''My Life Me'' ( French: ''Trois et moi'') is a short-running animated television series created by JC Little, Cindy Filipenko and

Svetlana Chmakova Svetlana Chmakova (russian: Светлана Шмакова) (b. October 7, 1979) is a Russian-Canadian comic book artist. She is best known for '' Dramacon'', an original English-language (OEL) manga spanning three volumes and published in Nor ...

, co-directed by Mr. Niko. The teen slice-of-life comedy follows Birch Small, a manga and

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

fan with aspirations of being a comic artist, as she tries to survive junior high school. The show features manga symbols such as sweatdrops, speech bubbles, and

super-deformed Chibi, also known as super deformation, or S.D. is a style of caricature originating in Japan, and common in anime and manga where characters are drawn in an exaggerated way, typically small and chubby with stubby limbs, oversized heads, and m ...

chibi characters. The series first aired on the French-language

Télétoon Télétoon (styled as TĒLĒTOON) is a Canadian French language specialty channel owned by Teletoon Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of Corus Entertainment. Its name is a portmanteau of " télévision" and "cartoon". As of 2013, along with its Englis ...

on September 19, 2010. It was shown on the English-language channel

Teletoon Teletoon (stylized as TELETOON) is a Canadian English-language specialty channel owned by Teletoon Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of Corus Entertainment. Its name is a portmanteau of "television" and "cartoon". The channel primarily broadcasts an ...

from September 5, 2011 to September 30, 2011.Alt URL
/ref> It received generally negative reviews for its art-style, writing, humor and weak characterizations, and was cancelled after its first and only season. The series is available on

Peacock Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera '' Pavo'' and '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female peafowl are r ...

and

The Roku Channel The Roku Channel is an American over-the-top video streaming service owned and operated by Roku, Inc., which launched in September 2017. History In September 2017, Roku, Inc. launched a free, ad-supported streaming channel for its digital med ...

Production

''My Life Me'' received a development deal in 2006 from

. The series was a co-production between

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

and French companies. The episodes were animated using ToonBoom Harmony, and the animation was split episodically between Toutenkartoon in

Montreal, Quebec, Canada Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...

, and Caribara in Angoulême, France. Backgrounds were created in

Maya Maya may refer to: Civilizations * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (Ethiopia), a popul ...

, then

cel-shaded Cel shading or toon shading is a type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make 3-D computer graphics appear to be flat by using less shading color instead of a shade gradient or tints and shades. A cel shader is often used to mimic th ...

, rendered and imported into Harmony. The animators did a hybrid of digital and hand drawn to help the fluidity in the animation. Animated digitally, manga aesthetics were given homage "using various comic book manga codes and language such as stylish black and white comic book panels dropping behind the characters to express their suppressed feelings on screen." Even before production began My Life Me was planned to be "developed as a lifestyle brand, there will be a licensing and merchandising program to support the brand with a strong emphasis on publishing, accessories, gifts, stationery, apparel as well as a strong online component with a fully interactive website currently in production." The planned delivery of the series, shorts, and website was fall 2009. ''My Life Me'' was "at the top of German co-production group

TV-Loonland AG TV-Loonland AG was a German branding and management company that specialized in the production of children's programmes. The company's offices were located in Europe (Paris, Munich and London). The company's mascot is a sheep on the blue dome. H ...

's offering in the 2009 autumn TV markets". In early 2010, TV-Loonland filed for bankruptcy/insolvency and its assets were sold off. My Life Me, at the time still in production, was one of such properties. The series was acquired by

Classic Media Classic Media, LLC, doing business as DreamWorks Classics, is an American entertainment company owned by DreamWorks Animation, which is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures and a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was founded as Classic Media ...

in February. Classic Media took control of all media iterations of the property including the planned "heavily interactive" website. "Other than the television series, fifty-two eleven-minute episodes, the property is reported to include music video clips and more for mobile, online, and video on-demand distribution."

Premise

Birch Small's school system requires her and her classmates, Liam, Sandra, and Raffi to work together in a group known around the school as a "Pod." The students don't get to choose who they are partnered up with; they must work together, despite their differences and shortcomings.

