The Adventures of Charlie and Tutu

The Adventures of Charlie and Tutu is a Kuboian animated children's television series created by Janet Rose and John Axim for Bubblegum Studios. It follows a sister and brother duo who company each other as they explore the urban fringe village they live in. The show debuted in 1994 on Vision Network as part of Bumper's Block, and heavily reflects the lifestyle of a local Kuboian community in the 1990s. It is fondly remembered, it continues to see sporadic broadcasts on television in the present day. In 2002, the show ranked third in a poll by TVVC for Kuboia's favourite children's television programme.

The show was the first Kuboian traditionally animated television series to use digital ink compared to traditional ink that had been used beforehand.

Premise
Taking place in Axim Street, an rural-urban fringe village which has only been built in recent times, the show focuses on Charlie, a thirteen year-old girl, and her eleven year-old brother Tutu. The two siblings accompany each other in their day-to-day lives, which typically involves exploring their hometown, though Charlie also helps out in the local community centre run by Mr. Racket from time to time whilst Tutu has an allotment which he looks after with the siblings' mother Kristle.

As time goes on, Charlie and Tutu begin to take part in helping to grow Axim Street's local community, with landmarks such as a museum and an bowling alley eventually getting built in the village. The siblings also make new friends in later episodes, including Jadzia, a shy Eastern European girl, Sky, the son of the groundskeeper who looks after Axim Winter Gardens, and Winnie and Maisie, a pair of mischievous sisters who tend to bicker with each other. The two also occasionally cross paths with Mr. Swindle, a snobby businessman who tries to profit off schemes that harms the local community.

Every episode of the show lasts exactly twenty minutes.

Characters
The Adventures of Charlie and Tutu features a large cast of characters, though there are only a few recurring characters in early episodes, with more being introduced as time goes on.

Main characters

 * Charlie (voiced by Julia Rose Tucker) is a thirteen and later fourteen year-old girl. As the older sister of Tutu, she is often the one who takes care of him when the two are out and about. As well as spending time with her brother, Charlie also helps out at the Axim Community Centre. She is shown to be very intelligent, caring and dedication, though has the tendency to overwork and tire herself out. She is also shown to not cope well with disappointment, often turning to junk food and fizzy drinks when she is stressed.
 * Tutu (voiced by Macie Raven) is an eleven and later twelve year-old boy and Charlie's effeminate younger brother who she has a close relationship with. Tutu idolises his sister, though isn't very independent and has difficulty coping on his own. As time goes on, however, he begins to develop new hobbies such as helping his mother at their allotment or making lemonade and biscuits at home. Although shy at first, Tutu becomes more confident in himself as time goes on.
 * Kristle (voiced by Lilian Pond) is Charlie and Tutu's mother who works at the Axim Community Centre, and is often the one to tidy up the rooms and help prepare for events. She is often the one Charlie and Tutu go to for advice when they are dealing with a difficult situation.
 * Xyler (voiced by John Axim) is Charlie and Tutu's stay-at-home father. It is implied on multiple occasions that he does not leave the house a lot and gets anxious meeting other people.
 * Mr. Racket (voiced by Darren Marion) is the owner of Axim Community Centre and Kristle's boss, who is friendly but a workaholic who has a habit of working for long hours several days in a row. When he is not working, he usually likes to play golf or go fishing. Because of his work and hobbies, Mr. Racket rarely spends time with his wife and son, much to their annoyance.

Major characters

 * Petunia (voiced by Judith Rose) is a middle-class woman who runs a second-hand shop in Axim Street and also runs an arts and crafts group in the Axim Community Centre from series three. Although friendly, she appears to be a bit snobby and enjoys spreading gossip about other people.
 * Mr. Swindle (voiced by Lenny Carter, his only mainstream acting role) is a sleazy and underhanded politician who resides in Axim Street and regularly tries to con others into making deals that only he and his friends will benefit from, such as shutting down the Axim Community Centre. Mr. Swindle also shows a more tactical and sneaky side, though tends to get outwitted by others in the end. Despite his greedy nature he has a lot of respect for his deceased parents. Although a prominent character from series two to four, Mr. Swindle only makes a few appearances in series five and six.
 * Sky (voiced by Emily Merletta is Mr. Racket's son who doesn't spend much time with his father due to his commitments, and wishes to see him more. He starts to become closer friends with Charlie and Tutu later on.
 * Maisie (voiced by Lucy Hudson is a ten year-old girl who resides in Axim Street. Introduced in the second series, she appears to be quite mischievous and has a tendency to get into trouble, though this is caused more over naiveness and curiosity than malice. She seems to have a crush on Tutu.
 * Winnie (voiced by Winnie Porter) is Maisie's twelve year-old sister who she has a habit of arguing with a lot, and doesn't seem to be much more mature despite beng older, yet gets along well with Charlie and Tutu. She has a habit of changing her mind on things a lot, especially when it comes to her relationship with Tutu - sometimes she seems to have a crush on him (much to Maisie's annoyance) whilst other times she sees him as just a friend.
 * Mr. Ball (voiced by Darren Marion) is the overweight park keeper of Axim Gardens who helps Kristle and Tutu with their allotment. He seems to enjoy junk food a lot, especially biscuits, and appears to have his mind set on food a lot of the time.
 * Jadzia (voiced by Jadzia Ślusarski) is a shy thirteen year-old Eastern European girl who is introduced in series three. She is generally seen helping her parents run a village shop, though she also enjoys the outdoors and tries to encourage Charlie, Tutu and their friends to hang out with her during their less motivated phases.

