Meet Cuddles the rabbit, Giggles the chipmunk, Lumpy the moose and Petunia the skunk. They're cute. They're cuddly. And they thrive on killing each other in innovative ways. They're the "Happy Tree Friends"- a group of adorable animals with annoying voices and a penchant for bloody violence.
Creators Kenn Navarro and Rhode Montijo started the series of cartoon shorts as a joke in early 2000.
"It would be funny to make cute puppy creatures like a kids' show, but not," Navarro said. "We had an endless pool of ideas. We pitched it and thought the show might be crazy enough to work and - of course - we got a lot of 'what the hell is going on' type of looks."
After the duo put its first 13 episodes on the Web - each no more than two minutes long - the little cartoon blew up. Similar to the "Itchy & Scratchy Show" featured in "The Simpsons," "Happy Tree Friends" episodes feature characters being blown up, cut up or violently beaten by other characters with plenty of animated blood and gore.
Navarro said he and Montijo didn't realize the show would become as big as it did, but it quickly became a cult favorite, spread by word-of-mouth and people sending the Web site link to their friends.
"People were just telling everyone to 'check this out, you need to see this,'" Navarro said. "People were writing in and wanted to see more."
The show's theme song is so irritating that it gets in your head and won't get out no matter how much you try, adding to the absurdity and appeal of the entire concept. A bunch of squeaky, high-pitched chipmunk voices singing and chattering in fast forward mode is all it is, but it has the ability to take over your mind. Watching episodes in a row on the new DVD box set, "Overkill," means hearing the theme song about 30 times, because each episode is - at most - three minutes long.
"We wanted a really annoying song that would get stuck in your head," Navarro said. "It's super sugary and frenetic. You end up humming it."
When coming up with ideas for new episodes Navarro and Montijo just try to "crack each other up with wacky scenarios," Navarro said.
"We get inspiration from everything," he said. "You'll be out walking around and see something happen. Hey, that's a 'Happy Tree Friends' moment."
Navarro remembers seeing a news article about a man whose arm was stuck under a boulder while mountain climbing, referring to an incident in 2003 where climber Aron Ralston cut his arm off to free himself.
"We thought that's so gnarly and did a show on almost the same incident," he said. "The show gets filtered through everything we see."
"Overkill," includes more than 50 short cartoons and is packed with extras such as fan art, comic strips, commentaries and games. It combines the three previous "Happy Tree Friends" DVDs in one.
Navarro and Montijo are involved in everything related to the show, from writing episodes to creating merchandise.
"'Happy Tree Friends' is pretty much all I've been doing for two to three years now," Navarro said. "It turned into this snowball when it started out and now our whole office is dedicated to 'Happy Tree Friends.' It's been gratifying and we're all still excited about it."
