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Total Drama Island

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This article is about the first season. For the entire series, see Total Drama.
Total Drama Island
The Total Drama Island logo.
Starring
No. of episodes28 (including special and review)
Release
Original networkTeletoon
Original releaseJuly 8, 2007 (2007-07-08) –
November 29, 2008 (2008-11-29)[1][2]
Season chronology
List of episodes

Total Drama Island (sometimes shortened to TDI) is a Canadian animated television series which premiered in Canada on Teletoon on July 8, 2007 and on June 5, 2008 in the U.S. on Cartoon Network. This is the first season of the Total Drama series and has 27 episodes, each 22 minutes in duration[3] with a special 44 minute episode at the end. The season is mostly a parody of the series Survivor, which consists of twenty-two campers in an elimination-based competition. On the Cartoon Network airing in the United States, some content has been removed from the episodes by censors in order to keep the rating open to a younger audience; for example, putting in words instead of long bleeps, and censoring of sensitive body parts, for the episodes "That's Off the Chain" and "Trial by Tri-Armed Triathlon". The fourth season, Total Drama: Revenge of the Island, also takes place on the same island as this season, but with an all-new cast. Total Drama Island was created by Tom McGillis and Jennifer Pertsch with their production studio, Fresh TV, which also created their previous animated series, 6teen.

Plot

A grand view of the main setting used in this season (which is artificially recreated in the next season). The island is also used in the fourth and fifth seasons (which leads to its destruction).

Total Drama Island sets in a fictional titular reality show that follows the competition of 22 unsuspecting and unknowing teenagers at Camp Wawanakwa, the most rundown, bug-infested, disgusting island located in an unspecified area in Muskoka, Ontario. The campers participate in competitions and challenges which get more insane and dangerous each week to avoid being voted off the island by their fellow campers and teammates. At the end of the series, the winning contestant will win CA$100,000. The competition is hosted by Chris McLean, who is assisted by the camp's chef, Chef Hatchet, who is also Chris McLean's best friend despite being mistreated at times. Egotistical and immoral to them, unless it affects him legally, Chris places the show's contestants in various life-threatening challenges.

At the beginning of the season, the twenty-two 16-year-old teenage campers are placed into two groups of eleven, the "Screaming Gophers" and the "Killer Bass". In each episode, the teams participate in a challenge, in which one or more campers can win invincibility for their team. The losing team is called to the campfire that night, where they vote one of their members off the island. The camper with the most votes is eliminated from the competition. At this campfire, McLean passes out marshmallows to the campers who have not been voted off, while the one who does not get a marshmallow must walk down the Dock of Shame to the Boat of Losers, which will take them away from the island and they will "never, never, never, ever, ever, ever, come back, ever" according to Chris (this was proved a lie in "No Pain, No Game", when he brought Eva and Izzy back into the game).

About halfway through the season, the teams are disbanded, so it is every camper for themselves, after which the challenges continue; the winner of each challenge then only receives invincibility for him or herself, whereupon the rest of the campers vote one camper without invincibility off the island. This process of elimination continued on until two players remain on the island. These two players, Gwen and Owen, were then subject to a final contest. At the end of the season, Owen wins the competition, while Gwen ends up being the runner-up. Total Drama Island is a parody of the reality show Survivor. Host Chris McLean is very similar to Survivor host Jeff Probst.[4] This is the first season in which the winner does not get to keep the money, due to it being eaten by a shark in the episode "Total Drama Drama Drama Drama Island".

Episodes

Main article: List of Total Drama Island episodes

Total Drama Island is a Canadian animated television series which premiered on July 8, 2007, on the Teletoon channel. This season has 26 episodes, each 22 minutes in duration, and two special episodes.[5] It was the third Cartoon Network show outside of Adult Swim and Toonami to have the U.S. rating of either "TV-PG" or "TV-PG-D", and a parental-guidance warning after every commercial break and at the beginning of the show (the first two being Sunday Pants and IGPX). Its rating in Canada was initially "G" while current broadcasts are rated "PG".

