Editorials
‘Happy Tree Friends’ – An Adorably Violent Snapshot of a Particular Moment in Internet History
There’s no understating the impact that the now-defunct Macromedia Flash had on the animation industry. Sure, the cheaper production value and recycled frames resulted in a noticeable decline in quality in some areas (even if that was usually due to studios overworking animators), but it also meant more democratic access to cartooning tools and more varied creators working in the field.
This ultimately led to an explosion of offbeat projects that would have previously been unfeasible to produce on regular TV networks. The rise of widespread internet access also gave these unusual cartoons a chance to connect with international audiences, marking a unique moment in animation when independent creations could compete on near equal footing with titans like Nickelodeon and even Cartoon Network.
One of the most iconic projects of this early 2000s boom came in the form of Mondo Media’s unexpectedly violent Happy Tree Friends, a mean-spirited parody of cute and cuddly early childhood cartoons. And while the popularity of Cuddles, Giggles, Lumpy and company has undoubtedly waned since the heyday of flash animation, I‘d argue that Mondo’s twisted satire remains one of the most influential pieces of internet culture out there.
Although Happy Tree Friends became a pop culture giant during the early-to-mid 2000s, it originally began as a product of late 90s cynicism, with the concept sprouting from a series of ironic sketches by children’s book author Rhode Montijo. Fellow Mondo Media employees Aubrey Ankrum and Kenn Navarro then helped to develop the idea into an animated short which featured primitive versions of the now-iconic characters.
Nothing like a memorable recurring cast to repeatedly slaughter!
Naturally, the short was so successful that Mondo Media soon commissioned a complete series that would be posted online. The rest is history, with the show debuting in 1999 and breaking internet records with numbers that are still mind-blowing over two decades later. This is even more impressive when you consider that these were pre-YouTube times, when viewers had to actively seek out specific websites in order to watch these animations instead of finding them all in a convenient media hub.
This surge in popularity led to the shorts being shown at film festivals and even late-night television specials. And much like the hyper-violent trading cards that once parodied child-oriented entertainment, Happy Tree Friends also became an ironic hit among kids of an edgier persuasion. Schools would often enforce an HTF ban thinking that the show was some kind of youth-corrupting phenomenon, believing that it was targeted towards kids simply because it was animated.
That’s actually how I first came into contact with the show, as it was an unwritten rule of the playground that if adults didn’t want us to see something, it had to be good. Of course, looking back on it now, the show is filled with dated attempts at humor and even some questionable stereotypes (I mean, the exaggerated depictions of PTSD aren’t doing anyone any favors), but this kind of thing was par for the course for this kind of online shock humor at the time.
After all, the appeal of the show was watching these cutesy characters undergo inhuman punishment, and you’ve got to admit that we got that in spades. I mean, certain moments (like Petunia shaving off her own skin with a vegetable peeler or Flippy going batshit crazy whenever he’s confronted with anything even remotely related to warfare) are forever burned in my retinas, and it’s easy to see why this kind of controversial content became an early internet viral hit.
And while the focus of Happy Tree Friends was always the absurd dark humor, there were plenty of obvious horror references and nods to the scary movies that inspired many of these random acts of violence. From a black and white parody of The Hitcher to George A. Romero-inspired promos and episodes literally named after horror flicks (like the obvious Friday the 13th), there’s plenty of fun to be had here for horror hounds on the lookout for Easter Eggs.
We all agree that Flippy was the best, right?
Like any commercial success, HTF also ushered in waves of imitators and successors in the form of other popular adult-oriented internet cartoons (with some of them coming from Mondo Media itself, like the equally-successful Dick Figures). The show would also undoubtedly influence future programming blocks of Adult Swim, which has been re-using the “recontextualizing children’s media with elements of horror” trope as recently as their 2022 April Fool’s special featuring Learning with Pibby.
Unfortunately, online animation would eventually become less profitable once media giants started to reward creators according to watch times rather than overall views. Plus, this kind of crass humor started to become less popular among younger generations, which led to a steady decline in viewership. One might also argue that HTF’s original audience simply grew up and moved onto more mature adult entertainment, be it animation or otherwise.
Happy Tree Friends was never technically canceled, with new episodes being produced as recently as late 2016, though it’s clear that the show and its characters are nowhere near the level of fame they were back in the early-to-mid 2000s. There have been rumors of a potential comeback, but I see the show’s premise as a true product of its time – so maybe we should simply let current animators come up with a more zeitgeist-appropriate successor instead.
Revisiting Happy Tree Friends nearly a quarter century later can be a little rough; the animation itself isn’t as smooth as it was in my memory and the gratuitously cruel violence can often come off as off-putting and problematic instead of entertaining, but the show can still work as a gory snapshot of a particular moment in internet history. Newcomers likely won’t see the show as anything more than a dated novelty akin to early rage comics, though that doesn’t mean that HTF isn’t deserving of merit for its part in popularizing adult-oriented animation.
