Happy Tree Friends Season One, Volume One

Introduction

Created by Rhode Montijo, Kenn Navarro, Warren Graff and Aubrey Ankrum, Happy Tree Friends is a cartoon that follows the adventures of a group of cute woodland critters who die in particularly nasty and graphic ways in each 7-minute episode.

The show began on the Internet and was feature in many television shows, before gaining its own series in 2006. It now has a huge following, with millions of hits on YouTube and iTunes.

On this first volume of season one are the episodes:
1. The Wrong Side Of The Tracks
2. From Hero To Eternity
3. And The Kitchen Sink
4. Party Animal
5. Ipso Fatso
6. Don't Yank My Chain!
7. Dog Gone It!
8. Concrete Solution
9. Sea What I Found

Video

The animation style is a flash cartoon, with bright colours, cute animals and horrendous bloodshed, all of which are very well presented here. I expected there to be some NTSC to PAL conversion evident, but this is not the case, so I guess it comes straight from the source material.

Audio

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack caught me by surprise, as I was expecting just a stereo track, and it is excellent. Bone crunches, cracks and screams come from around the room!

Extra Features

Commentaries on each episode by the writers, not the finest commentary you'll ever hear, but quite funny and a welcome addition to the package.

Storyboards for each episode, which have to be manually navigated, but are quite interesting.

The Process is a bit of a waste of time as it just shows the animators in fast forward.

How Far is Too Far? is short, but interesting, as Kenn Navarro talks about 'the line' and the sort of humour in the show.

Cubes is a tedious and pointless tour of the writers' office.

Splitting Hares shows a plush toy Cuddles being cut in two with a circular saw.

Conclusion

I first came across Happy Tree Friends some years ago, on MTV2, and, though I enjoyed it, never subsequently gave it much thought. When the DVD became available, I thought I'd give it another try - and I'm glad I did. Expecting 60-odd minutes of cartoon carnage to become tedious, I was pleasantly surprised and could easily have watched another hour!

With elements of Ren & Stimpy, Itchy & Scratchy and the many deaths of Kenny in South Park, this is amusing, inventive and endlessly watchable.

This is not for "Young children or big babies", as it says on the website! Check it out on YouTube and if it tickles you, buy the DVD.