Boy Draws With Chalk and Enters Portal
Erased but not forgotten
Growing up in the 50's and 60's exposed me to some of the masters of animation and the ever consistent ten minute gag. Back then an animator was lucky if they could create a few dozen cartoons in their entire career. They put love and creativity on cellulose, and kept us entertained no matter how many times we saw the same old cartoon. We heard classical music for the first time, laughed at corny jokes we may not have completely understood due to our age and inexperience, and generally had a great time. In that vein, ChalkZone is an intelligent, creative, and well thought out adventure with some very subtle commentary deeply embedded into a topsy turvy land located just beyond that 2D surface that anyone schooled before the "white board" knows as the chalk board. Students from my era knew just how dusty the tool of learning could be. We were all burdened at one time or other with cleaning the erasers. We all got called forward to write on that surface. Bad little boys would intentionally scratch their dirty fingernails across its dull green surface sending involuntary goosebumps up everyone's spine. Some of our teachers could draw an entire world on that board, and those images taught us things by graphic representation that followed us the rest of our lives. Here is a cartoon that mirrors an experience common to everyone of my era. We all suspected there might be a huge, strange world just on the other side of its flat reality. And, most of us drew those imaginary images in chalk when the teacher wasn't looking.
ChalkZone uses a simplified line image and characters to convey a fun experience on the other side of the chalk board reality. It was probably never meant for students whose primary education came from film, television, and pretty pictures in a book. Here you must imagine, define, and draw the solution to a problem. Here the animators were probably having far too much fun discovering what they could do with the lines. And, if you look closely, you'll see that every line drawn behind the board has a consistent chalk look. Look closely, listen carefully, and you'll see a gem of a production with a very wry wit and commentary on the world of adults through the unbiased eyes of children. It's all here; love, loyalty, insanity, order and chaos. If anything, the production may be a bit too cerebral in its own innuendos to please the Beavis and Butthead crowd. Here are cleaver story lines with much less absurdity than Spongebob Squarepants. This one fact may explain the incredible number of flatly stated negatives in the reviews listed here.
Finally, besides the subtle intelligence of clever animation, producer Bill Burnett has crafted a fine grouping of short songs as an aside to each adventure. Burnett is one of those rare song writers that delight in composing music that is serious, funny, absurdist and/or thought provoking. He doesn't mind composing in simple form while concentrating on the tune, not the orchestrated gimmick. Two of my favorites composed for ChalkTales are "Puttin on the Dog," a countrified, corny salute to the music of the hills, and a haunting, beautiful, yet sweetly short piece called, "Dream a Little Dream" that evokes some of the wonderful experiences to had in the land of nod. I was so taken by those songs, I went and visited Burnett's website at www.billburnettsongmine.com . You can also hear some of those ChalkZone songs on YouTube.
I highly recommend these toons to anyone who would enjoy visiting another less defined reality that depends on the creativity of children for its entire content.
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ChalkZone rocked My Childhood
Warning: Spoilers
I Love ChalkZone when I was a kid but for some reason people on IMDb hate this show for no reason. It was Great show. ChalkZone was a show about a boy named Rudy Tobootie who has magic pieces of chalk to Make Chalkzone with his friends Penny and Snap and their misadventures. I remember watching Chalkzone on Nickelodeon back in 2002 when I was 6 years old with the great Nicktoons at the time. The voice acting was good done by E.G. Daily as Rudy Tobootie, Candi Milo as Snap and Hynden Walch as Penny Sanchez. Anyway ChalkZone was a Great show From Nickelodeon from My Childhood and it's then better than the crappy show Nick has now. 10 Out of 10 Stars From Me. I'm GravityFalls2 and have nice day. :) Updated as of 7/9/2018
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Fun and Creative
I grew up watching this and I have to say I f you haven't seen this show I highly recommend you check it out. It's cool to watch. The characters are likable (even the selfish Snap at times), the animation's cool and creative and the stories are pretty interesting. It's really cool seeing how Rudy (E.G. Daily) gets out of tight spots using his magic chalk. Bottom line, ChalkZone is a fun and creative show. Kids and even adults will like it for its unique style and format.
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A bad series with a good premise
Warning: Spoilers
To be completely honest, I do think that the premise of "Chalkzone" was something very interesting and original: The idea of a world inhabited by beings created by the children's imagination is something rich and open to many good possibilities.
Unfortunately, instead of exploring those good possibilities, this cartoon ends being something quite generic and forgettable, with mediocre animation, boring and one-dimensional characters, lame jokes, and an overall lack of quality which is more than enough to consider "Chalkzone" a dispensable series at best.
