Happy Tree Friends

Happy Tree Friends
Genre	Black comedy Splatter Comedy horror
Created by	Aubrey Ankrum Rhode Montijo Kenn Navarro
Developed by	Rhode Montijo Kenn Navarro Jeremy Viet Duong
Directed by	Seasons 1–2: Rhode Montijo Seasons 2–5: Kenn Navarro
Creative director(s)	Dean MacDonald
Starring	Kenn Navarro Nica Lorber Rhode Montijo David Winn Dana Belben Ellen Connell Lori Jee Warren Graff Audrey Ankrum Liz Stuart Jeff Biancalana Peter Herrmann Michael "Lippy" Lipman Mark Giambruno Francis Carr Renée T. MacDonald Ken Pontac
Composer(s)	RJ Eleven Jim Lively Winn Winn Situation Ashsha Kin Kadet Kuhne Jonathan Bach Jerome Rossen
No. of seasons	6 (total: 6)
No. of episodes	143 (total: 150+) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	John Evershed Deirdre O'Malley Edward Noeltner
Producer(s)	David Ichioka
Animator(s)	Aubrey Ankrum Rhode Montijo Kenn Navarro
Running time	1–5 minutes
Production company(s)	Geffen Records
Distributor	Universal Music Enterprises
Release
Original network	G4 YouTube MTV
Picture format	Flash animation quality (1999-2005) 480p (2007-2009) 1080p (2009-2016)
Original release	December 24, 1999 (1999-12-24) – present
Other websites
Website

Happy Tree Friends is an American adult-themed animated web series. It was created by Aubrey Ankrum, Rhode Montijo, and Kenn Navarro, developed by Montijo, Navarro, and Jeremy Viet Duong and created by Nirvana. It had achieved a cult following on YouTube. Montijo, Navarro, Graff, Ankrum also serve as the as showrunners.

Despite the childlike art style of the series and having a colorful cast of characters, the show would often have the animals go through very violent situations, complete with detailed gore. These twists happen during each episode, which was met with surprised and positive reactions and reviews. The portrayal of death in Happy Tree Friends is usually very extreme and anatomically correct, the special effects are oftem more vivid and of exaggerated detail.

The official music videos are comparable to that of Nirvana (the short cartoon featured on their song "Smells Like Teen Spirit"), Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam. The series is also referenced in the music video "Carpal Tunnel of Love" by rock band Fall Out Boy, in which the members are designed like the animal characters by the webseries' staff. The band members end up dying in the music video by a tow cable.

The program has little to no speech. When the characters do speak, their words are severely garbled. It is easy to tell what each character's reaction is, but their words are very hard to understand. According to its website, the idea for Happy Tree Friends was created by Rhode Montijo when he drew a yellow volkswagen rabbit, that may have evolved into the character of Cuddles, on a piece of paper and wrote "Resistance Is Futile" underneath it.

A Happy Tree Friends spin-off called Ka-Pow! premiered on September 2, 2008. One of the characters was also featured in a video titled "YouTube Copyright School", which curiously enough is not intended to be as twisted and gory.