Western Animation: Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends aka: Fosters Homefor Imaginary Friends
Foster's Home for imaginary Friends was a animated television series, running from August 2004 to may 2009. A total of 79 episodes in six seasons. The premise is based on a simple question. In a world where imaginary friends are living, tangible beings, what happens to those friends when the kids grow up?According to Cartoon Network and Craig McCracken, they come to Foster's, of course! A home for imaginary friends whose kids have outgrown them, Foster's is a place where friends can live together until they are adopted by a child who needs them. The show follows Mac, a shy and creative 8 year old boy, whose imaginary friend Bloo is thrown out of Mac's home and forced to come live at Foster's. Mac doesn't want Bloo to be adopted by another kid, so it's agreed that Bloo will not be put up for adoption, provided that Mac come and play with him every day. Bloo's egotistical, mischievous nature is the complete opposite of Mac's, and together the two cause all manner of chaos throughout the house.The show averts Not So Imaginary Friend in that everyone can see and hear the friends, not just their creators. Since almost all of the characters are imaginary friends dreamed up by children, the show's cast consists of an array of impossible creatures, sometimes bordering on the surreal. There's strong characterization throughout, however, even as the highly comedic plots tend to rely on Bloo causing ever-escalating mayhem. Is known to have loads of Parental Bonuses as well.Over the course of the series, two Made For TV Movies have been released: Good Wilt Hunting in 2006, and Destination Imagination in 2008. Both of them are noticably Darker and Edgier than the series itself.
This show provides examples of:
Absentee Actor: Mac doesn't appear in "Pranks for Nothing", even in the beginning. The events right at the beginning took place right after he left, or he was sick and couldn't come to Foster's anyway. It also could have been before he even came, considering that Mr. Herriman said the trip would be 7 hours long.
Bloo: Hey, Mr. Herriman! How long till we get there?
Mr. Herriman: 7 hours.
Accent Adaptation: Hispanic imaginary friend Eduardo has an American accent in the Spanish dub.
Art Evolution: While relatively minor, there are some color/appearance differences in the earliest episodes, which is seen mostly in Mac and Eduardo. Also notable in season five is that Mac's height increases slightly.
As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Eurotrish again. She's basically a relentless parody of this trope. She says she's from Europe, and seems to mean that literally...in that she wears clothes that combine stereotypes of at least six different European nationalities (Dutch clogs, a french beret, a shirt with the British flag, among other things) her accent keeps changing, and she always says she wants to go home to Europe, not to any specific country.
At the end of the episode, we see her "back home in Europe" in a little stereotypical village that could be almost anywhere.
Big Bad: World in Destination Imagination. He's not actually evil, though, just a scared little kid whose got serious abandonment issues and just wants a friend.
Mac almost always averts this, except when he has sugar.
Big Friendly Dog: Used in the beginning of episode 11. A couple mistakenly brings a stray dog to the house, and when Frankie opens the door she is promptly tackled and licked silly.
Bigger on the Inside: The titular building. It's so big you can get lost in it for days.
World's toy box as well. Though that's likely due to him being a Reality Warper.
Continuity Nod: "Bloo Tube" shows that the viral video from "World Wide Wabbit" is still wildly popular.
In "Bad Dare Day" a "I *heart* FB (Funny Bunny)" cap can be seen in Madame Foster's room
When Bloo and Madame Foster realize that they've lost some movie tickets right as they arrive at the premiere, he compares it to "that stupid trip to Europe that we never took".
Darker and Edgier: Destination Imagination. It was even rated TV-PG (usually TV-Y7)
The entire series may fall under this when compared to the other comedies on Cartoon Network at the time of its premiere. When you consider that Wilt has the darkest backstory out of every character, and that Mac's life is a near living Hell, the show could very well be one of the most depressing shows Cartoon Network produced.
Downer Ending: The ending to Bloo Tube, when the Monsoon Lagoon-obsessed Bloo has to stay at the home, in bandages and a wheelchair, while the rest of the cast gets to go to the aforementioned water park; the final shot shows the house as we hear Bloo crying hysterically.
Eh, not exactly, depending on how you look at it. For some, it's a Downer Ending. For others, it's Laser-Guided Karma because Bloo spent the whole day moping, ruining everyone else's fun, threw a tantrum and basically just wanted everyone else to be as miserable as he was just because he couldn't go to a water park.
