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==History== [[File:Flippy by Brad Rau.jpeg|thumb|The [[Flippy]] artwork by Ghostbot director Brad Rau, serving as the inspiration for Flippy's design in ''{{PAGENAME}}''.|200px]] In 2006, at San Diego Comic Con, [[Kenn Navarro]] saw artwork by [[Ghostbot]] director Brad Rau depicting his own take on Flippy. The artwork was part of a ''Happy Tree Friends'' art contest in the convention. Kenn Navarro loved the design and made him wonder about a potential story exploring Flippy's past. It took until 2008 for Kenn Navarro to consider bringing the concept into reality, as the ''Happy Tree Friends'' show was needing something new at the time. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyLF14S5ZO4 A teaser video] revealing this concept and the ''{{PAGENAME}}'' title was posted on August 27, 2008. The final product of the first concept was a full animated show, which at the time (September 2, 2008{{Citation needed|Needing a source for the original Mondo release, as the only one with a recorded date was the HD version.}}) was only ''W.A.R. Journal'', originally going to be called ''Flippy's War Journal'' or ''Flippy's Flashback''. ''W.A.R. Journal'' was styled after old-school pulp comics like ''[[wikipedia:Sgt. Rock|Sgt. Rock]]''. The premise of this show was to show the nastiness of war which shaped Flippy's character. With such a different direction compared to ''Happy Tree Friends'', the creators were able to create new characters. Originally, Flippy would be accompanied by four more teammates before the number was trimmed to two, [[Mouse Ka-Boom]] (originally a rhino character) and [[Sneaky]], because it worked better with the story and timing. In addition, there were plans where there would be episodes without Flippy in them, which was why the ''W.A.R. Journal'' title was used instead of either Flippy-related title. Flippy's first (and only) enemies in ''W.A.R. Journal'' were [[The General]] and his Tiger Army, who were originally designed as a futuristic army in the vein of classic ''James Bond'' villains.<ref>[https://mondomedia.com/news/view/164/Notes_from_the_W.A.R._Journal "Notes from the W.A.R. Journal", a ''Happy Tree Friends'' news post on Mondo]</ref> Originally published on the official ''Happy Tree Friends'' website, ''W.A.R. Journal'' was then uploaded on MondoMedia's YouTube channel on September 10, 2008. The next short in ''{{PAGENAME}}'' marked the return of Buddhist Monkey after having starred in two shorts. The short was "[[Three Courses of Death]]" (September 23, 2008{{Citation needed|Needing a source for the original Mondo release, as the only one with a recorded date was the HD version.}}), which introduced [[Char Siu]]. Buddhist Monkey was supposed to face off against more ninjas, but the creators felt that he needed something new and different. Char Siu's design, which was themed around the dim sum cuisine, was based on the original script for the episode which depicted Buddhist Monkey fighting in an outside market, which brought out ideas for potential villains, like one themed around food and cooking utensils. The idea of the giant crab as Char Siu's weapon was brought up by Ghostbot director Alan Lau. How it was defeated by Buddhist Monkey ("hot hands" technique) was actually a late-production idea suggested by [[Warren Graff]]. Another addition to ''Buddhist Monkey'' introduced by ''{{PAGENAME}}'' was a brief peek into the titular character's past showing his younger design and his master, who was originally a typical frail and old sensei before he was changed into the bigger and lazier character.