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.
 * 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.

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, 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.