Fanboy and Chum Chum — fbandcc

Fanboy & Chum Chum, also known as simply Fanboy, is an American CGI animated television series produced by Frederator Studios. It had 2 seasons, and a total of 52 (100) episodes. Each episode lasts for about 22 minutes, with two segments in most episodes (unless it is a two-part episode).

It is based on an episode of Frederator's Random! Cartoons called Fanboy. The series was created by Eric Robles and was directed by Brian Sheesley, Jim Schumann, and Russell Calabrese in Season One and Eddie Trigueros, Brandon Kruse, Tom King, and Ken Mitchroney in Season Two. It premiered on November 6, 2009, on Nickelodeon after the TV movie SpongeBob's Truth or Square. A sneak peek of the show was shown on October 12, 2009.

Unfortunately, no third season was announced at Nickelodeon's upfront for the 2013-2014 season. Reruns aired on NickToons until December 25, 2016. The show was added onto Paramount+ (formerly known as CBS All Access) on December 15, 2020.

Plot

The series centers around Fanboy and Chum Chum, a pair of cheerful, playful, energetic, and fun-loving best friends enthusiastically obsessed with superhero comics, particularly those featuring their favorite superhero Man-Arctica, who also apparently seems to double as a holiday figurehead parodying Santa Claus within the series. Many episodes are based around comical parodies of famous films or contain countless references to popular culture.

Nickelodeon's website description

"They're fearless! They're adventurous! They wear underwear on the outside of their costumes! They're...Fanboy & Chum Chum! Fanboy and his wide-eyed sidekick Chum Chum are endlessly energetic "super fans" of all-things sci-fi and fantasy. These truly original kids have super imaginations and superhero costumes the likes you've never seen before. Their world is full of comic adventure (and misadventures) from an accidental case of Fanboy's teacher turning into a zombie to an ice monster running the Frosty Freezy Freeze machine. So, squeeze into your tights-and your tighty whiteys-and get ready for brain freezes and FANBOY & CHUM CHUM!"

Characters

For subject on every character in the show, see List of Fanboy & Chum Chum characters.

Episodes

For subject on all episodes in the show, see List of Fanboy & Chum Chum episodes.

Cast

Main Characters

David Hornsby as Fanboy
Nika Futterman as Chum Chum

Supporting Characters

Jamie Kennedy as Kyle Bloodworth-Thomason and Fankylechum
Josh Duhamel as Oz Harmounian
Wyatt Cenac as Lenny Flynn-Boyle, Michael Johnson and Joey
Jeff Bennett as Boog Shlizetti, Hank Mufflin, Dollar-nator, Man-Arctica, Duke, Global Warmer, Dr. Acula, Scrivener Elf,Necronomicon, Agent Johnson, Fedora Man, Secret Shopper and Sigmund
Dyana Liu as Yo
Candi Milo as Lupe, Cher Leader (Season 1 Episode 17b to present), Francine, Madame LaVache, Miss Olive, Marsha, Lunch Lady Cram, Bus Lady Cram, Molly and Mildred
Kari Wahlgren as Nancy Pancy (Season 1 episode 4b to Season 1 episode 6b) and Cher Leader (Season 1 episode 4b to Season 1 episode 11a)
Nika Futterman as Benjamin, Murphy and Muk Muk

Running Gags

Refer to the full list here.

Usually, whenever Janitor Poopatine's name is said, Chum Chum shouts out: "Poop!" Sometimes, another character says this.
The first time Fanboy and Chum Chum see Kyle each day, Fanboy greets him by saying "Hi, Kyle!" He is the usual character to say it, but sometimes, another person says it or the line is altered.
Fanboy sometimes says "Fear not" when willing to do something.
Yo is always planning to get Chum Chum alone with her but fails.
Kyle is trying to get back to Milkweed Academy, despite being expelled. Usually, when an attempt fails, Professor Flan denies the admission by saying a strong deny sentence. (ex. "Re-admission denied") He also has a unique routine of denying.
Most of Kyle's spells have a weird incantation to them. Sometimes, Kyle can't finish the spell.
Kyle is always calling Fanboy and Chum Chum strange names if he gets angry by them. Most of those names mean "a stupid or crazy person".
Whenever Kyle ends a sentence with emphasis, he makes a shooting motion with his finger and says "Zing!"

Animated short

Main article: Fanboy (episode)

The animated short Fanboy aired as part of Frederator Studios' Random! Cartoons, and led to the creation of the animated series. It is about a boy and his friend who see an advert of Frosty Freezy Freeze and decide to try it, but ends up having a misadventure with Berry the Ice Monster.

Character design notes

Reflections are used in characters' eyes on the show.

Most characters have noticeable light reflections in their eyes. There are usually 5 or 6 reflections in a bendy cube pattern, but the pattern varies and other reflections can be visible, too.
Occasionally, characters are animated with their eyebrows floating above their eyes, partially detached from their head or floating over their hair. Examples:
- Kyle's eyebrows going over his shag hairdo. It usually switches to under frequently.
- Chum Chum, Oz, Yo and others.
Characters' ears stick out at the sides, instead of pushing up against the character's head.
Most of the characters' clothes and hair have detail, such as Kyle's shirt and pants with fabric and denim respectively, and Boog's hair having dark highlights.
Characters' eyes are colored black/dark brown, rather than having different types of eye colors. However, Janitor Poopatine is an exception, with yellow-green irises and Yo’s cat has green irises.
Characters only have 4 fingers.
Some characters are designed with a pill shaped body such as Yo, Boog, Nancy Pancy, Micheal Johnson and others.
Most characters have skinny limbs.
Some characters have elongated heads and long faces.
Most characters have noses that aren’t the same color as their skin such as Lupe, Nancy, Oz and others.
Most characters have either upturned noses with visible nostrils or pointy noses without nostrils seen.

