Havin' A Ball

Havin' a Ball
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Season	1
Date	February 4, 2000 March 7, 2008 (YouTube) March 25, 2009 (Atom) July 10, 2013 (YouTube, HD)
Production number	105
Writer(s)	Mark Fiorenza Warren Graff Rhode Montijo Kenn Navarro
Director(s)	Rhode Montijo
Starring	Pop Cub
Appearance(s)	Lumpy
Previous	Crazy Ant-ics
Next	Water You Wading For

"Havin' a Ball", is the fith episode of Season 1 of Happy Tree Friends. This episode is the first to introduce Pop and Cub.

Synopsis

Happy Tree Friends website (pre-Atom):
It's bear-bonding time for Pop and Cub as a father makes a leap of faith for his son! (full description)
It's bear-bonding time for "Pop and Cub." (shorter description)

Happy Tree Friends website (Giggles Episode Guide): A friendly game of catch goes horribly wrong for this father and son bear. Pop tries to impress Cub with his ball handling skills, but disaster ensues and a rescue chopper goes down. So sad that even the simple things go so wrong in Happy Tree Friends Land!

Happy Tree Friends website (latest) and YouTube: It’s bonding time for Pop and Cub!

Plot

Pop and Cub are playing with a ball but it ends up bouncing off Cub's head and into a street. Pop crosses the road, getting hit by cars in the process. He weakly picks up the ball and walks forward, only to fall off a cliff and into the blades of a medical helicopter carrying Lumpy in a gurney, shredding Pop to pieces. Cub manages to climb down with a rope but is suddenly crushed by Lumpy's gurney. Lumpy sees danger before him and tries to escape, but he is then crushed by the helicopter with the ball bouncing past. The ball falls back down, then Cub's hat falls on top of it.

Moral

"Eat your veggies!"

Fates

Deaths

• Pop is shredded to pieces by the rotors of a medical helicopter.
• Cub is crushed by Lumpy's gurney.
• Lumpy is crushed by a medical helicopter.

Injuries

• Pop is hit by several cars when crossing a street.
• Lumpy has an unspecified injury enough to go to the hospital for.

Survival rate

• Amount of surviving main characters: 0
• Amount of dead main characters: 3
• Total rate: 0%

Destruction

• Several cars crash after Pop crosses the street.
• Pop's robe is shredded by a helicopter.
• A helicopter crashes.
• The gurney is destroyed after the helicopter lands on it.

Quick shot moment

When Lumpy tries to escape from the falling helicopter, there is a brief shot of Pop falling down the cliff just before he gets shredded by the helicopter. Oddly, the background is completely purple.

Animation errors

• When Mondo uploaded the Classics Remastered version of this episode, they accidentally spelt "Friends" wrong on the video title. Instead, it is spelt as "Firends".
• Cub is almost as tall as Pop when they are playing with the ball.
• The safety pin on Cub's diaper changes position throughout the episode.
• Initially, there is no cliff on the other side of the highway. It only appears when Pop walks off it after retrieving the ball.
• When Pop falls off the cliff the steering wheel embedded in his arm falls away, but for a frame when during the close-up of Pop falling, it is back in his arm before disappearing again.
• When Pop is sliced by the helicopter's blades, Lumpy and the gurney are about as big as the helicopter.
• One SWF release of this short is missing details like the sky and the cliff, though the cliff inexplicably appears when the helicopter crushes Lumpy.
• When Cub retrieves his ball after Pop's death, some blood is splattered on the ball. However, when the ball gets flung in the air after the helicopter crashes, the blood on the ball is not there anymore until it lands.
• When Cub gets crushed by the gurney, his remains are as big as Pop's remains.
• After the ball hits Cub in the head, his pupils become inverted.

Staff

Main article: List of Havin' a Ball staff

Rhode Montijo and Aubrey Ankrum created the episode while John Evershed was the executive producer. Rhode Montijo's name is not listed under Voices, even though Lumpy's voice can be heard.

Altered and deleted scenes

There are a few differences between the episode's storyboard and the final product.

• Scene 6-7 and 9-10: Pop and Cub's placements were different. They were swapped around in the episode proper.

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• Scene 12: The helicopter did not appear earlier in the storyboard.

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• Scene 14-16: Pop's injuries were different. He got a license plate lodged in his head and the steering wheel was stuck on the left side of his body. In the episode proper, the license plate is absent and the steering wheel is on his right arm instead. The animation after Pop crossed the street played out differently too. Originally, the impact would show Pop from behind before changing the viewpoint to show the front. Pop would also first get up and then pick up the ball instead of the other way around as in the episode proper.

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• Scene 26: In the storyboard, the ball would fall to the right of the helicopter when Pop ends up shredded. In the episode proper, the ball remains at the center above the helicopter.

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• Scene 34: The ball falling back down and then "adorned" with Cub's hat is not part of the storyboard.

Unrendered graphics

There are graphics placed outside the rendering area in the episode's SWF file.

• The "Hang in there, kids!" loading screen has the intro graphics placed outside the rendering area to allow them to be loaded before the the show's intro begins proper.
• The intro sequence has episode graphics placed, some animated, outside the rendering area. Presumably, they are loaded throughout the intro first to optimize loading times due to bandwidth limitations at the time.
• Some scenes in the episode itself have certain graphics placed outside the rendering area, presumably to aid in animating.
  • Frame 415 has Pop's two arms on the left side of the pasteboard.
  • Frames 429-499 have a single eye with a pupil on the upper right corner outside the pasteboard. It is also moved upwards to follow Pop getting up.
  • Frames 513-518 have a posed Pop graphic placed on the left side of the pasteboard. A larger version of this graphic without legs is also placed on the left side of the pasteboard in frames 519-532.
  • Frames 519-522 have a single cloud place on the right side of the pasteboard.
  • Frame 556 has a graphic of Cub equipped with climbing gear placed on the left side of the pasteboard.
  • Frame 557 has a graphic of Cub climbing down the rope placed on the left side of the pasteboard.
  • Frame 558 has graphics of Cub and Pop holding a ball each, placed on the left side of the pasteboard.

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  Frames 52-71 have the intro and credits graphics outside the pasteboard.

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  Frames 104-128 have the background elements, a blue leaf, two flowers, three paper textures, shapes for Pop, Cub, and Lumpy, and two cliffs.

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  Frames 244-280 have blood splatters, Pop's shapes, a piece of Pop/Cub, the climbing gear, two balls, trees, a skid mark, helicopter's shapes, the gurney, trucks' shapes, two steering wheels, and the closing iris.

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  Frame 415 has Pop's two arms.

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  Frames 429-499 have a single eye with a pupil.

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  A posed Pop graphic placed outside the pasteboard during the scenes where Pop is falling.

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  A terrified Pop graphic placed outside the pasteboard in a single frame when Pop is being shredded by helicopter blades.

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  A posed Cub with climbing gear placed outside the pasteboard in a single frame during the scene where Pop's remains fall on the ground below the cliff.

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  Cub climbing down the rope, placed outside the pasteboard in a single frame during the scene where Pop's remains fall on the ground below the cliff.

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  Cub and Pop holding a ball each, placed outside the pasteboard in a single frame during the scene where Pop's remains fall on the ground below the cliff.

Gallery

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  Thumbnail from the official Happy Tree Friends website. (pre-Atom)

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  Smaller version of the thumbnail from the official Happy Tree Friends website (pre-Atom)

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  Screenshot from the official website's Giggles Episode Guide

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  Screenshot from the official website's Giggles Episode Guide

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  Screenshot from the official website's Giggles Episode Guide

External links

• The episode on Mondo Media's website
• The episode on YouTube
• Remastered version on YouTube