At the end of Foster's Goes to Europe, Eurotrish finally returns to her owner in Europe. Naturally, she must sing a song to express her happiness—only to be interrupted by her owner shouting out the window, "Stop the singing! Why do you think we sent you away in the first place?" Afterward, Eurotrish dejectedly sulks away, singing, "I'm-a going to America..."
Emotionally Tongue Tied: Wilt has trouble saying "No" when someone asks him to do something.
Earn Your Happy Ending: Frankie and World in The Movie. Frankie finally gets what she wanted all along, to be treated fairly and respected for all she does, Mr. Herriman finally fairly splitting the house work among everyone in the House instead of all on her. World, the Big Bad of The Movie and an emotionally unstable Reality Warper whose been sealed in a toy chest by himself for who knows how long, is finally freed from his prison and has the friends he'd wanted the entire movie. But both had to go a long way to get it.
Expy: Mac is based on a one-time Powerpuff Girls character, Mike, who had an imaginary friend of his own. Also, his early design had a lot in common with Linus van Pelt, which is particularly telling when you remember that Bloo's design was based off a child's security blanket. And after the pilot premiered, Craig McCracken's family told him Mac is pretty much what McCracken was like when he was little. His name's even "Mac".
Also, Wilt's creator, Jordan Michaels.
It's possible Mr. Herriman is one of the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, since he's a white rabbit with a waist coat and a penchant for being on time.
Frankie was based on McCracken's wife, Lauren Faust.
Fantasy Kitchen Sink, as well as Fairytale Motifs: Unicorns, giant monsters, superheroes, whatever the heck Coco is supposed to be, and countless other creatures.
Coco's been explained, and it's kind of sad. Her creator was a girl who was trapped on a deserted island for a long time, and created an imaginary friend to keep herself sane. Coco is an amalgam of things that the girl could see around her: the crashed plane (Coco's body), the deflated life raft she tried to get off the island with (Coco's beak), a palm tree (Coco's head), and her own sunburned feet (Coco's...feet).
Framed Clue: How Mac and Bloo find the map to the Foster's treasure.
Genki Girl: Goo. And possibly Madame Foster and Coco.
Gentle Giant: Eduardo is a giant purple minotaur who appears frightening to Mac at first, but he turns out to be sweet and (to be honest) a coward - unless his friends are in danger. Wilt is a very, very tall fellow with one arm who is polite to the point of neurosis.
(After trying and failing to glue Madame Foster's stone head back together with toothpaste) Bloo: "A bust this big needs adequate support!"
In the episode "Affairweather Friends", the title is just the beginning.
In the episode "Squeakerboxx", Bloo is inside of the men's room squeaking an elephant. Granted, it's literally an elephant and made of rubber, but still........
Whenever you see inside Terrence's room, if you look carefully, you'll always see a box of tissues and a bottle of lotion.
The grandaddy of all comes in the finale, due to a mistaken line reading. Cartoon Network kept it in. See Precision F-Strike below.
Growing Up Sucks: The premise is that nearly all kids grow out of needing their imaginary friends, so Mac will likely end up leaving Bloo. However, we've seen some creators as adults, and they still care a great deal for their imaginary friends. Madame Foster says that Mac's imagination is the purest she's seen since her own, and she never gave up her imaginary friend...
Imaginary Friend: Well, obviously. The twist here is that the friends kids imagine actually become real, and come to Foster's when their kids outgrow them.
Mac's friendship with the imaginary friends could be viewed as this too. Wilt, for example, is implied to be in his mid-thirties.
Interrupted Cooldown Hug: Happens during Destination Imagination. Frankie had just calmed World down and made him friendly towards her friends when Mr. Herriman comes barging in and basically reinforces every one of his fears in one fell swoop before attempting to push everyone out of the toy chest. Cue the Unstoppable Rage that literally tears the entire reality of the toy chest apart.
Kryptonite Is Everywhere: Imaginary Man may seem tough, but all you have to do to make him lose his powers, is to throw flowers at him. Not that his designated Arch-Enemy, Nemesister, has it any easier. She loses her powers once you rough up her perfect hair a little.
