The Caterpillar Friends

The Caterpillar Friends is an American-French animated Television series created by Lillian Rainbow in 1996. The show revolves around four teenage caterpillars named Green, Pink, Gothworm and Cherry. and their misadventures in Insect City and their school, Arthropod high.

The show's origin was a childhood drawing of Mrs.Rainbow of four Caterpillars with Backpacks. She submitted the show to the Toon Hour in 1992 when she was 16. Making her the youngest creator for Gingo. The series was picked up by DIC Entertainment and premiered on Gingo on February 29, 1996 and currently has 15 seasons. With a 11th season being announced by WildBrain. The show also has three movies and an upcoming preschool-oriented spin-off set to premiere on March 29, 2021. Reruns of the show also aired on ABC Kids from 2003 to 2007.

Starting in season 15, the series became animated with CGI. In addition to that, all of the previous 14 seasons will also be converted to CGI every year. Oddly enough, the CGI remakes are set to be available to LandonToei All Access. The CGI is animated over at Splash Entertainment. Making it the first season that Universal Animation Studios isn't involved.

Premise
In a world where Insects are like mankind, there live four teenage caterpillars. Who's ages are between 13 and 17. Sometimes they can confront issues at their school, Arthropod High but (most of the time) they solve their problems.

In season 3, in preparation for the movie, Insect city begun to expand. Adding an assortment of various locations inducing a mountain!

Protagonists

 * Green - A 16 year old. He seems to be very interested in reading and sports. He's also apart of the Arthropod high sports team. He has a fear of heights.
 * Pink - A 17-year old. She seems to be fashion-savvy and often has a crush on boys (including Green). Her trademark Pink Ponytail causes her to stand out.
 * Gothworm - A 14-year old. She is a goth and a nerd simultaneously. She often stays up at night to make her more powerful. However, in season 8 (and only that season), she basically turned into a living toilet.
 * Cherry - A 13-year old. She is a tomboy and just like Green, she's huge in sports. She also likes westerns.

Antagonists

 * Killer Bee - A ninja who likes to hunt the main charterers down.
 * Shiropillar - A 16-year old Worm who thinks he's perfect and often attacks Pink when she says he's wrong.
 * Kuropink - Pink's evil twin sister and appears to be the direct opposite of her.
 * Sqiushy - Pink's cousin. He is a bratty and somewhat evil toddler who often gets away with is actions.

Side Characters

 * Momorio - Green's Niece. She is around squishy's age and appears to be rather calm and nice. But she has strong outbursts.
 * The Arthropod - Cherry's next door neighbor. He is an elderly spider who loves to be mad at the youth.

Reception
Seasons 1-6 as well as seasons 9-11 all gained positive reception. Critics and fans praised the animation and plots. Season 7 and 12-present gained mixed reception. Things could not be said the same way for Season 8. As that season gained notably poor reception and fans often consider that season to be one of the worst seasons from all of Gingo. Fans nickname Seasons 1 to 6 the classic era, 7 and 8 the dark era, 9 to 14 the renaissance era and season 15 the CGI era. Though despite the negative reception season 8 had, critics considered Season 15 worst as well as one of, if not, THE worst show to ever air on Gingo. Many blamed Playhouse for demanding it to appeal to the 2-7 group.

Seasonal Rot
After Lillian Rainbow and most of the writers left the show due to DIC Entertainment's merger with Cookie Jar, the show experienced changes. Season 7's also the season where Cookie Jar made changes to the show. One major change was they were attempting to pander to a younger demographic that the first 6 seasons weren't. Especially considering the fact that they were making it to compete against johnny Test (and later, Fanboy and Chumhum).

Legacy
After the first movie, it became a cultural icon and even rivaled against Gabriel Gazra to be the King of Gingo. Shortly after it's crossover with Madeline, Green's fear of heights later became an meme in 2005, making it one of the first memes. While not as well-recived as the other seasons, season 7 has been a notable target to the YouTube Poop community. As was season 8 due to the season's excessive toilet humor. Season 15's poor reception also spawned "anti-playhouse" humor. A type of humor originated from Playhouse's ads saying how much better they are compared to MeTV, Red Princess, Gingo, and Smile. Following the ad, Weigel Broadcasting removed all Landon networks from their stations replacing it with a Sinclar network (typically TBD).

"Magic Words" Controversy
A controversy surrounding the episode “Magic Words” Appeared shortly after the Salor Mouth controversy when the PTC thought that the so-called magical words (portrayed by various insect sounds) were swear words. DIC Entertainment later issued an apology to the PTC.

Blue Shadow Entertainment hostile takeover
In 2007 during late season 6, Blue Shadow Entertainment attempted a hostile takeover of DIC Entertainment. During this hostile takeover, the company pulled off of DIC's shows from ABC Kids. When the takeover almost became a success, DIC Entertainment fired back with a lawsuit. Leading to Blue Shadow Entertainment's bankrupt.