Cindi and Friends

Cindi and Friends is a Kuboian animated television series created by Fyp Housin and produced by Scopescreen Media. The show ran on KT for five series airing from 1999 to 2003. After the show came to an end, reruns continued to air on the channel until its closure in November 2008. Reruns were also shown on Nick Jr. Kuboia until 2005 and during Vision One's unbranded children's programming block from 2009 to 2011. The show's success helped it spawn merchandise such as books, music and video games.

Premise
Cindi Sophia Roberts is a nine year-old girl who does not attend school. Instead, she spends her life attending a daycare group which is located in an indoor entertainment centre called Rainbow Dome. A large part of the show revolves around Cindi learning to appreciate and think about others in spite of her self-centred personality. Since she is good at helping others with their problems, Cindi is popular amongst her friends and acquaintances.

Each episode, running fourteen and a half minutes each, is broken up by dream sequences and the occasional musical number.

Characters
A total of six children attend the daycare where the show is set in.
 * Cynthia "Cindi" Sophia Roberts is the titular character and main protagonist of the show; a nine year-old girl who has brown hair and usually wears two pigtails. She is often seen as a heroine amongst her friends and family due to frequently being the one who helps others with their problems. Despite having never attended school in her life, Cindi is shown to be very intelligent. However, she can also be very grumpy, pessimistic and cynical, and is prone to making selfish decisions and taking her friends for granted. Regardless, she is very loyal to her parents and caretakers and cares about her friends, especially Hyh, a lot.
 * Hyh is Cindi's best friend, a blond-haired boy, who is typically the one who stays by her side when the other four children are playing together. He also usually acts as the voice of reason if Cindi is being selfish or if one of the other children are misbehaving. Cindi appears to have a crush on Hyh, though whether he returns her feelings or not is not made clear.
 * Tanya is a ginger-haired girl who often wears her hair in a ponytail. She has the tendency to get up to mischief and cause trouble for the others, although this appears to be because her father has high and strict expectations of her when she is at home. Cindi appears to somewhat dislike Tanya at first, but eventually learns to be good friends with her.
 * Aourine is Hyh's blonde-haired sister, who is often very loud and energetic. She enjoys to act as the "leader" when playing with her friends and can be very bossy with them, though she has good intentions and does try to make everybody happy. Though she and Hyh look around the same age, it is never made clear if they are twins or not.
 * Florence is a brown-haired girl who often wears an Alice band. She seems to be spoilt, and can be very full of herself, especially if she is given compliments. Despite this, Florence enjoys the company of others, and usually likes to give her friends special names. She appears to be Tanya's best friend.
 * Quu is a darkskinned boy, and the youngest and quietist of the children. He is shown to be very talented and creative but also very shy and inconfident. Although he is often negative and sarcastic, he is also capable of being very determined and passionate.
 * Victoria and Fly are the staff who run the group Cindi and her friends attend. Although they are very friendly, they usually have difficulty trying to entertain the children.
 * Rob and Skit are two of Rainbow Dome's employees, with Rod being a reluctant janitor who frequently complains about his job, employer and low wages, and Skit running a fast food stand. They regularly cross paths with Cindi and company.
 * Kimberly and Styl are Cindi's parents, who are very supportive and caring towards their daughter but often socially awkward and have difficulty talking to others.
 * Zev is Cindi's four year-old brother who is often very innocent and naive towards the dangers around him, but enjoys Cindi's company regardless.

The families of the other children are seen occasionally. Quu's friendly and assertive teenage sister, Titrit, makes several major appearances in later series. Tanya's father, Todd, also has regular speaking appearances - he is generally depicted as being very snobby and sticking his nose into other people's business.

Voice cast

 * Charlie Karma as Cindi
 * Zev Dijk as Hyh
 * Anita Freshers as Aourine
 * Enny Emery as Quu
 * Melissa Emery as Tanya
 * Lucy Hudson as Florence
 * Bentley Verrichten as Fly
 * Denise White as Victoria
 * Emily Merletta as Kimberly
 * Roy Bradbroune as Rob, Skit and Styl

Additional characters are voiced by Emily Merletta, Roy Bardbroune and Darren Marion.

Development
Development on Cindi and Friends began in 1997. The titular character is loosely based off Cynthia Frewsburg, a girl who show creator Fyp Housin was dating at the time. Frewsburg spoke about the show in 2005 saying she "absolutely loved it". The show originally was originally more mature, featuring storylines Housin describes as "like a soap opera for children" before deciding to turn it into a light-hearted series targeted for pre-school audiences.

After Tip's Nursery premiered in 1998, Housin expressed concern that he would be accused of copying Kubokartoonz. Several cast members from Tip's Nursery ended up voicing characters in Cindi and Friends.