And after all these years, I’m still trying to get that silly theme song out of my head.
Can you believe it’s already been fifteen years since 2009? I feel older than Jason’s mother’s head. But never mind all that. We’re going to look into the past in celebratory fashion today and take a month-to-month look at what the world of horror looked like back in 2009.
The dreaded month of January kicked things off in usual January fashion with a forgettable title, The Unborn. A David S. Goyer picture that’s not very memorable but managed to be the sixth most successful horror film of 2009 domestically, raking in over $42 million at the box office.
Right behind it on the calendar was Patrick Lussier’s My Bloody Valentine 3D starring “Supernatural” actor Jensen Ackles. This slasher remake took the idea of January horror and embraced it, making a silly and gory slasher that was the world’s first R-rated film to ever use Real3D technology. Anyone looking for legitimate scares was probably pissed (the film has a 44% Rotten “Audience” rating) but genre fans had fun with it to the tune of over $51 million at the box office (on a $14 million budget).
Next up, releasing on January 30 was the sleepy PG-13 horror flick The Uninvited. For the life of me, I’ll never understand the choice to release a movie called The Uninvited two weeks after a movie called The Unborn; to be fair, most of us are unable to remember much about either of them.
The reboot of Friday the 13th was served up to us for Valentine’s Day Weekend 2009. A slasher movie that made a ton of money and had fans begging for a sequel… that never came. The Platinum Dunes reboot may not be universally beloved, but I know a fair share of fans (myself included) who thought the new Jason, Derek Mears, and team made a film that was both fun and brutal. And it was juicy enough to come in as the number three most successful domestic horror film in 2009 to the tune of over $65 million. Friday the 13th ’09 was nowhere near perfect but it was a damn fun time with some underrated Jason Voorhees moments and a sleek plan to tell Jason’s origin story quickly via flashbacks that some superhero franchises could learn from. Oh yeah, and it starred the other “Supernatural” bro, Jared Padalecki. I’m sensing a pattern here.
‘Last House on the Left’
Next up, yet another remake of a classic horror film: The Last House on the Left. Wes Craven wanted to see what his low-budget horror film would look like with a little walking around money and the results were that we, the audience, got to see a dude get his head microwaved. The critics weren’t huge fans but let’s be honest, it could have been a lot worse given the subject matter and lack of nuance in the 2000s. Last House went on to land itself in the top ten horror box office returns of the year.
March would also feature one of the many notches in Kyle Gallner’s horror belt, The Haunting in Connecticut, a movie with maybe too many generic possession genre moments to make a major dent in the status quo but enough to make it memorable. I’d take it over many of The Conjuring franchise spinoffs of today, personally. Though, they’re all very much alike.
April Horror would conjure nothing for audiences but Sam Raimi would bring the loud, scary, and funny back to the genre with Drag Me to Hell on May 29. This film that was somehow still PG-13 even with a cat murder, flying old lady eyeball, and mouth-to-mouth puke action was a blast to experience in the theater. Audiences agreed as the film ranked #7 on the horror box office of the year, cashing out at $42 million thanks to a loveable lead in Alison Lohman, the forever horror victim Justin Long, and some good old-fashioned, Evil Dead II-type fun.
‘Drag Me to Hell’
July would shock horror fans in a completely different way with adoption horror flick Orphan. The ending may have had all of us feeling super uncomfortable and shocked but the movie itself had adoption groups majorly upset at how the film depicted the dangers of adoption. So much so that the studio had to add a pro-adoption message to the film’s DVD. No matter, the performance of Isabelle Fuhrman would carry the film to a $41 million box office run and later spawn a decent prequel in 2022.
Speaking of collecting, The Collector was also released in July 2009 and was a pleasant surprise featuring a shitload of originality and some scares to boot. Yet another horror success that would make $10 million on a $3 million budget and spawn a sequel. We’re still waiting on third installment, which abruptly stopped shooting several years back under strange circumstances.
The fourth Final Destination film graced us with its predestined presence in 2009 as well with The Final Destination; the 3D one with the race car track opening. The film was (stop me if you’ve heard this one before) a financial success, raking in over $186 million (worldwide) on a $40 million budget.
Rob Zombie went Rob Zombie’ing as hard as he’s ever Rob Zombie’d with Halloween II later that month. He’d Rob Zombie so hard that we wouldn’t see Halloween on the big screen again until almost ten years later with Halloween 2018. And nothing controversial ever happened in the franchise again. *Shuts book* Stop trying to open it! NO! NOOOOOOOO!
