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
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.

Fyp, the son of Greenwood Forest's mayor, regularly goes on adventures in Greenwood Forest, typically accompanied by his younger sister Billie, his pet Spider and his talking wand Sticker. These can involve learning something new, taking part in an activity or keeping the peace in the forest when a threat or conflict appears.

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. He helps to look after the forest whilst his father is busy, and is generally seen delivering letters to people, observing all the buildings and other landmarks and notifying to his father if he notices anything unusual happening. Fyp is shown to be very imaginative and can often think up new ideas on the spot, especially if it involves something exciting like a journey or a new game to play. However, he does not cope well in danger, nor is he often successful at finding a solution when serious trouble arises.
 * Billie (voiced by Melissa Emery) is Fyp's eight year-old sister. Often shy and usually unwilling to talk to those she is not familiar with, she usually sticks by her brother's side and simply goes along with whatever idea he comes up with. Billie seems to have trouble making friends due to her introverted nature. However, she is a lot more outgoing and often the first to act when Fyp is in trouble. As time goes on, she builds up more confidence and becomes less hard on herself.
 * 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 ownerm normally remaining idle until Fyp needs to use him for magic. 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 generally 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 she 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.
 * Edwina (voiced by Olivia Emery) is Billie and Fyp's single mother who they seem to see little of, and it is heavily implied that she does not leave her house much. Although appearing on only a few episodes at first, she begins to appear more often in the specials and the third series.

Recurring characters

 * 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 friends, a moschievous brown-haired girl who has a one-sided crush on him (whether he is unaware of this or not fluctuates between episodes). 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 seems to act as Greenwood Forest's local police officer. She is capable of moving at very fast speeds.

Development
Development on Greenwood Forest began in late 1989 as an idea by Eric Graters. Although most of Kubokartoonz were working on The Incredible World of Riddles, Ashley Maverick and Harlow Morrison agreed to take some time out to help come up with ideas for the new show. Morrison suggested that it should possibly be more contemporary and less "bizarre" than The Incredible World of Riddles. However, Morrison decided to add fantasy elements to the show as the group felt that doing so made writing episodes funner, and thought the show would be more exciting with them.

Production
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 when writing episodes, as well as the televised adaption of The Littles. 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.

After the second series, Maverick and Morrison experimented with the show's format. Between the second and third series, several special episodes that ran for longer periods were produced. Most episodes from the third series, meanwhile, are part of multiple episode story arcs which have musical numbers performed by an unseen group of characters. These episodes do not feature any "Fyp's Bright Ideas" segments.

Cancellation
Greenwood Forest was cancelled shortly after the third series concluded. A fourth series was scheduled to air in the autumn of 1997 but it never materialised due to Kubokartoonz wanting to focus on producing new programmes, such as Magma Eye. Ideas for episodes that were never produced were later worked into video games that were released a few years after the final episode in 1996.

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, 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.

Reception and legacy
A few reviews for Greenwood Forest noted the show had several similarities to The Incredible World of Riddles, with many critics citing Billie and Fyp as less developed versions of Kacie and Tenet. Retrospective reviews of the show have mostly been mixed. with critics citing Greenwood Forest as being very stereotypical and cliché for a Kuboian animated series, though also acknowledging that the show had good animation and morals, and that the writing became better in the second series.

VHS releases
The first two series of Greenwood Forest were released on VHS in a wide series of volumes from 1994 to 1996. These were released in Kuboia by Vision Video and in the United Kingdom by BBC Video. Each of these VHS tapes had two episodes with a similar theme (e.g. both episodes taking place in winter). These VHS tapes did not include the "Fyp's Bright Ideas" segments, but instead feature a VHS-exclusive interstitial segment.

The third series, as well as some episodes of the second series, were released on VHS in a similar format later on, though these restored the "Fyp's Bright Ideas" segments (assuming said episodes feature them) and do not feature made-for-video interstitials.

Specials were released on their own standalone VHS tapes.

DVD releases
A set of DVDs featuring episodes of the show were released in Region 2 from 2002 to 2005. These usually had four episodes each and some DVD extras.

A boxset featuring all forty-one episodes and four specials was released in Region 2 in March 2007. It was later released in Region 1 in 2010.

YouTube
JangleNet! uploaded the first series of the show in late 2018, followed by the second and third series in late 2021.

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.

Music
A soundtrack featuring songs from the show was released in 1995.

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

Video games
Greenwood Forest Fever is a party video game released for the SNES and PlayStation in late 1995. It was followed by an educational video game, Billie's Fun House, released in late 1997 for the PlayStation.