Happy Tree Friends

Happy Tree Friends is a Flash cartoon series by Mondo Mini Shows, created by Rhode Montijo, Kenn Navarro, Warren Graff, and Aubrey Ankrum. The show has become a popular internet phenomenon since its debut and has also won a cult following.

As indicated on the official site, it is "not recommended for small children". While the violence of these deaths is comparable to that of The Itchy & Scratchy Show (the short cartoon featured on The Simpsons), the portrayal of death in Happy Tree Friends is usually more graphic and anatomically correct, depicting bloodshed and dismemberment in more vivid and often exaggerated detail.

The show is nearly free of dialogue; however, when the characters do speak, their words are severely garbled. Though it is obvious what each character's reaction is, their words can hardly be understood at all. According to the website, the idea for Happy Tree Friends was conceived by Rhode Montijo when he drew a yellow rabbit slightly resembling the character Cuddles on a piece of paper and wrote "Resistance is futile" underneath it.


Main charaters in HTF

This is a list of fictional characters from Happy Tree Friends. There are 20 main characters, and some other supporting characters. Recently, the creators of Happy Tree Friends announced that there will be more than one character added to Happy Tree Friends in the near future. Only one of them is planned to be in the show permanently.

Cuddles
Cuddles (Kenn Navarro) is a yellow rabbit with pinkish cheeks who inexplicably wears pink rabbit slippers. His fur is SPF 90 to minimize exposure to the sun. Cuddles is one of the four primary characters in the series.

Both his white fluffy curly hair tuft and cotton tail look exactly the same. His long ears move to match how he feels; for example, if he is happy, they stay up, and when his feelings are hurt, they drop. He is beta-carotene intolerant. It is also shown he has a collection of antique electric toothbrushes.

Cuddles' personality is somewhat mixed. On one hand, he is dangerously mischievous and self-centered, which often leads to both his death and other characters' deaths. On the other hand, he is friendly and caring, making his personality more complex than the others. He was seen to have multiple houses, but his official one is known to be a Hollow Tree, as it is the only one to appear more than once.

He is particularly good friends with Toothy, Petunia, Flippy, Sniffles, Flaky and Lumpy. Cuddles and Giggles are also very close friends, and it has been hinted several times they have crushes on each other. Their love relationship is most prominent in the Fall Out Boy music video "The Carpal Tunnel of Love", which featured Happy Tree Friends characters.

A Cuddles icon appeared in an episode of the Flash internet cartoon The God & Devil Show on God's keys.

Cro-Marmot
Cro-Marmot is a marmot frozen in a block of ice. He is somehow able to perform many tasks off screen while entirely encased in ice, such as throwing snowballs, somewhat akin to how Handy can perform construction and other tasks without any visible hands. To keep himself frozen, Cro-Marmot stays mainly in cold areas, and sometimes drives an ice cream truck. He lives in a giant glassed Dome or more likely a big snow globe, or rather a small igloo inside a giant snow globe. His hobbies include serving people ice cream, snowboarding, and surfing. He rarely dies in the series, the reason being that the ice he's usually encased in protects him from disaster, thereby rendering him almost invulnerable to most unfortunate events.

The only episode in which he is not frozen is "Dino-Sore Days", as it occurred during the prehistoric times when he was unfrozen. Cro-Marmot usually appears in the series as a background character, and has hardly any showcase appearances. In a featurette of the "Second Serving" DVD, he was interviewed, and it was revealed he's an accomplished writer, painter, and pianist, and he has his own brand of foot powder, known for his loud antics and energetic performances, and has been called the "sexiest Happy Tree Friend" in 1992. The first part of his name is depicted from the word, Cro-Magnon.

Even though he only made a cameo in the episode, "Tongue Twister Trouble", it was actually his official debut in the series, making him the only HTF character to have a debut episode where he wasn't a starring character.

Cub
Cub (Ellen Connell) is Pop's son. He has the appearance and personality of a baby but the intelligence and mobility of a young child. He's the youngest and smallest character of the Happy Tree Friends and his eyes, which are unlike those of the other characters, give him a more infantile appearance, but despite these traits, he still dies and gets injured.