Most of the stories of each chapter tend to pretty generic and dull, with many predictable clichés and uninspired attempts at "comedy". Occasionally, there are some moments in this series that show potential; however, most of the time the results left very much to be desired.
"Chalkzone" is bad, poorly done series, which was doomed to fail. I don't even hate this series, I just find it to be bland and forgettable. There isn't very much else that I could say about it.
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What's all the fuss about
Warning: Spoilers
No seriously, I still don't understand why this is getting hated on. I don't know if this is a small channel telling you this or another Mr Enter clone but it's just a cartoon Meant for kids, And there you go in the comments,"But but Brian, just because it's a show for kids doesn't mean that it has an excuse to be bad", Well It can be criticized, but when you criticize, please calm down, Use Rational Thinking, and Give us reasons why its bad, and even if it's bad or effortless, why are you watching something that you hate, it only gives the Show the power you don't want it to have.
About Chalkzone, it's a creative premise, first seeing it as a kid, I was amazed of the Drawings and songs in the show, I still can't get the Mosquito song out of my head, its so catchy. As a kid, I wondered, where do Chalk drawings go when they get erased or washed out by the Rain, well this is the Answer to your problems. With all the Funk and Electronic music in the show, it sorta fits the Alienated mood the realm of Chalkzone gives me and other people when hearing it, The voice acting also fits Rudy and Penny too, but just when you think I'm done with that, Snap however is the Reason I watch the show,His design is so Unique and Obscure that you don't even know what he was based on which brings good mystery to the table, and he has this energy of a Main Character and Rosey O Donnell combined, he sounds like Rosey, but acts like a normal Citizen in Chalkzone, exhibit A, they third segments in Chalkzone where it's just Snap in a random scenario in chalkzone. The drawings that Rudy makes in order to save the day are phenomenal that I couldn't believe that a human being would do that, and what attracts me the most is the Chowder Effect on The Chalkzoners outlines, it gives it a visually appealing outline and a creative way of outlining characters. Like Catdog, this may have gotten hate because people want to hate on certain stuff in order to feel confident, this show encouraged me to draw.
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A boy gets hold of magic chalk
Warning: Spoilers
Now, for the originality of the concept behind this show you'e got to give it a few points for starters, but let's not be too lenient considering the amount of unfiltered droll 'entertainment' we are getting nowadays. The basic plot is that Rudy Tabootie, a young schoolchild and his friend Penny Sanchez go for adventures in a magical world of chalk drawings, Rudy being it's Guardian, and protecting the world from intruders and the creations of others (the world is made from every chalk drawing made) is his ultimate duty. Penny is a sidekick as well as Rudy's own creation, Snap, a blue and white character who often goes on adventures with the others or in a different combination. Usually all three are involved except the last of the three segments which involves Snap, before a musical style short. For entertainment, what can you say, nowadays we aren't in the golden age of television, but neither were we then. There is no golden age. More likely special fragments of all ages make us remember these especially. As one of this age, the show is alright, but when compared to more worthy feats of the past it lacks enough to take it from a good healthy six stars to a middle class five. And, as for the 'chalk style' artwork that represents the world, there is enough of this computer art about that they really should consider, in the future, using real chalk merged with the animation.
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Sheesh people, it's a CARTOON!
I looked up ChalkZone because I wanted to check out who was singing on one of the songs, and geez, I couldn't believe the people who were ripping it up! I don't know/can't tell the ages so, I'm sure that makes a difference (I'm 44 and yes, I actually like Nick, even if I didn't have a 6 year old) Speaking of my 6 year old, he LOVES this show. We've decided that the theme song is the best one of all the Nick Toons, and we actually LIKE the "music videos". I think it's cute and different.
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Love it!
I love this show! It's great to be able to watch this show with my daughter. All the episodes of course were new when I was a kid. It's nice to see that she loves it as much as I did and do.
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I Love This Cartoon More Than I Used To
I liked this show a little growing up, but I liked Rugrats better. At that time, I thought that this cartoon might be set in the '50s because Rudy and Penny looked and acted like '50s kids. Now, I'm 13 and I still think that. I love this cartoon more than I did growing up and without a doubt, this is my favorite cartoon of all time. This cartoon has the greatest animation I have ever seen! They also couldn't have picked better voice actors! Rudy is voiced by E.G. Daily, who also voices Tommy from Rugrats and Buttercup from Powerpuff Girls. Penny is voiced by Hynden Walch, who would later voice Starfire from Teen Titans and Princess Bubblegum from Adventure Time. This Nickelodeon cartoon, along with CatDog and Danny Phantom, has a very catchy theme song! This is a very short lived series that had 40 episodes over 4 seasons and ran from 2002 until 2008. I hope that Nickelodeon can produce new episodes with the original creators, writers, and cast. Bill Burnett and Larry Huber are the greatest cartoonists of all time and E.G. Daily and Hynden Walch are the greatest voice actors of all time!
