The Adventures of Charlie and Tutu

The Adventures of Charlie and Tutu is a Kuboian animated television series created by John Axim and produced by Axim Films, Nightlife Animated Productions (series one) and Bubblegum Studios (series two to four). A slice-of-life series, the show focuses on a sister and brother duo who attempt to find constructive ways to live their lives due to not being able to attend school.

The Adventures of Charlie and Tutu ran for four series; the first two series aired on Vision 1's Saturday evening programming strand Bumper's Block from 1994 to 1995, whilst a third and fourth series aired as part of Vision 1's normal branding in 1997 and 1998. After the show ended production, reruns continued to air on KT until 2008. It was the first Kuboian animated television series to be produced using digital ink.

Premise and setting
Charlie, a thirteen year-old girl, and Tutu, an eleven year-old boy, are two siblings who share a close bond with each other. Neither have attended school a day in their lives due to a lack of a school in their town. Lacking friends close to their age, the siblings try to find ways to keep themselves occupied. The show's main setting, Axim Street (named after show creator John Axim), is a moderately populated urban district. Recurring areas seen on the show include a music shop where Charlie and Tutu sometime buy vinyl records, and a bowling centre where the two sometimes spend time.

Despite Axim Street's lack of a school, Charlie and Tutu are still able to find ways to learn things and help their local community. Charlie volunteers at the Axim Museum, and develops a bond with its owner as time goes on. Tutu, meanwhile, has an allotment which he regularly works on with his mother as a hobby. In later episodes, the siblings make some new friends and also attend a children's social group.

Main characters

 * Charlie (voiced by Julia Rose Turner) is a thirteen, later fourteen year-old teenage girl. As the older sister of Tutu, she is often the one who looks after and takes care of him during the day, which the two spend a lot of outside. Despite having never attended school in her life, Charlie is shown to be intelligent, and claims to have picked up literacy and communication skills through reading. Along with spending time with her younger brother, she also sometimes volunteers at the Axim Museum, and is seen doing various tasks, including putting up and taking down posters, sweeping the floors and selling tickets for upcoming events. However, Charlie can be inconsistent with her level of activity, with her sometimes being constructive and other times lazy. Though she generally eats healthy, she is prone to turning to junk food and fizzy drinks when in a low mood. When spending time alone, she is often seen playing video games.
 * Tutu (voiced by Macie Raven) is Charlie's eleven, later twelve year-old brother, who idolises in his sister. He is shy and soft-spoken, and prefers to let others make the decisions and do the talking when out in public. Though he often acts anxious around people he does not know, Tutu likes the company of others, and spends a lot of his time either with Charlie, or his mother, the latter of which he looks after an allotment with. He is often over-reliant on others, thus he has difficulty coping in situations on his own, and can become upset easily if he feels unwanted or his help is unappreciated. Despite this, he is also very passionate about his hobbies and caring towards his family and friends. Later on in the show's run, Tutu begins to develop a few new skills and abilities. He eventually takes up making lemonade and baking biscuits as a secondary hobby, and is good at making things with arts and crafts.
 * Mr. Racket (voiced by Darren Marion) is the workaholic owner of the Axim Museum who Charlie occasionally helps. He is very friendly and is committed to his job, though he has the tendency to spend a lot of time at work, sitting in his stuffy office, even when he doesn't have to. Despite having a wife and son, he does not spend much time with them due to his obsession with work, though does try to spend more time with them after realising his errors. Mr. Racket does have one hobby, however, as he enjoys playing golf duirng his leisure time. He does appear to be a bit snobby, as he likes to complain about trivial matters, such as the colour of wallpaper.
 * Kristle (voiced by Lilian Pond) is Charlie and Tutu's mother who works in an audio visual department, and occasionally helps Mr. Racket to prepare for events that occur in the Axim Museum. In addition, she also has an allotment which she grows plants in during her spare time with Tutu. Despite claiming that she is not a very social person, Kristle is good at giving her children advice and support when they are feeling unhappy or worried about something.
 * Tyler (voiced by Felix Olajide) is Charlie and Tutu's father and Kristle's partner. A stay-at-home father, he is usually seen doing household chores or cooking food, and he often gets irritated when he feels like he is the only one in the house who does any chores. It is implied on several occasions that Tyler does not get out the house much and does not have much of a social life, and he is often nervous around people who he does not know well.

Production
John Axim based the show's premise on both his young adulthood, which was mostly spent being unemployed and with little to do, as well as the state of Kuboian education at the time - as Kuboia did not have an official education system until 1996, many school children were uneducated. He intended to make a television series that would encourage people to use their imagination to counter times where they are bored and with little to do. However, he also wanted to make the programme down to earth and sophisticated, with life lessons that he thought that groups of all ages could learn and relate to. Axim also said that he wanted to target both children and adults with the show, citing that "animation is not purely for kids". In order to demonstrate how the action in each episode would work, the production team would film themselves acting the scenes out in person.

The Adventures of Charlie and Tutu was the first Kuboian animated television series to use digital ink instead of traditional ink. When asked about this, Axim noted that digital ink was cheaper and less time-consuming, and also helped the show look more visually appealing. He admitted that he never intended to revolutionise animation by using digital ink, and it was "just the better option". As such, the show did not promote itself as an animated series with digital ink during its initial run.

Critical reception
With the use of digital ink and each episode running consistently at twelve frames per second or more, critics have generally praised The Adventures of Charlie and Tutu as higher in quality compared to other children's television series at the time. A review from Common Sense Media awarded the show a 4/5 star rating, with the site's consensus reading "Sister and brother duo are great role models for children."

On internet database website IMDb, the show has an average user rating of 7.7 out of 10.

Ratings
Upon its premiere, The Adventures of Charlie and Tutu became a popular show for Bumper's Block, which resulted in the show continuing past its original intended run of episodes. In the United Kingdom, CBBC saw as many as five million viewers tuning in to watch new episodes for the second and third series.

Impact and legacy
Though the show did not market itself as such, The Adventures of Charlie and Tutu was the first Kuboian animated television series (and one of the first in general) to use digital ink. After the show's premiere, almost every mainstream Kuboian animated series had switch to digital ink (instead of traditional ink). Speaking about the show in 2001, a reviewee for British television channel Channel 4 cited the show as "colourful and inspiring", as arguing that the quality of episodes gets progressively better. A BBC reporter commented on the show in 2006, stating that it "was clearly ahead of its time".

Although John Axim intended to make the show appeal to children of all ages, it has often been marketed as a show for younger children. This was especially reflected in the 2000s, when the show saw reruns on pre-school television networks. Axim has reportedly been disappointed with this, as he feels the marketing discourages older audiences from giving the show a chance.