He has appeared and died much more in the series than his father and his deaths are usually a result of Pop's bad parenting. If his father's not paying attention to him, he will often be seen wandering around operating machines by himself or carelessly drifting into death-introducing hazards.

Disco Bear
Disco Bear (Peter Herrman) is a bear with an orange afro and sideburns who likes to dance to disco music. He wears 1970s style clothing, including a yellow jacket, yellow bell-bottom pants and orange and white dancing platform shoes. He usually puts everyone around him into life-threatening trouble while dancing, but mistakes their movements of pain for funky dance moves. He is mostly seen either showing off or trying to impress female characters, such as Giggles and Petunia, and usually killing them in the process. Despite his failures in wooing the ladies, he seems to be well off financially as he is seen with a private ski cabin, his fancy home (which looks like a bachelor pad decorated with the 1970s era furniture, modern art paintings, a heart-shaped bed, a hotel-like bathroom, and packs of romantic candles), a hot tub, a luxury car (resembling a Pontiac Trans Am), a hairspraying-dryer chair and his own submarine.

Disco Bear also has poor eating habits, eating hot dogs, bacon and other fatty foods, and moaning over vegetables. Because of this, he gains weight, losing self-esteem, not being able to run a lot, and having heart diseases. Besides disco dancing, he's talented at roller skating, downhill skiing, and throwing frisbees long distances.

Flaky
Flaky (Nica Lorber) is a porcupine whose quills are full of dandruff. She is one of the most popular characters in the series and has the identifiable personality of being a very shy and timid character ever since she had a traumatic childhood event.

Flaky has often been viewed as a coward. However, Flaky's actions in both the Internet shorts and the TV series go against this as she has been brave and on several occasions had saved her own life several times. Additionally, when hanging around with other characters, Flaky is often forcefully dragged into situations that lead to their demises, despite her warning them about possible dangers that could occur. Her deaths tend to involve either getting skinned or eaten.

Flaky is not only overly cautious, but also one of the more intelligent and kind characters of the series. However, she has, on occasion, been seen as somewhat unstable herself. She is also allergic to peanuts. When she consumes a peanut, her face gets covered in pimples, her lips swell up, and she inflates like a balloon.

Flaky's gender has been the matter of some debate, although it has been repeatedly confirmed to be female by the show's creators.

Flippy
Flippy (Kenn Navarro, Aubrey Ankrum) is a bear with dog tags and a green beret with checkered crest, and camo shirt. There is evidence to suggest that he fought in the Vietnam War. According to writer Warren Graff, Flippy is mostly based on John Rambo (which is apparent to the fact that Flippy kills most of the characters with a knife resembling the bowie knife that Rambo uses as well as traps similar to those seen in the films). He rarely appears in the series, most likely due to his repetitive behavior in most of the episodes in which he appears. He lives in an overturned log resembling a Quonset hut, a structure used by the U.S. Armed Forces. Flippy is trained hand-to-hand combat, and has never been seen using guns to kill other characters. Flippy has a severe case of post traumatic stress disorder. During the war, he was exposed to a chemical known as Agent Orange. Whenever he sees or hears something that he associates with violence or that reminds him of war (e.g., ketchup, gunshot-like sounds, sharp objects, airplanes or crackling campfires), he goes insane, becomes extremely aggressive and kills everyone around him, because of his evil side. While insane, his eyes turn a different color, his voice changes, and his teeth become sharp. He first developed this aggressive change after facing a life and death state while hiding in the dead body of one of his friends as shown in one of his War Journals.

Although Flippy can be the most cruel and dangerous character in Happy Tree Friends, his good side is considered to be one of the most sociable and kindest of characters. This is proven in several episodes where he is seen doing social activities with some of the other characters such as going to the movies and playing hide and seek. In most of the episodes where he appears, he is shown as friendly and social before he goes crazy, or as many people say "flipping-out." After he "flips-out", he does not remember the bloody rampage that follows afterwards. In "Double Whammy", he finally realizes his problem and goes to Lumpy the psychiatrist for answers. He then removes his 'evil' side, but is immediately killed by a chicken truck.

So far, Flippy has killed every character, with the possible exceptions of Splendid and Cro-Marmot. His own confirmed deaths were all caused by machinery.

