ChalkZone


ChalkZone is an American animated television series created by Bill Burnett and Larry Huber for Nickelodeon. The series follows Rudy Tabootie, an elementary school student who discovers a box of magic chalk that allows him to draw portals into the ChalkZone, an alternate dimension where everything ever drawn with chalk and later erased comes to life. Rudy is joined in his adventures by Snap, a wisecracking superhero Rudy once drew with chalk, and Penny Sanchez, Rudy's academically intellectual classmate and personal friend.
ChalkZone originally premiered as a pilot short on Fred Seibert's Oh Yeah! Cartoons animated shorts showcase in 1998. The series ran on Nickelodeon from March 22, 2002, to August 23, 2008, with 40 episodes in total. It was produced by Frederator Studios and Nickelodeon Animation Studio.

Premise

The series follows Rudy Tabootie, a 10-year-old, fifth-grade boy who loves to draw. Reggie Bullnerd, the school bully, constantly teases him or gets him into trouble with Mr. Wilter, Rudy's grumpy school teacher who strongly dislikes cartoons, especially Rudy's passion for art. One day while in detention, Rudy discovers a piece of "White Lightnin'" chalk, which allows access to the ChalkZone, a place where everything and everyone that has ever been drawn in chalk and erased exists as living/touchable entities. He soon makes friends with Snap, a short, blue, humanoid drawing made by Rudy when he was eight years old. Snap wears a superhero outfit and is very adventurous and funny. Rudy only lets one other person know about ChalkZone, his best friend Penny Sanchez, who acts as the genius of the group.
While in ChalkZone, the three are introduced to Cyclops, the kilt-wearing guardian of the magic chalk mines where Rudy obtains his magic chalk ; Queen Rapsheeba, ChalkZone's musical artist whom Snap has a crush on; and Blocky, a light green block friend of Snap's and Rudy's first-ever drawing. They also face villains such as Skrawl, a drawing who blames Rudy for being ugly and wants to destroy him, and the Craniacs, a gang of robot drawings obsessed with collecting futuristic devices.

Episodes

Characters

Main

  • Rudolph Bartholomew "Rudy" Tabootie : The main protagonist. He is in fifth grade. He travels to ChalkZone with his best friends Penny and Snap. He uses magic chalk that he can use to draw portals into ChalkZone and draw things out of thin air. Rudy is ten years old, and eight years old in Oh Yeah! Cartoons.
  • Snap : A short, blue, humanoid superhero drawing made by Rudy, and his best friend. Created by Rudy when he was 8 years old, Snap speaks with a New York accent, and is adventurous and mischievous.
  • Penelope Victoria "Penny" Sanchez : Rudy's Latina friend, a genius who helps him. She is the only other human besides Rudy who knows about ChalkZone. She and Rudy are implied to have romantic interests on each other, as hinted by Snap and other characters.

    Supporting

  • Reginald "Reggie" Bullnerd : A troublesome school bully and Rudy's rival. His full name is revealed to be "Reginald Brunicky Tracey Aloysius Socrates Yauney Sunshine Bullnerd", discovered by Rudy in the episode "Teachers' Lounge". He is known to have his own records for the trouble he caused at school.
  • Joseph Walter "Joe" Tabootie : Rudy's father, who runs a meat shop. His voice resembles that of Ned Flanders from The Simpsons, but in a high-distorted pitch.
  • Mildred Trish "Millie" Tabootie : Rudy's mother, who often calls Rudy in an operaesque voice.
  • Horace T. Wilter : Rudy's cartoon-hating school teacher, despite that he once enjoyed cartoons when he was younger. Wilter is also annoyed by Rudy's love of art, telling him that it will get him nowhere in life, despite Rudy proving him wrong. He comes close to learning about ChalkZone in the episode "Secret Passages."
  • Veronica Sanchez : Penny's mother, who is a doctor and scientist.
  • Tilly McNally : Rudy's aunt and Millie's sister.
  • Sophie McNally : Rudy's two-year old cousin, Joe and Millie's niece and Tilly's only daughter.
  • Biclops : The slight Scottish-accented guardian of the Magic Chalk Mines. He was originally named "Cyclops" until Rudy gave him a second eye. He wears a Scottish attire, including a kilt around his legs. His two eyes are drawn on top of each other. He is also like an uncle/older brother figure to Rudy.
  • Queen Rapsheeba : ChalkZone's prominent musical artist and Snap's love interest, but drawn by Trina.
  • Blocky : Snap's friend. He is a light green cube block and is claimed to be Rudy's first-ever drawing.
  • Skrawl : Rudy's archenemy in ChalkZone. He is a drawing that was messed up by a bunch of kids at a birthday party Rudy had gone to. Skrawl blames Rudy for being ugly and wants to destroy him.
  • Granny in the Bathtub : A drawing that Rudy made, intended for humor.
  • Chalk Dad : A drawing Rudy made, who resembles and sounds similar to his father.
  • The Craniacs : A series of robot drawings obsessed with collecting futuristic devices. The current version is Craniac 4, drawn by Rudy to get rid of Craniac 3. The Craniacs are based on Brainiac from the Superman comics.
  • Bruno Bullnerd : Reggie's father who works as a sanitation engineer.
  • Vinnie Raton : A greedy greaser who first appears in "Hole In the Wall" where he destroys Joe and Millie's old school they attended when they were Rudy and Penny's age. He later finds out about the truth of ChalkZone.
  • Terry Bouffant : The cynical news reporter for Plainville, but named after a poofy, wavy style. In the episode "Indecent Exposure" she finally discovers the truth about ChalkZone.

