Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island

Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island
"Yay, me! No, not yay you, f*ck you!" — Mr. Enter
Genre: Comedy Running Time: 21 minutes (whole) 10 minutes (segments) Country: United States Canada Release Date: September 17, 2005 – May 27, 2006 Network(s): Kids' WB Created by: Sammy Oriti Don Oriolo Distributed by: Warner Bros. Television Distribution Starring: Rob Paulsen Michael Donovan Eric Bauza Tracey Moore (first two episodes) Britt McKillip (rest of series) Brian Drummond David Kaye Seasons: 2 Episodes: 13 (25 segments)

Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island (or simply Coconut Fred) is an American-Canadian animated comedy television series that aired on Kids' WB in the United States, from September 17, 2005 (the same day in which Johnny Test debuted) to May 27, 2006 (the same day in which The Buzz on Maggie ended). The show was produced by Warner Bros. Animation. Due to low ratings, the show only lasted two seasons and eight months, making it short-lived. Reruns were aired from 2006 to 2007.

Plot

The show takes place on an island inhabited exclusively by fruit. The residents enjoy their tropical paradise without a care in the world, but they must share their peaceful utopia with the joyfully strange Coconut Fred, a whimsical, blissfully foolish coconut with the special ability to materialize anything he thinks about. The plot revolves around the adventures of Fred and his friends, as his boundless imagination springs to life while his friends struggle to cover up the collateral.

Why It's A Rotten Fruit Salad Island

1. The main criticism is that this show is a massive rip-off of SpongeBob SquarePants. Examples:
   • Coconut Fred is a rip-off of the show's title character SpongeBob SquarePants; even his name sounds similar to SpongeBob's first name.
   • Slip & Slide D'Peel are both redneck ripoffs of Patrick Star.
   • Wedgie is a lazy clone of Squidward Tentacles.
   • Mr. Mel Greenrind is a lazy rip-off of Mr. Krabs and also Squidward due to his Butt-Monkey status.
2. Horrible voice acting, particularly with Rob Paulsen as the titular character.
   • He even regretted working on the show and voicing Fred and mentioned on his podcast that Fred was one of his least favorite characters to voice, alongside Bubsy, due to him claiming Coconut Fred to be nothing more than a shameless SpongeBob SquarePants knockoff.
3. Mediocre flash animation that tries too hard to copy the SpongeBob SquarePants art style but fails.
4. Stupid and terrible character designs, as they only consist of all of the stock images with fruit and nothing else.
5. Awful and stupid writing with terrible pacing, like the infamous "Master of Disaster" episode (although it was from the first episode).
6. The main character, Coconut Fred, is annoying, rarely ever shutting his mouth, and overly happy in even the worst situations. He is also rather sadistic, as he practically tortures everyone that lives on the island but never gets punished for his actions, making him a Karma Houdini.
7. A lot of the characters can be unlikeable, with some exceptions, like Bingo Cherry.
8. Below-average jokes that all consist of nothing but poor slapstick, fruit puns, gross-out, and toilet humor.
9. To add salt to the wound, the show is nothing but an official attempt to cash in on the aforementioned show.
   • Granted, there have been multiple "clones" of SpongeBob SquarePants produced since this show such as Camp Lazlo (which isn't a bad show but does have its flaws), Scaredy Squirrel, Fanboy & Chum-Chum, Sanjay and Craig, and Breadwinners for example, but these "SpongeBob clones" at least got some unique elements that make them stand out as their own thing, unlike this show though, since everything in this show is way too similar to that of SpongeBob SquarePants.
10. Insufferable soundtrack, even in the theme song and end credits.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Some likable characters, such as Bingo Cherry.
2. The concept of sentient fruits that live on an island is kind of creative but executed poorly, particularly due to its status as a SpongeBob SquarePants knockoff.
3. Some episodes are good or okay like
   • "Amuse-Otel" (it even has a good ending)
   • "No News is Good News" (which started the show on an okay note)
   • "Sir Nutalot"
4. Despite how annoying and cringy the theme song is, it can be catchy to some.
5. Bunga Berry is quite original and the only character to not based on any SpongeBob character.

Reception

The series has been panned for its often loud, over-the-top humor and for being a shameful rip-off of SpongeBob SquarePants. Joly Herman of Common Sense Media posted a review of Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island on Go.com. The review describes the show as "the TV equivalent of sugary cereal, and nothing more", and proceeded to give the show two stars out of five. The show currently has a 2.5/10 on IMDb, making it the third lowest-rated Warner Bros. Animation show on that site, behind ThunderCats Roar, Little Ellen and Velma. Only 25% of Google users said they liked this show.

Rob Paulsen, who voiced the main character, Coconut Fred, stated that he does not like to remember voicing the character and that it was nothing more than a shameless SpongeBob SquarePants knockoff.

Due to the poor feedback that the show received, the originally 13-episode first season was cut short to nine episodes, and the show went on a 5-month hiatus. The final four episodes were branded as Season Two, and the extremely short second season aired throughout May 2006, after which the series was canceled for good.

Trivia

• Editor's Note: Uh, not to be a party-pooper, but Don Oriolo also worked on the notorious and hilariously awful Felix the Cat Film.
• Ray DeLaurentis and Will Schifrin (who wrote episodes in this show) later work on another show, "Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!".

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