
considered a little brother. Like the other female warriors of the valley, she
was proficient in the art of fan combat. Dr. Turtle (Acworth) was an old Kung
Fu master and the physician of the Valley with a talent for kite flying. Tiger
(Goodall) was an old friend of Panda’s and claimed to have once been a great
warrior until a disastrous battle with Dragon turned him into a coward.
However, he could still fight ferociously when angered. Pig (Acworth, using a
voice reminiscent of Bobcat
Goldthwait) was a simple-minded loafer with a lousy memory who spent all
his time bathing in mud, as well was being easily influenced—particularly by
Rabbit. Ox and Bird (both Acworth) were always together. Bird was the smarter
of the two (marginally) and considered himself to be great, while Ox could
speak Ninja Monkey. Both enjoyed being nobodies and layabouts. Mantis (Acworth,
impersonating Christopher Walken),
was the Valley’s lookout with a masochistic and suicidal streak; always putting
himself in harm’s way with the hope of a tragic end (although that didn’tt stop
him from coming through for others in battle). Crane (de Jongh) was the town
gossip used for aerial missions. Ms. Duck (de Jongh) was proficient in cooking,
which made her a master of Dim sum Fu. Snake (Tylak, using an Australian
accent), was the Valley spy who enjoyed inflicting pain on others. Frog (Tylak)
was the master of jumping and enjoyed making people laugh. Mr. Fish (Acworth),
the head of the underwater world and master of the art of No Lung Fu with
feelings for Ms. Duck. Finally, there were the Killer Bees (Acworth, speaking
in a hip-hop style), a hive full of extremely short-tempered bees that would
attack anyone that disturbed them—friend or foe.
Baboon bowing to Dragon.
Skunk Fu! was the first
series to be made by Cartoon Saloon;
an Ireland-based studio founded by recent college grads Paul Young,
Tomm More and Nora Twomey. They were working on pitches while taking
commercial gigs to survive until one of their first staffers, Aidan Harte, had come up with the idea
for the show. While on a shoot, Harte was brainstorming ideas with the studio’s
sales rep, Hyun Ho Khang, and decided to center in on their mutual love of Kung
Fu movies. The agency Khang worked for being named “Skunk” gave them the
inspiration for their lead character. In keeping with the color scheme, they
thought about making Skunk’s mentor a zebra, but went with a panda since they
were found more readily in China. The fact that DreamWorks was in the middle of producing
their own martial arts animal film—announced in 2005—was entirely coincidental.
The Karate
Kidserved as inspiration for the relationship between Skunk and Panda.
The Ninja Monkeys.
Harte worked on all the initial
character designs and did preliminary testing of their movement in Flash, a program he had
some experience with. Cartoon Saloon had to hire additional animators
experienced in Flash to tweak his ideas and build up a library for the show;
notably character designers Joost
Van Den Bosch and Erik
Verkerk. In 2003, Skunk Fu! was presented at the European Cartoon Forum where it was
bought up by the BBC, Ireland’s TG4 and ABC
Australia. Additionally, their distributors, Cake Entertainment, were able to
land a deal for the show to air in America on the Kids’ WB programming block.
In 2006, Cartoon Saloon launched a blog
where they would share episode titles and title cards, production artwork,
random silly drawings and put out hiring notices. Animation duties were carried
out by Fatkat Animation Studios
with New Brunswick Film, Monkey Paw
Media, Top Draw Animation, Inc., Ka-Ching Cartoons and
Rocket Fish Studios.
At its peak, Skunk Fu! was
shown in over 120 different markets around the world and was nominated for a BAFTA Children’s Award and two Irish Film and Television Awards, winning one.
Its was a ratings success on The CW, prompting Cartoon Network to acquire the
broadcasting rights and began airing reruns in 2008. While the show was a hit
and a massive feather in the cap of a fledgling studio their first time out, no
further episodes were ordered by any of the networks it was broadcast on (in
The CW’s case, they sold off their children’s programming to 4Kids Entertainment
who filled it with their own productions). While Skunk Fu! only lasted a
single season, Cartoon Saloon was adamant about continuing the saga in movie
form (which has not yet materialized as of this writing).
“The
Art of Stickiness / The Art of Rivalry” (9/22/07) – Rabbit plans to trap the
Ninja Monkey sin sticky tree sap, but Skunk and his friends can’t help playing
with it and end up caught as well. / Frustrated with Panda’s teachings, Rabbit
decides to start his own school leaving Skunk with a choice of which to attend.
“The
Art of Leaving Them Laughing / The Art of Monkey Launching” (9/29/07) – Dr.
