Total Drama World Tour

Total Drama World Tour is the third season of the Total Drama franchise that began with Total Drama Island and Total Drama Action. The series extension was commissioned by Teletoon from the producers, Fresh TV, Inc.^[1] The season's elements and plot structure is largely based on The Amazing Race, with the semi-final episode being a direct parody of the reality series.

In this series, fifteen returning contestants and three new contestants are taken on a trip around the world, and compete in cultural themed challenges of countries they visit. An added twist in this season is that they are required to break spontaneously into song, or else be immediately eliminated. The original cast from this and past seasons do not compete in the next season, Total Drama: Revenge of the Island, as there is a new cast. However, nine of these original contestants each have a cameo in the next season, while seven of them return to compete again in the fifth season, Total Drama All-Stars.^[2] This series is rated TV-PG-D in the United States and Australia.

A spin-off series based on this season, The Ridonculous Race, premiered in September 2015.

Plot

As with the previous seasons, fifteen returning contestants and three new ones (Alejandro, Sierra, and Blaineley) partake in an elimination-based competition for the grand prize of C$1,000,000, led by series host Chris McLean (Christian Potenza).

In this season, contestants are taken around the world throughout international based challenges and are required to break into song whenever Chris rings a special chime, or face instant elimination. There are 30 songs in total, and every episode takes place in a different location.

As the contestants are eliminated, they take the "Drop of Shame"^[3] by parachuting out of the plane in which the elimination ceremonies take place. When eliminated, they lose the chance at the million dollars (though such an elimination may not be permanent).^[3]

The winner of Total Drama World Tour is Alejandro in Canada, while Heather is the runner-up. However, in the American version and iTunes version, Heather is the winner. Beth, Eva, Geoff, Justin, Katie, Sadie, and Trent do not return to compete; instead, they appear on the aftermath special, sitting in the peanut gallery and on the last episode while cheering for the finalists, Alejandro and Heather.

However, as stated multiple times in following seasons, there was never any clear winner, as the money was thrown into a volcano by Ezekiel, making the money burn into ashes. This is the second season (first being Total Drama Island) in the series where no contestant wins anything.

This season's entire plot structure and elements is expanded into a related series called Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race which aired in 2015. This series also takes place around the world and also features eighteen competitors (teams) like Total Drama World Tour.^[4]

Episodes

Total Drama World Tour is a Canadian animated television series which premiered on June 10, 2010 at 8:30 p.m. EST on Teletoon and it premiered on June 21, 2010 at 9:00 p.m. EST on Cartoon Network. It aired on ABC3 at 6:40 a.m. in Australia.

Cast

Main cast

Most of the voice artists returned to voice contestants from previous seasons. However, there were three new voice artists that were hired to voice new characters Alejandro, Blaineley, and Sierra.

Supporting cast

Many minor characters did not appear in most episodes, but still appeared in the special "Aftermath" episodes as well as the finale.

Stephanie Anne Mills as Katie

Julia Chantrey as Eva

Sarah Gadon as Beth

Lauren Lipson as Sadie

Scott McCord as Trent

Dan Petronijevic as Geoff

Adam Reid as Justin

Characters

Fifteen of the original characters from Total Drama Island returned: Bridgette, Cody, Courtney, DJ, Duncan, Ezekiel, Gwen, Harold, Heather, Izzy, Leshawna, Lindsay, Noah, Owen, and Tyler. Two new characters, Alejandro and Sierra, joined the cast at the beginning of this season. Additionally, a third new character, Blaineley, was brought on to compete past the halfway point of the season. Blaineley was eliminated in the next episode.

Teams

Unlike every other season, there are three teams in this season: Team Victory, Team Amazon and Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot. Here are the members of each team:

• Team Amazon: Cody, Courtney, Gwen, Heather, and Sierra.
• Team Chris is Really⁴ Hot: Alejandro, Izzy, Noah, Owen, Tyler, and (later on) Duncan.
• Team Victory: Bridgette, DJ, Ezekiel, Harold, Leshawna, and Lindsay.