Season Episodes Country Network First air date Last air date
1 28[6] Canada Teletoon July 8, 2007 November 29, 2008
United States Cartoon Network June 5, 2008 December 18, 2008
United Kingdom Jetix April 1, 2009 May 6, 2009

Characters

The primary cast of Total Drama Island.
Top: DJ, Duncan, Tyler, Harold, Geoff, and Heather
Middle: Lindsay, Leshawna, Eva, Justin, Owen, Noah, Trent, Gwen, and Cody
Sitting: Izzy, Bridgette, Courtney, Katie, Sadie, Ezekiel, and Beth

Staff

Character Voice actor Description
Chris McLean Christian Potenza Chris is the host of Total Drama Island.
Chef Hatchet Clé Bennett Hatchet is the cook and co-host of the series.

Contestants

There are 22 original contestants who competed in Total Drama Island. They are Beth, Bridgette, Cody, Courtney, DJ, Duncan, Eva, Ezekiel, Geoff, Gwen, Harold, Heather, Izzy, Justin, Katie, Leshawna, Lindsay, Noah, Owen, Sadie, Trent, and Tyler. Many of the characters return in later seasons either as contestants or as guests.

Contestant Voice actor Nickname Placement Description
Beth Sarah Gadon[a] The Wannabee 16th Beth was born and raised on a farm with only animal friends and her parents to keep her company. Thanks to her background, she never developed proper social skills, and while she excels at getting others to stop and stare, it is more often than not for embarrassing reasons. In the second challenge, she joins a three-way alliance between Heather, Lindsay, and herself, but leaves it after standing up to Heather and her bossy attitude.
Bridgette Kristin Fairlie The Surfer Girl 10th Bridgette is a calm, compassionate surfer girl who loves animals almost as much as she loves the water. She ends up being the last girl standing on the Killer Bass, leading her to form a friendship with Gwen and Leshawna after the team merge. She develops a crush on Geoff and the two eventually become a couple.
Cody Peter Oldring The Geek 17th Cody is a tech-savvy geek, who sees himself as a ladies' man instead of a nerd. He has a large crush on Gwen and tries unsuccessfully to flirt with her, but settles for making Gwen happy by hooking her up with Trent.
Courtney Emilie-Claire Barlow[b] The Type A 14th Courtney a perfectionist who desires to be best at everything, and sees herself as a born leader. Her desire for success often clashes with her own principles and can come off as being quite bossy and critical, which leads her to be disliked by many contestants. She has a crush on Duncan, but denies it. Later on in the series, the two form a romantic relationship later on, leading to her unfair elimination as Harold rigged the votes for Courtney to leave to get back at Duncan for bullying him.
DJ Clé Bennett The Brickhouse With Heart 8th DJ is a very soft-spoken and sensitive guy who is compassionate and kind to those around him despite his intimidating size. He has a fear of heights and snakes, but manages to overcome them as the season progresses.
Duncan Drew Nelson The Delinquent 4th Duncan is a crafty juvenile delinquent and apparent bully who knows many tactics from his time spent in juvenile detention centers. His experience in juvy has made him into a strong and ruthless competitor, but still shows affection towards his teammates from time to time, particularly towards Courtney. During the merge, he forms a guys alliance with DJ, Geoff, and Owen to help the men stay in the competition. He ends up being tough enough to make it to the final four.
Eva Julia Chantrey The Female Bully 12th Eva is very competitive and physically strong, she is often overly aggressive. She is known to have a short temper and violent ways of exhibiting her anger. While her temper got her eliminated from the competition early, she was allowed to return to compete after the merge (which lasted one episode because the contestants still didn't want to deal with her violent behavior). Eva is one out of three contestants from the original cast to only compete on Total Drama Island and not on any of its follow-up seasons.
Ezekiel Peter Oldring The Home Schooled Guy 22nd Ezekiel is a naïve country boy who was homeschooled at his farm. His lack of interaction with other kids has left him with incredibly poor social skills. He is the first one voted off the competition due to his rude remarks towards the female competitors.
Geoff Dan Petronijevic The Funniest Guy Around 6th Geoff may not be the smartest contestant in the bunch, but he has a positive attitude, loves people, and is always up for a party. He forms a strong friendship with DJ and Duncan, and develops a crush on fellow surfer Bridgette. tries to get closer to her, however, the relationship between the two is often a rocky one, as Geoff will say or do something to try to impress her, but will instead end up putting her off. As the season progresses, Bridgette shows signs of returning his feelings, and the two officially become a couple.
Gwen Megan Fahlenbock The Goth Finalist Gwen is a goth girl whose interests lie in art and astronomy. She is smart, independent, kind and level-headed, stating her best quality is her inability to get excited over minuscule things. Her attitude at first seems very harsh and sarcastic, but she is not a bitter person. During the season, she develops a crush on Trent and forms an intense rivalry with her teammate Heather. Despite the numerous physical and social obstacles in her way, Gwen is strong enough to make it to the finale alongside Owen.
