LEFT TO RIGHT: Theo, Lena, Ben, Nina, and their Guga.
Nutri Ventures, also known as "Nutri Ventures: The Quest for The 7 Kingdoms", is a 2D animated Portugal Edutainment Show written and produced by Nutri Ventures Corporation S.A in 2012. The show has been exported and aired episodes to many other countries, such Spain's Disney Channel and the US on the video-on-demand channel Kabillion, Hulu, and on the company's Youtube channel at no charge.
Nutri Ventures focuses on a city where all foods have been wiped out by a businessman named Alex Grand. In turn, he creates a substitute to foods called "Genex 100". Consumers only have to eat one box of it once a day in order to survive, and it's claimed to be good for them. However, during a field trip to the Genex 100 factory, two young children named Theo and Lena snoop around the factory and come across a loaf of bread left in the Mooks' cafeteria table.
Ignorant of what bread is, Theo and Lena try it out to find that it gives them an unusual burst of energy, allowing them to perform at a human's peak. Later, Theo finds out that there are more varieties of food out there, that his scientist grandfather is one of the legendary Guardians of the Food Groups, and that he's The Chosen One who will bring the seven food groups together and restore his city's access to foods and foil Alex Grand. Theo and his friends, Lena and Ben, along with his little sister Nina and their pet Guga, have to embark on a quest to fulfill his prophecy.
The first 11 episodes can be founded on their YouTube channel
and on Hulu, you can find that in addition to 18 more, comprising 3 Seasons total, along with a few songsnote . This show can also be viewed on Kabillion and Toonova.
Now has a Characters page in desperate need of contribution.
Nutri Ventures provide examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Fritz Jr. of fried foods to Red Kingdom's Princess Genevieve. And he gets worse over time.
- The Alleged Racer: Theo and Lena end up with one in Season 2 Episode 3; among other things, the peddles are rusty and there seems to be a hole in the bottom.
- Artistic License – Biology: Even assuming that Genex 100 has enough substance to imitate food enough to enable human survival, there's a minimal chance for bodies as healthy as Theo, Lena and Nina's since overeating, especially a single type of food, would logically make most of the population look like Ben. Similarly, all of the kingdoms except maybe Orange (fruit) and Green (vegetables) should have more health issues than they do since all of them are missing key nutrients due to a lack of communications.
- Bad Boss: Alex Grand, naturally. He constantly screams at the G-Squads for being idiots, seems to delight in deliberately triggering Nose's phobias and beats up his scientists for not being able to do things instantly.
- Big Bad: Alex Grand is the Big Bad of the series proper, but each arc has a chance of introducing its own Big Bad during for throughout its duration.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- In the final episode of Season 1, not only does Theo's grandfather sabotage the ray so it's running in reverse to make people hate and destroy Genex 100, but he also saves the kids and Sid.
- Lena saves Theo from a sumo wrestler by shooting the latter with her bow and arrow and then knocking down the stadium's roof so she and Nina can use it as cover.
- Big Good: Nexus is the major one, with each Guardian serving as one for their individual kingdoms.
- Blatant Lies: Alex Grand has the population convinced that Genex 100 is healthy for them, and that if they had normal food, they'd have to eat thousands of foods 30 times a day.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: The dragon from the Red Kingdom arc; Alex's magical stone controls it.
- Brainwashing for the Greater Good: Sid wanted to use the Candyman's hypnosis ray to make people eat healthy foods. It didn't work out.
- Butt-Monkey: Nose, Alex Grand's second-hand lackey with near Woobie-levels of childhood traumas, including a crippling fear of milk.
- The Chief's Daughter: Genevieve is the daughter of Guardian Red, the leader of the Red Kingdom.
- Circling Birdies: Episode 3 has Nina seeing stars after landing in a trash can.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each Guardian and their associated kingdom have a specific color representing them. The Gugas even match their owners' colors.
- White: Dairy.
- Red: Meat and eggs.
- Blue: Fish and seafood.
- Brown: Legumes.
- Yellow: Grains.