    Production

ChalkZone was the creation of Bill Burnett and Larry Huber, with Huber's idea of a boy with magic chalk and Burnett's idea of a world behind the chalkboard. The concept's origin dated back during the production of Hanna-Barbera's What a Cartoon! where Seibert originally wanted Huber to develop a cartoon for the showcase and assigned him with Burnett, who was writing for Cow and Chicken at the time, to develop a pilot for a potential series. Development fell through at the last minute from the result of Hanna Barbera Cartoons being absorbed into Warner Bros. Animation. The concept came back when Seibert developed Frederator Studios and was pitched as a short on Nickelodeon's Oh Yeah! Cartoons before getting the greenlight in 1998. In 1999, ChalkZone became the first spin-off of Oh Yeah! Cartoons to enter production and be greenlit. Despite this, ChalkZone did not make it to the air until 2002, as the initial 13 green-light episodes were shortened to 6 due to executive reasons, all which were completed by 2000. The show's air date was up for debate until Nickelodeon's lack of new programming and the United States' critical situation at the time led to the decision to air the series in 2002. Frederator Studios announced in 2005 that the series had been cancelled at 40 episodes.
The show is remembered for featuring one-minute music videos sung by Rudy and his friends at the end of each episode. Several songs Bill Burnett composed before ChalkZone's production, i.e. "Insect Aside" and "Dream Alotta Dreams", were implanted into the series. A well-liked rumor about the show is that it was based on UK preschool program Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings. Bill Burnett denied this in a 2013 interview, claiming that he was not aware of the series' existence until after ChalkZone entered production, although Burnett did mention that Harold and the Purple Crayon was an influence on Larry's idea for the "boy with magic chalk" concept. A one-hour special, "The Big Blow Up", premiered on August 6, 2004. The final season featured new character designs with a slimmer line quality and a zooming chalk transition as new art staff and overseas studios were used for the remainder of the series.
The show had four different variations of the theme song released to the public, one from the 2001 Nickelodeon album, "The Newest Nicktoons", which used a synthesizer instead of a guitar and had an earlier version of Penny's voice which was a demo Bill Burnett created in order for the song to get the green-light, an earlier version of the final version from the album "ChalkZone: In the Zone", where the guitar was used and Penny's earlier voice was still used, and the final version which was shown on regular episodes. Another variation was shown in the 1999 pilot, which not only featured a slightly different opening sequence and logo from the final series but also features a preparatory track mix of the final version and the second demo albeit with some modified vocals, also with Penny's final voice used. Bill Burnett's original idea for the concepts' score was something in akin to simplistic children's toy instrument melodies to fit the show's children's "chalk-drawing" theme, but the Nickelodeon crew suggested a more techno rock-based score to give the show a huge contrast from the premise. Steve Rucker was brought into the music composition team and some of his compositions were later re-written upon request by Burnett and Moon to fit the series better, much to his dismay.

Broadcast

The pilot for the series first aired on December 31, 1999, as part of Nickelodeon's annual New Year's Eve block, but due to being delayed by Nickelodeon for executive reasons, the series made its official premiere on March 22, 2002. The 2002 premiere became the highest-rated premiere in Nickelodeon's history up to that point.
The show aired in reruns on "Nick on CBS" for more than a year from February 1, 2003, to September 11, 2004. In June 2005, following the announcement that the series had been cancelled, the fourth season of the series premiered. Of the season's 11 episodes, only five would be aired that year before Nickelodeon abruptly halted the broadcast of new episodes. The remaining six episodes would not air until three years later in June and August 2008. The final episode aired on August 23, 2008.
Since the series' cancellation, reruns aired on Nicktoons until October 30, 2016. ChalkZone reruns aired on NickSplat for two nights only on November 12 and 13, 2016, as part of a block that ran every weekend from August until December commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Nicktoons franchise. NickSplat –including ChalkZone– was a subscription channel based on VRV from 2018 to 2020.