Talking Tom & Friends (previously named Talking Tom and Friends until early 2021) is an Slovenian animated television YouTube web series by Outfit7 Limited (Created by Samo Login and Iza Login), based on the media franchise of the same name. The show was produced by the Austrian animation-studio 'arx anima' during the first three seasons. In season 4 onwards it is produced by Stefan Fjeldmark's animation studio People Moving Pixels. It was released on YouTube on 30 April 2015 and its pilot episode on 23 December 2014. Turner Broadcasting System Europe have acquired the UK television rights to Talking Tom and Friends, and the show premiered on Boomerang UK on September 5, 2016, and on POP UK in April 2018. The second season aired on 15 June 2017 and the third season aired on 10 May 2018.
Premise[]
This series follows Talking Tom and his friends everyday lives. Tom and his nerdy business partner, Ben, who constantly develops mobile apps and other inventions to reach fame and fortune and try to show off to the world, but it always backfires. His feisty girlfriend, Angela, tries to be a singing star, no matter what she does to achieve it. His cheeky neighbour, Ginger, pops by extremely frequently to mess around with mischief up his sleeve. His goofy best friend and roommate, Hank, is a couch potato who watches TV a lot and is a super fan of his favorite TV show: Bongo and McGillicuddy. And the formerly diss-driven popstar singer Becca Sparkles has become Angela's new roommate and her best friend and also seemingly has a crush on Hank. However, lurking in the shadows is trouble in all shapes and sizes, whether it's the evil CEO, the evil mad scientists Mel and Flo, Tom's mysterious new neighbour Roy the Rakoon, or just a mishap in Ben's newest creation, the gang will have fun no matter what, and always remember the one thing that keeps them together: friendship never ends!
Characters[]
Main[]
- Tom (voiced by Colin Hanks), a gray tabby cat. He develops apps with Ben and prefers to be on the business side of things. Hanks describes Talking Tom as mischievous, charismatic, energetic and tries to make things; the leader of his gang who likes to have fun.
- Ben (voiced by James Adomian), a brown dog and Tom's best friend. He likes to invent things and work on apps, focusing on its technical aspects such as computer programming. Adomian describes Talking Ben as the brains of the group, very serious yet freaks out a lot.
- Angela (voiced by Lisa Schwartz), a white cat who is Tom's girlfriend. She aspires to be a singer. Schwartz describes her as "super fun and girly", and sometimes shy, other times outgoing. This was Schwartz's first major voice role, and she got to sing a lot.
- Ginger (voiced by Maria Bamford) a young orange-and-white cat and Tom's neighbour. In season one, he said he is from the second richest family in the town. Bamford likes it when the voice cast is all in the room together for recording.
- Hank (voiced by Tom Kenny), a white dog with a blue spot around his left eye and blue paws. He is Tom's roommate and enjoys television sitcoms, often making references to them as they apply to their lives. He falls love with Becca. Kenny describes Hank as his sweet spot of doing nice and stupid characters.
- Becca Sparkles (voiced by Maria Bamford), a new girl in town who makes a diss track about Angela called "Little Miss Perfect". She was a sassy teenager who was rude to Angela until she found out the truth about why she got "dissed". She falls love with Hank.
Recurring[]
Characters who have recurred across different stories:
- Roy Rakoon (voiced by Tom Kenny), Tom's new mysterious neighbor, he portrays himself as a friendly and kind citizen and he is adored by the whole town. But in the end, he is revealed to be a burglar who stole valuable items in the town and is trying to murder all of the citizens who attended the Fun Glasses launch party.
- Talking Santa (voiced by Tom Kenny), he was the first human character in the Talking Friends and TT&F franchise. He later on returns in the reboot show.
- Jeremy (voiced by Josh Fadem in seasons 1-3 and Tom Kenny in seasons 4-present), A germ that Ben enlarges. Although appearing to be cute and sociable, he desires to make everyone sick. In Season 3, Jeremy moves into the garage due to a deal he made with Tom, and has been living there ever since. He appears as a main character in seasons 4-5.
- Dr. Internet Doctor (voiced by Brian Stack), a medical doctor who runs his practice through web cams. He sometimes works other related professions such as being an online therapist. He uses pop-up ads to lure viewers into buying his online medical course.
- Carl (voiced by Brian Stack), an executive that Tom and his friends occasionally interact with. His given name is CEO. He thinks CEO stands for "Chief Everything Officer". Starting in the second season, he has a larger role as a rival intent on finding ways to steal Tom and Ben's inventions or to shut down their business.
