Greenwood Forest

Greenwood Forest: Adventures with Fyp and Company (more commonly referred to as simply Greenwood Forest) is a Kuboian animated television series created by Eric Graters, and the second television series to be produced by Kubokartoonz. The show follows the adventures of the titular character Fyp, and his ventures in the titular village he lives in. It premiered on Bumper's Block in 1993.

Premise
The show is centred around Fyp, the son of the titular Greenwood Forest's mayor, who regularly goes on adventures in Greenwood Forest with his younger sister Billie, his pet Spider and his talking wand Sticker. A majority of the early episodes focus on a social lesson of sorts, whilst later episodes are more story-driven, with Fyp and company trying to keep the peace when trouble arises in the forest.

Greenwood Forest is a village within a large vibrant forest area. The show itself combines realistic and contemporary ideas with a childlike and fantasy setting. Most episodes take place in the main village area, Forest Square, though other parts of the forest are also seen from time to time.

Fyp's Bright Ideas
Every episode ends with a short segment called "Fyp's Bright Ideas", which involves Fyp either teaching another character an important lesson or making something with arts, crafts and other objects. As every episode lasts twenty-three and a half minutes, longer segments are used for shorter episodes and vice-versa.

Main characters

 * Fyp (voiced by Jack Carole) is a nine year-old boy, and the son of Greenwood Forest's mayor. Often looking after the forest whilst his father is busy, he is very humble, caring and always trying to find the best in others. Fyp also shows an imaginative side and likes to find ways to improve life in Greenwood Forest. He does not cope well in danger, though he always tries to find a solution when conflicts arise.
 * Billie (voiced by Melissa Emery) is Fyp's eight year-old sister who he is very close to. She is often shy and usually unwilling to talk to those she is not familiar, and as such seems to have trouble making friends due to her introverted nature. However, she is a lot more outgoing and eager when Fyp is in trouble. As time goes on, she builds up more confidence and becomes less hard on herself. It is implied on several occasions that Billie has an (innocent) crush on Fyp.
 * Sticker (voiced by Bruno Leon Vidal) is Fyp's wand which has a face, is capable of speech and can float (though only does this occasionally). Having been given to Fyp on his ninth birthday, he remains loyal to his owner. Sticker is capable of using a lot of magic, though this can lead to unwanted side effects if too much power is used and he can become tired if used too much within a short span. Because of this, Fyp rarely uses Sticker for magic and instead as a companion to talk to and get advice from. He is also sometimes used by Billie when Fyp is not present for any particular reason.
 * Spider is Fyp's giant pet spider who he takes care of as if he is a dog, such as giving him food in a bowl and taking him on walks. He is incapable of speech, but can make some high-pitched grunts.
 * Edward (voiced by Tone Riddles) is Billie and Fyp's father and the mayor of Greenwood Forest. Although he tries to take care of the village the best he can, he is shown to be a bit lazy, regularly showing unwillingness to deal with issues occuring and preferring to sit inside watching TV all day. However, he will take responsibility during serious situations, such as when somebody goes missing or Greenwood Forest is in danger.
 * Butler (voiced by Bruno Leon Vidal) is Edward's personal butler who also helps him look after Billie and Fyp. He seems to come from a rich background, as he speaks in a posh manner and has a tendency to complain about the quality of things a lot, though he is friendly otherwise. His real name is never revealed on the show.

Recurring characters

 * Esther (voiced by Olivia Emery) is Billie and Fyp's clumsy and introverted single mother who they seem to see little of. It is heavily implied that she does not leave her house much.
 * Marty (voiced by Marty Reeve) is a giant rock creature who lives in a cave on the outskirts of Greenwood Forest's main village hub. Although he lives in a cave, he also has a garden where he grows rock cakes. He is generally very friendly and gentle, though his temper drops significantly when something is annoying him, such as his rock cakes potentially getting stolen.
 * Whitney (voiced by Denise Chevrolet) is Fyp's best friend, a mischievous brown-haired girl who has a one-sided crush on him which Billie occasionally gets jealous of. She seems to have a short attention span as she gets distracted fairly easily. She also has a tendency to cause trouble due to not thinking things through. Despite this, Whitney is also very loyal and caring to Fyp and is also very good at cheering him up when he is in a low mood.
 * Trevor (voiced by Darren Marion) is a messenger and delivery man who is often seen giving Edward a newspaper and other items such as groceries. He appears to have a sarcastic sense of humour.
 * Zipa (voiced by Lilian Pond) is a wheel creature who is capable of moving at very fast speeds and occasionally tires herself out due to her workaholic behaviour. Although series one depicts her as a de facto police officer, some later episodes show her making deliveries, occasionally partnering up with Trevor.

