The New Adventures of The Sweet Treets

The New Adventures of The Sweet Treets is a Jetanie-Kuboian animated television series produced by Colourbox and Kubokartoonz. The third television series in the Sweet Treets, it is the first to be produced with digital ink, and the only to be co-produced by a non-Jetanie studio. The show premiered in 1995, and ended in 1997. Episodes were broadcast on JT1 and Vision 1 simultaneously.

Unlike other entries in the franchise, The New Adventures of The Sweet Treets uses a serial format and a lasting story arc. Though they still appear, the Treets themselves are not as prominent compared to previous series, with more screen time going towards Louise Lockridge and her friends. Nearly all of the voice actors from The Sweet Treets returned to their character roles, including Sharlie Deem, Peter Malosh, Opaline Robins and Henry Buckings.

Until late 2010, Viacom partially owned distribution rights for the show in most countries in the world. This allowed the show to air on Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. in several international markets.

Premise
Taking place roughly a year or two after the events of the 1984 series, Louise is now nine years old (ten in later episodes). Due to Louise growing up, the Treets are starting to realise they have less control over her and are having difficulty keeping her away from trouble. Throughout the series, many different events take place, such as Louise's mother, Liane, discovering about the origins of the Treets, King Rojo and the Rogon species decide to open their own restaurant, and Louise's close friend, Marilyn, is struggling to stay focused in school due to a difficult home life and being distracted by a mean, new girl in their class. Louise also finds herself in a tricky situation when she feels her father is not interested in her.

The Treets appear in the series, but do not play as much of a role, often remaining in the background so more focus can be given to Louise. Returning characters from the show include Louise's mother, Liane, her best friend, Nate, her close friend and friendly rival, Marilyn, and her enemy-turned-friend, Swoop the parrot-seagull hybrid. King Rojo returns, but has had his character rewritten entirely, is more of a greedy jerk instead of evil, and only appears in roughly half the episodes. Magfire the crow also reappears, but only in an arc consisting of three episodes.

Several new characters have also been introduced in the show, including Louise's father, Zedd, her younger half-brother, Tyh, and her Asain stepmother, Martine. Other new characters include Hugh, a friend of Louise and Nate and Marilyn's best friend who she is emotionally dependent on, as well as Anthem, a classmate of Louise and her friends who they severely dislike. King Rojo also has several new subjects, including his loyal minion, Stumpy, Stumpy's mischievous brother, Gunge, and Gunge's clumsy best friend, Rusty.

Storylines
The series itself tackled many different issues children may face in life, such as making, arguing with and losing friends, being bullied in school, suffering anxiety and being in the centre of family conflicts. Episodes often featured moral messages about friendship, teamwork, honesty, bravery and confidence. Sometimes, the show also dealt with more controversial issues, including smoking, alcohol and LGBT relationships.

The second series generally focuses on Louise and her friends being manipulated by a greedy businessman, Derrick Mangle, who tricks the children into making promises he doesn't keep and giving them underhanded "jobs". The third and final series features a deadly plague being passed around by Rudy, an evil Treet who was created around the same time as the other Treets. During this time, Louise and her mother, Liane, learn more about the history of the Treets, as well as their (and King Rojo's) long-deceased family members.

Typically, each episode would feature a more sophisticated and drama-orientated plot, with a more comical B-plot. The latter is usually, though not always, focused on King Rojo and his minions.

Characters
All of the recurring characters from The Sweet Treets reappear in the show, with several new characters also reappearing.

All of the voice actors from The Sweet Treets return, with the only exception being Magfire's voice actor Brud Rorqual due to his passing in 1990. Because of this, Magfire was voiced by another voice actor - the identity of the voice actor has never been publicly disclosed due to a contract agreement.