Characters

* Birch Small (; Voiced by Claudia-Laurie Corbeil in the French version, and Sara Camacho in the English version): A young talented artist and manga fan. Birch is 13 years old. Birch has a crush on Raffi as hinted in a number of episodes, and is shown to be very familiar with almost anything involving art, including various historical artist names. Although Raffi only considers Birch as a friend, and never sees her as a love interest, Birch's crush on him and her constantly trying to impress him has her often doing absurd things, such as becoming vegetarian simply because Raffi was conflicted with her love of fast foods and meaty foods. She is also heavily interested with Japanese manga and is usually seen drawing these comics in said style. * Liam Coll (Voiced by Nicolas Charbonneaux-Collombet in the French version, and Mark Hauser in the English version): 13-year-old cousin of Birch. Very little is known about Liam other than he's very close to Birch as he's often seen in Birch's house for one reason or another, usually looking for a good time. His goofy personality often causes problems, even getting himself into a "duel" with another kid in school unintentionally; however, his personal skills and specialties have their uses and can come out to help and often come out to help his "pod" in tight situations. He loves music, is easily jealous of Raffi over his popularity. Liam also expresses a rather continuous problem of being unable to "find himself" as that he can't find one thing he wants to be or one thing to fully define himself as he will often express a different hobby or interest in different episode. It's expressed that he's been doing this since grade 6. Like Birch, Liam is heavily into manga, and contributes the plot and writing to Birch's illustrations. * Sandra le Blanc (Voiced by Émilie Bibeau in the French version, and Stéfanie Buxton in the English version): A 13-year-old skateboarding fan and highly athletic girl who likes to take things to the extreme, such as getting volunteers to do a skateboard jump over. She has a rather devious and somewhat sadistic personality, as she often will do things to earn the discomfort and embarrassment of others for her own entertainment, and often would go so far as to try to get others including members of her "pod" to get angry at each other again for her own entertainment. She constantly denies of her "geek phase" that she had before, instead constantly bashing her own pod's geeky moments. * Raffi Rodriguez (Voiced by Émile Mailhiot in the French version, and Justin Bradley in the English version): Love interest of Birch. Often considered the coolest guy in school, he often gets chosen for events and fund-raisers, much to the jealousy of other males such as Liam. He is 13 years old and, often concerned about his looks and often expresses that as his only concern at times. He's shown to care for Birch considerably, although he does not show any romantic feelings for her whatsoever. One of the ways the official website has described him as, "would drive anyone crazy if he wasn't so darn nice".

Episodes

Teletoon original airdates follow the episode titles in parentheses: #Misconcepted Deceptions () #Reach for the Pod () #Big Man on Canvas () #The Pencil Assassin () #The Makeover () #The Pom-Pom Girl () #Unreasonable Facsimiles () #Planets Maligned () #The Big Flap () #Finding Neko () #The Raffi Raffle () #Crushed () #Friday the 13th () #Bossman's Blues () #Birch's Beef () #A Fine Balance () #Liam the Hero () #True Colors () #Love Lessons () #Miss President () #Bad Company () #Manga Slam () #They're Watching Us () #The Mascot () #Holiday Hijinx () #Rope Burn () #There's No Business... () #Growing Pains () #Comic Chaos () #Working Stiff () #Star-Struck () #The Big Switch () #A Bed for Raffi () #Back to the Stone Age () #The Costume Party () #Integrity Insmegrity () #Making a Mountain of a Molehill () #Here's Liam () #The Diary () #Raffi's Secret Love () #Skate Club () #Pinged and Ponged () #Love is in the Air () #Cyranette () #Liam and the Kid's Big Day Out () #Cut Out the Sarkasm () #Family Tree () #Just Say Nooo () #At Odds with the Pad () #Accept No Substitutes () #Fish Fiasco () #Birch's Trial ()

Nominations

It was nominated for a Kidscreen Award 2010. The MyLifeME.com website was nominated for Best Kids Interactive for the Canada New Media Awards in 2010. My Life Me was nominated for two Gemini Awards in 2011; in Internet and New Media, Best Website for a Program or Series: Youth and in Television, Best Animation Program or Series.Les prix Gémeaux 2011 : les finalistes (catégories Émissions)
. Radio-Canada.ca. Retrieved on 2011-07-02.

References

External links

* {{Teletoon 2010s Canadian animated television series 2010s Canadian high school television series 2011 Canadian television series debuts 2011 Canadian television series endings Canadian children's animated comedy television series 2010s French animated television series 2011 French television series debuts 2011 French television series endings French children's animated comedy television series Anime-influenced Western animated television series Teletoon original programming English-language television shows French-language television shows Teen animated television series