Happy Monster Band

Happy Monster Band (also known as Happy Monster Band: Direct from Monsterland and Happy Monster Band: World Tour) is a short-lived animated children's television series that originally aired on Playhouse Disney from October 1, 2007, to October 28, 2008. The series was created by Don Carter and produced by Kickstart Productions. It is about a group of monsters who perform songs about friendship, love, exercise, chores, and other preschool themes.

Happy Monster Band
Logo card from the first series
Opening theme	"Happy Monster Band" by Tally Hall
Ending theme	"Happy Monster Band" by Tally Hall (Instrumental)
Composer	Tally Hall
Country of origin	United States United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	20
Production
Running time	5 minutes
Production company	Kickstart Productions
Distributor	Disney-ABC Domestic Television
Release
Original network	Playhouse Disney Disney Channel
Original release	October 1, 2007 (2007-10-01) – October 28, 2008 (2008-10-28)

Characters

Main

There are four monsters that make up the Happy Monster Band: Ink, Bluz, L.O., and Frred. Each of the monster's name reflects its color: Ink's signature color is pink, Bluz's is blue, L.O.'s is yellow and Frred's is red. They were designed by Don Carter. All four band members are children, but their singing voices are those of the members of the band Tally Hall. In the UK version, children's voices are used for the singing portions.

• Frred (voiced by Rob Cantor (singing voice) and Kurt Doss (speaking voice)) is one of the band's lead singers and plays electric guitar. His electric guitar is purple. While Ink may appear to be the leader, many fans tend to regard Frred as the actual leader.
• L.O. (voiced by Zubin Sedghi (singing voice) and Trevor Gagnon (speaking voice)) is the other lead singer. The oldest in the band, L.O. is yellow and plays bass guitar. His bass guitar is green and has four strings. He is the only monster in the band that goes against traditional thinking, preferring to paint and write poetry instead of scaring. He is considered to be a shy introvert.
• Bluz (voiced by Joe Hawley (singing voice), Jonah Lees (Direct from Monsterland), and Jake T. Austin (World tour) (speaking voices)) is the band's keyboardist, is blue and has four legs. His keyboard is magenta and has twelve black keys. Bluz often contradicts L.O.'s opinions, stating that monsters should scare and not care about art. During the World Tour, Bluz knows a little bit about foreign languages, which makes him appear unintelligent. However, he shows kindness and empathy for others. He can also be very friendly. He is the youngest member of the band.
• Ink (voiced by Hannah Leigh (speaking voice) and Tara Sands (singing voice)) is the band's drummer. She has three eyes and is pink. Her drums can glow either pink, magenta or purple. Unlike the other band members, Ink only sings during choruses. However she has a solo verse in "Do the Monster Stomp". During the World Tour, she carries a globe that shows where the band is and is fluent in several languages.

Supporting

The first season introduces several characters.

• Roc and Raoul (voiced by Yuri Lowenthal and Sam Riegel, respectively) are two-headed purple monster brothers and are the show's hosts. They speak in rhyme, except while backstage, and are also present in season two (World Tour).
• La, Dee, and Da are the show's judges and are only in the first season. They are all bright green and are based on Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, and Simon Cowell.

World Tour

• Akito is the band's pen pal in Tokyo, Japan. He has a robot named Robo-Dude.
• Joey is a kangaroo in Sydney, Australia.
• Dwight is a giant monster in Italy who is often hungry and is used as a comedic explanation for the Tower of Pisa's leaning and for the Colosseum missing a large part of its wall.
• Ravi is an energetic four-year-old boy in India. He has the biggest star in Bollywood, Pooja.
• The Rancher is an introducer in Texas.
• Johnny and Franklin were introduced in the World Tour episode "The Monster Tangle" in Argentina.
• The Queen is a three-eyed monster who lives in Buckingham Palace.
• The Gondolier is a monster who rows a gondola in Venice, Italy.
• The Beret Monster is a monster with a beret in France. Bluz talks to him about his beret but he doesn't know where he got it from which made Bluz upset, then he gave the beret to Bluz and Bluz got really happy and puts it on.

Episodes

Series One (Direct from Monsterland, 2007)

• "I Will Be Your Friend"(L.O.'s memory book)– the monsters celebrate their long friendship together.
• "Do the Monster Stomp"(the missing dance move)– Frred thinks that Bluz found what was missing.^{[clarification needed]}
• "Monster Hoe Down"(a monster scare dance)– the monsters dress up as cowboys and cowgirl.
• "Dirty, Smelly Monster Chores"(waiting for L.O.)– L.O. does chores, spreading clothes on the floor, bringing in garbage and tracking mud around.
• "Scare Up Some Fun"(band: gone missing)– the twins see an empty room and think that the band is not there. The band tries to scare them.
• "I'm the Best at Being Me"(L.O. the best)– L.O. is not as scary as Bluz because he likes to write poetry and paint.
• "Do Re Mi–Mi–Mi"(ink's rhyme struggle)– Ink struggles to write a song for work.
• "Even Monsters Cry Sometimes"(touch me circle)– Frred is sad because his father has a flat tire and he worries he will miss the concert, making him cry until his friends comfort him, saying it’s okay for anyone, even monsters, to cry.
• "Get Up and Go Go Go"(morning routines ON!)– the band tell the twins to get ready.
• "Practice Makes Progress"(get ready to practice)– Ink's jump rope contest is coming up, so she practices her skills.

Series Two (World Tour, 2008)

• "Here in Australia"-The band rocks at the Sydney Opera House in Australia.
• "A Wonderful Time in France"-While The band is in France, Bluz wanted to ask The Beret Monster where did he got his beret from.
• "Yin & Yang"-The band is in Hong Kong.
• "London Town"-The band finds a double decker bus in England because their bus has a flat tire.
• "In India"-The band makes a Bollywood movie at the Taj Mahal and rocks with a tiger, a snake charmer and Pooja the elephant in India.
• "Siesta! Siesta!"-The band plays soccer in Spain
• "The Monster Tangle"-The band does the Monster Tangle instead of a tango in Argentina.
• "Konichiwa!"-The band rocks in Tokyo.
• "At the Rodeo"-The band is in Texas and is at the ranch. Frred is on a horse and twirls a lasso. Frred is a rock-and-roll rodeo cowboy.
• "The Italian Way"-The band is in Venice and Frred is very hungry but L.O. accidentally drops his camera.

Production

The music was written and performed by indie rock band Tally Hall. The characters and concept for the show were created by children's book author and illustrator, Don Carter.^[1] Judy Rothman Rofé wrote all the episodes in Season One and five of the episodes in Season Two.

Broadcast

In the United Kingdom, the show was shown on Playhouse Disney/Disney Junior from October 5, 2007, to 2014.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. "Butterfly1234". 8 February 2016.

External links

• Happy Monster Band at IMDb