Harold Brian Froud The Dweeb 13th Harold is a skinny, awkward-looking guy who takes pride in his knowledge, resourcefulness, and "Mad Skills" in subjects like filming and beatboxing. He is frequently bullied by Duncan and is often underestimated by his teammates and competitors, as he's pulled through and won challenges for the Killer Bass a number of times despite nearly getting voted off at several elimination ceremonies. It's revealed later in the season that he's developed a large crush on Leshawna.
Heather Rachel Wilson Queen Bee 3rd Heather competes with her sights solely on the prize money and not on making friends, using others at her advantage and only being kind when she may ultimately be benefited. Early in the season, she forms an alliance with Beth and Lindsay and frequently forces the latter to place Heather's priorities above her own. Despite everyone's hatred towards her (particularly from Gwen and Leshawna), she manages to make it to the final three thanks to either performing strongly in the competition or manipulating others to get what she wants.
Izzy Katie Crown The Psycho Hose Beast 7th Izzy is seen as one of the show's craziest contestants. She is fun but hard to handle and to the other contestants, more trouble than she is worth. Izzy has extraordinary athletic and fighting abilities, and also sticks herself to the wild environment. Early in the season, she is forced to leave the competition after being chased out by the Royal Canadian Mountain Police, but Chris allows her to return after the teams merge into one. During the merge, she develops a strong crush on Owen.
Justin Adam Reid The Eye Candy 20th Justin is a supermodel of incredible beauty. He is so handsome that he can make everyone around, whether they are female, male, or animal, stop dead in his or her tracks at the mere sight of him. While Justin does speak in the first and last episodes of the season, he remains mute for the majority of the time, letting his looks speak for itself.
Katie Stephanie Anne Mills The Sweet Girl 19th Katie and Sadie are two best friends who do everything together. They are sensitive, cheerful, and boy-crazy and when they has grow attracted to someone, they will fawn over him endlessly. After Katie's elimination, Sadie struggles at first to compete without her, but adapts more as she continues. They are two out of three contestants from the original cast to only compete on Total Drama Island and not any of its follow-up seasons.
Leshawna Novie Edwards The Sister With 'Tude 5th Leshawna is loyal and sassy, yet also can be affectionate and caring. If shown respect, she will reciprocate it indefinitely. Leshawna tells it like it is, and has no fear whatsoever of calling people out on their mistakes. She forms a friendship with Gwen and a strong rivalry against Heather.
Lindsay Stephanie Anne Mills The Dumb Princess 9th Lindsay is described as being beautiful, but not vain. While Lindsay is one of the prettiest one on the show and is spoilt silly by her father, she is kind hearted and is able to make friends with almost everyone. However her lack of intelligence often leads to her downfall. She makes an alliance with Heather early on in the season and is often forced by her to do various tasks to benefit Heather more than herself. She also begins one of the show's first romances with Tyler.
Noah Carter Hayden The Schemer 21st Noah comes off as being sarcastic, cynical, and lazy to most. He is extremely intelligent, but finds physical activity as laughable as the ridiculous antics of some of his peers.
Owen Scott McCord The Party Guy Finalist Owen is a huggable, upbeat, fun-loving, friendly, passionate, and optimistic competitor, who is basically in Total Drama to have fun more than win the grand prize. Owen's three biggest loves are eating, having a good time and passing a large amount of gas. Among his peers, he is arguably the most popular contestant of all time for his cheerful ways, optimistic viewpoints no matter what the situation is, and ability to see the best in other people. Despite his obesity, he makes it to the finale with Gwen thanks to his popularity amongst the cast and surprising athletic abilities. He develops a crush on Izzy while they were walking through the woods in their horror movie survival challenge.
Sadie Lauren Lipson The Sweet Girl's Best Friend 15th Sadie and Katie are best friends who do everything together. They are sensitive, cheerful, and boy-crazy and when they has grow attracted to someone, they will fawn over him endlessly. After Katie's elimination, Sadie struggles at first to compete without her, but adapts more as she continues. They are two out of three contestants from the original cast to only compete on Total Drama Island and not any of its follow-up seasons.
Trent Scott McCord The Cool Guy 11th Trent is relaxed, nice guy who tends to get along with everyone with his social skills and ability to play the guitar. He is also shown as being a pain magnet, suffering a number of near-death experiences and mishaps during the season. He has a crush on Gwen and when the two try to get together, Heather tries to break them apart seeing their affection as a threat towards her alliance.
Tyler Peter Oldring The Jock 18th Tyler is a sports fan who loves anything physical. Unfortunately, he is extremely uncoordinated and dim, constantly putting himself and others at risk with his clumsiness. He and Lindsay become one of the show's first couples.