Main characters

 * Louise Lockridge (voiced by Sharlie Deem) is the show's main protagonist, a nine year-old girl who owns a group of Treets, a fictional species, as pets. Although she is friendly and caring, she enjoys mischief and is prone to making bad decisions. Sharlie Deem mentioned that "there is probably a bit of Louise in everybody".
 * Liane Lockridge (voiced by Ashley Maverick) is Louise's single mother who is extremely clingy towards her daughter, and spoils her badly. She is shown to be very lonely when she is not with her daughter. Liane was previously voiced by Sharlie Deem.
 * The Treets (voiced by Ashley Maverick) are a fictional species which Louise owns as pets. A group of five, they try to help Louise build up her communication skills and try to keep her away from danger, with mixed to negative results. They cannot talk, but can produce sounds. Their origins are discovered during the show's third and final series, where it is revealed that they were a fad during the 1970s, but most of the species died due to not being looked after enough. The Treets were originally voiced by Peter Malosh.
 * Swoop (voiced by Sap M.N. Williams) is a seagull-parrot hybrid, who often spends time with Liane to stop her from feeling lonely, or with Louise and company to make sure they don't get into trouble. He is often sarcastic and pessimistic, but is good at giving others advice.
 * Nate Nicholson (voiced by Peter Malosh) is Louise's classmate and best friend, a very effeminate boy who likes flowers. He often acts as the voice of reason and is usually the one to straighten Louise out when she misbehaves. Peter Malosh was having difficulty voicing Nate due to his voice having deepened since the predecessing series, but was ultimately able to in the end.
 * Marilyn Madison (voiced by Opaline Robins) is a classmate and good friend of Louise and Nate. Due to having suffered a difficult life, she is very impatient and short-tempered, and is often angry and upset. She has the tendency to act very clingy towards her friends, especially Nate and Hugh.
 * Hugh Halls (voiced by Opaline Robins in series 1 and [TBA] in series 2-3) is a close friend of Louise and Nate, and Marilyn's best friend. He seems to be shy and often sits in the background whilst the others do the talking. He is very loyal towards others, usually being the one to stay by somebody's side when they are in trouble. Noticeably, he has a lot of respect for nearly everybody on the show, even the villains. He was initially depicted as a love interest for Marilyn, but begins to start fancying Louise in later episodes.

Recurring characters

 * King Rojo (voiced by Henry Buckings) is the greedy king of a fictional bear-resembling species called the Rogons. He is Louise's arch-rival, and is often referred to as the show's main antagonist, although he is more of an anti-heroic jerk. He has a strong desire for food, power and money, thus likes to jump onto any opportunity he can to make himself rich. However, he does care about his minions, and has respect for Louise and company, especially Hugh. He owns his own fast food restaurant, where he sells cheap junk food.
 * Stumpy (voiced by Flynn Raidon) is King Rojo's dimwitted servant, who often does sneaky things to impress his king.
 * Gunge (voiced by TBA) is Stumpy's twin brother, and one of King Rojo's subjects who has a keen eye for tricks and mischief. He often does things solely for money and attention, but is also willing to help others with their problems.
 * Rusty (voiced by TBA) is Gunge's best friend, and another of King Rojo's subjects. A slightly overweight Rogon, Rusty is a lot nicer than the rest of his species, but can be very clumsy and appears to have a low intelligent.
 * Anthem Rivers (voiced by Candis Westwind) is a classmate of Louise and her friends. Mean, manipulative and constantly jealous of others, Anthem is strongly disliked by Louise and her friends, especially Marilyn. She is extremely selfish, and is willing to backstab and take advantage of others to get what she wants. Anthem is shown to have a crush on Hugh, and is good at using him, often by pretending to flirt with him. Anthem's parents are rarely seen, but they seem to often neglect her.
 * Zoe Falls (voiced by Charlie Karma) is a classmate and acquaintance of Louise and friends. She is committed to her work, and seems to be the favourite when it comes to their teacher. Zoe appears to have a large knowledge in a variety of things, thus Louise and company sometimes go to help from her. Although they don't know her too much at first, Zoe starts to become better friends with Louise and the group as time goes on.
 * Miss Fredericksburg (voiced by TBA) is Louise's impatient and ill-tempered school teacher. She appears to favour Anthem and Zoe, and often treats her other students unfairly, typically by blaming them for Anthem's behaviour. Miss Fredericksburg also appears to be a bit snobby, as she has the tendency to think negatively of the lower-class. However, she will occasionally be pleased with Louise if she does something exceptionally admirable. Her first name is never revealed.
 * Tigen Halls (voiced by Charlie Karma) is Hugh's sulky and misbehaved younger sister. She often runs away when she feels like she is being treated unfairly.
 * Zedd Farrow (voiced by Marty Rockfield) is Louise's father, who she rarely sees. He has a bad habit of not accounting for his children's and wive's feelings, but is capable of making amends and apologising for his behaviour.
 * Tyh Farrow (voiced by TBA) is Louise's five year-old half-brother, who is very shy and often unhappy. However, he enjoys spending time with Louise a lot.
 * Martine Farrow (voiced by TBA) is Zedd's wife, Tyh's mother and Louise's step-mother, who appears to be of Asian origin. She seems to have a short attention span and gets distracted easily.