Note that at the beginning of this season, Izzy was on Team Amazon and Sierra was on Team Chris but they later switched teams in the second episode so Sierra could be with Cody in the same team while Izzy could be with Owen. This is also the second time in which Izzy switched teams; in Total Drama Island Izzy swapped teams with Katie so she could be with her best friend, Sadie.

Winners

For every season, the show's producers create two alternate endings for the final episode, such that the winner seen in one country's broadcasts is the runner-up in other countries (and vice versa) where the show airs. Heather was shown as the first winner when Australia aired the season for the first time worldwide. Heather was also depicted as the winner in airings from Brazil, Catalonia, France, Israel, Italy, Latin America, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, Portugal, Serbia, Singapore, Spain, and in the United States. Canada then aired Alejandro as the original winner, which was later aired in Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Africa, and in Sweden.

Production

On June 18, 2009, the producers, Fresh TV Inc. told Teletoon to order new Total Drama episodes for an upcoming third season.^[1] This season was to be called Total Drama: The Musical when it first entered production. Keith Oliver and Chad Hicks (two new writers) directed this new season while two new voice actors, Marco Grazzini and Annick Obonsawin had to be hired if they wanted to voice the two new characters, Alejandro and Sierra. The season's title was later changed to the current title, Total Drama World Tour in 2010 due to the singing no longer being the main focus for this season.

Countries visited

This is a list of all the different countries that were animated and used as settings throughout the season, and the episode in which the characters visited that country. Both the United States and Canada are the only two countries which were visited multiple times throughout the season.

Flag	Country	Episode	Location
	Australia	16	Hanging Rock, Victoria
	Brazil	8	Amazon River, Amazon Rainforest
	Canada	4	Whitehorse, Yukon
		10	St John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
		6	Toronto, Ontario
		12
		18
		19	Niagara Falls, Ontario
		23	Drumheller, Alberta
		25
	Chile	22	Easter Island
	China	20	Great Wall of China
	Egypt	1	Giza Necropolis
		2	Nile River
	France	9	Paris
	Germany	7	Northern Limestone Alps
	Greece	14	Athens
	Jamaica	11	Montego Bay
	Japan	3	Tokyo
	Mexico	25	Tijuana, as part of a race from Alberta, Canada to Hawaii.
	Peru	8	Amazon River, Amazon Rainforest, and Machu Picchu
	Sweden	17	Gothenburg
	Tanzania	21	Serengeti
	United Kingdom	13	London, England
	United States	5	New York City, New York
		15	Area 51 and Area 52, Nevada
		19	Niagara Falls, New York
		24	Kīlauea, Hawaii
		25
		26

Source for list:^[6]

Music

There were a total number of 30 songs that were performed in this season. A list of all the songs are displayed below, including the episode in which they were sung in. Episodes in darker grey have two songs.

Song titles

This is a list of all the songs performed in Total Drama World Tour. The names of the contestants who sang are displayed on the right column. Note that everyone means that every contestant that was active only on that episode, participated in that song. Eliminated contestants do not count as part of everyone.

Character song participation 

This is a basic, brief summary of each contestant's participation in each song, with their status in each song included. This table displays all the contestants who sang in a song, but also displays the contestants who were still active in the competition during that song, but didn't sing. This table also shows whether a contestant appeared in an episode or not.

