Available at Amazon.com
Directors
Kenn Navarro
Alan Lau
David Winn
Cast
Ellen Connell(Voice) – Giggles
Warren Graff(Voice) – Toothy
David Winn(Voice) – Lumpy
Ken Navarro(Voice) – Cuddles
Release Date: January 8th
Running Time: 650 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
The Movie
So you’re walking through the store looking for the perfect birthday present for little Johnny or Jenny and in the DVD section you stumble across a movie box set with the name Happy Tree Friends and think that sounds like exactly something they’d enjoy. They might enjoy it, but the parents may not find it so amusing. It’s a fairly simple plot, many cute adorable animals, brutally murdering each other ever episode. Probably not what you had in mind is it? Of course, if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you already know a thing or two about the Happy Tree Friends.
There’s no real dialect between the characters. They talk to each other, but they use random sounds for their language so it sounds something similar to simspeak. You can understand a “Hello” or other random phases every now and then, but for the most part you have no idea what they’re talking about. But that doesn’t mean the sound isn’t fantastic. You get a sick feeling of satisfaction when you hear the gurgle of the tree friends choking on their blood, the crack of bones breaking and being ripped from the body, and of course the screams of pain.
Being a cartoon, and an over the top one at that, you have to give leeway in terms of some continuity and other matters. And I’m not just talking about the characters all dying in every episode and coming back to life in the next one. I’m talking about characters having broken legs with the bone poking through their skin in one shot, then the next shot they’re standing up with nothing but scratches on their face. Not even wolverine has that kind of healing power.
Disc One
Wrong Side of the tracks – Lumpy repairs a Rollercoaster
From Hero to Eternity – Splendid tries to save the town from a snowball
And the Kitchen Sink – Pop tries to get cub out of the garbage disposal
Party Animal – Flippy gets thrown a surprise party
Ipso Fatso – Disco Bear tries to slim down
Don’t Yank My Chain – Mole and Handy have to escape policeman lumpy
Dog Gone It – A dog becomes vicious when it hears a whistle
Concrete Solutions – A bag of sugar gets confused with concrete
Sea What I Found – Russell finds a treasure map
Disc Two
Easy for You to Sleigh – Lifty and Shifty play Grinch
Wishy Washy – Plumber Lumpy has to fix a toilet
Who’s to Flame – The whole town catches fire
Every Litter Bit Hurts – Lumpy dumps the town trash into the river
As You Wish – The town finds a genie in a lamp
Take a Hike – The group goes on a camping trip
Snow Place to Go – The group gets shipwrecked on a sheet of ice
Dunce Upon a Time – Jack and the beanstalk story, with a twist
Gems the Breaks – Lifty and Shifty find Splendid’s weakness
Disc Three
A Change of Heart – Disco Bear needs a Heart Transplant
A Hole Lotta Love – Cub falls in a well and Pop tries to rescue him
Mime to Five – Mime tries to get a job
Blast from the Past – Sniffles builds a time Machine to fix the past
Chew Said a Mouthful – Nutty breaks his jaw on a jawbreaker
See What Develops – Mole tries to get a front page picture for the newspaper
Idol Curiosity – Sniffles steals a gold idol
Home is Where the Hurt Is – Giggles gets built a new home
Aw Shucks – A crow tries to eat Lumpy’s corn
Disc Four
Sight for Sore Eyes – Mole gets a seeing eye dog
Wipe Out – Cro Marmot tries to win a surfing trophy
Letter Late than Never – Lumpy battles a turtle while delivering the mail
Wingin’ It – The group takes an airplane flight
Tongue in Cheek – Sniffles builds a robotic ant to infiltrate an anthill
Easy Comb, Easy Go – Disco Bear needs an emergency haircut
I’ve Got You Under My Skin – Sniffles builds a shrinking machine to battle a virus in Giggles
In a Jam – Cuddles tries out for a band
Junk in the Trunk – Lumpy’s pet runs away
Hear Today. Gone Tomorrow – Lumpy goes deaf
Double Whammy Part 1 – Flippy sees a psychiatrist after attending a fair
Autopsy Turvy – Flippy’s good and bad side battle for control
Each episode is basically a murder spree, but underneath the blind killing, there is usually a moral. Usually something along the lines of greed is bad, but it adds depth to the episodes. But, if you’re watching the show, you’re probably not looking for too much depth.
A/V Quality
The animation isn’t the greatest, but it doesn’t really have to be. But what makes the movie, are the sounds. The gurgles as animals drown in their own blood, and terrifying screams add a whole new dimension to the grotesqueness of the episodes.
Special Features
Waste of time and disc space. The Hate Mail section is slightly redeeming, but on a whole, terrible, pointless stuff.
The Inside Pulse
It’s fun for the first few episodes, but there’s only so much cartoon murder you can handle before it becomes over done. It’s got parts to make your skin crawl even if they are just cartoons and the sounds are fantastic. If you’re a fan of the show, obviously you’ll like it, but the insanely over the top cartoon violence is a pretty small niche, but if you’re in it, get this.