Turtle inspires Skunk to take up comedy. / Most of the Valley goes to
investigate a catapult that the Ninja Monkeys are building, leaving Skunk, Bird
and Ox to fend off an invasion. “The
Art of Attitude / The Art of Revenge” (10/6/07) – Rabbit teaches Skunk how to
sound tough, leading to a competition with Baboon. / Skunk looks for revenge
after a Ninja Monkey stomps his green tea cake, leading to his being captured
along with Rabbit. “The
Art of Tunneling / The Art of Conkering” (10/13/07) – Skunk looks forward to
digging a tunnel with Rabbit until Rabbit proves to be extremely bossy. / Skunk
and Tiger go into Dragon’s territory to find an extremely hard walnut that will
help them win against Pig in Chinese Conkers. “The
Art of No Mind / The Art of Kung Fruit” (10/20/07) – Ninja Monkeys attack the
Valley and only Ox can see them. / Skunk decides to get some of Panda’s
favorite plums from Dragon territory, leading to his being ambushed by the
Ninja Monkeys. “The
Art of Darkness / The Art of Dream Control” (10/27/07) – Rabbit scares Skunk
out of joining him on night patrol, so Skunk and Tiger decide to get revenge by
scaring him back. / Skunk and Panda enter the dream realm to stop Skunk’s
nightmares of being controlled by Dragon. “The
Art of Responsibility / The Art of Stealing” (11/3/07) – Skunk adopts a pet
firefly. / Skunk wants to steal Dragon’s stolen magic jewel to help the Valley. “The
Art of Brain Washing / The Art of Turtle Watching” (11/10/07) – An amnesiac Pig
believes he’s a Ninja Monkey. / Skunk is assigned to watch Turtle just when the
Ninja Monkeys decide to steal his shell. “The
Art of Truffling / The Art of Patience” (11/17/07) – Pig goes mad for the same
truffles Dragon wants to ensure his freedom. / Frustrated by Panda’s lesson,
Skunk storms off only to end up in a Ninja Monkey trap with Fox. “The
Art of Being a Pebble / The Art of Passing the Buck” (11/24/07) – Panda attempts
to trick Skunk into being quiet by teaching him to transfer his chi to a
pebble, which the Monkeys end up stealing. / Skunk blames the Monkeys for
breaking a lantern he did, causing everyone in the Valley to place blame on
them and ignoring when they actually attack. “The
Art of Giggling / The Art of Getting Stuck” (12/1/07) – Panda takes Skunk on a
secret spy mission just as he’s suffering from constant giggling. / Skunk gets
a Ninja Monkey mask stuck to his face and is swept up into their ranks. “The
Art of the Touch / The Art of Hospitality” (12/8/07) – Skunk accidentally teaches
the Monkeys a secret technique. / Skunk invites Rabbit to stay with him when
the Monkeys invade his burrow, but Rabbit turns out to be a pest. “The
Art of Luck / The Art of Endurance” (12/15/07) – Baboon strikes Skunk with a
bad-luck touch instead of Panda, and Skunk attempts to use it against the
Monkeys. / Panda makes Skunk hold onto an egg between his legs until he
returns—right before he’s kidnapped by the Monkeys. “The
Art of Lightning / The Art of the Double Cross” (1/5/08) – Skunk and Rabbit
discover a forgotten fighting move in a piece of Baboon’s fur. / Skunk takes in
an exiled Ninja Monkey who he comes to realize is a spy and feeds bad
information to. “The
Art of the Nose Blow / The Art of the Crush” (1/12/08) – Snake starts a rumor
that Skunk invented a powerful new move, which the recently-exiled Baboon
wants. / Rabbit tricks Skunk into helping him retrieve stolen poems he wrote
about Fox when the Ninja Monkeys attack. “The
Art of Small Victories / The Art of Influence” (1/19/08) – Skunk’s enjoyment of
playing with ants comes in handy when Baboon uses red army ants in his latest
attack. / Accidentally shrunken, Baboon uses his size to pretend to be Skunk’s
inner voice and turn him against his friends. “The
Art of Kiting / The Art of Being Lazy” (1/26/08) – Helping Turtle with the New
Year’s kite display gives Skunk an idea on how to infiltrate Baboon’s great
wall. / Skunk fakes sick to get out of doing chores. “The
Art of the Stink / The Art of Fan Fan” (2/2/08) – Rabbit decides to weaponize
Skunk’s stink. / Panda has Skunk learn fan fighting which he thinks is cool
until the other guys make fun of him for it. “The
Art of the Dizzy Master / The Art of Dim Sum Fu” (2/9/08) – Skunk invents a new
move that he believes is so powerful he decides to steal Dragon’s beard with
Pig to prove it. / Panda has Skunk learn cooking from Duck, which the Ninja
Monkeys take a big liking to. “The
Art of Strategy / The Art of Being Heavy” (2/16/08) – Rabbit ignores Panda’s
orders and decides to make a bigger weapon to battle Baboon’s new cannon. /
Skunk attempts to use a giant boulder when he’s unable to learn a skill that
will make him heavier. “The
Art of Wushu / The Art of the Tea Ceremony” (2/23/08) – Baboon challenges the
Valley animals to some games, but Skunk gets carried away and bets the entire
Valley. / Skunk, Pig, Ox and Bird believe mimicking the elders’ tea ceremony
will make them as powerfully skilled as they. “The
Art of Initiation / The Art of Art” (3/1/08) – Tiger, Snake and Fish talk about
an initiation chamber that turns one into a true warrior, falsely claiming they
themselves have already completed it. / Failing at learning art, when Skunk
sees being beaten up by Ninja Monkeys turns his abstracts into beautiful
realistic works he runs with it. “The
Art of Monkeying Around / The Art of Sneaking” (3/8/08) – When Baboon fires the
Monkeys for failing, the Valley animals have to make them seem like winners to get
them out of the Valley. / Skunk tries to prove he’s a good spy by tagging along
on Snake’s mission to retrieve Turtle’s notebook. “The
Art of Seeing Blind / The Art of Monkey Love” (3/15/08) – Skunk doesn’t
appreciate Panda’s lesson until he ends up lost in a dark tunnel. / Baboon
disguises a Ninja Monkey as a female skunk to lure Skunk into a trap. “The
Art of No Lung Fu / The Art of Destiny Swapping” (3/22/08) – Fish teaches Skunk
underwater combat just as Baboon causes a drought. / Skunk decides to trade
lives with Mantis. “The
Art of Remembering” (3/29/08) – Rabbit, Fox and Skunk try to tell Duck about
Panda being captured, but each one has a different version of the tale.
No comments:
Post a Comment