Total Drama All-Stars and Pahkitew Island

Total Drama All-Stars is the first part of the season. Christian Potenza first announced the season in an interview with Tom McGillis (the creator of the series), saying that Total Drama All-Stars would be very similar to Total Drama Island and Total Drama: Revenge of the Island, due to the high worldwide ratings of the latter.[5] That means that this part of the season takes place back at Camp Wawanakwa; in a single location once again, unlike Total Drama World Tour. This part is also very similar to the previous season, Total Drama: Revenge of the Island (both being very similar in terms of length, location, features and cameos).

This half is an all-star season which features a return of fourteen of the strongest contestants from both the first and second generation cast.[3][13] This is the first season to feature characters from two different generations competing together. The theme for this season is "Heroes vs. Villains" which means the competitors were separated into teams based on their past performance; with Heroes" from each season having to face off against each season's "Villains".[14] Both the season's first title, "All-Stars" and the "Heroes vs. Villains" theme take after respective seasons from Survivor.

Cartoon Network's official synopsis describes the first part, Total Drama All-Stars as:

Total Drama is back, but this time the team at Fresh TV have assembled the best loved and most hated contestants from seasons past to compete – Heroes vs. Villains style![14]

A brand new island is used again for this season. This is the first new main location in the series since Total Drama Action.

Total Drama: Pahkitew Island is the second part of the 26 episodes that Cartoon Network ordered in 2012 for the fifth season. It was first announced on June 11, 2013 as a sixth season, even though it is still part of Season 5.[2] This part features an entire new cast considered as the third generation of Total Drama characters and takes place at a brand new island, due to Chef Hatchet using a land drill to sink Camp Wawanakwa in the episode, "The Final Wreck-ening". This new island is the first new main setting in the series since Total Drama Action.

Part 2 aired in North America throughout the second half of 2014, but Italy was the first country to air Total Drama Pahkitew Island starting on June 13, 2014.[15] This is the first season to air a new episode every day in the United States, and will also set the studio's record for fastest English airing for any season in the series.[7] This part is being story edited by Terry McGurrin, while Dennis Jackson and Melanie Jackson, series creators of Wapos Bay: The Series, also helped write and consult the plot for TDPI.[16] Total Drama: Pahkitew Island was sponsored by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, who helped with the Cree translations for the team names and various season references.[16]

A general synopsis from Teletoon describes the second part, Total Drama: Pahkitew Island as:

It's an all-new season in an all-new location: Pahkitew Island. Given that the Cree word for "explode" is Pahkitew, it's no wonder that host Chris McLean chose this new island to put a fresh collection of victims – er, contestants – through the most grueling challenges yet. Once again teen freaks, geeks, egos, and cowards smash, crash, and bash their way through the season with one goal in mind: winning that one million dollar prize. Who will take it home? No one knows until the final episode drops and the pain finally stops.[17]

The contestant pool consists of 14 contestants. Seven from the third season and seven from the fourth season.

The first part features many returning characters from previous seasons.

• Peter Oldring Ezekiel Episodes 1 and 9
• Brian Froud "The Killer" from Episode 1
• Katie Crown Izzy Episode 7
• Alex House "José", Episode 7
• James Wallis "Cop #1" Episode 8
• Scott McCord Owen Episode 13

The contestant pool consists of 14 contestants.

7 characters from and Total Drama World Tour and 7 characters from Total Drama: Revenge of the Island returned to compete in Total Drama All-Stars. They all competed together during several "Heroes vs. Villains" themed challenges, which means that all the heroes competed against all the villains.[28]

The 14 returning characters who competed in Total Drama All-Stars are Alejandro, Cameron, Courtney, Duncan, Gwen, Heather, Jo, Lightning, Lindsay, Mike, Sam, Scott, Sierra, Zoey, name="cnallstars">http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/cnservice/cartoonsvc/content/xml/getContentById.do?contentId=338850&depth=5</ref>[29][30][31] The winners are Mike and Zoey, both of them from the second generation cast and both on the Heroes team.

