Three Delivery (also known as Chop Suey Trio[1]) is an animated television series inspired by kung-fu movies. It was created by Larry Schwarz, who also created similar series, Kappa Mikey and Speed Racer: The Next Generation. It is a collaboration between Animation Collective in Manhattan, New York and the now-defunct Fatkat in Miramichi, New Brunswick as their last project. The show premiered on Nicktoons in the United States, and YTV in Canada on June 27, 2008. An episode of Three Delivery was first shown at the New York Comic Con 2008, on April 19, 2008. The show was broadcast on CBBC in the UK beginning on February 21, 2009 and on Once TV in Mexico.
Years ago, an evil young apprentice named Kong Li unleashed the power of a magical cookbook, scattering its dangerous recipes throughout Chinatown. Thanks to an ancient spell, a force field was placed around the city, keeping the magic in. For many years, the rest of the world was protected, but now Kong Li has returned to find the powerful recipes. If he succeeds, their evil power will be released and the world will be in grave danger. Luckily, three teenage heroes, skilled in kung-fu, have been trained to stop him. When orphans Sue, Sid and Tobey were recruited by Nana to make deliveries for Wu's Garden Chinese restaurant, they saw it as a way to move out of the orphanage and have a chance to ride cool bikes. Little did they know then, that they would be locked in a battle against evil for the fate of the world. On top of everyday teenage problems, the heroes must track down every last magic recipe – and shut down Kong Li for good.
— Three Delivery Official Website, Defunct
Animation Collective partnered with FatKat to guarantee more fluid, traditional-style 2D animation not usually found in Flash shows. The backgrounds are also painted in Flash. Schwarz was drawn to the premise, saying that he used to live near Manhattan's Chinatown himself and that this show would reflect some of his personal experiences.[2] Art director and former director Alan Foreman designed the visual style of the show, which he compares to a living graphic novel. He also performs the vocals for the theme song and contributes to the score, with his New York-based, indie-rock band Ten Minute Turns.[3]
Promotion for the show began with the studio making 11 two-minute original adventures for mobile phones in 2007, which also gave the studio an exercise in working with the new characters in preparation for the series. Three of them first aired on May 2, 2008 on Nicktoons Network during the premiere of Speed Racer: The Next Generation during commercials. Some of the clips are named "A Silver Tongue is fine, but Silence is Golden", "Two Heads Are Not Always Better than One", and "Out of Sight? You're Out of your Mind!", after each of the fortune cookie fortunes that appear at the beginning of every short. The last eight were to be broadcast in 2009.
Season one began on June 27, 2008 on Nicktoons Network and ended on June 28, 2009.
Episode 1 garnered 571,063 viewers. Episode 2 garnered 593,000 viewers. By episode 3, it garnered over 1.5 million viewers.[citation needed] Three Delivery then became #2. It then dropped to #3 on Nicktoons Network ratings due to Avatar: The Last Airbender hitting #2 above Three Delivery. But it has garnered over 4.7 million viewers and has stayed at the top.
ANNÉE DE PRODUCTION : 2008