Wishfart

<i>Wishfart</i>

Wishfart

Canadian TV series or program


Wishfart is a Canadian animated television series created by John Hazlett, Lienne Sawatsky and Daniel Williams.[1] The series was produced by Wishfart Productions Inc. in association with Nelvana and Corus Entertainment, with Bejuba! Entertainment holding worldwide distribution rights. The series first aired in the United Kingdom on CITV on 5 September 2017,[2] and later premiered in its home country of Canada on Teletoon on 9 June 2018. The series follows Dez, a teenage leprechaun with wish-granting powers, as he goes on escapades with a puffin named Puffin and a centuries-old teenage ghost girl named Akiko.

Quick Facts Wishfart, Genre ...

The series features the final voice acting role of Paul Soles before his death in 2021.

Characters

Main

  • Dez (voiced by Deven Mack): An awkward and reserved teenage leprechaun boy. He has the ability to grant wishes by firing a rainbow from his finger. However, wishes he grants always go wrong in some fashion, forcing him and his friends to fix it.
  • Puffin (voiced by Sergio Di Zio): A talking puffin who shares Dez's apartment. Although he is greedy, lazy, and self-centered, he is a very supportive friend towards Dez, who had granted him the ability to speak with one of his wishes.
  • Akiko (voiced by Stephany Seki): A mischievous and sarcastic yūrei who haunts Dez's apartment. She is an eternal teenager who died centuries ago from a plague that wiped out her whole village. She is nicknamed "Keeks" by her friends.

Recurring

  • Tsuni (voiced by Jordan Todosey): A laidback mermaid who rides on a skateboard and Dez's love interest. She has darker skin than Dez and has a collapsible trident in her backpack. She works at a magical comic book store, where Dez and his friends hang out.
  • Fireball Cat (voiced by Martin Roach): A mystical anthropomorphic cat named for the fire that burns on his head. He is the owner of a noodle soup restaurant frequented by Dez, his friends, and many other characters. He possesses near-omnipotent magical powers and knowledge, notably the ability to use his own mouth for scrying.
  • The King of the Underworld (voiced by Brian Drummond): A giant angry demon who rules the Underworld. He is the occasional nemesis of Dez and his friends.
  • Phil (voiced by Blair Williams): Dez's bitter, cynical, and greedy leprechaun uncle.
  • Neptune (voiced by Christian Potenza): The God of the Sea, who behaves like an egotistical "surfer dude".
  • Howie (voiced by Doug Hadders): A centaur who works in the postal service.
  • Samuel (voiced by Doug Hadders): A yeti smothered in ice cream. He had wished for endless ice cream from Dez long ago, but soon came to regret the wish due to having to live with permanent brain freeze, sticky fingers, and lactose intolerance.
  • Clooney (voiced by Craig Warnock): Dez's leprechaun dad.
  • Emer (voiced by Kathy Laskey): Dez's leprechaun mom.
  • Finnuala (voiced by Samantha Weinstein): Dez's nemesis. She is a leprechaun enforcer, working at her father's leprechaun reprogramming facility to ensure that all leprechauns are behaving as stereotypically expected of their kind.
  • Leslie Walderamma (voiced by Darren Frost): An obnoxious wizard boy.
  • Dusty (voiced by Evany Rosen): A witch who takes offense at people making assumptions about her.
  • Gum King (voiced by Juan Chioran): Akiko's nemesis and self-proclaimed ruler of all gum. A humanoid creature composed entirely out of gum who came to be after another one of Dez's wishes backfired. When not antagonizing Akiko, he is an employee of De-Gum Chums, a business that specializes in removing gum.
  • G (voiced by Jeff Lumby): A gargoyle who works as the security guard for Dez's apartment.
  • Janice (voiced by Julie Lemieux): The two-faced Goddess of Thresholds. She is the doorperson of Dez's apartment.

Production

The series' title is a pun on the phrase "brain fart", applying the term instead to wishes.[3] The series' creators came up with Wishfart during a lunchtime conversation when Dan Williams pitched an idea for a live-action series about a rich man in green who used his wealth to make people's wishes come true. The idea was soon developed into a children's animated series about a non-traditional leprechaun. The creators had little experience with animation, but managed to successfully pitch their idea directly to Teletoon without any sample artwork, thanks to the support of international distributor and producing partner, Tatiana Kober.[4]

The first season was produced for $7.4 million US.[3] Slap Happy Cartoons did the character designs, with the creators' aim being rounded shapes and thin outlines.[4]

Episodes

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Broadcast

Wishfart premiered on CITV in the United Kingdom on 5 September 2017.[5] It premiered on Discovery Italia (K2, in Italian) on 6 November 2017,[6] on Cartoon Network Africa on 1 January 2018, and on RTBF (Belgium, in French) on 10 February 2018.[7] It premiered on Teletoon on 2 June 2018, and on Télétoon (français) on 27 May 2018. It premiered on Cartoon Network UK on 8 June 2018.[8][9] It premiered on Russia's Telekanal 2X2 on 27 August 2018.[10] It started airing in Poland on TeleTOON+ on 16 August 2019, replacing Trollhunters.[11] In Norway it is broadcast on NRK Super.[12] It was expected to debut in France on Canal+ (in French), on Niki Kids[13] in Ukraine, and on Australia's ABC in 2019.[14] The show aired on RTP2 in Portugal on August 9, 2021. In the United States, it was released on Kidoodle.TV on 9 December 2021, but got removed sometime between late 2023 to early 2024. [15]

Reception

The series received five nominations at the 2019 Canadian Screen Awards in the categories of Best Direction (Animation), Best Sound (Animation), and Best Writing (Animation), with three of those nominations being in the last category.[16] It was also nominated for an Award of Excellence for Best Program (Animation – Ages 9+) from the Youth Media Alliance in 2019,[17] and won the Writers Guild of Canada's Screenwriting Award in the Children's category that same year.[18]


References

  1. Crump, William D. (2019). Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film. McFarland & Co. p. 67. ISBN 9781476672939.
  2. @WishfartShow (5 May 2018). "Yahoo! Set your fun-dials for June 2..." (Tweet) via Twitter.
  3. Castleman, Lana (23 October 2017). "Cool New Shows". Kidscreen. Brunico Communications. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  4. Robinson, Chris (8 April 2019). "Selling Your First Animated Series". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
  5. "CITV picks up Wishfart". Kidscreen. 14 September 2017. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  6. "Nouveautés sur OUFtivi : Les enquêtes de Mirette, Wishfart et Gumball 4 !". RTBF TV (in French). 5 February 2018. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
  7. "Cartoon Network UK Wishfart New Show Premieres Friday 8th June". RegularCapital: Cartoon Network International News. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  8. Parks, Nico (4 December 2017). "Bejuba grants CN Wishfart". C21media. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
  9. "Wishfart". www.teletoonplus.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 17 September 2019.[permanent dead link]
  10. "NRK TV - Ønsketrøbbel". tv.nrk.no (in Norwegian). Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  11. "На удачу - Niki". niki.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  12. "Global Broadcasters Get a Whiff of 'Wishfart' | Animation Magazine". www.animationmagazine.net. 11 September 2018. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
  13. Aguilar, Carlos (11 February 2019). "Canadian Screen Awards 2019 Noms Announced". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
  14. "Youth Media Alliance". Retrieved 22 April 2019.
  15. "Writers Guild of Canada". Retrieved 22 April 2019.

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