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Rudi and Snap? A dynamic, comedic duo!
ChalkZone first was a cartoon short series on Oh Yeah! Cartoons, which then became a NickToon. This show follows an elementary school boy artist named Rudy who has a special talent: he can draw a portal on a chalkboard and enter the world dubbed appropriately "ChalkZone". Once in ChalkZone, Rudy has the ability to interact with drawing that were once on chalkboards and have been erased. This show has a lot to do with the childhood theory of where drawings go after they are erased as well as teamwork to stop even the weirdest scenario.
This show was one of the more funnier ones than anything that any network could try and produce and that's no lie!
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Annoying, and close to unwatchable
I love animated shows, and I like Nickelodean in general. But I can't stand ChalkZone, for my taste it is too cheesy and annoying. That said, it is an acquired taste, so I am not bashing anyone who likes it, but for me this is not only the worst Nickelodean show but one of the worst animated shows ever along with Shaggy and Scooby Doo:Get a Clue!
I liked the concept, and the show meant well. However, the animation is pretty much terrible, with diluted colours and badly drawn characters. The songs are enough to make me want to rip my ear-drums out, and the music videos are even worse. The writing is cheesy and the plot-lines are predictable, and nowhere near as original as the concept made them out to be. And even worse, the voice acting is really not good at all, there are some truly talented voice actors here, but they are either wasted by bad jokes and puns and annoying voices/accents.
All in all, an annoying show and for me it is close to unwatchable. 1/10 Bethany Cox
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A good little show
00s Teletoon had some of the best products. At the same time hit the ceiling and never recovered afterwards. A show about a boy who can draw anything with chalk and goes on misadventure meeting creatures and people along the way. The concept is unique without being too smart or dumb. The in show soundtrack is pleasant to listen to. I liked the lead character he was such a cool unique character. What can be learned? Use your imagination and draw. Verdict: No erasers needed.
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I decided to quit life and do drugs when I saw Chalkzone
My summary lied. Don't do Drugs. Now that the public service announcement is out of the way, now I can say how bad this show is.
This show TRIES to be cool, but they stank. I bet even Satan hates Chalkzone. The animation is bad, the music is bad (Oh GOD the music is bad.)
The Voice acting is terribly cheesy, as are the jokes.
Now heres the worst part. In every episode they have a music video. The music is so bad, it's insulting to every insturment in the universe. NOW here is an example of Chalkzone music lyrics
"WE LIKE TO BOOGY! WE LIKE TO BOOGY! WERE IN A ZONE!"
Now Sing that ten times, and there is your song. Every little child I know despises this show, including everyone ELSE I know.
I give this show a -5 out of 10
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one of the BEST shows on nickelodeon!
I have been watching nickelodeon ever since 1995 i think the best gameshow was legends of the hidden temple but sadly it was cancelled but it was definatlly not because of poor ratings. now chalkzone on a scale from 1 to 10 i give it a 8 because good actors, good jokes, great music, good background, and many more. now anyone who says the fairy oddparents is a stupid show odviosley has never watched nickelodeon before either that or their brain is in another place besides there head! about that show it is very funny and i can compare that show to the simpsons because just as much laughter. as for spongebob one word excellent! nickelodeon keep up the good work and don't cancel any of the good shows!
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All About Imagination
I missed this show when it first came out. Found it a few weeks ago on YouTube. Anyways, I noticed it got a lot of hate back in the day and now people seem to be very nostalgic about it. Maybe people just didn't have any imagination back in the early 2000's because this show is about as creative as they come. I watched at as an aspiring cartoonist myself. The world it creates is unlike any other. Many cartoons that came after it seem to be influenced by it. Very underrated in my opinion.
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All of the pieces are there, but they are not utilized well enough.
ChalkZone was a great show from my childhood...or so I thought. With the 2010s convenience of watching cartoons online, I can watch ChalkZone episodes any time I like since November 22, 2015. The more I watch the episodes, the more I realize they were not as great as I remember, especially when Nickelodeon reruns the show a lot less often than Rugrats, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom, and Avatar: The Last Airbender. In the second episode, FutureZone, Penny thinks the reason ChalkZone's "future" inventions are all bad ideas because only bad ideas get erased. Not only is it dumb to assume that good ideas drawn with chalk stay unerased forever, but it is also ChalkZone's writers insulting themselves for saying that their world only has bad ideas in it. Does this mean Snap was a bad idea just because Rudy draws him as a superhero-type but never gave him any superpowers?