A brief visual of Mike (on the left), four of his different personalities (in the middle), and Mal (on the right).

Other than the main season winners, other characters from previous seasons also return in Part 1 of this season. Here is a list of all the characters as described by Teletoon for Total Drama All-Stars:[32]

Out of all the fourteen contestants, half are male and half are female. Seven of them are part of the first generation cast who have all been in Total Drama World Tour, while the other seven are part of the second generation cast who have all competed in Total Drama: Revenge of the Island (the seven being the highest ranking for their season). Out of the seven original contestants, only Alejandro and Sierra have competed in one previous season; the other five have all competed in the first three seasons before Total Drama All-Stars.

These are the fourteen new characters that were introduced in the second part of this season.
Listed from left to right in order:
Standing: Beardo, Max, Scarlett, Dave, Ella, Shawn (French Canadian winner), Sugar, Leonard
Sitting: Sky (English Canadian winner), Jasmine, Samey, Amy, Topher, Rodney

Total Drama Pahkitew Island is part of the season features an entire new cast.[2] This is the second time the series completely replaces any existing cast with an all new cast, </ref> The new characters competing are Amy, Beardo, Dave, Ella, Jasmine, Leonard, Max, Rodney, Samey, Scarlett, Shawn, Sky, Sugar, and Topher.

Two of the characters, Amy and Samey, are twins, being the second time where related contestants compete in a season together (the first being Katie and Sadie).[47] Scarlett is the first character in the new cast to have her final design revealed.[48] Unlike the first part of the season, the second part of the season will feature no cameos, meaning that any previous contestants will not be seen for the entire season's segment.[49][50]

Just like the previous four seasons, all of the characters depicted as contestants are split into two teams for each segment:

All the fourteen heroes and villains in Total Drama All-Stars are separated evenly into two teams. The first team is called the Heroic Hamsters, which consists of heroes while the second team is called the Villainous Vultures, which consists of villains.[13][58] There were seven contestants in Team Heroes and seven on Team Villains.[59] Here are the original members of each team, as of Episode 1:

• Heroic Hamsters: Cameron, Courtney, Lindsay, Mike, Sam, Sierra, and Zoey.[60][61]
• Villainous Vultures: Alejandro, Duncan, Gwen, Heather, Jo, Lightning, and Scott.[60]

In Episode 3 "Saving Private Leechball", both Duncan and Courtney switch teams due to the former's heroic actions and the latter's villainous actions during the episode's challenge. In Episode 5 "Moon Madness", Cameron tried to vote himself out, but Chris wouldn't let him so Chris switched Cameron into the Villainous Vultures.

There are two teams in Total Drama: Pahkitew Island (both in the Cree language) which are Pimâpotew Kinosewak (translation: Floating Salmon) and Waneyihtam Maskwak (translation: Confused Bears),[16] both of which have seven contestants with a team logo, which is either a green salmon logo or a red bear logo. Here are the original members for each team:

• Pimâpotew Kinosewak: Amy, Jasmine, Max, Rodney, Samey, Scarlett, and Topher.[62]
• Waneyihtam Maskwak: Beardo, Dave, Ella, Leonard, Shawn, Sky, and Sugar.[62]

Max and Sky switched teams in Episode 7, "This is the Pits!", instead of there being an elimination.

In July 2013, Cartoon Network started airing season promos that introduced non-competitors like Ezekiel, Izzy, and Owen. Even though they never competed in All-Stars, these characters still went on to have cameo appearances in the season.

A list of all the cameos in Total Drama All-Stars and their roles during their cameos are shown below:

There are no cameos in Total Drama: Pahkitew Island as no characters from previous seasons are seen in this segment. The only reference to an original character is Cody's shoe in the episode, "Mo' Monkey, Mo' Problems".

