Happy Tree Friends

The animated television series Happy Tree Friends began life as an internet cartoon based on characters created by Rhode Montijo; after becoming an internet success the cartoon transferred to television originally on the G4 network in the U.S. Each episode in the television show is made up of three seven minute short scenes involving an everyday situation turning to violence and the deaths of most, if not all of the characters within the scene.

Happy Tree Friends carries a warning that the show is not suitable for viewers under the age of 17; the show's depiction of graphic violence and the deaths of the woodland animals at each others hands sometimes in elaborate death scenes has led to campaigns against the broadcast of the show.

In 1999 Rhode Montijo drew the first of the twenty main characters in Happy Tree Friends, other minor characters have appeared throughout the internet and television series. The first short produced for the internet a blue dinosaur, which would later become Lumpy kills the woodland creatures of Cuddles the rabbit, Toothy the beaver and Giggles the squirrel. In each episode little dialogue is used by the animated characters except for nonsense words and basic single words.

Happy Tree Friends was developed by Aubrey Ankrum, Rhode Montijo, Kenn Navarro and Warren Graff. The initial internet characters were developed for Mondo Media who later oversaw the development of the television show. Happy Tree Friends has been shown across the world in various formats, including the shorter internet cartoons and the shows created for television.