Mathematician's Answer: The seeing-eye friend they try to help in one episode apparently discards any information not related to "this is a danger from which I must keep my child", because when he loses track of the kid, he can't provide a helpful answer; he was in a place when he lost Stevie, and as for Stevie himself, well, he's got arms, a face...you know, standard-issue human stuff.
My Name Is Not Durwood: Bloo constantly forgetting Berry's name in "Berry Scary." He does, however, remember her as "Heather."
Mythology Gag: In "House of Bloo's", Bloo is shown at one point watching a Lassie parody. The boy in the show has the same character design as Mac's prototype appearance.
Never My Fault: Bloo refuses to accept it's his own fault Eduardo ran away in that episode.
Not Allowed to Grow Up: Mac was eight when the show started, but he mentioned that Bloo's been living at Foster's for a few years, so wouldn't that make him twelve or thirteen for the last episode in 2009? Apparently not.
One-Winged Angel: World, an emotional unstableReality Warper, does this when Herriman threatens to leave him locked in his trunk alone again. He goes absolutely berserk and creates a chimera body for himself to destroy the ones who are trying to take Frankie away from him.
Our Founder: Elwood P. Dowd, of Harvey fame, appropriately enough. The Home itself also has a bust of its founder, Madame Foster, which Bloo promptly... busts.
Also, most of the human supporting characters - Goo, Terrance and Mac's mom - in seasons 5 and 6.
Merchandise makers don't like to acknowledge Mac's existence, and places Cheese on merchandise where he should be. This is also interesting when you realize that Cheese took the place of him on many junior girls' T-shirts...when Mac is actually the most popular with older female fans.
Reality Warper: Goo has an overactive imagination, which means that she runs the risk of calling new Imaginary Friends into existence by accident (and somehow, she manages not to be creepy).
Frankie's new friend, World, controls an entire dimension inside a toy box.
Sealed Evil in a Can: This is how the parents of the boy who created World viewed him when they locked him in his toy box, and apparently told Foster's such as they kept him in there. However, this is a subversion as World wasn't evil, just misunderstood and just wanted friends.
In one episode, when Bloo gets punched in the face by a young girl for taking some toy glow-in-the-dark vampire teeth.
In another episode, Bloo is spying on who was supposed to be "the best imaginary friend ever", and he knocks out Bloo with a shovel this way.
Selective Enforcement: Inverted as a Springtime for Hitler in the episode "Crime After Crime". The episode's B-plot has Frankie cooking something disgusting for dinner, so Bloo causes trouble in an effort to get sent to his room without dinner. Unfortunately the episode's A-plot was Mr. Harriman acting hyper-paranoid over someone discovering his addiction to carrots, leading him to punish everyone else in the house for relatively minor infractions due to thinking they're "on to him" while completely ignoring or even congratulating Bloo.
Plenty of shout-outs to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as well, though. For instance, the villain from the video game Bloo plays is called "Lord Beeblebrox" and the two nerdy scientists who study Coco are called Douglas and Adam, respectively. Adam wears a blue t-shirt with the number 42 on it.
There's also a scene in the episode in which Bloo steals the Foster's bus which has a hitchhiker wearing a bathrobe holding a sign that says "Magrathea." In the same episode, there is a Star Wars shout out when Mac throws money for a toll out the window and misses to which Bloo responds "Negative. It only impacted on the surface."
In yet ANOTHER (much more obscure) Hitchhikers reference, the friends unite together to rescue a cat from a tree using what Frankie calls "Plan Z-Z-9-Plural Z-Alpha".
In Blooooo, Bloo's hallucinated reflection looks at him and says "Run, Bloo, run!"
The episode Bye Bye Nerdy gives us this exchange between Bloo and Frankie:
Frankie's T-shirt (that she wears 99% of the time) has a Stylized image of the Power Puff Girls.
In a Halloween episode, Bloo turns white (he's sick) and everyone believes that he's a ghost. Coco picks up a phone:
Wilt: Who ya gonna call? Coco:Co Co-co! Wilt: They've been out of business for years!
The card for Mac in the last episode contains the signatures "Yogi Booboo" and "Big Fat Baby".