Animation notes

The grass is completely flat.
The trees look a bit plastic looking.
In most of the episodes in season 1, the colors appear to be dull-ish, and the textures in the CGI animation are not as detailed, making it look somewhat clay-like. In later episodes, especially in season 2, the colors are more vibrant and the animation is somewhat more detailed, making it look less plasticity. One example is Fanboy's unitard being a more vivid green rather than the usual dull green color, and another is Kyle's hair appearing to be more maroon and ruby colored.

Animation Errors

The show sometimes shows mistakes in numerous areas. These mistakes vary widely, being associated with actual facts, the laws of physics, animation, continuity, or legitimacy.

Recurring errors:

The characters constantly change their standing positions between shots, indicating a jump cut.
Kyle's eyebrows switch from over to under his bangs and vice versa. This is a recurring hair effect on him.
Sometimes, any of the character's eyebrows passes through their eyelids.
Yo's frog backpack repeatedly vanishes and reappears in some scenes.
Chum Chum constantly changes size from being the same size as Yo, Nancy and Michael, the height he was in the pilot short to the height where he only reaches the adults knees.
Kyle loses his cape in some scenes but gets it back in the next.
The Chimp Chomp game is to the right of the Invaders game, but in others it's to the left of the Invaders game.
The stripes on Kyle's shirt are sometimes larger or smaller than usual.
The characters eyes sometimes are much bigger than usual other times they become smaller.
Chum Chum sometimes can lose his goggles and gloves in certain scenes only to get them back in the next frame.
Certain hair colors often become a darker shade or lighter shade.
Sometimes a character’s eyelashes disappear.
The collars on Yo, Lupe, Chris, Michael, Duke, Nancy, Cher, Cheech, Murphy, Joey, Molly, Benjamin, Patton and the female kindergartener with light brown hair's often disappear randomly, making it look like their heads are floating.
A fifth finger is often mistakenly added on a characters hand.
A characters ear often pushes up against the their head.
Certain characters ears often become smaller.
A character who has a different colored nose often has it appearing the same color as their skin color.

Galleries

Click here to view more images from Fanboy & Chum Chum.

The image gallery for Fanboy & Chum Chum may be viewed here.

Title Cards

To see all galleries of title cards, see Fanboy & Chum Chum/Title Cards.

Videos

Promos

"Meet Chum Chum"

"Fanboy and Chum Chum" Premiere Promo

Broadcast

Nickelodeon (original run October 12, 2009-November 2, 2012; reruns (November 3, 2012-March 22, 2013)
Nicktoons (November 7, 2009-March 31, 2016; December 25, 2016 (A Very Brrr-y Icemas))

Reception

Fanboy and Chum Chum has received somewhat mixed reviews from critics. Aaron H. Bynum of Animation Insider called Fanboy and Chum Chum "a fun show that deserves a good look. The quality animation helps counterbalance the immense amount of dialogue from the series' chatty characters, and the sheer comedy of marginally competent comic-loving kids helps outweigh what might otherwise be a binge of geeky annoyance. But overall, Fanboy and Chum Chum is a lot of fun."^[1] Variety praised the series' "bright, energetic look and even an appealing premise in theory". David Hinckley of NY Daily News 'gave the series three stars out of five, and said that "it's good [but] might not be the next SpongeBob".

A negative review came from KJ Dell'Antonia of Slate, who found the main characters irritating, and thought the whole concept was unoriginal, with "many tired jokes and not enough of that kind of mild satire to make this play in our house".^[2]

Ratings

The series premiered on November 6, 2009, after the Spongebob SquarePants film Truth or Square. The broadcast ranked number three of cable programs that week and number two of the night. The premiere was watched by a total of 5.8 million viewers. The second episode was broadcast on November 7, 2009 and garnered 5.4 million viewers, ranking fifth of all cable broadcasts that week.

The third episode was broadcast a week later, on November 14, 2009, with 3.8 million viewers. A broadcast on November 28, 2009 was viewed by 3.9 million viewers. In February 2010, the episode "Moppy Dearest" was viewed by 4.27 million viewers, an improvement over the last few episodes.

Trivia

It was greenlit by Nickelodeon over Adventure Time, which would air on Cartoon Network because one of the workers found it "too weird".
It was one of the few Nicktoons to end on its terms on the main channel.
After nearly three years of being adored, the show was moved to a 7:00 AM slot on weekdays in 2012 – right before the Nick Jr. block in the morning (which usually started at 8:00 or 9:00 AM). Reruns were practically non-existent, as the show would air only on Sundays at 7:00 AM from somewhere around early 2014 to early 2015 before it was banished permanently.
- On Nicktoons, the show could be found airing somewhat inconsistently between 4:30 AM and 6:00 AM, along with Random! Cartoons and TUFF Puppy. These time slots remained until the show entirely ceased to air in March 2016, though it briefly came back to air on Christmas Day in a graveyard slot before being removed for good.
There were some unused characters for the show such as the Kraken Twins, the Vamps, Lil Kay and Rusty.
In earlier episodes of the show, the bouncy background music would sound a bit off-key.
It is the last NickToon to be released in the 2000s.
It is the last NickToon to use the 1984-2009 Nickelodeon logo after the end credits.
The show won five Emmy Awards.
It is the first computer animated Nickelodeon show to not be based off a movie or video game.
When episodes would first air or have re-runs when the show was still new, the ratio format was in fullscreen (4:3) instead of widescreen (16:9). This was mainly because during the time, many households still had square TVs and the broadcast on the main channel was supposed to fit the screen on those older TVs.
Most of the time the character designs often appear off-model. However character models for the minor and incidental characters remain on-model.
For some reason even if a character has an overlapped speaking role or a vocal role they aren’t credited.

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