Production
Development on Greenwood Forest began in late 1989 as an idea by Eric Graters. It was designed to be more contemporary and lighthearted compared to The Incredible World of Riddles. As Graters had difficulty working out what would be considered "appropiate" for a pre-school audience, he conducted a survey in the autumn of 1990, where he asked parents of children under eight years old what they believe would and would not be appropiate for their children to watch.

A majority of the show's episodes were written by Maverick and Morrison. The two took inspiration from The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and several television series from DiC Entertainment when writing episodes. The "Fyp's Bright Ideas" segments were added in so each episode had the same runtime, as Maverick noticed that certain stories needed longer durations to "get their point across" than others.

Graters later began to experiment with the show's format, with most episodes of series three and four being part of a story arc that spans multiple episodes.

Music
The music heard in Greenwood Forest was composed by Wilfried Montgomery. Every episode in the first and second series features a musical number performed by a group of unseen singers and, on rare occasions, the characters on the show. The songs borrow elements from a variety of musical genres, including KB hopscotch, acid jazz and more fast-paced and "dark" disco music.

The musical numbers were largely scrapped in the third series, although some episodes still used them.

International airings
Greenwood Forest has been sold to many countries worldwide.

Like other Kubokartoonz cartoons, the BBC had the broadcast rights to the show in the United Kingdom, where it premiered on CBBC in late 1993. The show later moved to CBeebies in 2002, where it aired until December 2004. Reruns were later aired on Tiny Pop until late 2007. The show aired on The Disney Channel in the United States in the 1990s. In Canada, meanwhile, it aired on CBC Playground from 1994 and later aired on Treehouse TV.

The show saw runs on many television channels throughout Europe, including TF1 in France, Super RTL in Germany, Italia 1 in Italy, Nederland 3 and Kindernet in the Netherlands and Telecinco in Spain. Meanwhile, in Australia, it aired on ABC.

In Brazil, it was shown on Rede Horizonte from 1994 to 1998, and was later shown on Discovery Kids, RH Kids and PBS Kids. Meanwhile, in Circlia, the show was aired on Setora TV from 2000 to 2010. In El Kadsre, it aired on K-T.V. on Banushen Television from 1994 to 2002 and ETVKPS from 2011 to 2017.

Impact and legacy
Greenwood Forest was popular amongst both younger and older audiences during its initial run on Bumper's Block, with praise going towards the show's animation, characters and writing. Throughout series two and three, most episodes received approximately two million views, which was almost half of Kuboia's population at the time. In 1995, the show was nominated for a KEMPA award for "Best Pre-School Animation", though it lost to The Adventures of Charlie and Tutu.

Some retrospective reviews of Greenwood Forest have cited Billie and Fyp as less developed versions of Kacie and Tenet from The Incredible World of Riddles and have been critical towards the show's use of Kuboian stereotypes and clichés, though several critics also acknowledged that the writing improved in later episodes.

Books
A Greenwood Forest annual was published from 1995 to 2000. These generally featured puzzles, quizzes and two stories featuring colouring in pages.

A series of books starring the characters of the show were publiahed from 1995 to 1998. These were designed for younger children, and featured a set of questions after certain key points and at the end of the book that encourage the reader to think about the events that have just happened.

Other books of miscellaneous content were released throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, some of which focus on a specific character from the show.

Food and drink
The show has been marketed through food and drink products over limited periods of time.

The Greenwood Forest Lucky Dips cereal was introduced in 1996. These were mostly crunchy honey-flavoured hollow cereal pieces shaped like bushes, with some chocolate biscuit pieces in different shapes, including a tree stump. The cereal was discontinued in 2004, although it continued to be produced in some European markets for several more years.

Fruit flavoured fizzy drinks and flavoured milkshakes with Greenwood Forest branding were sold in some European countries from 1997 to 2005.

Studio albums
Greenwood Forest: Music from the Hit Series was released in September 1994, and contains several of the vocal songs from the show's first two series.

Toys
Toys based on the show were sold in the 1990s and early 2000s, including puzzles and other games.

Video games
Two platformer games based on the show were released in the mid 1990s. Fyp and the Magic Castle was released in 1994 for the Mega Drive, and was intended to players new to the platformer genre. A more multiplayer-focused game, Greenwood Forest Fever was released in 1995 for the SNES.

Later, a 3D platformer, Billie's Fun House was released in 1997 for the PlayStation.