Episode finale variations

For every season, the show's producers create two alternate endings for the final episode, such that the winner seen in one country's broadcasts is the runner-up in other countries (and vice versa) where the show airs. Owen is the original winner in Canada, but he is also shown as the winner in Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, France, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Latin America, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Spain, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States.[citation needed] Gwen is the original runner-up in Canada, but she is also the winner in Finland, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Sweden.[citation needed]

Production

Total Drama Island was developed and produced by Fresh TV starting in 2006 with an early name for the series being Camp TV.[7] The season was animated at Elliott Animation and was directed by Todd Kauffman and Mark Thornton.[8] It is primarily targeted at eight-to-twelve-year-olds, and the creators, Tom McGillis and Jennifer Pertsch, studied what teenagers liked and disliked about reality television shows in the writing process.[9] McGillis says they used a "countrywide online research project" to determine this demographic's likes.[10] Fresh TV Inc. partners McGillis, Pertsch, Elliott and Irving produced the series.[11] The budget for the series was $8 million.[12] It was animated in Flash,[8] at Elliott Animation's studio in Toronto.[11] Every cast and crew member on Total Drama Island had to sign a confidentiality agreement not to disclose who the winner was.[13] All the characters were designed by Kauffman.[14] Voice actors from the FreshTV series 6teen have lent their voices for Total Drama Island: Christian Potenza, who played the character Jude on 6teen, played the role of host Chris McLean. Potenza said that the best part of the job was that his character could not be voted off the show.[15] Emilie-Claire Barlow plays a recurring role as Chrissy on 6teen and plays Courtney on Total Drama Island. Barlow stated that Courtney was her favorite character that she had ever played.[16] Other voice actors from 6teen include Julia Chantrey as Eva; Drew Nelson (Kai) as Duncan; Megan Fahlenbock (Jen) as Gwen; Adam Reid (Wayne) as Justin; Stephanie Anne Mills (Kirsten) as Lindsay and Katie; and Rachel Wilson (Melinda Wilson) as Heather.