Giggles
Giggles (Ellen Connell) is a chipmunk who has a white diamond-shaped marking, a white oval pouch, and wears a big red bow on her head. Giggles is one of the primary characters of the series along with Cuddles, Toothy, and Lumpy. She has the personality of a young girl, as she enjoys frolicking through flowers, having tea parties with friends, ice skating, and having a shy and sweet demeanor. Her name comes from her habit of giggling often. She has a white oval on her forepouch.

Giggles is a very affectionate character and is often seen hugging and kissing several of the characters. She is particularly close to Cuddles whom she has a crush on as hinted in several episodes, and in Fall Out Boy's "The Carpal Tunnel of Love" music video where for the first time their romantic relationship was really explored.

She is best friends with Petunia. The two run a lemonade stand together. Though Giggles' deaths aren't usually as gruesome as Petunia's, she appears and dies more often.

Giggles is also very environmental and going so far as to chain herself to a tree to prevent Lumpy from cutting it down. When she sees someone polluting the environment, she'll lose her temper and yell at them.

Handy
Handy (Warren Graff) is a beaver with unexplained amputated arms that are covered with bandages. Handy is a construction worker and wears a tool belt and a hard hat (the typical dress of most construction workers). His dam mostly consists of tools that are operated by hand.

Despite his lack of hands, he is still capable of building many things big or small, though he is never actually seen building it in the first place - it is usually off-screen. However, whenever he tries to do something onscreen which would usually require hands, he fails and pulls his trademark frustrated look, indicating that he forgot that he didn't have hands. Usually when he finds a compromise, it leads to his own death and sometimes the death of others.

In the TV series, Handy has gained an interest in flying. From the episode, "In a Jam", it became apparent that he has photosensitive epilepsy, the flashing lights triggering a seizure as his eyes go ascrew, he jitters, and he foams at the mouth.

Lumpy
Lumpy (David Winn) is a moose with clean teeth pranging out of his mouth, bright disorbited eyes and mismatched antlers. Lumpy is one of the four primary characters in the series. His low intelligence is often the cause of other characters' deaths, and sometimes his own.

He is the only one of the characters with a standard nose with two nostrils (smaller Happy Tree Friends have heart-shaped Care Bears-styled noses). Lumpy has appeared in the most episodes out of all the other Tree Friends. There were some arguments about him being too close to Bullwinkle and "Montgomery Moose", the leader of The Get-Along Gang, so his right antler was drawn upside down. He is a hillbilly judging by his voice, his lifestyle, and the clothes he wears. Lumpy has had many occupations in many episodes, including a teacher, ticket clerk, bus driver, convenience store owner, police officer, doctor, firefighter, magician and more. He is usually a fill-in character, and often shown in tremendously incongruous situations, such as lounging lazily in a hammock, while the rest of the gang are playing in the snow.

He lives in a trashy trailer and drives a Lincoln Continental. His favorite foods are cheese and sandwiches, his favorite dessert is cheesecake, and that he likes to talk to lettuce. A rock on Mars was named after him.

Mime
Mime is a deer with a painted face who wears a black and white striped shirt. Because he is a mime artist, others have a hard time understanding him. Most of his possessions are imaginary yet can be stolen. It has been said that he's mute. He is talented with circus skills like juggling and creating balloon animals. His attempts to entertain his fellow Happy Tree Friends often have fatal consequences. Mime is also very fond of peanuts, going so far as to stick his hand in a blender to eat them. It has been argued whether Mime is a girl, however it can be seen that he is a male considering he has antlers.

Mime could be portrayed as a juvenile deer judging by the size of his antlers. He lives in a tent, on which the inside looks like a regular house. He dies quick and painless deaths more than any other character.

The Mole
The Mole is a blind mole with the stereotypical "blind man" appearance of dark glasses and turtleneck. On his face, The Mole actually has a mole. Like Mime and Cro-Marmot, he doesn't speak. He is not deaf, though he does have hearing problems. Disaster follows his blind bumbling. He seems to love stuffed animals. His actions and character are that much like those of Mr. Magoo. In several instances, he mistakes body parts such as severed heads for other things. He doesn't appear to have his driver's license revoked, since he has been seen driving. His driving abilities are clearly not safe for his surroundings, but he has actually been seen stopping at a red light.