"Challenge of the Superfriends" contained some pretty blatant references to Revenge of the Sith. Bloo is clearly meant to be an expy of Darth Vader in this, with Nemesis an expy of Darth Sidious.
In Destination Imagination, the body Frankie creates for World looks very similar to Snap.
Someone on the team must really like Nintendo. Let us count the ways...
Neighbor Pains has a joke about Frankie being a "mother of 64". That same episode has a boy who looks strangely like Lucas from Mother 3 and Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Search "Mother 64".
The Buck Swaps Here has two mustached guys wearing red and green. The heights are there, and the mustaches are the same styles. It would be crazy to think of it a coincidence.
Affairweather Friends gives Barry a game console whose controller is awfully like the Wii's remote and nunchuk.
The pilot episode, House of Bloo's shows a Game Boy Advance in Mac's apartment.
In The Bloo Superdude and the Magic Potato of Power, the magic potato (in real life) is... a Nintendo DS—with mirrored button controls.
Foster's Home seems to have a Gamecube. It shows up in Fools and Regulations and Crime After Crime, among others.
Destination Imagination has a game level suspiciously like in the Mario games. Complete with snails replacing koopas, piranha plants, a growth item that comes out when Mac jumps under a block, and an item that makes Eduardo invincible for a short while (complete with power up music)!
A tall basket ball player named Wilt? C'mon guys, that's an easy one.
Quite interestingly, this basketball player also claimed to have sex with over 20,000 women...
Two of Coco's former owners who adopted her to research her look suspiciously like Dexter and Mandark, though their names are different, the concept and look is there.
Another from Destination Imagination is the big gem. It's a lot like the old Sonic games, where you feel accomplished winning the emerald and freeing a cute critter.
An old man in Something Old, Something Bloo crying "Curse you Red Baron!" before promptly falling asleep.
The piano intro, as well as the decorated doghouse in A Lost Claus.
When Bloo shares his story on how Uncle Pockets arrived in Bloo Done It, he starts with "It was a dark and stormy night..."
Probably the most blatant of the examples is when Wilt pulls away Bloo—the football, from getting kicked by Mac in Fools and Regulations. "Good grief" indeed. To Wilt's merit, it isn't done in malice.
In the pilot movie, there's a bit where the now legless Extremasaur is chasing Bloo around the dump. It switches to an overhead view and looks like something out of Pac-Man.
Not to mention Bloo's ghost shape. But why is Pac-Man chasing the ghost? Well he's Bloo isn't he?
The episode titled Squeakerboxx seems to be a shout out to the Outkast album Speakerboxx/The Love Below.
When Mac has finally been tracked down after running naked through the town on a sugar high, he winces at the spotlights on him, rasping out "It burns us!"
In Bloo Tube, we see Bloppy Pants' band, Pizza Party, attempting to film a music video on treadmills. When Bloo distracts them and they fail, Yogi Boo Boo says, "Okay GO... again."
Sibling Rivalry: One-shot friends Imaginary Man and Nemesister were created by a boy and his sister as an extended outlet for their rampaging animosity. Their creators come back at the end of the episode to adopt them for their own kids.
Spotting The Thread: Mac is forced to decide between Bloo and a near perfect impostor, and picks the real one because the impostor's friendship speech is too nice. Mac knows Bloo is a Jerkass.
Squishy Wizard: Mac is highly intelligent for an 8-year old, but one drop of sugar and he goes from being the Only Sane Man to making Goo look perfectly sane.
Cheese has a few of these: Bloo Cheese, Cheese Louise (Louise is his REAL creator.)
When Bloo tries to get Cheese adopted, he offers a package deal with a Ridiculously Cute Critter named...Crackers.
Strange Minds Think Alike: In "Bloo's the Boss" Bloo finds a cat and names him Chuck. Later when the cat's owner comes to collect him it turns out Chuck just happened to be his real name.
Straw Feminist: Subverted with Nemesister, who doesn't really have a political agenda. She just likes to destroy or sabotage anything that guys like.
Villainous Breakdown: While he's not intentionally a bad guy, World has one at the climax of The Movie when Mr. Herriman threatens to leave him sealed in his toy box alone again, causing him to snap and reduce his world to a white void and go One-Winged Angel. It takes Frankie's kindness to snap him out of it and calm him down.
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