On January 28, 2013, Cartoon Network confirmed that the new season title will be Total Drama All-Stars for Part 1.[14] One day later on January 30, both Christian Potenza and Drew Nelson confirmed the title for Episode 21 which is "Food Fright"[65] Drew Nelson also confirmed that the two new teams for this season are the Heroic Hamsters and the Villainous Vultures.[58] Rumors started floating in early 2010 about the season being "Heroes vs. Villains" and that both the original and the new cast would compete together,[66] but it wasn't until December 19, 2012 when Tom McGillis confirmed on ABC3 Australia that the theme for this season will indeed be "Heroes vs. Villains".

On February 1, 2013, Christian Potenza released a new video that contains several new information about Total Drama All-Stars, including season episode titles, new voice actors, and plot information.[29] That same day, Christian Potenza also released the first lines of the season from Episode 4:

When a Hero's eating time is up, they hear this ... and the Villains get this ... Last time on a very special episode of Total Drama All-Stars: ... Say hello to my metal friend! ... I sincerely doubt it, Al ... next, I'll allow it, his pain was our gain ... Which team will finish their barf-tastic breakfast first? Find out after the break on Total Drama All-Stars![29]

On June 11, 2013 it was confirmed that the airdate for the whole season will take place in early 2014; mostly during the winter of 2014.[2] Tom McGillis later confirmed on Twitter that the Canadian airdate will be in January 2014, while the U.S. airdate will be in September 2013.[9] On August 19, 2013, Cartoon Network released the first official trailer for TDAS along with a new website that reveals all the characters. Lindsay's and Jo's elimination were leaked via episode scripts and trailers long before the season started airing.

As for Total Drama: Pahkitew Island, production is done and it has been released in the United States.[12] The season was first announced to air on May 27,[67] but was later delayed to July 7.[7] This part is under the same production code as the previous part, Total Drama All-Stars.[22] However, the script for the entire first episode was leaked online about a year before the season's release.[62] Scarlett's final design along with one second of the fully animated first episode was also leaked on Instagram by her Venezuelan Spanish voice actor.[48]

On March 21, 2014, the entire cast design was revealed by Fresh TV along with new promotions for the season.[19] Bryn McAuley who will be voicing the twins, Amy and Samey, was the first confirmed voice actress.[47] On April 9, 2014, Fresh TV Inc. celebrated the International Day of Pink by making the TDPI cast all wear pink clothing, symbolizing the support for anti-bullying.[68] Before the official cast release Sunday Muse was also confirmed to voice Ella,[69] while Ian Ronningen was set to voice Rodney.[70] On May 30, 2014 a new teaser trailer was released for TDPI in Italy, marking the first time fully animated scenes were released to the public.[71] Several trailers in English were released later in Cake Entertainment's website. On June 16, Cartoon Network posted the Pahkitew Island website, along with the audition tapes for Sugar, Samey, Amy, Leonard, and Max.[72] Italy was the first country to air full episodes for Pahkitew Island.[15] On June 23, the audition tapes of Beardo, Rodney, Ella, Topher, and Dave were released. On June 26, the entire cast and the characters they voiced were released via Fresh's re:fresh blog.[54] On July 1, ABC3 announced that Total Drama: Pahkitew Island will air July 14, 2014 in Australia.[23]

Total Drama All-Stars was the #1 telecast on Cartoon Network with the highest ratings for the week of the season premiere.[73] Additionally, it ranked as the #1 telecast on all television among boys 6–11 and 9–14 for Tuesday prime-time airings. It also claimed #1 in its 7 p.m. time period among kids 9–14 and boys 6–11 and 9–14.[7]

Total Drama All Stars has received mixed to negative reviews. Many claimed there was "character derailment" within the new and old cast of characters. It currently holds a 5.4 rating on Metacritic based on 9 reviews.[74] Total Drama: Pahkitew Island, however, was considerably more positive. The season currently holds a 73% approval rating according to Rotten Tomatoes.[75]