Trivia / Funpak

• Acting for Two:
  • Julie Lemieux voices Ledger Lad in the Harold Rosenbaum shorts and Zoe in the Rotting Hills shorts.
  • Tony Daniels is Maxum Brain in the Sidekick shorts and both The Manly Bee and The Narrator for The Manly Bee shorts.
  • Alex Nussbaum voices both Sherman Phelps in The 9th Life of Sherman Phelps shorts and Professor Pamplemoose in the Sidekick shorts.
  • Ron Rubin is Master XOX in the Sidekick shorts and The X of Evil in the Harold Rosenbaum shorts.
  • Stephanie Beard voices both Vana and Kitty in the Sidekick shorts (in contrast to the full TV series, where they are Stephanie Anne Mills and Denise Oliver respectively).
  • Shannon Perreault voices both Clark and his mother on Rotting Hills.
• The Cast Showoff: Emilie-Claire Barlow, an accomplished Jazz singer and voice of Grace in the Coolman shorts, gets to show off her musical abilities in the second short when performing in one of Lester's Imagine Spots as a singer in Coolman's Jazz band.
• Crossdressing Voices: Julie Lemieux as Ledger Lad in Harold Rosenbaum: Chartered Accountant Extreme, Shannon Perreault as Clark McWeeble in Rotting Hills, and Riccardo Durante as Mrs. Witcherson in Gruesomestein's Monsters.
• Descended Creator: For Gruesomestein's Monsters, co-creator Riccardo Durante voiced Mrs. Witcherson, the Wicked Witch in two of the shorts. Co-creator Mark Ackland also provided various voices in some of the other shorts as well.
• He Also Did: As mentioned on the main page, the creators of the various shorts have all done work on much larger projects in the animation industry, especially Canadian and Nelvana stuff.
  • Todd Kauffman and Mark Thornton, creators of The 9th Life of Sherman Phelps, are definitely the breakouts of the bunch. Asides from working with Joey So on Sidekick (both the Funpak shorts and the full series), Kauffman and Thornton went on to establish their own small studio called Neptoon Studios to create Grojband and Looped, while also becoming directors for shows like Total Drama, True and the Rainbow Kingdom, Corner Gas Animated, and Pikwik Pack.
  • Aside from working with Kauffman and Thornton on both the Sidekick shorts and the full show, Joey So has also worked on Little Bear (as a layout artist), Cyberchase (as a layout artist), Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends (as an animator), Handy Manny (as an animator and layout artist), and Fangbone! (as a director).
  • The creators of Coolman, husband-and-wife duo John Van Bruggen and Arna Selznick, are best known for directing Franklin and The Care Bears Movie, respectively. Van Bruggen also worked on George and Martha (as a director), Beetlejuice (as a director and layout supervisor), Care Bears (1980s) (as a storyboard director), Babar (as a layout artist), and Ewoks (as a layout artist), while Selznick has also done work on Mia and Me (as a storyboard artist), Clone High (as a storyboard artist), Eek! The Cat (as a storyboard artist), Inspector Gadget (as a storyboard supervisor), and Droids (as a storyboard supervisor).
  • Harold Rosenbaum creator Matt Ferguson would later go on to become a director for such series as Scaredy Squirrel, Dorg Van Dango, The Day My Butt Went Psycho!, Spliced, and Mysticons.
  • Steve Daye, creator of The Manly Bee, has also done work on Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! (as a director), Nature Cat (as a director), Blazing Dragons (as a design supervisor), The Magic School Bus (as a designer), Blaster's Universe (as a design supervisor), My Dad the Rock Star (as a storyboard artist), The Fairly OddParents! (as a storyboard artist), Jimmy Two-Shoes (as a storyboard artist), and Trailer Park Boys: The Animated Series (as a storyboard supervisor).
  • Martini & Meatballs creator Mike Csunyoscka's work in the Canadian animation industry includes The Raccoons (as an animator), Rupert (as an animation supervisor), The Dumb Bunnies (as a background and location artist), John Callahan's Quads! (as a design supervisor), Carl² (as a director), Moville Mysteries (as a director), and Corn & Peg (as an assistant director).
  • The creator of Miracle Koala, Mark Cappello, has credits that include Roboroach (as a layout supervisor), Seven Little Monsters (as a design supervisor), Timothy Goes to School (as a design supervisor), Busytown Mysteries (as a design and layout supervisor, as well as a character designer), and For Better or for Worse (as a production manager).
  • The creators of Gruesomestein's Monsters, Mark Ackland and Riccardo Durante, work at Disney Television Animation these days. Their names can be seen in the credits for such shows as Star vs. the Forces of Evil (as a writer and storyboard artist), Wander over Yonder (as a storyboard artist), and Kick Buttowski (as a storyboard artist), but they've also worked on Canadian shows like Yin Yang Yo! (as a director and storyboard artist), Bolts & Blip (as a director and writer), and Wayside (as a character designer and director).
  • Rotting Hills creator Glen Wyand has also worked on shows like Grossology (as an assistant director), 6teen (as an animator), The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! (as an animator), and Doki (as an animator).
  • Jean-Christian Knaff and Claude Micéli, creators of The Wild Wild Circus Company, are actually fine artists whose work can be seen at high art galleries. They make a lot of surreal sculptures and paintings; a quick Google search of either's names should net one examples of their work.
• No Export for You: While some of the shorts were featured at the Nicktoons Film Festival, the whole series has never seen any TV exposure outside of Canada, which likely accounts for its obscurity.
• Real-Life Relative: Harold Rosenbaum and Jenny Florence's voice actors Peter Keleghan and Leah Pinsent are married.
• What Could Have Been: Several other animators working for Nelvana at the time pitched ideas for shorts to feature on the project. For instance, Greg Collinson wrote the series bible for a series called Power Stone Warriors for Funpak, but Nelvana felt it was too big to work as a series of 5-minute shorts. However, they were still interested enough in Collinson's idea that they greenlit it anyway, and it eventually debuted on Teletoon in 2006 as Di-Gata Defenders.

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