30 September 1990 (1990-09-30)– 21 June 1992 (1992-06-21)
The Fruitties (Spanish: Los Fruittis) is a Spanish-French animated television series produced by D'Ocon Film Productions in collaboration with Tele Images Productions in 1989, created by Antoni D'Ocón and written by Josep Viciana. It originally aired on the Spanish television channel TVE. Originally, 91 episodes were created – each 25 minutes long – but the series was often repackaged as 52 episodes.
The series was dubbed into many languages and, in 1991, an English-language version of the show made its debut on British television.
A 3D computer graphics reboot of the Fruitties was announced in 2019.
Story
The show features the adventures of anthropomorphic talking fruit, vegetables and various other plants who live in and around a forest island near a volcano. One day, the supposedly extinct volcano the Fruitties live around shows signs of erupting, thus forcing the Fruitties to send three explorers, the show's main characters Roly, Pak, and Thorny, to find them a new home.
Characters
Roly: a pineapple with a southern Spanish accent. He tends to brag and get the entire team in trouble. However, he is shown to be resourceful when he needs to be. He is also known as Gazpacho in the Spanish version.
Pak: a knowledgeable banana who carries a backpack which contains an array of handy survival equipment for the team. He tends to bicker with Roly, due to Roly's laziness and bragging nature, yet he admires his sense of humor and his resourcefulness. He also has a rivalry with Monkus, the mad scientist monkey, who, unlike Pak, uses his scientific skills for evil. He is also known as Mochillo in the Spanish version.
Thorny: a dim-witted cactus, speaking with a southern US accent. His prickly body saves the group from dangerous creatures on many occasions, although it is a pain in the neck to Roly. He is also known as Pincho in the Spanish version.
Kumba: the only female and human in the group. She joins Roly, Pak and Thorny to guide them around the world. She sports a bikini made of leaves. In some episodes, she tries to meet her parents and older brother, Luke.
Mayor Strawberry: a strawberry who's the mayor of the Fruitties' village. He is very strict and no-nonsense, caring and reasonable.
Monkus: the main antagonist of the series and the Fruitties' arch-nemesis. He is a mad scientistmonkey who seeks to conquer the world and impose his own rules. Unfortunately for him, his plans are always thwarted by the Fruitties. He is also known as Monus in the Spanish version.
Bruce: a gorilla who's Monkus' henchman. He tries to help him to conquer the world. He is also known as Gluttonus in the Spanish version.
Boss: a wild boar who speaks with a Bronx-style accent and is determined to capture and eat the Fruitties but always ends up failing.
Brute: a wild boar who helps Boss to capture and eat the Fruitties even though he always fails. He is also known as Issac or Barry in some episodes.
Thistle: a mischievous thistle who loves to pull pranks on the others.
Artichoke the Pirate (or Pirate Artichoko): an artichoke pirate who was an enemy of the main characters at first, but later befriended them.
Songs
The show is fondly remembered for its songs featured during both its opening and closing credits sequences.[citation needed]
In late 2014, a downloadable CD was released on iTunes. Though it does not include all the major instrumental tracks used in the show, such as Monkus's theme, it does contain all the major vocal tracks from the series and they are issued in two languages, both Spanish and English. The following URL hosts the CD: