Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi Pilot Promo
The promo of the pilot.
The unaired pilot of Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi is exactly as the title implies; it was the pilot for the show but never aired.
When Sam Register decided to pitch an idea of Puffy AmiYumi having their own TV series, Renegade Animation made a test pilot in 2003 that was (unfortunately) only sent to Cartoon Network in hopes of them to greenlit that said idea. Numerous differences include Ami and Yumi looking different than their final cartoon counterparts, having different voice actresses and having slightly different personalities, Kaz being absent, Ami in some shots having ponytails instead of buns, Yumi sometimes having sunglasses on her hair in some shots and the animation being jerky at times.
The only footage of the pilot is the promo (which can also be watched on this article)[1] found by Tumblr user retal4, which can be found in some Teen Titans DVDs and VHS tapes. There's also screenshots of the promo as well, also found by Tumblr user retal4.[2]
According to puffycrew[3] (Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi's (now down) development blog) in the post "Some early stuff" by Scott O. Brien, from the second June 2006 archive of it in the Wayback Machine, the show was originally going to be about Puffy AmiYumi moving out from Japan to unintentionally discover the weirdness of America.
According to an interview with Scott, the pilot was animated in hand drawn animation instead of flash back when Renegade Animation was still in it's infancy, with him storyboarding the pilot with Mike Giriamo, whom art directed the pilot as well as creating the incidental character designs with Ami and Yumi's designs done by Shakeh Hagnazarian, Nate Pacheco did the effects and composition and with Darrell Van Citters directing the pilot. Other information about the pilot revealed was that the change in animation to Flash and the designs were altered was for to make it more "Flash-friendly" and actual Japanese woman voiced Ami and Yumi. Another scrapped idea for the series was to have Ami and Yumi constantly wear different clothes that bear a resemblance to early 2000s Japanese FRUits fashion, which was removed due to being too cost productive.[4]
There were also concepts with Ami and Yumi being in different costumes in the pilot's art style. These were possibly later used or re-used in the third episode's third segment.
The full pilot has been uploaded on Vimeo by Lincar Rox, receiving it from series' director Darrell van Citters at request.[5]
Characters
Main characters
- Ami
- Yumi
Other characters
- Fans
- Male taxi driver
- Massively big football players
- Blonde-haired man
- Dinosaur (which later reappeared in the 5th episode segment "In the Cards")
- Robot (which later reappeared in the 5th episode segment "In the Cards")
Full Episode
Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi - Episode Pilot (Full Episode)
Gallery