Contestant	Episode
	1	2		3	4	5	6		7	8	9	10	11	12		13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24		25	26
	Song Number
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
Alejandro	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N			Y	N	N	Y	N			N	N	N	N	Y		N	Y	Y	Y	Y			Y	Y
Beth							N	N						N	N						N						N	N		N
Blaineley							N	N						N	N						N	Y	Y				N	N		N
Bridgette	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y		N	Y						Y	N						N						Y	N		N
Chris	N	N	N	N	N	N			N	N	N	N	N			N	N	N	N	N		Y	Y	N	N	N			N	N
Cody	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N			N	Y	N	Y	N			N	N	N	N	N		N	Y	N	Y	N			Y	N
Courtney	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y			Y	N	N	Y	N			Y	N	Y	Y	Y		Y	N				Y	Y		Y
DJ	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N			N	N	N	Y	N	N	N						N						N	N		N
Duncan	Y	N														N	Y	N	N	Y		Y	Y	Y			N	N		N
Eva							N	N						N	N						N						N	N		N
Ezekiel	Y	Y	Y																											N
Geoff							N	N						Y	N						Y						Y	N		N
Gwen	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y			Y	Y	N	Y	Y			Y	Y	N	Y		N						N	N		N
Harold	Y	Y	Y	Y			Y	N						N	N						N						Y	Y		Y
Heather	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y			Y	Y	N	Y	N			Y	N	Y	Y	Y		Y	Y	Y	Y	Y			Y	Y
Izzy	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N			N	N	N	Y	N	N	N						N						N	N		N
Justin							Y	N						N	N						N						N	N		N
Katie							N	N						N	N						N						N	N		N
LeShawna	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y			Y					N	Y						N						N	N		N
Lindsay	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y			Y	N	N			N	N						N						N	N		N
Noah	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N			Y	N	Y	Y	N			Y					N						N	N		N
Owen	N	Y	Y	Y	N	Y			Y	N	Y	Y	Y			Y	N	N	N	Y		Y					N	Y		N
Sadie							N	N						N	N						N						N	N		N
Sierra	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y			N	Y	Y	Y	N			Y	N	N	N	Y		N	Y	Y	Y	N			Y	N
Trent							Y	N						N	N						N						N	N		N
Tyler	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N			Y	N	N	Y	N			N	N	N			N						N	N		N

Key

Song Status
Y	This contestant sung during this song.
N	This contestant did not sing during this song.
	This contestant was inactive during this episode.
	This episode is an aftermath.
	This character was not a contestant.

• Note: In the first episode, Chris states that anyone who doesn't sing will be automatically eliminated. Although throughout the season, multiple contestants did not participate in songs but were not eliminated.

Reception

Awards and accolades

Total Drama World Tour won numerous awards in 2011, from such outlets as the ToonZone Awards and the KidScreen Awards. At the ToonZone Awards, it won "Best Foreign Series," "Best Music Score on a TV Series," and "Best Voice Actress" for Annick Obonsawin. It was additionally nominated for "Best Original Song" for Oh My Izzy (sung by Scott McCord and Megan Fahlenbock), and "Best Voice Actor" for Carter Hayden.^[7] In the 2011 KidScreen Awards, the season won "Best Animated Series," "Best Voice Talent," and "Best Tweens/Teens Program."^[8]

Critical reception

Despite the many accolades and the enormous critical acclaim, some events of this season were severely criticized, such as the under-use of characters who had smaller roles in the preceding seasons, and the overuse of characters who had already won a preceding season or, at the very least, made it far into them. Other aspects of the season that had a negative reception were Ezekiel being turned into a feral monster, the constant losing streak of Team Victory and the love triangle between Duncan, Courtney and Gwen. The love triangle was eventually addressed in a video with the show's creators on Christian Potenza's YouTube channel, revealing that the breaking up of Duncan and Courtney was actually a network request, rather than a decision on the creator's part.^[9] Total Drama World Tour currently holds an 8.4 on Metacritic, which indicates "universal acclaim."^[10]

Media

DVD releases

Australia is the only country that released Total Drama World Tour on home video, which was released on a Region 4 DVD. The first part of the season was released in a Collection 1 DVD on April 3, 2013^[11] while the second half of the season was released in a Collection 2 DVD on August 7, 2013.^[12]

Total Drama Online

Teletoon hosted a Total Drama World Tour based website starting in 2010 called "Total Drama Online" where people could play games and earn badges to win prizes, but was only available for Canadians.^[13] The site was then replaced with universal games available to everyone in 2013, but removed all special features from the site.

References

External links

• Total Drama World Tour Virtual Flip Book from Cake Entertainment
• Trailer on YouTube
• Total Drama World Tour page from Cartoon Network
• Total Drama Online from Teletoon