Broadcast history
During the show's initial run, The New Adventures of The Sweet Treets was broadcast simultaneously on JT1 and Vision 1. The show did not air on the Bumper's Block strand on Vision 1 due to its timeslot, and instead aired under the channel's mainstream branding. New episodes were aired on Friday evenings at 5:00p.m. for series 1, and 5:25p.m. for series 2 and 3.

In Kuboia, reruns were eventually picked up by Nick Jr. Kuboia from August 1996, although initially only older episodes would be shown on the channel until roughly 1998.

After the show concluded in 1997, Vision 1 continued to show reruns during weekend nights until late 2001. Nick Jr. Kuboia reran the show until the channel's closure in December 2010.

Development
The New Adventures of The Sweet Treets began development in 1992. According to Flynn Raidon, the 1984 Sweet Treets cartoon was "really unpolished" and that the characters "deserved better". In 1993, Colourbox sold 50% of the franchise to Kubokartoonz. Following Taylor Ridley, the franchise's creator's semi-retirement in 1987, Raidon had been responsible for the ownership of the franchises created by Ridley in the 1970s. Raidon had asked Ashley Maverick and Late Caters for help creating the show due to being impressed with Kubokartoonz' previous television series.

Taylor Ridley herself initially had little to do with the show's development. She was originally unsure about the co-production with Kubokartoonz. Eventually, she joined in to co-direct the show and co-write most of the episodes after being called by Raidon, who was struggling with coming up with new ideas. Ashley Maverick stated "We wanted to do something new for The Sweet Treets, but we also still wanted it to retain that sentimental feel of Windmill cartoons, something only Taylor could really add."

When deciding the new direction for The New Adventures of The Sweet Treets, it was decided that the show should have, according to Ashley Maverick, a "prime-time slot feel, but also something little kids would like. Basically, something the whole family, regardless of age, would love."

According to Maverick, the development team took inspiration from the Canadian animated television series The Raccoons, believing it to be "ahead" of other animated series at the time.

Addition of new characters
When coming up with new characters for the show, it was agreed that any character who was bad should get appropriate comeuppance or have redeeming qualities, and that any bad behaviour that children might copy should be portrayed negatively.

It was Ashley Maverick's idea to rework King Rojo's character into a more comedic, morally neutral, character. Maverick stated that the reworked King Rojo was "still a greedy jerk, but has enough positive attributes to make him not entirely villainous". Maverick also argued that King Rojo's large screen time could show children that even questionable people can be good hearted.

When asked about Anthem Rivers and Hugh Halls' inclusion in a 2002 interview, Taylor Ridley stated "Anthem is a mean, spoilt and ungrateful girl who is unfortunately common in real life." She also admitted that Hugh was only created so there was another male child character, saying "We had Louise, Marilyn, Anthem, Zoe and Nate. That's four girls and only one boy. It is unlikely for a school class to have only one boy, so we made another." Hugh is named after Flynn Raidon's younger brother who died before development on the show began.

Animation
The New Adventures of The Sweet Treets was the first production by both Colourbox and Kubokartoonz to use digital ink, and was also one of the first Jetanie and Kuboian cartoons to do so.