- Landlord (voiced by Dave Willis), who rents out his garage to Tom, Ben, and Hank. He dislikes excessive noise and when the gang try to adjust the thermostat, but lets them know when he has to repair or maintain something. He is a former ping pong champion and also enjoys social media. Hank shows deference around him, using formal language whenever he appears.
- Maurice Claremont (voiced by James Adomian), who wears a helmet showing a pixelated display of a face and wears a jersey. He hosts several of the local music events and contests. In "The Sixth Friend", he reveals his name is Maurice Claremont.
- Rhonda (voiced by Lisa Schwartz, formerly voiced by Dannah Phirman), is a waitress at the nearby diner called Jerry's.
- Darren (voiced by George Back) a rich kid that was introduced as a rival to Ginger at a tennis tournament. He is later revealed to be the nephew of the CEO.
- Xenon (voiced by Robin Reed), a nerdy girl from the Grape Geek store who becomes Ben's love interest. She and Ben regularly chat using webcams, and she goes on dates with Ben using a computer tablet. In Season 4 she works for the Agency.
- Mel (voiced by Tom Kenny) and Flo (voiced by Maria Bamford), science nerd members of S.M.A.R.T.I.E.S. Mel has white hair and round black-framed glasses. Flo also has short white hair and round glasses. Both typically wear white lab coats.
- Velma Vanthrax (voiced by Laraine Newman), Ginger's school teacher. She used to teach Tom and Ben. She enjoys thinking up punishments for the kids and having scary masks. In a later episode, she and the Landlord fall in love.
- Ronnie Bergstedt (voiced by James Adomian) , a scout classmate of Ginger. He has brown curly hair and large round glasses. He is an expert at the SquareStack video game.
Retired[]
This is a list of characters who don't appear anymore in the episodes of TT&F.
- Talking Baby Hippo (voiced by ?), a lilac hippo who was in the Talking Friends franchise before his app's demise.
- Talking Harry the Hedgehog (voiced by ?), a grey hedgehog who likes to be a savage and loves peace. He was the first controversial character since he was deemed to be "racist" due to having a Rising Sun flag on his headband in his old app.
- Talking Larry (voiced by ?), a white bird who liked to sing. He had a cameo in the Talking Angela app and in a Chinese-like Talking Tom video alongside Talking Gina.
- Talking Rex (voiced by dinosaur sound effects), a black dinosaur who was the first retired character.
- Talking Pierre (voiced by ?), a green parrot whose app is not removed yet. He was deemed to be retired up until he returned in Talking Ginger Story Time.
- Talking Roby (voiced by ?), a yellow (sometimes white) robot who likes to fight and dance. He also likes loud noises
- Talking John (voiced by ?), A germ who likes to cause trouble. He was possibly the inspiration for Jeremy.
- Talking Gina the Giraffe (voiced by ?), a giraffe who has multiple children. She was lazy to be in Talking Friends so she appeared as a squeak toy instead. She returned as a cameo in a Chinese-like video of Talking Tom alongside Talking Larry.
- Talking Lila (voiced by ?), a basic fairy girl who was in one of Outfit7's drawings and became an app.
Cast[]
Main[]
- Colin Hanks
- James Adomian
- Lisa Schwartz
- Tom Kenny
- Maria Bamford
Recurring[]
- Brian Stack
- Dave Willis
- Robin Reed
- George Back
- Laraine Newman
Guest Stars[]
- Dannah Feinglass Phirman
- Carlos Alazraqui
- Josh Fadem
- Suzi Barret
- Matt Gourley
- Brandon Johnson
- Greg Manwaring
- Brian Huskey
- Traci Stumpf
- Paul F. Tompkins
- Andy Kindler
Reception[]
- Talking Tom and Friends won Best Animated Series at the 2016 Cablefax Awards. This announcement lead to the show being green lit for a 2nd season which premiered on June 15, 2017.
Trivia[]
- Early on in the series, Talking Tom & Friends existed as a reality show within the fictional series. This is shown via the series' numerous fourth wall breaks including the times when the characters would speak to the camera in a room (usually in the bathroom), and was even acknowledged by Tom and the gang in the pilot. The sequence was entirely cut in the middle of Season 3, with fourth wall breaks becoming much rarer.
- The channel has already been made before the show was aired in the channel. Since back then the franchise was called "Talking Friends"
- Most characters in the show were mostly voiced by the main cast only.
- Season 6 of the Talking Tom and Friends series was not started in development due to one of the writers saying that they never even started writing the 6th season scripts.