- Green: Vegetables.
- Orange: Fruits.
- While Purple doesn't have a kingdom, it does seem to be associated with mission control as Guardian Purple is the kids' mentor and guide and he does happen to have a Guga to match him.
- Cool Teacher: Guardian Orange serves as one at her fruit magic school, in addition to running her kingdom.
- Cowardly Lion: Red Guga.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Theo vs. the Sumo Wrestler in the Kingdom of Fats. He only makes it out because of Lena's sharp-shooting.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The Black Knight turns out to be our heroes' best ally in the Red Kingdom.
- Deal with the Devil: Guardian Red makes a deal with Alex Grand: hand over the kids in exchange for protection from a wild dragon that's threatening the Red Kingdom. He was technically already in one where he and his knights were giving Alex meat, salt and oil but Alex decided to change the rules.
- Dead-Hand Shot: Murdock's death is shown as this, complete with an apple he was going to eat dropping out of his grip.
- Does Not Like Spam: Despite being willing to eat anything else you put in front of them, Gugas are wary of sugary foods and have to coaxed into eating them.
- Dumb Muscle: The G-Squads, Alex's henchmen who are biologically engineered to lack any intelligence whatsoever.
- Early-Bird Cameo: All the Gugas appear on the credits from the first episode, even though Weee is the only to appear in said episode.
- "Eureka!" Moment:
- When Sid informs Theo's grandfather that the effects of the Candyman's ray can't be reversed once it's turned on, he realizes that while this may be true, that doesn't mean he can't make the machine run in reverse.
- On the villainous side, Alex realizes that he can use the catapults to get his G Squads inside the Red Kingdom when one of them gets his hands stuck under a rock and sent flying over the wall. Doesn't work as well as he hoped, but points for trying.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Inverted with the Fat King's pet pig who senses that Ben's a fake, but this is definitely not a good thing.
- Evil Is Hammy and Fat Bastard: Applied to Alex Grand.
- Exact Words:
- The effects of the Candyman's ray once Alex gets his hands on it can't be reversed. That doesn't mean you can't make the machine run in reverse.
- Used as a quick joke with the Black Knight. Theo claims that he doesn't trust guys who hide behind masks. The Knight takes off the helmet and upon revealing herself as Genevieve, quips "What about girls?"
- Expository Theme Tune: The theme song outlines the backstory and main premise of the show.
- Food Porn: While the tastiness of the food isn't dwelt on as much as normal for this trope, any food that shows up that isn't Genex 100 always is treated as incredibly delicious and desirable, even putting aside its Power-Up Food status.
- Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: In the Red Kingdom, Theo immediately takes to swordplay while Lena arms herself with a bow and arrows.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: The Nutri-Ventures team runs into this issue in the Kingdom of Fats due to Alex's meddling.
- I Ate WHAT?!: Since Theo is completely unfamiliar with any food save for Genex 100, when he is given a banana, he bites into it as is, assuming that's what he's supposed to do and is disgusted with the taste as well as annoyed that Sid didn't tell him to peel it before he bit into it.
- It's All About Me: Alex Grand's primary motivation is to promote himself regardless of what happens to anyone else.
- It's All My Fault: Sid feels this way about Alex getting his hands on the Candyman's ray and being in a position to use it on the whole world.
- Mascot Mook: The Gugas. They are everywhere on this show, including the end credits. Though there's very little merchandise for the series in general, they are pretty much the show's equivalent of the Minions.
- Meaningful Rename:
- The place where the characters live used to be called Nutri Land but was renamed Grand Land when Alex took over.
- The Kingdom of Fat is renamed the Kingdom of Fit after Nina introduces their king to healthy eating and exercise.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Sid deeply regrets enabling Alex to get his hands on Candyman's ray.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Theo's prank in Episode 5 not only gets Lena sick, (though that does prove useful) but it gets the group under surveillance by Alex Grand, which leads to him discovering the Sugar Kingdom.
