After several years of successful repeats of the original series, on October 21, 2006 Televisa launched in Mexico and the rest of Latin America an animated version of the program by Ánima Estudios to capitalise on the original series' popularity. With the series, Televisa began a marketing campaign which included merchandise tie-ins. For the series' launch event, a set was built (imitating the computerised background) on which the animation was said. Many elements of the original series, including most of the original stories, were included in the animated series.
El Chavo Animado also aired in English via Kabillion's on-demand service in the USA. Although it was part of the video-on-demand service, the series did not appear on the Kabillion website until the site's April 2012 relaunch. The series is currently airing on BitMe and Distrito Comedia as of 2020, and from 2016–2017, and again from 2022–2024, it aired on Galavisión alongside El Chapulín Colorado Animado.
Premise
Background
The cartoon depicts the children to scale, compared to the live-action series where the children were played by adults. This was not the first attempt to animate the show's characters; claymation sequences were created for the original-series credits during the late 1970s, and 2D animations were used for the credits of Chespirito (the program which succeeded El Chavo and its sister series, El Chapulín Colorado).
Synopsis
Based on the series El Chavo del Ocho, the cartoon is the adventures of El Chavo, a poor boy, and his gang, who live in a village in Mexico (the Brazilian dubbing, however, moved the village's location to Brazil and in Kabillion's dub, to New York City). In the first season, all episodes of the series are remakes of episodes from the original series. With the absence of La Chilindrina, Ñoño, Popis and Quico (in school episodes) replace her role in most episodes. From the second season, the cartoon began to have episodes with original stories.
El Chavo Animado features all the characters of the original series, with the exception of La Chilindrina due to ownership disputes. The series stars El Chavo, a poor boy, along with his gang, which consists of Quico, the exhibitionist and protected son of Doña Florinda, and Ñoño, a fat boy which is Señor Barriga's son.
Dave Mallow as Mr. Beliarge, Manny the Mailman, Mr. Crookley
English dub
The series was dubbed into English and aired on Kabillion's video-on-demand service, with some changes. The theme song and most of the character names were changed, but the original theme song can be heard during the credits of nearly every episode. Spanish cuisine was Americanised, and the setting changed from Mexico to New York City. Episode titles were changed to idiomatic English, although 2 seasons were only aired in the USA.
US names
Chavo, Gloria and Quico are the only characters whose names have never been Americanised or changed. Although Paty's name sounds the same, the US version adds another "t" to the name.
Don Ramón – Mr. Raymond
Doña Florinda – Mrs. Worthmore
Profesor Jirafales – Professor Girafalde
Doña Cleotilde, La bruja del 71 – Miss Pinster, The Witch of 71
Señor Barriga – Mr. Beliarge
Jaimito el cartero – Manny the Mailman
La Popis – Phoebe
Ñoño – Junior
Godínez – Gordon
Paty – Patty
El Chapulín Colorado – Captain Hopper
Señor Hurtado – Mr. Crookley
Serafina – Stephanie
El Justiciero Enmascarado – The Secret Masked Crusader
This was the last English-dubbed season. Only the first 6 episodes of this season were dubbed, and they have never been released publicly or aired on Kabillion.[3]
Original title
English title
Portuguese title
"Visita al zoológico"
"Visit to the Zoo"
"Visita ao zoológico"
"Todo por un pastel"
"All For a Cake"
"Tudo por um bolo"
"El partido de fútbol"
"Soccer Match"
"A partida de futebol"
"Como de película"
"Like the Movie"
"Como num filme"
"El Chavo y el lobo"
"Chavo and the Wolf"
"Chaves e o lobo"
"Una de vaqueros"
"A Cowboy's Story"
"No Velho Oeste"
"Aguas con las ranas"
"Watch Out For the Frogs"
"Cuidado com as rãs"
"Teatro en la vecindad"
"Theater in the Neighborhood"
"Teatro na vila"
"2 mosqueteras y el Chavo"
"2 Musketeers and Chavo"
"2 mosqueteiras e o Chaves"
"Un día de suerte"
"A Lucky Day"
"Um dia de sorte"
"La feria"
"Let's Go To the Fair"
"O parque de diversões"
"El valor de la amistad"
"Friendship Vale"
"O valor da amizade"
"¡Aquí espantan!"
"Here's a Scare!"
"A noite dos espantos"
"Caido del cielo"
"Out of the Blue"
"Caído do céu"
"Un festival de ambiente"
"An Ambient Festival"
"O festival do meio ambiente"
"Un día en la tele"
"A Day on TV"
"Um dia na televisão"
"Un buen recado"
"A Good Message"
"Um bom recado"
"El repartidor de pizzas"
"Mr. Raymond's Pizza Delivery"
"O Entregador de Pizza"
"El ataque de los insectos"
"Attack of the Insects"
"O Ataque dos Insetos"
"Los niños pintores"
"Painter Children"
"Pintando o Sete"
"Visita al museo"
"Visit to the Museum"
"Visita ao Museu"
"No te vayas, Ñoño"
"Don't go away, Junior"
"Não se vá, Nhonho"
"Invierno en la vecindad"
"Snow in the Neighborhood"
"Inverno na vizinhança"
"La casa del árbol"
"Tree House"
"A Casa na Árvore"
"La máquina del tiempo I"
"Time Machine 1"
"A Máquina do Tempo - Parte 1"
"La máquina del tiempo II"
"Time Machine 2"
"A Máquina do Tempo Parte 2"
Season 4 (2010–2011)
The episode "La vecindad en venta" ("Neighboorhood on Sale") was dubbed, but it was never released.[4]
El Chavo Animado also aired in English via Kabillion's on-demand service in the USA. Although it was part of the video-on-demand service, the series did not appear on the Kabillion website until the site's April 2012 relaunch. The series is currently airing on BitMe and Distrito Comedia as of 2020.
Spin-offs and merchandise
Televisa released six episodes of El Chavo in Mexico in 2007. The same collection was released by Universal Video Entertainment in Brazil in 2008 as Chaves em Desenho Animado. Quico, La Popis (Phoebe), Don Ramón (Mr. Raymond), Doña Florinda (Mrs. Worthmore) and Profesor Jirafales (Professor Girafalde) dolls were marketed in Mexico in 2004.
Video games
A video game based on the series was developed by Kaxan Media Group and released in Mexico on April 27, 2012 for the Wii by Slang Publishing and Televisa Home Entertainment. La Vecindad de El Chavo (a Facebooksocial-network game) was released in March 2012[5] by Playful Play, a game development company in Monterrey, Mexico. By October 3, 2012, the game had three million registered players.[6] It closed on August 4, 2014. In 2014, El Chavo Kart was released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Android.[7] However, the Android version has since been delisted from the Google Play Store. In 2014, another game was released exclusively on Android, titled El Chavo: A Carnival in the Apartments.[8] It was developed by Blue River SA. In this game, a carnival is taking place in the housing complex, and we can play minigames to win tickets to get powerups. The game was able to be played in Spanish, English (using the names from the Kabillion dub), and Brazilian Portuguese. However, the game has since been delisted from the Google Play Store.
First presented in Los Angeles, then at MIPCOM in Cannes, a new CG-animated series adaptation of El Chavo del Ocho is in development. It will be produced by THR3 Media Group. It will feature the return of La Chilindrina, a character absent in the previous animated series.[10][11]
References
^ ab"El Chavo". Slate.com. 4 November 2005. Retrieved 2008-09-07.
^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. pp. 44–45. ISBN9781476672939.
