I was recently on a spaces and it became clear to me that many folks claim to "see the vision" with Doodles and its storytelling efforts, but maybe it isn't so clear to all.
So I thought I would try my best to highlight what we know so far about our main characters and the world they live in.
First things first. Who are Hap and Mello? We've know the former half of this duo since right after the project minted, where the team purchased the mascot from a community member for 100eth.
Mello started appearing later as a companion, or maybe the main character, depending on who you ask😂
But they were officially named the main characters of the Doodleverse during the holder preview at the Chicago CAMP store.
The semi-permanent pop-up at camp caught some flak for being "focused on kids." What was lost due to that criticism was that the scenes at CAMP told the story of Hap and Mello for those willing to see beyond the ball pit.
Before CAMP we could only assume that Hap's main character trait mirrored the slogan of Doodles, which is to "color the world with joy."
It turns out there is a little more to the story.
Hap is a resident of Dullsville. Dullsville seems to be a place that crushes spirits and stifles creativity, maybe similar to some places we are all familiar with.
But hap is a restless soul, they are a tinkerer and inventor with a pension for doing first and asking questions later. After a new invention of theirs, the doodad, malfunctions Hap encounters a new world brimming with joy, color, and endless possibility. This place is Doodle World!
After passing through the rainbow portal the first locale we are introduced to is the Rainbow Valley.
The Rainbow Valley is central to the Doodle verse and centrally located in CAMP. Hap being the tinkerer full of wanderlust, Hap looks over the valley with a sense of adventure.
This new world, full of mystery and adventure has a few locations that are important in the story of Hap and Mello. The second place we encounter is the crash site.
A dark location that also features a fossil of doodles past. The crash site is significant because aliens play an important role in the Doodles lore.
Though Hap mistakenly opened up this portal to the Doodle world it appears that the aliens in this universe are way ahead of the curve and have mastered inter-doodmensional travel. Taking a look inside the space ship, we get a sense for how sophisticated these beings are, and their love for music and games.
After returning home from Doodle world it appears that Hap has been forever changed, tantamount to being enlightened.
Having become a changed doodle, touched by the magic of Doodle world, it seems like Hap's new focus is to make their way back to Doodle world! In order to do this they need to control the rainbow portal and not rely on a malfunctioning doodad to do the trick.
Hap seems to get the portal under control in the lab in Dullsville but it doesn't mean that there aren't "portal problems." Hap more than once finds themselves in a place that is reminiscent of the Star Wars "World Between worlds"
It seems like Hap has a tough time at first, but later masters the inter dimensional plane, enough so to play badminton there!
Now having become a master dimensional traveler Hap begins to explore the Doodle World. Hap begins to spread their wings and explore this new world, where gravity and physics don't seem to have the same constraints as Dullsville.
Hap can float on the clouds and even size does not seem to be permanent in Doodle world where creatures and characters can seemingly change size at will.
Hap finds the flower forest where the flowers tower above and they become compatriots with the snails and worms.
Now having experienced this new found freedom in Doodle World, hap turns his attention back to Dullsville. Surely there must be a way to bring some of this spirit into the dreary land where they reside. Hap doing what Hap does best, they begin to tinker and create. Hap's latest invention may bridge these two worlds. Hap invents the Dooplicator.
The Dooplicator is a magical backpack akin to the ghostbusters proton blaster, but this device is not built for destruction or entrapment. The Dooplicator is built for freedom and its purpose is to color the world with joy. The doop for short seems to take the portal energy first mistakenly discovered in Hap's lab and turns it into a ray of joy.
The doop transforms things from dull and drab to colorful and full of life.
We can only imagine that Hap coloring the world with joy is not the first stop on the journey but just the beginning. The hi-jinks that Hap and Mello get into will be a source of storytelling for a long time to come. As long as there are problems in the world, Hap with his often haphazard inventions and Mello with its cavalier attitude will be there to brighten the world, one adventure at a time.