<ref>[https://mondomedia.com/news/view/165/Buddhist_Monkey_Business "Buddhist Monkey Business", a ''Happy Tree Friends'' news post on Mondo]</ref> "Three Courses of Death" was later uploaded on MondoMedia's YouTube channel on September 27, 2008. [[File:Splendid by Roque Ballesteros.jpeg|thumb|left|The rough [[Splendid]] artwork by Ghostbot director Roque Ballesteros.]] For the third short in ''{{PAGENAME}}'', the creators decided on Splendid as the next focus character. While the creators were still working on ''W.A.R. Journal'' and ''Buddhist Monkey'', Kenn Navarro asked Roque Ballesteros (previously worked on ''Mole in the City'') to do a rough sketch of Splendid for promotional purposes as he had yet to receive a ''{{PAGENAME}}''-exclusive design. This design would be refined to give him a broader chest and his wing flaps like in ''Happy Tree Friends'', though said older artwork was also recycled for merchandising, particularly for the ''Kickstart the KA-POW Revolution!'' campaign. Work moved into designing Splendid's arch-enemy, [[Splendont]], who was originally considered for the ''Happy Tree Friends'' TV series but the creators never got to use him in an episode. Splendont would be given a goatee a la Spock from the ''[[wikipedia:Star Trek|Star Trek]]'' episode "Mirror, Mirror", which itself was how the first episode for ''Splendid's SSSSSuper Squad'' got its name, but the creators decided against it for indirectly making Splendid look too silly. Another idea was to riff off [[wikipedia:Bizzaro|Bizzaro]] for sharing the same design theme as he is the exact opposite of [[wikipedia:Superman|Superman]], the inspiration for Splendid. In the end, the creators settled on the simplicity and visual of reverse colors a la [[wikipedia:The Flash|The Flash]] and [[wikipedia:Reverse-Flash|Reverse-Flash]]. Aside from Splendont, the creators also added additional characters serving as Splendid's allies based on the ''[[wikipedia:Super Friends|Super Friends]]''. At the time, their names were not known and their only appearance was in the end of "Mirror, Mirror". This was all done on purpose to leave their identities as a surprise to the viewer. The end of the episode also showed the logo for the show, which was designed by Creative Director [[Dean MacDonald]] after Kenn Navarro was amazed by his shield design which was only used as promotional art.<ref>[https://mondomedia.com/news/view/166/A_SSSSSplendid_Life "A SSSSSplendid Life", a ''Happy Tree Friends'' news post on Mondo]</ref> ''Splendid's SSSSSuper Squad'' was released on the official ''Happy Tree Friends'' website and MondoMedia's YouTube channel on November 18, 2008. In 2009, the three ''{{PAGENAME}}'' episodes were re-released in HD. ''W.A.R. Journal'' was the first, having been re-released on January 30, 2009. "Three Courses of Death" and "Mirror, Mirror" followed on February 6, 2009 and February 24, 2009 respectively. On March 19, 2009, not only was the ''Buddhist Monkey'' short "Enter the Garden" re-released in HD format, but it was also officially considered as a part of ''{{PAGENAME}}''. The same also applies to "Books of Fury" (April 3, 2009) and ''Mole in the City'' (April 10, 2009). These six episodes were given a promotional video under the name ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNo5HT0mHVM Ka-Pow! Beta]'', released on MondoMedia's YouTube channel on January 20, 2010. Starting on April 19, 2011, when the ''Happy Tree Friends'' show was in the middle of a hiatus, the ''{{PAGENAME}}'' channel published a promotional video titled [https://web.archive.org/web/20110503221217/http://www.happytreefriends.com/index.php/episodes/kickstart-the-ka-pow-revolution/ "Kickstart the KA-POW Revolution!"] which included a link to the [https://web.archive.org/web/20110429011024/http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/322655818/kickstart-the-ka-pow-revolution?ref=search Kickstarter project page]. Visitors would be able to fund from as little as $1 to about $5,000 (or more if the visitor wanted) and then get the perks from the appropriate funding tier in addition to the finished episode(s). The project target was $24,999 and the deadline was May 30, 2011, but in the end only $2,966 was reached, rendering the project unsuccessful. Nothing else significant related to ''{{PAGENAME}}'' happened since then, aside from Kenn Navarro eventually revealing the names of Splendid's allies in ''Splendid's SSSSSuper Squad'', who are Wonder Wanda, Webster, Tick-Talk, and Man-O-War, in 2016.<ref>https://twitter.com/ChainKnuckle/status/789876144870785024 '''ChainKnuckle:''' Their names are Wonder Wanda, Webster, Tick-Talk and Man-O-War. (October 23, 2016)</ref>
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