Fred's Head (Blaise le Blasé, or Blaise the Jaded, in its original French) is a Franco-Canadian Adobe Flash-animated show created by Benoît Godbout and Malorie Nault-Cousineau. The show was made for Teletoon and France 2 by the Quebec-based Canadian animation studio Spectra Animation (Toopy and Binoo, Kid Paddle) and the French studio Galaxy 7 (with most of the production taking place in Canada).
The show follows Fred LeBlanc (Blaise LeBlanc in French), a cynical and apathetic 15-year-old Deadpan Snarker from Montreal who finds himself with serious reservations about adult life and its trials. Uncertain and unenthusiastic about life and his personal goals, Fred finds himself pulled in many different directions by the eccentric people around him as he navigates the tribulations of adolescence. Sometimes, he finds his best friends, Fabienne Ledger (Fabienne Lajoe in French) and Gregory Gilbert "GG" Pyrowski (Gaetan-Gilbert Pirowski in French), dragging him into weird adventures; other times, he finds his overly-doting parents driving him nuts with their sunshine-and-rainbows attitude to life; and still other times, he runs into the resident cheerleader and her jock boyfriend trying to teach him to see the bright side of life. But whether he's dealing with bumps in longtime friendships and getting gruelling summer jobs or trying to impress the girl of his dreams, Anette, and putting up with the school psychologist's obsession with him, Fred finds that everyday problems in his not-so-normal life can be as challenging as they are enlightening for a moody young man on the cusp of entering adulthood like him.
One of the very few Canadian cartoons to have been produced in French first for a Quebec-based audience before then being adapted for the Anglophone market, Fred's Head is also noteworthy for being one of the very few cartoons specifically aimed at teenagers rather than children or adults. As a result, it doesn't shy away from directly depicting certain issues specific to teenagers, such as alcohol or cheating, but never ventures Very Special Episode territory despite that. There is also some light cursing and a few allusions to sexual situations in the series, making it much more mature than many similarly teen-oriented cartoons or even kids' shows that have gained strong appeal with teens and young adults. While some of this can be pinned on what Canadian kids' TV deems acceptable compared to the US, Fred's Head still stands out in how one could be forgiven for mistaking it for an adult cartoon when compared to other Canadian cartoons made for the same demographic.
The show made its debut in October 2007 on the French-language version of Teletoon, arriving in Anglophone Canada a bit later in January 2008. The final episodes of the show aired in July 2008, concluding the series run at 26 episodes over a single season. Reruns of the series however continue to be a thing in Francophone Canadian television, and France has also received a complete DVD release of the series in its original French language.
A character sheet is in the works.
Tropes:
- A-Cup Angst: All the teenage girls, except Beatrice.Jody: "And a little more up here ..."
- All There in the Manual: The official website has some info thats not presented in the show, such as character last name.
- Amateur Film-Making Plot: One episode centers around GG and Fred's attempt to make a horror film to advertise Anette's art exhibition.
- Ambiguously Gay: Fabienne. Many, many jokes and comments are made about her not being attracted to men, and GG's brother refers to her as "never having a boyfriend," and that he'd know why when he's older. Her first kiss with Fred has her thinking they don't play on the same team.
- Ambiguous Gender: Panook, which is the subject of interest of almost every student at Saint-Judes. Getting a girlfriend hasn't helped.
- But Not Too White: Penelope is constantly tan.
- Bishie Sparkle: Whenever anyone sees a person or object he likes, complete with its own Leitmotif.
- Can't Hold His Liquor: One sip and Fred is plastered.
- Catchphrase: "Moldy" and "I think not" for Fred, "Shooty!" and "Fizz!" for Penelope.
- Cats Are Mean: The Beast. He enjoys attacking people who aren't in the family and knocking things over, for starters.
- Celibate Hero: GG, even though he's not the lead. He even dumped his perfect match because she wanted to fool around with him even though they weren`t married.
- Chick Magnet: Fred has a few girls attracted to him, including his secret crush.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Madame Butterfly. Due to being an old woman who suffers from Alchiezmer's.
- Cool Old Lady: Madame Butterfly when she was trying to protect Fred from Anemone Worrynaut when Anemone was trying to break in and enter into her apartment unannounced. "Get out Anemone! Or I will have the police arrest you for violating a Japanese household!"
- Curtains Match the Window: The Hart Trio. Slightly off-putting since they have orange, yellow and burgundy hair, respectively.