Reception
Cindi and Friends received high ratings during its initial run, with some episodes receiving as many as 1.5 million viewing figures on KT. According to Ericka Streets, the show regularly topped children's public polls for most favourite KT programme. Around late 2017/early 2018, the show found renewed interest through internet memes and being uploaded onto a YouTube channel called JangleNet!, in which either a new episode or a clip related to the show (such as a music video or DVD feature) was uploaded on a Tuesday. Some of the videos have accumulated over 20 million views.

Common Sense Media awarded the show a 4/5 rating praising the show's positive messages and citing that "though the titular characters is flawed, she is good at learning her lesson." In spite of Common Sense Media's praise, the character of Cindi Sophia Roberts has attracted criticism, with criticism being mostly targeted towards the character's arrogant and selfish behaviour, as well as the lack of consequences she faces. A few other sources have criticised the show for featuring a lot of stereotypes associated with Kuboia and Kuboian people, with activist Terrance Denn referring to as Cindi as a "karoul" and citing Hyh and Quu as "timid, girly Kuboian boy" stereotypes in his blog. Meifahrn-based magazine The Double Decker called Cindi and Friends the "most fake and annoying kids show in the past decade".

Another criticism of the show came from the clothes the characters would occasionally wear, with the children often wearing very low-rise clothig that would reveal their hips. Hyh and Quu are seen topless on a few occasions, as is Cindi in one episode; on all three occasions they are shown with a visible navel and nipples. One episode from the second series received complaints from parents due to a scene where Cindi uses a pretend gun in a quick draw duel whilst playing the leading role in a wild west play. In the United Kingdom, the episode was pulled from CBeebies' rotation shortly after the channel's launch.

The decision to cast Enny Emery as Quu despite Emery not being black herself became the forefront of controversy in March 2021 after admitting she "tried putting on a black accent" when voicing the character.

Kuboian broadcasts
Cindi and Friends premiered on Kuboian television on KT on 1st September 1999, with new episodes premiering on Wednesdays and repeating on Saturdays. By the premiere of the second series in 2000, the show had began airing on Nick Jr. Kuboia. During this time period, Nick Jr. Kuboia would air older episodes, whilst KT would air newer ones. Although the show stopped airing on Nick Jr. Kuboia in mid-2005, it continued airing on KT until 2008. Reruns continue to be aired by the TVVC on sporadic occasions.

In January 2009, Cindi and Friends began airing on Playhouse Disney Kuboia. After the channel was rebranded as Disney Junior and then Little Disney, the show began to usually only air during the channel's late-night slot.

International broadcast
Cindi and Friends premiered in the United Kingdom on CBBC in October 1999, with episodes often airing a few weeks after their Kuboian debut. In February 2002, the show moved to CBeebies, where it ran in reruns until December 2007. Reruns were later aired on Tiny Pop from mid-2007 until 2018.

The show aired in many countries throughout Europe. It aired on France 5 in France, Super RTL's Toggolino block in Germany, RAI and later Boing in Italy, Z@ppelin and Kindernet in the Netherlands, Playhouse Disney in Spain and Barnkanalen in Sweden.

Cindi and Friends had its American premiere on Noggin in April 2002; it aired on the channel until late 2005. The show also aired in Canada on TVOKids from 1999 to 2008. It also aired on ABC in Australia, ZAZ in Latin America, MBC3 in the Middle East, Spacetoon in the United Arab Emirates and Discovery Kids in Uko.

Albums

 * Cindi and Friends: The Album (2002)
 * Ready Steady Dance (2003)

Books and other print publishings
A series of eights books based on Cindi and Friends, aimed at children aged between four and seven, were published throughout Europe during the early and mid 2000s. In 2003, another set of four books, subtitled "For Younger Readers", were also released.

A group of "Annuals" based on the show were published in English-speaking countries every year from 2000 to 2006. These featured puzzles (such as crosswords and wordsearches), as well as facts and quizzes centred around the show, its characters, and its setting.

Several colouring books based on Cindi and Friends were published and sold during the 2000s.

Kiddie ride
Sandoval Group Ltd. produced a kiddie ride based on the show around early 2000.

Video games
Cindi and Friends: The Best Forever was released for the Dreamcast, Nintendo 64 and PlayStation 2 in December 2000. It is an action-adventure game where the player plays as Cindi and has to do missions in Rainbow Dome. A more multiplayer-focused sequel, Cindi and Friends: Rainbow Dome Runaround, was released for the GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Game Boy Adavnce in February 2003.

An educational video game, Cindi and Friends: The Birthday Party, was also released for the V.Smile in 2004.