Reception

Ratings

Carole Bonneau, the Vice President of programming of Teletoon Canada stated that Total Drama Island, along with Fresh TV's 6teen were "consistently top performers" for audiences of ages 6–11, and also helped to bring in older viewers as well.[17] When Total Drama Island aired on the American Cartoon Network, it performed very well; The Toronto Star reported that, "in some ages groups [Total Drama Island showed] a 500 per cent ratings increase in [its] time slot."[10] On December 11, 2008, Total Drama Island garnered 3.5 million viewers.[18] That year, the series was the top "regularly scheduled Thursday night program at 9 p.m. on all television throughout third quarter among boys 2-11, 6-11 and 9-14," according to the Animation World Network.[19] On Memorial Day weekend of 2009, a marathon of Total Drama Island increased viewership in age groups 2-11, 6-11, and 9-14, each by 20% or more compared to the same week in 2008.[20] As of 2011, Total Drama Island has aired in over 188 countries.[21]

Critical reaction

Total Drama Island has received critical acclaim. Common Sense Media gave the show 4 out of 5 stars, calling it a "[c]lever cartoon reality show spoof", even though it also describes it as too intense for young children to watch.[22] The series was nominated for a Gemini Award for "Best Animated Program or Series", shared by Tom McGillis, Jennifer Pertsch, George Elliott and Brian Irving.[23] Debi Enker of The Age gave a negative review of the season's last episode, calling the art, design and writing "lamentable."[24]

Public reaction

Total Drama Island received a score of 8.2 on Metacritic from users.[25]

Media

DVD releases

A DVD was released by Cartoon Network on August 18, 2009 in the United States. It contains all of the 27 episodes (including TDI Rundown) of season one of this series in a 4 disc set, for a total of 594 minutes long. In addition, its bonus features (entitled as X-tras) are the audition tapes of twenty two campers, as well as Izzy's second audition tape and her exclusive interview with Chris. In Australia, Total Drama Island is on Region 4 DVD as separate volumes. This series of discs contains the widescreen version with uncut scenes and original dialogue, as seen on Teletoon and ABC3. In reviewing the DVD for season, Matthew Price of The Oklahoman wrote that while the show started out "unbelievably slowly," the series became more interesting as campers began getting voted off. Price also praised the parody of reality shows.[26] In another review of the DVD, Jeffrey Kauffman of DVD Talk wrote that the character development was compelling and that the parody of reality shows were very funny.[27] Mac McEntire of DVD Verdict praised the character development as well, but noted that the show sometimes sinks to "lowbrow gross-outs".[28] Both Kauffman and McEntire recommended the series DVD.

Total Drama Island Interactive

Total Drama Island Interactive was an online game in Canada marketed in conjunction with the television series. It was produced by Xenophile Media. By registering a free account, the player could play games using a customizable avatar to earn points for marshmallows. Marshmallows are used as money in the game so the player can buy in-game items. The player who earned the most points had their avatar make a cameo appearance in the season finale.[29] The games were based on the challenges in the show.[30] Total Drama Island Interactive was nominated for an Interactive Emmy Award in 2007.[29] However, the website is currently no longer available, as it has been replaced by Total Drama Online and by the Teletoon official site.[31]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Sarah Gadon was credited as Sarah Gaddon in the closing credits.
  2. ^ Rochelle Wilson voiced Courtney in the first two episodes of the season, "Not So Happy Campers - Part 1" and "Not So Happy Campers - Part 2".

References

  1. ^ "Elliott Animation – Productions – Total Drama Island". Archived from the original on July 15, 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "Total Drama Island: GOPHERS vs. BASS". Archived from the original on January 8, 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ "Elliott Animation - Productions - Total Drama Island".
  4. ^ Aaron Sagers (September 1, 2009), "Pop 20: If Facebook were a dinner party", The Monitor {{citation}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  5. ^ "Elliott Animation – Productions – Total Drama Island".
  6. ^ "Total Drama Island". TV.com. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  7. ^ admin (March 27, 2006), "Neptoon's Promo Washes Ashore", Cold Hard Flash, retrieved December 25, 2010
  8. ^ a b admin (June 29, 2007), "Title Drama Island", Cold Hard Flash, retrieved December 25, 2010
  9. ^ Playback Staff (May 15, 2006), "Total Drama Island ribs reality TV", Playback, retrieved December 25, 2010
  10. ^ a b Raju Mudhar (January 11, 2009), "Canadian cartoon show sucking 'em all back in", The Toronto Star, retrieved December 25, 2010
  11. ^ a b Playback Staff (May 15, 2006), Total Drama Island: And So It Begins, retrieved December 25, 2010
  12. ^ Annalisa D'Aprile, "L'Isola di cartone che prende in giro i reality", Kata Web (in Italian), retrieved December 25, 2010
  13. ^ Teletoon (Jun 24, 2007), "From the creators of the award winning series 6teen, the number one show on Teletoon, comes a truly unique reality show for kids", Channel Canada, retrieved December 25, 2010
  14. ^ Total Drama Island: Final 4[dead link‍]
  15. ^ Krissie Rutherford (November 3, 2006), "Newest role is 'every guy's dream' – Gemini-nominated Oakville actor has written his own dream role", Oakville Beaver {{citation}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  16. ^ Asma Khaliq (March 1, 2007), "Up close with a familiar voice: From Sailor Mars to Timmy's ads, Emilie-Claire Barlow is someone you've definitely heard", The Toronto Star, retrieved December 25, 2010
  17. ^ "Teletoon orders new series for fall", Media in Canada, retrieved December 22, 2010
  18. ^ Gary Levin (December 18, 2008), "Nielsens: Dallas, 'Boston' score key ratings wins", USA Today, retrieved December 25, 2010
  19. ^ Annemarie Moody (October 2, 2008), "Ratings Highlights For Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, Nickelodeon", Animation World Network, retrieved December 26, 2010
  20. ^ Bill Gorman, "Cartoon Network's Total Drama Island Earns Double Digit Increases", TV by the Numbers, retrieved December 25, 2010
  21. ^ Stinson, Scott (13 October 2011). "Stinson: CanCon on the Croisette at Mipcom". The Globe and Mail. Toronto ON. Archived from the original on 14 October 2011. Retrieved 14 October 2011. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  22. ^ "Total Drama Island", Common Sense Media, retrieved December 22, 2010
  23. ^ "Fresh TV Inc. Celebrates Three Gemini Nominations for Top Rated Shows", www.channelcanada.com, ChannelCanada.com, 2008-08-27, retrieved 2009-03-21
  24. ^ Debi Enker (June 10, 2010), "Total Drama Island", The Age, p. 36 {{citation}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  25. ^ "Read User Reviews and Submit your own for Total Drama Island - Metacritic". Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  26. ^ Matthew Price (September 25, 2009), "DVD Reviews", The Oklahoman {{citation}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  27. ^ Jeffrey Kauffman (August 18, 2009), "Total Drama Island: The Complete Series", DVD Talk, retrieved December 25, 2010
  28. ^ Mac McEntire (August 19, 2009), "Total Drama Island: The Complete Series", DVD Verdict, retrieved December 26, 2010
  29. ^ a b "Xenophile Media and Fresh TV Receive International Interactive Emmy(R) Award Nomination for Total Drama Island – Totally Interactive!", Canada Newswire, March 6, 2008 {{citation}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  30. ^ "BellFund Annual Report: 2006" (PDF), BellFund, 2006, retrieved December 26, 2010
  31. ^ "ACCUEIL - teletoon.com". Retrieved 5 October 2014.
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