- Dancing Theme: The opening sequence has almost every character (save for Fred, Fabienne, and GG) doing a synchronized dance.
- Deadpan Snarker: Fred and Fabienne.
- Dirty Old Woman: Madam Butterfly has sex with her (dead) husband behind a park bush at least twice. Once during the day while people were there.
- Dumb Blonde: Penelope. Not even dying her hair brown helped.
- Erotic Dream: In One Red Hair Away From Love, Fred is woken up from an erotic dream by his mother. He covers his crotch and turns away from her, clearly embarrassed.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Tamara after Fred dumps her. It`s uncertain if she kept it since she wasn`t shown again after the makeover.
- Fiery Redhead: Fabiene. Subverted, as is a brunette that dyes her hair red.
- Fired Teacher: Attempted, as the sub wanted to get fired. It never happens.
- Flashback: Whenever Fanny appears, a few times with Fred, and the other reason why episode 25 exists.
- Foreshadowing: One Red Hair Away From Love features two notable ones: Fanny says that she left her old school because of harassment and Jody questioning Tamara if she has a crush on Fred, to which Tamara doesn't answer.
- Girl of the Week: Poor GG and his quest to find true love. He even sings a song about it at the end of the series.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Fred and GG. While they do have a somewhat strong bond (mostly on GG's part) to the point of questioning (enough to guarantee an entire episode revolving around Mistaken for Gay as mentioned below), they're still clearly interested in girls.
- Imagine Spot: Fred has several of these an episode. Hence, Fred's Head.
- I Want Grandkids: GG is a weird and extreme variant. While he does want to have as many kids as possible with whomever he shall marry (playing the trope straight albeit at a much earlier period), he also expected Fred to be in the same situation and tries his best to keep whatever relationship his best friend has to last for the sake of aforementioned grandchildren.
- Latex Perfection: Fanny is hinted to have become this when she lost all her hair and started wearing wigs. Since there isn't a second season, we don't know for sure.
- Left the Background Music On: In the finale.Fabienne: "What the heck are you doing? Turn that music down!"GG: "That's out of the question! This is just like in the movies!"
- Leitmotif: Whenever Anette shows up.
- Meaningful Name: In the French version, Soya's last name is Plante ("Green" in the English version), the principal's is Poisson ("fish"), and Jody's is Joliecœur ("Prettyheart").
- Miniature Senior Citizens: Madam Butterfly
- Nice Mean And In Between: Fred and his two best friends count as this.
- Nice: GG. He's cheerful, extroverted, and loyal, and has a passion for meat and his future marriages.
- Mean: Fabienne. She's a fan of scary and violent horror movies, and is the most short-tempered and aggressive.
- In-between: Fred. He's blasé, cynical, and sarcastic, but he is also a nice, perceptive and helpful friend.
- The Noseless: Fabienne, the Hart trio, Soya and Sophie. They're visible only from the side.
- Not That There's Anything Wrong with That: Some supporting characters, as well as Fred himself, use this to defend themselves in "Fred TV" after a reality TV show makes it appear Fred is gay. Despite his best efforts, it doesn't work for Fabienne, who is hurt by Fred's "intolerance" and stops being friends with him, though they make up by the end of the episode.
- Perpetual Frowner: Fred most of the time. One episode focuses on trying to get him to smile and show more emotion.
- Precision F-Strike: Everything but the f-word (and S-word) itself.
- Same Language Dub: Aside from the original Quebecois dub, a French dub also exists for the European market.
- Scatterbrained Senior: Fred's neighbor, Madame Butterfly, is this. She regularly enters his house mistaking it for her own and forgets her husband is dead.
- Shipper on Deck: GG for Fred and Anette
- Smug Snake: Jody. She'll even go as far as to bad talk her friends and spread rumors.
- Spell My Name With An S: Some fans spell Jody with an I and Yohan with a J.
- Those Two Guys: Yohan and Manny, who are Jerk Asses
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The school psychologist is a short blue-skinned woman with a huge forehead. and the science teacher is an armless man who has a small pink monkey that helps him. No one mentions or notices this.
- Where da White Women At?: Inverted, it's Penelope who obsesses over her boyfriend. Benji just goes along with it to make her happy. This doesn`t stop Benji from eyeballing a cute blonde near the end of the series.
- Yandere: Fanny, so much.
- GG, when it came to getting a pet that would love him unconditionally. He gets two love birds and purposely releases the other one just so he can force the one he has to love only him.