Another problem with ChalkZone is that it doesn't usually make us laugh the way Rugrats, SpongeBob and Fairly OddParents do, which is not the worst problem for a show to have because it is more important, and easier to check that you have a coherent story with no plot holes than making sure each of your jokes work. I like the characters of Rudy, Snap and Penny, and they are almost always endearing to watch. In a way, Rudy and Snap also feel like a better version of Mac and Bloo from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends to me. Snap is Rudy's creation, and Bloo is Mac's creation. It is hard to make the concept of magic chalk work when Rudy can solve any problem with his magic chalk unless he loses it, but that on its own doesn't make episodes boring. Usually, the interesting part of the episode is the journey of the situation itself and not how long Rudy takes to solve it when he starts trying. So ChalkZone at least knows how to fill in the plot hole of Da Boom Crew's premise, where the kids are too stupid to know how to complete any level in 3 minutes for a game they designed themselves, and keep together a coherent plot that doesn't rely on everybody being stupid or amnesiac, but ChalkZone still does not know how to make itself interesting.
I guess the real problem is - ChalkZone focuses too much on what the characters do and not enough on who their characters are. ChalkZone doesn't have anything on stuff like - the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode Good Will Hunting, the SpongeBob SquarePants episode Band Geeks, the Friendship is Magic episodes Suited for Success and Sonic Rainboom, or the Steven Universe episodes Tiger Millionaire and Lars and the Cool Kids. However, that doesn't really sum up the heart that was missing from ChalkZone, which is very hard to deduce. All it is was just 4 short seasons of 40 half-hour episodes stretched from 2002 to 2008 and I was lucky enough to catch wind of it in 2008 when Nickelodeon was still airing reruns of it during its original run of new episodes. I think they stopped airing reruns after 2009. How do I explain this? Johnny Test and Clarence have minimal plots of the kids in the title doing ridiculous things and going on their own silly adventures, and more or less focus on the same title characters nearly all the time, but they still have more entertainment value and are easier to remember than ChalkZone. Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends has the aforementioned Mac and Bloo. Codename: Kids Next Door also has endearing kid characters going on adventures together (I always had a soft spot for Numbuh 3), but it still has more entertainment value than ChalkZone. Star vs. the Forces of Evil has two kids who fight monsters and travel through different dimensions like ChalkZone. Twelve Forever has another trio of kid characters who regularly travel to a secret fantasy world for young people and back home, but it is more interesting than ChalkZone because of episodes that focus on an individual character. Reggie has Birthday Forever, Dustin Forever and Fancy Forever, and Todd has Guy Pleasant Forever, Dance Forever and Audition Forever. Even some of the characters on Endless get their chance to shine. Mack and Beefhouse Forever focuses on Mack and Beefhouse, and Not Twelve Forever focuses on Big Deal. OK KO: Let's Be Heroes has a trio of kid superheroes who fight all sorts of bad guys of different species and robots, and-you know the rest. I guess the only memorable thing about ChalkZone is that I have seen so many animated shows have come after ChalkZone that share common elements with it and execute them much better.
In conclusion, I am not really sure what was so unmemorable about ChalkZone. I do not know why it did not have the spark I saw in other modern American animated shows like it. What was in Clarence, Codename: Kids Next Door, Fosters' Home for Imaginary Friends, Johnny Test, OK KO, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, and Twelve Forever that was not in ChalkZone? My best guess is that whatever ChalkZone doesn't have, it is because the creator Bill Burnett, and his writing team, put all of their effort into the musical numbers at the end of most episodes. Not that there is a problem with that; Bill Burnett is an excellent singer and he sang the theme song for this show. It is not a bad show by any means; ChalkZone is one of those "just OK" programs that does all the right things to appeal without having any flavor of appeal. It is what I taste when I eat Swiss Cheese, but not because of the holes. Friendship is Magic and Star vs. the Forces of Evil feel like eating Asiago cheese. They actually have a flavor that I remember, and I love to watch over and over again because they kick in my mouth, and the hits land. I only have the slightest idea why Bill Burnett couldn't make the hits land for ChalkZone.