‘Halloween II’
Another remake in Sorority Row was the first film to follow Rob Zombie’s divisive stab-a-thon with a schlocky Scream-esque slasher flick that had a good enough time and even boasted a few neat kills. Critics weren’t fans of this one but if you were? You’ll be happy to hear that writer Josh Stolberg just announced he’s working on the follow-up!
Sexy Horror September continued a week later with Jennifer’s Body and an all-new, emo kind of Kyle Gallner. Jennifer’s Body didn’t exactly crush it for the critics or the box office but has success in its own right and is considered somewhat of a cult classic thanks to some hilarious writing and leading performances from Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried. Also, shout out to Adam Brody’s band Low Shoulder. Machine Gun Kelly could never.
Part of the low box office for Jennifer’s Body could have had something to do with what came next as Paranormal Activity would rock the horror world a week later. The genius marketing of the low-budget film would feature clips of audiences on night vision cameras losing their minds. Whether it scared you to death or you found the entire concept ridiculous, you had to see it for yourself. Paranormal Activity would bring in almost $200 million worldwide on a 15 THOUSAND dollar budget. I’m no mathematician but I’m pretty sure that’s good. The horror game changer may just be the most remembered of all the 2009 films and it’s one every studio in the world wanted to replicate.
‘Paranormal Activity’
One film’s game changer is another film’s flop as Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster’s space horror Pandorum had the unfortunate scheduling of lining up against Paranormal Activity on that fateful day and in turn, being mostly forgotten.
Spooky Season 2009 kicked off with the beloved horror-comedy Zombieland in October, complete with Jesse Eisenberg’s meta-rules for surviving a zombie apocalypse, Bill Murray, and Woody Harrelson who just wanted a fuckin’ Twinkie. There’s nothing like a good horror comedy and Zombieland proved that all the way to the bank, making $74 million domestically en route to a second film that brought back the entire cast.
It’s only been twelve seconds since I said the word remake, so let’s fix that. The Stepfather remake would follow a week later and be met by an audience getting a little sick of them. Unlike some of the other spirited remakes that surrounded this era in horror (not that they ever stopped), The Stepfather felt like an uninspired retread of the understated but completely messed up 1987 Terry O’Quinn horror cult classic. It’s largely been forgotten over the years.
“Who am I here?” Oh yeah, it’s October in the 2000, there’s bound to be a Saw movie around here somewhere. Saw VI would be released on the 23rd of October and continue the story of Detective Hoffman while adjusting the rates of some shady insurance adjustors. Saw VI would also fall victim to a little bit of Paranormal Activity mania with the film being bested by the continued rollout of its predecessor. Things were looking a little bleak for the franchise at this point. Probably none of us would have imagined that fifteen years later we’d be talking about the same director (Kevin Greutert) returning for the eleventh movie in the franchise.
‘The House of the Devil’
After all these humongous box office successes, sequels, and remakes it would be three memorable indie flicks that would round out October of 2009; the ultra fucked up Willem Dafoe, Lars von Trier sex/horror flick Antichrist, followed by Ti West’s ’70s haunter The House of the Devil and rounded out with some Australian torture horror in Sean Byrne’s The Loved Ones. All three movies each make their mark in their own special ways. What a way to end October.
But it was November that would bring the movie that scared me more than any other on this list: The Fourth Kind. A lot of you are assuredly rolling your eyes right now but this one messed me up on a cellular level despite it being a complete and total fake. The Fourth Kind decided to meld a traditional horror film with the stylings of The Blair Witch Project in an opening designed to make you believe it was based on a true story. An embarrassing attempt but the film itself had me afraid to sleep near windows at night after seeing those found footage abductions. It still messes with me, to be honest. WHY ARE THEIR MOUTHS STRETCHING SO MUCH?!?!
December was too busy doing Avatar and Alvin and the Chipmunks-type family affairs for any horror movies but even without it, 2009 was quite a year for horror. I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least mention some other memorable films that were released either straight to video, limited or overseas that year including Case 39 (that oven opening!), Exam, Daybreakers, Splice, Dead Snow, The Hills Run Red, The Descent 2, Blood Creek, Cabin Fever 2 and [REC] 2.
What were your horror favorites from 2009? Comment below and let us know!
‘My Bloody Valentine’
5 Deep Cut Horror Movies to Seek Out in May 2024
‘Flesh of the Gods’ – Kristen Stewart & Oscar Isaac Starring in ’80s Vampire Movie from Panos Cosmatos!
‘Baby in the Basket’ – First Look at Gothic World War II Horror Movie [Exclusive]
Original Classic ‘The Crow’ Returning to Theaters for 30th Anniversary
Limited Edition Morticia & Wednesday Addams ‘Monster High’ Dolls Releasing Next Week!
You must be logged in to post a comment.