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.

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 also aired under the normal branding due to Bumper's Block getting axed a few months earlier. 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.

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, 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.