Music
Ashley Maverick, Sharlie Deem and Henry Buckings recorded a variety of songs for the show. They were included in a compilation album which was released in 1996.

A majority of the songs in the soundtrack are of the and  genres. Ashley Maverick spoke of the music by saying "We wanted for there to be a bunch of songs which, when the audience started to hear them, indicated that something exciting or daring was about to begin."

Home video releases
In Kuboia, about 14 VHS tapes were released consisting of episodes of the show.

In the United Kingdom, eight VHS tapes were released between 1996 and 1998. These each featured four episodes, as well as additional bonus features, such as narration provided by Louise between each episode, and "music videos" for some of the songs on the soundtrack. These were distributed by Video Collection International.

DVD releases
The entire series, consisting of all 47 episodes, was released on DVD in November 2008.

Reception
On internet database IMDB, the show has an average user rating of 7.4.

A review by [TBA] noted that the show was a bit dated and some of the episodes were "way too dark and depressing for a cartoon for pre-schoolers", but admired it for taking risks and looking "way more polished than other kids' shows at the time". He disliked the characters Anthem Rivers, calling her "a hilariously stereotypical Karoul" and Derrick Mangle, who he called a "discount Disney villain". He concluded the review saying "The New Adventures of The Sweet Treets may look a bit strange to the average child nowadays, but for a mid-90s animated television series, it is arguably one of the best of its kind".

Jetania

 * JT1 (1995-?)

Kuboia

 * Vision 1 (1995-2001)
 * Nick Jr. Kuboia (1996-2010)
 * Nick Jr. 2 (2004-2010)
 * Tooncast (2017-2018)
 * Kiddioka (2018-present)

Argentina

 * Magic Kids (1997-2006)

Australia

 * ABC TV/ABC for Kids (1996-2001)
 * Nick Jr. (1998-2010)

Canada

 * CBC Playground/Get Set for Life (1995-2001)
 * YTV (2002-2010)
 * Teletoon Retro (2010-2011)

Central and Eastern Europe

 * Minimax (1999-2004)
 * Jetix (2005-2009)
 * KidsCo (2007-2013)
 * Disney Channel (2009-2011)

France

 * TF1 (1996-2003)

Germany

 * Super RTL (1995-2008)

Israel

 * Arutz HaYeladim (1996-2002)
 * Hop! (2000-2005)
 * Jetix (2005-2009)
 * Disney Channel (2009-2011)

Italy

 * Italia 1 (1995-2000)
 * K2 (2004-2008)
 * Frisbee (2010-2011)

Latin America

 * ZAZ (1996-2003)
 * Nick Jr. (2001-2009)

Middle East

 * MBC 3 (2004-2013)

Netherlands

 * Kindernet (1996-2003)

Russia

 * Channel One (1996-2002)
 * Jetix (2005-2010)
 * Telenyanya (2006-2010)
 * Disney Channel (2010-2013)

Saudi Arabia

 * KSA 1 (1996-2009)

United Arab Emirates

 * Spacetoon (2000-2013)

United Kingdom
The New Adventures of The Sweet Treets premiered in the United Kingdom in September 1995, airing on Children's BBC. The series ended its initial run in the country in late 1997, with reruns airing on the block until December 2001. It was also shown on Nickelodeon from 1996, usually as part of the CBBC on Nickelodeon block. From September 1999, reruns were picked up by Nick Jr., as well as Nick Jr. 2 when it launched as a channel.

The show was last run on Nick Jr. in August 2010, and Nick Jr. 2 in December that year.
 * BBC One/BBC Two/CBBC (1995-2001)
 * Nickelodeon (1996-1999)
 * Nick Jr. (1999-2010)
 * Nick Jr. 2 (2006-2010)

United States

 * Nick Jr. (1996-2002)
 * Noggin (2003-2007)

Tropes

 * The New Adventures of The Sweet Treets/Tropes
 * The New Adventures of The Sweet Treets/YMMV