CHALKZONE

'''ChalkZone''' was an American animated television series that aired from March 22, 2002 until 2006 on Nickelodeon.

Contents

Premise

Production

Characters

DVD Release

Current Status

Episodes

External links

Premise

The main character, an elementary school student named Rudy Tabootie (E.G. Daily, Tommy Pickles on ''Rugrats''), has been gifted with a magically endowed piece of chalk that allows access to the ChalkZone, an alternate dimension where everything and everyone that's ever been drawn in chalk and erased takes form as the living and/or tangible (compare Philip José Farmer's ''Riverworld''). The show concentrated on the adventures of Rudy, sidekick Snap (Candi Milo), and classmate Penny Sanchez (Hynden Walch) within the zone.

Production

''ChalkZone'' was produced by Frederator Studios for the Nickelodeon cable channel. The series can be seen as homage to the delightful 1974 cartoon ''Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings''. But ChalkZone went deeper, positing a world where everything that had ever been drawn in chalk by anyone came to life in the alternative chalk universe, endowed with the soul and personality its creator had intended for it. Thus ChalkZone took such alternate universe stories as Through the Looking Glass and The Wizard of Oz one step further. Where Alice and Dorothy were merely confronted by creatures and situations they had no control over, ChalkZone's hero Rudy Tabootie had to confront the fact that there were consequences for what ''he'' brought into the world and how they interacted with the creations of others. The show was originally featured on ''Oh Yeah! Cartoons'', just like ''The Fairly OddParents'' and ''My Life as a Teenage Robot''. It premiered on March 22nd, 2002, as the highest rated new show premiere in Nickelodeon's history up to that time. A soundtrack album, titled ''In The Zone'' (not to be confused with Britney Spears' 2003 album), has also been released. The show aired on ''Nick on CBS'' on February 1, 2003 and ended on September 9, 2004.

Characters

★ 'Rudy Tabootie'
Voiced by E.G. Daily, the shy artist whom the show stars.

★ 'Snap'
Voiced by Candi Milo, Rudy's ChalkZone pal, based on a comic strip character he's created.

★ 'Penny Sanchez'
Voiced by Hynden Walch, Rudy's best friend, a genius whom he also has an obvious crush on.

★ 'Reggie Bullnerd'
Voiced by Candi Milo, the school bully.

★ 'Joe Tabootie'
Voiced by Jess Harnell, Rudy's father, who runs a meat shop.

★ 'Mildred Tabootie'
Voiced by Miriam Flynn, Rudy's mother.

★ 'Horace T. Wilter'
Voiced by Robert Cait, Rudy's cartoon-hating school teacher.

★ 'Biclops'
Voiced by Rodger Bumpass, the guardian of the Magic Chalk Mines; has one eye on top of the other.

★ 'Blocky'
Voiced by Candi Milo, Rudy's first drawing.

★ 'Queen Rapsheeba'
Voiced by Russi Taylor, ChalkZone's hot rap artist whom Snap has a crush on. She is a pun on the rapper Queen Latifah.

★ 'Spy Fly'
Voiced by Tress MacNeille, a chalk-fly with a camera attached to her head, she has a Russian accent.

★ 'Skrawl'
Voiced by Jim Cummings, a villainous (and strange-looking) chalk-being who is constantly out to "get" Rudy.

★ 'The Beanie Boys'
Skrawl's flying, singing henchmen.

★ 'The Craniacs'
Voiced by Rob Paulsen, a group of robots looking for futuristic inventions, each one smarter than the last. They, like Skrawl, want Rudy's magic chalk. Whenever a new one is drawn, the last is deemed "obsolete", shut down, and put in storage. The Craniac currently functioning is Craniac #4 (it was originally #3, but Rudy drew a #4 to get rid of #3 and now #3 is shut down). They are primarily based on the numerous Brainiacs from Superman fame.

DVD Release

While there have not been any DVD releases specifically for ''Chalkzone'', the ''Christmas'' episode was featured on the 2006 DVD ''Nick Picks Holiday''. Three episodes(Gift Adrift, French French Fry Falls, and Eschucha Mi Carazon) were released for the ''Nickstravaganza! 2'' DVD

Current Status

In 2006, ''ChalkZone'' was taken off of Nickelodeon. It then aired on the Nicktoons Network but no longer airs. According to Nick.com, ''ChalkZone'' is set to return on September 15, 2007. [1]

Episodes

Main articles: List of ChalkZone episodes

External links

★ ''ChalkZone'' area on nick.com (leads to TV Show list)

★ ''ChalkZone'' at the Big Cartoon DataBase

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