According to the commentary for "Pitchin' Impossible", the Mole was originally supposed to be a James Bond-like secret agent with all kinds of spy gadgets around him but it was removed when the series was created. It wasn't until the episode, Mole in the City, that his secret agent identity was explored. He also has an arch-nemesis known as The Rat, most likely because they both have careers in industrial espionage.

A running gag in the series is The Mole doing things that require vision such as stopping at a red light, lighting a match to see in the dark, and even reading a book. He usually has jobs that require good vision which, in most episodes, leads up to his and other characters deaths.

In the web shorts, The Mole rarely dies because one producer's daughter is blind and they didn't want to offend her or any blind person, and usually causes harm to the other HTF due to his blindness. He dies a lot more often in the TV series.

Nutty
Nutty (Michael "Lippy" Lipman) is a squirrel with a yellow diamond shaped marking on his head and an addiction for candy or anything that contains sugar. He has a big swirly lollipop, a candy cane, a small all-day sucker, and a candy apple stuck to his fur, which he even treats as his wardrobe. One of his eyes resembles googly eyes and the other bears a slight resemblance to Flippy's 'flipped-out' eyes. It is apparent that his googly eye is an amblyopia, or lazy eye, as it is almost always looking down and drops down whenever he looks somewhere else. Nutty is rarely seen not smiling.

As a result of his huge sugar intake he is often hyperactive and jittery, and giggles more than he talks; He even giggles occasionally when he is dying. The only time he has ever been heard speaking was when he wished for a scrumptious lollipop in "As You Wish". It has been proven that even the slightest amount of sugar will set him off. Nutty foams at the mouth when deprived of candy or any other sugar-related item and he will do whatever it takes to get the sugar he wants, even if it involves stealing the candy from them, ignoring his friends', or even his own fatal injuries. If he doesn't get what he wants, he becomes very irate. He seems to lack common sense, which is evidenced in many episodes. Nutty appears to be slightly insane, as he thinks anything brightly colored is candy. His room is very messy and he has a bed with legs resembling candy canes, but instead of the bed, he sleeps in a bunch of candy wrappers on the floor.

Most of his deaths are caused by his obsession of candy, but he usually dies of being split apart or shredded

Petunia
Petunia (Ellen Connell) is a skunk with a light blue arrow marking on her forehead, which is connected to the triangle shaped marking on her back. She wears a pink flower on top of her head and a pine scent deodorizer around her neck and a white pouch (even though it says on the website that she bathes many times a day), Petunia is rarely seen without her flower or deodorizer. While Giggles is childlike, Petunia acts more mature, though she still likes to play with her dolls and often has tea parties. She also seems to enjoy cooking. Petunia also seems to have a drinking habit in the series. She drinks a lot of juice which causes her bladder to go unstable at certain times. Petunia's deaths are mostly caused by household items, like sinks.

Petunia is often seen in the series with Giggles. They appear to be best friends and run a lemonade stand together. In the Internet series, they were almost identical in personality. However, whilst Giggles has appeared and died more in the series than Petunia, Petunia's deaths are the most gruesome in the series. Many fans refer to her as one of the most unfortunate characters because of this. Like Giggles, her head is usually involved in her deaths. She is also the only main character of the series who has not directly caused the death of any other character so far.

Petunia has obsessive compulsive disorder. More specifically, she is a "neat freak". She takes showers five times a day, and if things are either dirty, or out of their proper place, she starts to hyperventilate and tries to do anything to clean it up again.

Pop
Pop (Aubrey Ankrum) is a bear with a red beret. Some people refer to him as the stereotypically clueless, bathrobe-wearing, pipe-smoking, 1950s style sitcom father. His son Cub often dies as a result of both his attention and inattention - although it is clear that he loves him. He is not very bright and when he tries to save his son, he often kills him and sometimes himself, too. The only time Pop killed Cub intentionally was in the episode "Read 'em and Weep", because Cub was possessed by a demon (despite the fact that Lumpy had already exorcised the demon from Cub).

Pop is one of the few characters in the show who has a much more intelligible way of speaking. He almost speaks clear words in some of the episodes he appears in. He can even read a book with an understanding vocabulary.

There is evidence that Pop may very well be a widower, due to the fact that in the episode "Can't Stop Coffin", he and Cub are seen mourning at a gravestone which probably belongs to his dead wife.