- Sid's refusal to destroy the Candyman's hypnosis ray (as he wanted to use it to hypnotize people into eating healthy food) leads to Alex capturing him and the ray and the other heroes getting trapped. Plus, his fruit potion puts Alex in a position of the ray being useful to him.
- Obviously Evil: Broken Canoe’s adviser is named Curling Snake of all things; one would think being named after one of the biggest dangers in the desert would be a red flag that something is fishy with the guy but nope; he has his tribe's complete trust.
- Paper-Thin Disguise:
- Nose's disguise as a jester in the Red Kingdom.
- The hoods Theo and Lena wear for the race in Season 2's third episode are even worse as their fairly distinctive bangs show through and they don't even cover their faces or their clothes.
- Power-Up Food: Kinda a cornerstone of the show. Each food group has its own set of powers.
- Grains give you energy, enabling swift movement and agile maneuvering.
- Milk protects your bones (and presumably teeth), healing them if broken or otherwise damaged.
- Fruits have different powers depending on which fruit it is, with memory boosts, energy and even immunity to sugar's hypnotizing allure being just some of the possible effects.
- Meat and eggs boost the force your muscles can put out.
- Fish and seafood boost your intelligence.
- Legumes give you an overall boost.
- Vegetables help with recovery, essentially acting as healing potions.
- For the Gugas, any food, even ones that can't give humans powers such as sugar, will have some kind of empowering effect on them; unfortunately, this is always random.
- Potty Failure: Unintentionally weaponized when, in a desperate escape attempt, our heroes feed Guardian Orange's Guga Ben's candy medal. The resulting urine melts the iron floor.
- Reverse the Polarity: Theo's grandfather does this on the hypnosis ray by turning the switch that makes it run in reverse so that the ray makes people hate the food fueling it, in this case, Genex 100, instead of love it.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something:
- The Guardians function as rulers of their kingdoms and are expected to have a hands-on approach to running them.
- Genevieve, daughter of Guardian Red and therefore technically the princess of the Red Kingdom, actively assists the Nutri-Ventures team when her father is forced to betray them.
- Sadistic Choice: Guardian Red is forced into one: betray the kids and in turn, his mission or allow his kingdom to be destroyed.
- Samus Is a Girl: The Black Knight of the Red Kingdom turns out to be Princess Genevieve.
- Ship Tease: A tiny bit between Lena & Sid and Theo & Genevieve, though neither go anywhere in the long run. There's also a little between Theo and Lena, which likewise doesn't go anywhere.
- Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: Fruit magic works in specific ways based on which fruits are being used and what ingredients they're interacting with, much like chemistry.
- Sugar Bowl: Appears in any episode where the kids travel to a kingdom where its civilians only eat sugary sweets. In fact, this could count as a literal sugar bowl, minus the bowl part.
- Subverted with the Sugar Kingdom, which looks like this when you're brainwashed but is really a sea of disgusting slime.
- Team Pet: Weee, Guardian Purple's and Theo's Guga, acts as this for the team.
- Title Drop: Happens in the second episode.Lena: Hey! I think I found a name for our group.Guardian Purple: What?Lena: Nutri-Ventures!
- Treacherous Adviser: Broken Canoe and Guardian Brown both have one in respectively Curling Snake and Betty Beans; they both want to keep up the split in the Brown Kingdom, which they deliberately caused in the first place, long enough to cause a war, which they plan to use to run off with a treasure together
- Unholy Matrimony: While not actually married, Curling Snake and Betty Beans clearly have romantic feelings for each other and are certainly despicable villains, only caring about being rich together once the war they plan to set off is over.
- Unusual Euphemism: Guardian Orange uses a variety of phrases based on fruits or fruit dishes as exclamations.
- Villains Want Mercy: Fritz Jr., moments after being ready to slit Theo's throat, begs not to be hurt when Theo turns the tables; Theo disgustedly calls him a coward.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Until Alex is defeated and food is restored, the Nutri Venture team must flee Grand Land and take shelter elsewhere in the aftermath of Alex's attempt to use the Candyman's brainwashing device on the populace. Ultimately subverted as they're able to return.
