They came up with a short named 'Banjo Frenzy', which featured a dinosaur (an earlier version of Lumpy) killing three woodland animals, a squirrel, a rabbit, and a beaver (earlier versions of Giggles, Cuddles, and Toothy) with a banjo. In 1999, Mondo gave Aubrey Ankrum, Rhode Montijo, and Kenn Navarro a chance to do a short for them. Rhode hung the drawing up in his workstation so other people could see his idea, and eventually, the idea was pitched to and accepted by the Mondo Media executives. He then drew a yellow rabbit that bore some resemblance to Cuddles, writing 'Resistance is futile' underneath it on a spreadsheet poster. While working with Mondo Media, Rhode Montijo drew a character on a piece of scrap paper who would later become Shifty. Debuting on December 24, 1999, Happy Tree Friends has achieved a cult following on Mondo's website and YouTube channel and expanded into a multimedia franchise, which includes the television series of the same name. Disguised as a kids' cartoon, the show follows the misadventures of anthropomorphic forest animals, whose initially peaceful lives always end with sudden, usually accidental, graphically violent incidents. Happy Tree Friends (commonly abbreviated as HTF) is an American adult animated web series created by Aubrey Ankrum, Rhode Montijo, and Kenn Navarro, and developed by Montijo, Navarro, and Warren Graff for Mondo Media.