Russell
Russell (Francis Carr) is a sea otter with typical pirate accessories like a Jolly Roger's hat, a striped red/white shirt, a hook, an eyepatch and two wooden peglegs. He enjoys fishing, sailing and eating seafood, one of his animal instincts, especially mussels, which was why he was named Russell. He also likes kite flying and even runs his own fast-food restaurant (Mime to Five). Russell's initial character design depicted him with a five o'clock shadow, though since his early appearances, it seems as though he shaves regularly. Typically, his vocabulary consists mostly of "Yar", 'Aha!' and 'Huh?'. It is evident that Russell's legs are partially amputated. He lives in a big pirate ship shaped treehouse and sleeps on a purple hammock. Because Russell spends most of his time in the water, he is rarely seen with the other characters. His deaths usually involve getting impaled.

Shifty & Lifty
Shifty & Lifty (Kenn Navarro) are identical twin raccoon brothers. They frequently steal merchandise from the other Happy Tree Friends, as well as hunt for treasure, ransack houses, or do anything to get rich quick. They have the same markings, bushy tails, personality and almost identical voices. It is unknown which of them is older. Despite the smirks on their faces and their kleptomania, they almost always end up perishing in the process. Their green color implies money and greed, relating to their 'criminal duo' personalities. They also have a trademark evil snicker. Like most siblings, Lifty and Shifty argue about who's to blame when a problem emerges, but when trouble's afoot, they work together. Both twins are greedy and sometimes resort to seeing their twin die rather than give up their loot or be caught. Their greed can also lead to their deaths. These kleptomaniac raccoons have the lowest survival rate of any Happy Tree Friend. Their deaths also usually involve them either mashed together or sliced apart. Lifty & Shifty have, on occasion, made money by themselves without stealing, such as selling dogs who get crazy when they hear whistling, selling bottles of hair growth formula to Disco Bear, and selling candy and a video game console to Nutty.

Sniffles
Sniffles (Liz Stuart) is an anteater who is one of the most intelligent characters in the series. He usually likes reading and doing science and math problems. To reinforce the 'nerd' image that Sniffles exudes, he carries pens in a pocket protector on his chest, has tape on his nerdy glasses, and has been seen dressed up as a Star Trek character.

Sniffles' IQ has proved to be extremely high in both the Internet and TV series. He has built things which are far more advanced than what most of the other characters could create, including a rocket from a bus and even a time machine. However, sometimes these devices malfunction and work against him, leading to his own death. Like Toothy, he has a wide range of deaths, usually involving his tongue, head, limbs, or organs. Sniffles also has a craving for ants, which is one of his animal instincts. Whenever he tries to eat one, however, they kill him, after torturing him in the most sadistic of manners.

Splendid
Splendid (David Winn) is a flying squirrel. He is largely based on Superman, being able to fly at extreme speeds, shoot laser beams from his eyes, has super strength, supersonic hearing, can turn back time and can breathe ice. His appearance is somewhat based on Rocky from Rocky & Bullwinkle.

The irony of Splendid being a superhero is that he often unintentionally kills the characters he rescues. This is usually either because of his ignorance or his own powers. Most of the time, he is oblivious to the other characters' deaths. He often flies away without checking to see if they are actually safe. He believes that being a superhero is a pain in the neck.

His only confirmed death was in the TV episode Gems the Breaks where he was overexposed to his one and only superhero weakness: Kryptonut, which looks like a green glowing acorn, except it is made out of rock - a reference to Kryptonite. Not only will the Kryptonut make him lose his powers, but it will also make him vomit continuously and give him the stomach flu.

Toothy
Toothy (Warren Graff) is a beaver with very large gapped teeth and freckles. He is one of the four primary characters in the series. He is generally a very friendly character. Toothy was also Flippy's first victim in both the online shorts and TV series.

Toothy is the first character to be killed ever in Happy Tree Friends and he is also the character who suffered a very long and painful death in the episode that won an award at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France, the infamous "Eye Candy".

He can be used in wider range of situations, unlike most of the other characters whose various personalities define how they might act in a given situation. He mostly acts before he thinks though he is by no means addle-brained.



Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Happy_Tree_Friends_characters