The New Adventures of The Sweet Treets

The New Adventures of The Sweet Treets is a Jetanie-Kuboian traditionally animated television series. It is the third television series in the Sweet Treets franchise and a reboot of the 1984 series of the same name. The show was produced by Jetanie studio Colourbox and Kuboian studio Kubokartoonz; the latter's co-founder Ashley Maverick served as its co-developer, co-writer, producer and animation director.

With development on the show beginning in late 1992, The New Adventures of The Sweet Treets premiered on CBS and Bumper's Block in 1995. Three series and fifty-one episodes of the show were produced, with the show's finale airing in late 1997. A majority of the cast members from the franchise's previous series, including Sharlie Deem and Henry Buckings, reprise their roles as their respective characters.

Upon its premiere, The New Adventures of The Sweet Treets polarised critics and audiences alike, who were mixed in regards to the show's more story-driven premise as well as the new characters and the overhaul of the character design and personality traits for the original characters. Retrospective reception has been more positive, however, especially in regards to the show's writing, animation, music and highly-prioritised production. It has since gained a popular following and has won several awards.

Plot and setting
The New Adventures of The Sweet Treets takes place in Eastwood Park (a fictional area created for the show), and mostly centres around a ten year-old girl called Louise. As Louise struggles with making friends, she owns three pets, Pinky, Shiny and Galaxy, who are collectively known as the Treets, a species that were created by scientists decades ago to help lonely children build friendships. The Treets were given to Louise's single mother, Liane, when she was a little girl, who in turn gave them to Louise when she started school.

Not far from Eastwood Park lies Rogon Street, a street inhabited by dark blue bear-resembling creatures called the Rogons. The king of the species, King Rojo, spends a lot of his time getting up to schemes such as trying to humilate Louise, who he has a longtime rivalry with, or competing with her for publicity and/or rewards. King Rojo is almost always accompanied by his right-hand minion Stumpy, Stumpy's brother Gunge, and Gunge's best friend Rusty, the latter of whom tries to stop the other three from getting up to mischief.

Louise attends Eastwood Park, where she is taught by Miss Fredericksburg, a snobby teacher who is hard to please and usually has favourites when it comes to her students. She also receives additional support from another teacher called Mrs Rum, who is a lot nicer to her and her friends. At school, Louise is often accompanied by her best friend Nate, who tries to (and fails to) get Louise to improve on her behaviour, as well as her close friends Marilyn, who suffers from anxiety and is easily stressed, and Hugh, who is often shy and reluctant to speak out. Other students seen in Louise's class include Anthem, a spoilt middle-class girl who bullies Louise and her friends, and Zoe, a hardworking student who gets a lot of favouritism from Miss Fredericksburg.

A lot of the show's episodes focus on the difficulties Louise has when trying to build upon and maintain friendships, as well as the difficulties the Treets have at trying to help Louise with her confidence and sensibility. The main plotline of each episode is usually drama-centred and usually feature social and moral lessons (including cynical and "tough-love" morals). In contrast, many episodes also feature a B-plot, which usually focuses on King Rojo, that is much more comical and silly in comparison.

Development
After an unsuccessful attempt from Ashley Maverick to buy Colourbox in late 1991, she later made a deal with its founder, Taylor Ridley. Ridley wanted to produce a new series for The Sweet Treets but was unsure how it would work in the then-modern times, so she approached Maverick after watching Kubokartoonz' previous series and hearing positive things about Maverick.

When coming up with new ideas, Maverick felt that a lot of the ideas present in the 1984 series "wouldn't work nowadays" or were too boring. She suggested to Ridley that several new characters should be added to help expand the franchise and give it more depth. Maverick also suggested that the new series would be the perfect opportunity to give answers to plot-holes and oddities present in the franchise's two previous series.

The first public reveal for the show was in several Kuboian newspapers in late 1993. In mid-1994, it was revealed that it would be airing on Bumper's Block in Kuboia. In January 1995, its full title, The New Adventures of The Sweet Treets, was revealed for the first time.

Casting
All of the main cast from The Sweet Treets returned for the new series, with the only exception being Brud Rorqual, who died in 1992. Magfire, the character who was voiced by Rorqual, was recast, now being voiced by Harold Fever, who was a close friend to Rorqual and was capable of imitating his voice well.

There was originally some trouble contacting Sharlie Deem and Peter Malosh, as Ridley was not allowed to maintain any contact details of either of them. Deem revealed that she was completely unaware that a new Sweet Treets series was in development until it was publicly announced. When she tried putting her name down to reprise her role as Louise, Maverick initially thought she was a fraud. Malosh had trouble voicing Nate since his voice had became deeper since the franchise's previous series, so editing software was used to help him sound like his previous voice.

A majority of the cast all went into the recording studio on the same days and recorded their lines together. Maverick figured that this would allow the cast members to bond, as well as help express their respective characters easier.

Character development
Despite nearly all of the original series' cast reprising their roles as their respective characters, a lot of said characters have went through design and personality overhauls. The most notable example of this is the franchise‘s main villain, King Rojo. In the 1984 series, he has purple fur, and is supposedly the king of the bear species. This series, however, gives him blue skin, and he is now part of a fictional bear-resembling species called the Rogons, who were apparently created on accident after giving a Treet to a bear.

Another aspect of the franchise that was introduced in the show is the idea that Louise and a majority of her friends have learning disabilities, and that the Treets were given to Louise's mother, Liane, when she was younger to help her with her social skills, something that was never hinted on in the previous series. Ridley claimed that she was asked a lot back in the mid and late 1980s if Louise had autism, so she thought it would be a good idea to build some of her personality around that idea. During production and the original airing of The New Adventures of The Sweet Treets, learning disabilities in children were not made as publicly aware outside of Kuboia.

Animation
Like most shows produced by Kubokartoonz, Ashley Maverick served as the animation director, and drew a lot of the characters herself. The backgrounds were mostly produced by a studio in the Netherlands. The animation was also outsourced to a Brazilian studio, who polished up the animation cels.

The New Adventures of The Sweet Treets is the first television series from both Colourbox and Kubokartoonz to use digital ink. Additionally, each episode of the show always runs at at least twelve frames per second. Maverick spoke about animating the show in 2018, saying "it was difficult, but certainly worth the effort".

Music
The New Adventures of The Sweet Treets is notable for its robust soundtrack, with a majority of the songs being from the trip hop, alternative rock and dance-pop genres. Charlie Karma and Sharlie Deem also wrote several hip hop-influenced tracks for the soundtrack, which have been credited as a pre-cursor for the lipstick rap subgenre. Deem released an album in 1996 called The Sweet Selection, which features songs written for and/or inspired by the show.