Hoops&yoyo

Hoops&Yoyo is a franchise starring a pink cat, a green bunny and a blue critter. These characters are the stars of the E-Cards, Littlelife, Homepages, Podwalkin', Manners, The Studio and games of the franchise.

Originally a franchise made by Hallmark Cards, all these characters were made by Bob Holt. He made Yoyo as a character first, but he changed him to Hoops, since a certain 4th of July e-card was in production.

These were popular since the 2000's and 2010's, since they were mascots of Hallmark. Their declines were in 2015, by Bob Holt being fired, because it didn't fit the "humor" that Hallmark wanted.

History

Early Days

The franchise was first created in 2000/2001, a small test animation named The Adventures Of The Green Bunny, Bob really liked the green bunny that he repurposed for Yoyo.

Bob Holt was challenged to create a 4th of July e-card animation using only a firecracker. Bob started with a little green bunny he had already created at home; then the green bunny transforms into Hoops, a pink kitty with enormous eyes and an unusually large head plunked on an unusually small body. When Hoops eventually needed a pal, the original green bunny came back to life as Yoyo.

And hoops&yoyo debuted in 2001 on a Fourth of July e-card on Hallmark.com. They were born of the mind of Hallmark artist and voice actor, Bob Holt.

Eventually, fellow artist and voice actor, Mike Adair began working with Bob Holt to develop the characters’ personalities.

One of the first ever E-Card's that features speaking, was What Friends Say E-Card, Hoops being voiced by Mike Adair, which began the voice acting.

The first ever merchandise, was a Innocence Roses with a Pink Kitty plushie, in 2003.

Their own site, (hoopsandyoyo.com) debuted on May 24th, 2004 and quickly built a dedicated following. By 2005, 3 million visitors had come to the hoops&yoyo home page, and the numbers continued to increase since then.

More merch started to be produced in 2004-2005, such as Luggage Tags, 2004 T-Shirt, 2004 Plushies and etc.

In 2005, Mike Adair, started animating E-Cards, which the first ever E-Card animated by himself, was Just a Fly By Hi!, and designing some hoops&yoyo contents.

Popularity

"Hallmark: A Century of Caring"

"The popular characters hoops&yoyo got their start in Hallmark artist Bob Holt's basement in 2001, with Bob fiddling around on the drawing of a little green bunny. Bob liked his funny bunny. For a Hallmark.com e-card, Bob made the bunny pink, gave it a kitty's ears, and the green bunny became Hallmark's pink kitty, which Bob eventually named hoops. When hoops needed an e-cards sidekick, Bob brought back the green bunny and named it yoyo. Thus from wacky origins the duo's on-line popularity grew and spawned plush characters, profitable sound cards, and a crazily popular web site that launched in 2004. Much of hoops&yoyo fame lies in their hilariously unscripted gab-fests. Their voices are recorded (and speeded up) in a Hallmark studio, with Bob as yoyo and artist pal Mike Adair voicing hoops. There's something subversive in their wisecracking anarchy, but wholesome too. From the heap of fan letters and email, Bob says his favorite points to hoops&yoyo's innocent appeal: "I come to your site because you guys make me smile, even on bad days."

Cast

Voice Actors

Hoops is voiced by Mike Adair.

Yoyo is voiced by Bob Holt.

Piddles is voiced by Bev Carlson.