Development
Janet Rose started making plans to create a "realistic, non-fantasy" children's animated series in late 1989 to counter The Incredible World of Riddles. Rose spent over a year travelling back and forth between the different settlements of Kuboia to learn about their culture and day-to-day living. She noted that each area had its own community that was regularly and voluntarily looked after by the locals.

The show began development in 1991, with John Axim acting as a director and Bubblegum Studios serving as the production company. Bubblegum Studios was also producing Centre Park at the time - Axim suggested that The Adventures of Charlie and Tutu could be aimed at an younger audience as Centre Park was aimed at an older audience.

Charlie and Tutu were both named after the children of people Rose knew at the time. Mr. Swindle was based on Jacob Stoepker, a politician from Gutstone who was arrested for blackmailing Rose in 1988. Stoepker mentioned in an 2021 interview that he was "amused" by Rose's interpretation of him.

Production
The Adventures of Charlie and Tutu was the first Kuboian traditionally animated television series to use digital ink in contrast to traditional ink that had been used beforehand. Axim mentioned that this was purely done because the show's producers considered colouring all of the animation cels with traditional ink to be tedious. He also noted that recent Disney films such as The Rescuers Down Under and Beauty and the Beast looked "stunning" with digital ink.

Broadcast history
The Adventures of Charlie and Tutu aired on Bumper's Block on Saturday evenings, though sometimes episodes would premiere under Vision Network's normal branding during the Christmas holidays. Series five and six also aired under the normal branding due to Bumper's Block getting axed in June 1997. After the show came to an end, reruns aired on Tiny Vision from 1997 to 1999 and KT from 1999 to 2008. Reruns also aired on Nick Jr. Kuboia from 1997 until 2004.

Reception and legacy
The Adventures of Charlie and Tutu received positive reviews from critics and Bumper's Block audiences. A poll ran on the television programme Harvy's House in 1995 noted that it was one of the most popular shows on Bumper's Block. Praise has mostly went towards the show's writing, music, animation and characterisation.

A writer for the Fahrbahnin Post reviewed the show in 1996, noting that the titular characters had "so much chemistry and development" and that the show "is constantly progressing with new characters and ideas, yet in a way that isn't hectic or forced", though he did criticse the character of Mr. Swindle, citing him as a "pointless character who only exists so the show can have a baddie".

The show is fondly remembered by Kuboian audiences even decades after ending production. In 2021, it was noted in a study that took place in Gutstone that many children born in Kuboia in the 2010s were familiar with the show and had watched at least one episode with families. John Axim mentioned that he "felt proud" and was glad the show had not "faded into obscurity".

One of the "founding fathers" of the country of Jetania, Sterling Alfredson, mentioned that he enjoyed The Adventures of Charlie and Tutu, calling it "very charming".

International broadcast
The Adventures of Charlie and Tutu aired on CBBC in the United Kingdom from 1994 to 2001. The showed later moved to CBeebies in February 2002, where it aired until December 2004. In 2003, POP! started showing reruns of the show, which continued to air on Tiny Pop until late 2010.

In the United States, the show aired on The Disney Channel from 1996 to 2002. In Canada, it aired on CBC Playground from 1995 to 2000, Treehouse TV from 1998 to 2005 and Teletoon Retro from 2007 to 2011.

The show also aired on ABC in Australia, El TV Kadsre 2 in El Kadsre, Super RTL in Germany, TF1 in France, Nederland 3 in the Netherlands, Antena 3 in Spain and Spacetoon in the Arab world (albeit censored). A Japanese dub also aired on NHK.

VHS
Vision Video released multiple VHS tapes of the first two series of The Adventures of Charlie and Tutu from 1995 to 1997. These featured two or three episodes each, with additional made-for-VHS interstitial segments. Generally each VHS had some sort of theme to it.

Episodes of series three through six were also released on VHS from 1997 to 2001. However, these simply featured two or three episodes without any interstitial segments.

Videos were also released in the United Kingdom through BBC Video.

DVD
The Adventures of Charlie and Tutu was later released on DVD in Region 2 in six volumes from 2003 to 2007. Each volume had the entirety of one of the six series in it.

YouTube
JangleNet! has progressively uploaded every episode of the show from September 2020.

Advertisements
Julia Rose Tucker and Macie Raven reprised their roles as Charlie and Tutu for several Pizza 24 adverts from 2002 to 2005.

From 2003 to 2007, several of the show's cast reprised their roles of their respective characters for several public service announcements, including road safety.

Video games
An educational CD-ROM based on the show was released in late 1995.

A 3D action-adventure game, simply titled The Adventures of Charlie and Tutu, was released in October 1997 for Windows and the PlayStation and published by Bubblegum Interactive. The game mostly involves the player playing as Charlie and can roam around Axim Street freely doing missions for the show's characters. A 2017 article by Open Eagle noted that the game was ahead of its time, citing it as a "Grand Theft Auto clone before they were a thing", though also noted that the game was "so ridiculously easy a three year-old could do it without trouble".

Other merchandise
The Adventures of Charlie and Tutu spawned a moderate amount of merchandise throughout Europe in the 1990s, including books and toys.

Tropes

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 * Trivia