I was especially disappointed when I learned from Nerdstalgic that ChalkZone could have gotten a Season 5 arc where Rudy and Penny go to college and start dating, and Snap has to come to terms with the fact that Rudy will outgrow doing ChalkZone things with him, much like Woody during Toy Story 2 and 3. He also would have a kid who was stuck in ChalkZone too long and then get banned team up with Skrawl. I was extra disappointed when I learned that ChalkZone never got to show us what happens to kids who were stuck in ChalkZone longer than 24 hours, because it implies that there are other kids who have White Lightning Chalk and it reminds me that Twelve Forever luckily didn't wait too long to make Spring Break Forever and A Stranger Forever, which are both about what happens to ordinary people who spend too much time in Endless. While I feel very bad for Bill Burnett not getting to do those cool stories in Season 5, I also do not blame Nickelodeon for under-airing ChalkZone when the execution of most of its ideas lacked the wide appeal it could have had. I know that is how I feel because I watched all 40 episodes. If Nickelodeon allowed me to reboot ChalkZone, I would do that if I wanted to make it a much more memorable show, but I would also bring Bill Burnett back as a consultant so he can help me stay true to his creative vision, and I can show him how to make new ChalkZone a better show in execution than the original ChalkZone.
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It's got cool voices
I like Reggie Bullnerd; he's funny. Everything he says sounds funny b/c it's his voice. The songs are catchy and the humour is clean. The characters are believable and the plot is great. And by the way, "Fairly Odd Parents" is NOT hellish!
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very good show!
i have watched every single episode of chalkzone and i liked everyone of them i also like hey arnold,the fairy oddparents,spongebob,and catdog, but my favorite gameshow on nickelodeon is legends of the hidden temple but sadly it only lasted from 1993-1995 but i sure hope none of the other shows get cancelled anytime soon! p.s. keep up the good work nickelodeon!
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This show is good, actually
I have no idea of why so many people hates this show, but honestly is not that bad. In fact, I would dare to say that is pretty enjoyable to watch.
The animation is simple, but pleasant and the songs are okay. In many ways, this feel like a predecessor of many cartoon trends from the next decade.
Perhaps this show was way too ahead of its time.
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Two words to describe this show:
IT SUCKS!!! There is so much to say about this god-awful piece of garbage. The animation stinks, the characters are lame, and the jokes suck so bad. I can't believe this became a series (It first appeared on "Oh Yeah! Cartoons!" one of the WORST shows I've ever seen. This show also gave us "The Fairly Oddparets" which also sucks too.). It makes me sick it really does. Please Nickelodeon, get this dreck off the air for cryin out loud!
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What the **** is this?
This show is as bad as they come. How ANYONE could enjoy this piece of garbage is beyond my understanding. I've watched three episodes, and I've heard humor that not even a three-year old would find funny. Either that, or it's trying to be a deep, serious show. Well, it failed in that aspect, too. The fact that it came from "Oh Yeah! Cartoons!", birthplace of the equally h*llish "Fairly Oddparents", doesn't help at all.
The only good thing this show has is that Jim Cummings (!) appeared in one episode as "Skrawl" (I think that how his name was spelled) and sang a good song, and gave a deliciously maniacal performance. Nothing else is worth mentioning.
One star (for the episode with Jim).
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this show is pointless
Warning: Spoilers
spoilers
it's a waste of time , first of all why do they say rudy tabbotee, and snap's voice is annoying, all he does is yell around, and penny is such a nerd she needs to criticize on everything in chalk zone, people who want to watch this show shoun't , nickolodeon has gone down in the late 90's nothing is good anymore except spongebob, and teenage robot, but that's it , good shows are the old "all that" "are you afraid of the dark" "you can't do that on TV" etc. so instead of wasting time with this worthless piece of s*** you should do what nick says everyday on commercials get out and play "lets just play" well that's what nick says. so just follow what they say everyday, so stop watching this stupid show
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I want to like this show, I really did
This show was massively screwed over and did not air it's final episodes until 2 more years! Plus, it didn't gain a cult following until all the episodes aired in the US. That's the idea how bad the show is! Nick did not care and are embarrassed by it. This is along with CatDog, Sidekick, Free Birds (Which I totally hate and it's the worst Cn movie ever) Scaredy Squirrel, The Mighty B, Megamind, Cloudy w/ A Chance of Meatballs: The Series, Crossing Swords, Igor AND The Emoji Movie are bad for kids! Avoid this junk at ALL costs!
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What the hell?
I can say alot about a little. This show, as the they would say on Rocket Power, "Stinks on Ice" It actually reeks worse than that. It's about a boy who can travel in a world where all the chalk goes when it's erased. It's really stupid about how the little fantasy thing goes. The animation is craptacular, and the voice acting is horrible. (Specially Snap's. He's annoying.) I cannot believe the person who made a funny show like Fairly Oddparents made a bunch of Sh*t.
Another annoying aspect is that they always ALWAYS have some annoying 4 minute musical interlude, where the lyrics are badly made, and the...heh heh, dances are worse.
I give it a D-
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Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0235916/reviews
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