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Before production on the main Kiff series started, a pilot for the series was produced. During this period, the series had the working title Donk.
Details regarding the pilot, which was not intended for official airing or release, are scarce, but it was presumably produced prior to June 2021, as by that time the series was renamed Kiff. Similarly, the pilot's protagonists Donk and Bunny Guinness would evolve into Kiff Chatterley and Barry Buns, while its setting, Kiff Town, would become Table Town.
After the series was greenlit and entered official production, the pilot was adapted into the season 1 episode "Hat", with the songs, much of the plot, and some voice acting being reused.
Synopsis
Donk loses a hat that gave Bunny a confidence boost, and attempts to recover it.
Plot
While ziplining to school with her best friend Bunny Guinness, Donk mentions that it is Bring a Thing Day, causing Bunny to realize that he has forgotten to bring something to present in class. Bunny ziplines back home to get a thing, while Donk goes ahead to school. There, Donk overhears her classmates making fun of Bunny for his tendency to bring dull items. When Donk later sees that Bunny has brought an old hat, she fears that he will embarrass himself again, but he instead amazes everyone by performing a series of cool poses while wearing the hat. After his presentation, Miss Deer Teacher announces that Bunny will be crowned "Bring a Thing King" at a ceremony at the end of the day. Donk, noticing the other students trying to grab Bunny's hat, convinces Bunny to let her guard the hat until the ceremony.
In the hallway, a gust of wind blows the hat out of Donk's hands and into Helen's classroom, where Helen takes a selfie wearing the hat. Donk tries convincing Helen to return the hat by telling her that it is a "garbage hat", which causes Helen to throw the hat outside into a passing garbage truck. Donk chases after the truck to retrieve the hat. Meanwhile, Helen sees that her selfie, which she posted online, has gotten a like.
The wind blows the hat into Rat's Hats and Mats. Rat, who assumes it is one of his products, refuses to let Donk take the hat without paying. She manages to raise the needed money by busking outside the store, but Rat has already sold the hat to another customer. Donk learns that the customer is a member of the mayoral council, so she climbs up a mountain to reach the council's headquarters. She finds the customer, Rockwell, showing off the hat to his fellow council members in a hot spring. To blend in with the council, who all have beards, Donk wears a fake beard made of bubbles. Rockwell lends her the hat, but she is exposed as an intruder when her beard pops, forcing her to escape down the drain of the hot spring. She travels through the drainage system and reaches another part of the mountain.
Just as Donk thinks she has recovered the hat, it starts moving by itself and disappears down the mountain. A glum Donk heads back to school, but cannot bring herself to admit to Bunny that she lost the hat. As she is about to admit the truth, she suddenly gets an alert on her phone and sees that Helen has posted a new selfie wearing the hat. Realizing that Helen used magic to steal the hat for more online likes, Donk returns to Helen's classroom and takes back the hat, then rushes to the ceremony. Helen flies into a rage and trashes her classroom, even kicking her paper shredder through the roof, before chasing after Donk.
Donk makes it to the school gym just as the ceremony is starting. Before Donk can reach Bunny, however, Helen uses a spell to close the doors behind Donk, trapping Donk's tail between the doors. Donk throws the hat to Bunny, but Helen's shredder then crashes through the gym's roof, and the hat falls into the shredder instead of landing on Bunny's head. Donk quickly jumps onto Bunny's head and wraps herself around it, pretending to be the hat, while Bunny strikes a pose, unaware that his "hat" is actually Donk. Though the audience sees that he is not wearing the hat, they still wildly applaud Bunny, causing Donk and Bunny – and Rockwell, who is in attendance – to realize that it was Bunny's confidence, rather than the hat, that mattered most.
Cast and characters
The only characters named in the pilot are Donk, Bunny Guinness, Greg, Linda, Beryl, Helen, Rat, Rockwell, and Miss Deer Teacher. The names of all other characters listed below are derived from their counterparts in the main series.
Voices
- Kimiko Glenn as Donk
- H. Michael Croner as Bunny Guinness, Rat, and Rockwell
- Katie Crown as Candle Fox, Miss Deer Teacher, Helen, and background hedgehog
- Nic Smal as Greg, Trevor Angstrom, Reggie, Billiam, Martin, and additional voices
- Lucy Heavens as Linda and Sally
Appearances
Locations
Songs
- "Bring a Thing" – written by Nic Smal and Lucy Heavens
- "They Really Like Me" – written by Nic Smal and Lucy Heavens
Trivia
Cultural references
- While busking, Donk performs a dramatic scene in which she says "Et tu, Rat?", parodying the "Et tu, Brute?" scene from William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar.
- One of the mayoral council members says to invest in "batcoin", a parody of bitcoin.
- The instrumental heard while Bunny is being introduced at his coronation ceremony is based on the 1982 song "Sirius" by the Alan Parsons Project, in reference to the song's popularity as entrance music.
Production
- The pilot was never released in any official capacity, only being made available online after an animatic of it was leaked on April 26, 2024.
- While largely identical in plot to "Hat", the pilot differs from its final form in several aspects, most notably using names, designs, and voices that would be changed for the main series.
Differences between pilot and series
- Kiff Chatterley and Barry Buns are respectively named "Donk" and "Bunny Guinness" in the pilot, while Table Town is named "Kiff Town" and Table Town News is named "Kiff News".
- Most of the character designs seen in the pilot would be reworked for the main series.
- Only Kiff, Barry, Rat, and Rockwell would retain their pilot voice actors in the main series.
- Renée, Darryn, Gareth, and Patty are absent from Miss Deer Teacher's class in the pilot. In the scene where Barry's classmates go up to him after his performance in the classroom, there are more students seen than in the main series, where Miss Deer Teacher's class comprises only 11 students.
- The dialogue heard in the pilot would be rewritten for "Hat", with some scenes being cut altogether.
- The pilot opens with Greg and Linda having a romantic discussion that is interrupted by Donk and Bunny ziplining to school, with the latter then returning home to get an item for Bring a Thing Day. Later, Greg and Linda attempt to continue the discussion, only to be hit by Helen's shredder. "Hat" opens with Kiff singing "Bring a Thing" and ziplining straight to school on her own.
- A brief scene showing Donk calling Kiff News to report Bunny's classroom presentation, followed by a news reporter interviewing Bunny, Martin seeing the news on TV and then alerting Beryl about it, was cut.
- A minute-long scene showing Kiff News reporting on Donk's attempts to retrieve Bunny's hat, Donk lying to Bunny about the status of his hat, and the two discussing Bunny's upcoming coronation ceremony was also cut.
Gallery
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