Camp Lazlo is an American animated television series created by Joe Murray for Cartoon Network.

Lazlo is often at odds with his pessimistic camp leader, Scoutmaster Lumpus the moose, but usually gets along well with the second-in-command, Slinkman the banana slug, and other campers.

Its style of humor is similar to the Nickelodeon series Rocko's Modern Life, which Murray also created and worked on, albeit more well-suited for a younger audience.

[4] The series premiered on Cartoon Network on July 8, 2005, and ran for five seasons comprising 61 episodes and the hour-long television special, Where's Lazlo?.

The trio consists of Lazlo, the eccentric, optimistic spider monkey; Raj, the timid Indian elephant; and Clam, the quiet albino pygmy rhinoceros, and their multiple surreal misadventures.

Other characters include the selfish, ill-tempered moose Scoutmaster Lumpus and his mild-mannered assistant Slinkman the banana slug, the boys' assortment of fellow campers including the disgruntled, surly platypus Edward, the two unintelligent, dirt-loving dung beetles Chip and Skip, and the klutzy, accident-prone, geeky Guinea pig Samson.

There's also a frenemy summer camp called Acorn Flats, which is attended solely by girls, primarily focusing on Lazlo, Raj, and Clam's respective female counterparts attending that camp; Patsy the adventurous mongoose who has a major crush on Lazlo, Gretchen the short-tempered alligator, Nurse Leslie the pink nurse shark who is a doctor and Nina the bookish, sci-fi-loving giraffe, along with the object of Scoutmaster Lumpus's affections, Miss Doe (a female deer), the head of Acorn Flats.

The setting of the show was designed to deliberately bring a nostalgic feeling of childhood summer camps and "evoke a comfortable place to visit".

Ultimately, Murray wanted to create a place where nature prevails, and the hustle and bustle of real-life is left behind, with no technology to distract from the impressions of camp life.

[5] After Rocko's Modern Life concluded production in 1996, series creator Joe Murray kept a notebook of ideas for television shows and books.

At the time he believed that too many futuristic themes appeared in media and literature, so he wished to create a series that would "get back to nature".

[5] Murray asked many staff members who participated in creating Rocko's Modern Life to return and perform duties for Camp Lazlo, describing his main tactic to attract the crew as "coercion".

[citation needed] Ginia Bellafante of The New York Times said that if she became "socio-analytical about the Lazlo enterprise", Camp Kidney appears to be a stand-in for "our culture of obsessive parenting".

[citation needed] On July 18, 2007, Madman Entertainment of Australia released a set of two DVDs encoded for Region 4 of season one episodes.

"Snow Beans", a winter-themed episode of the show, was released on the Cartoon Network Christmas: Volume Three DVD on October 3, 2006.

In the game, the player meets characters, such as Scoutmaster Lumpus, Mr. Slinkman, Edward, and others to receive hints and directions in achieving goals and completing timed mini-games.

Jack DeVries of IGN rated the game a 4.0 out of 10, criticizing the mini-games for not explaining their objectives and calling its gameplay "boring" and its audio "some of the most horrendous music ever heard on the GBA.

Murray stated on his website that he will not explain his opposition to Happy Meals due to his respect for the effort placed by Cartoon Network "marketing people".

[26][27] On November 14, 2007, Cartoon Network Enterprises announced a deal with KellyToyUSA to create toys based on the series that would be distributed to amusement parks in North America beginning in 2008.

Lazlo made a cameo in the MAD episode "Taking Nemo / Once Upon a Toon", as one of the cartoon characters who forgotten their identity.