Animalia (TV series)


Animalia is an animated children's television series based on the 1986 picture book of the same name by illustrator Graeme Base. The series premiered on Network Ten in Australia on 11 November 2007, airing one series before ending on 2 May 2008.

Plot

Animalia tells the story of two human children, Alex and his friend Zoe, who stumble into the magical library which transports them to the animal-inhabited world of Animalia. Strange events have undermined the Animalian civilization, and Alex and Zoe join forces with their new friends G'Bubu the gorilla and Iggy the iguana to save Animalia from evil and comical villains.

Characters

Humans

Note: In a nod to the book, the names of all the Animalians begin with the first letter of their species name.
The series is computer-animated, and 13 half-hour episodes were produced by Animalia Productions, based at Village Roadshow Studios in Queensland, and Australian visual effects companies Photon VFX, and Iloura Digital Pictures.

Development

The series was first conceived in 1999 when Australian producer Ewan Burnett met with Base, and obtained the rights to an adaptation of the best-selling book. In early 2002, Burnett finalised the funding arrangements with Australian and international broadcast partners and investors, but the project was delayed when the British government revised the United Kingdom's taxation laws so that projects claiming special tax status had to be delivered in the financial year they were claimed. After three years of re-financing, Animalia began production in 2005.
The book on which the series was based is a picture book with each spread depicting an elaborate illustration in which every animal and object begins with a particular letter of the alphabet. As there was no coherent narrative or central characters, these were developed with the concept of a fantasy world where animals of all kinds intermingled and interacted becoming the central theme.
As the series was to be broadcast internationally, the alphabetical theme central to the book was dropped, as it was based on the English language alphabet and would lose its meaning if the program were dubbed into other languages.

Episodes

One series, consisting of 13 episodes, have been made, and were first broadcast in 11 November 2007 to 2 May 2008, UK in 19 November 2007 to 5 December 2007 and PBS on 5 January 2008 to 29 March 2008.

Season 1 (2007)

  1. "Hello, We Must Be Going"
  2. "Goodbye, We Must Be Staying"
  3. "The Mist of Time"
  4. "Catcher in the Rhyme"
  5. "Forget Me Not"
  6. "Long Story Short"
  7. "Righting The Writing"
  8. "Butterfly Winter"
  9. "Speechless in Animalia"
  10. "Don Iguana"
  11. "Over & Beyond"
  12. "Being Peter Applebottom"
  13. "Animalia's Talent -O-Topia"

    BBC UK

  14. "Hello, We Must Be Going"
  15. "Goodbye, We Must Be Staying"
  16. "The Mist of Time"
  17. "Catcher in the Rhyme"
  18. "Forget Me Not"
  19. "Long Story Short"
  20. "Righting The Writing"
  21. "Butterfly Winter"
  22. "Speechless in Animalia"
  23. "Don Iguana"
  24. "Over & Beyond"
  25. "Being Peter Applebottom"
  26. "Animalia's Talent -O-Topia"

    PBS version

  27. "Hello, We Must Be Going"
  28. "Goodbye, We Must Be Staying"
  29. "The Mist of Time"
  30. "Catcher in the Rhyme"
  31. "Forget Me Not"
  32. "Long Story Short"
  33. "Righting The Writing"
  34. "Butterfly Winter"
  35. "Speechless in Animalia"
  36. "Don Iguana"
  37. "Over & Beyond"
  38. "Being Peter Applebottom"
  39. "Animalia's Talent -O-Topia"

    Core spore types

There are many different types of Corespore, each causing different adverse effects on the Animalians when they blast off from the Core. Here are a few of them:
The series began running on U.S. cable channel Animania HD on 2 November 2007. In Australia it aired on Network Ten at noon on Sundays beginning on 11 November 2007; also on Nickelodeon since the start of May 2008. In the United Kingdom it aired on CBBC on BBC One beginning on 19 November 2007. The series also aired on PBS in the United States on 5 January 2008.
As of 3 November 2008, the show is also running on NRK in Norway. In Latinoamerica, the series began running on Animal Planet and later in Venezuela on Tves. In India, the shows is broadcast on Cartoon Network India.
The other broadcast partners and investors in the series have not yet announced their broadcast schedules. The international networks involved in the production are: the BBC in the United Kingdom and CBC in Canada. The series will also be broadcast by SABC 2 in South Africa, Al Jazeera and in Israel.

International

Critical response

A New York Times reviewer commented that the phrase based on the book by' may never have been stretched so far" in the creation of this TV series, while characterizing it as "weird" and "intermittently interesting."

Awards

In 2008 Animalia was nominated for BAFTA Children's Kids Vote Award.
In 2009, composer Christopher Elves won a Daytime Emmy award for Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for his work on Animalia's musical score.

APRA-AGSC Awards

The annual Screen Music Awards are presented by Australasian Performing Right Association and Australian Guild of Screen Composers.
In 2008, BBC Children's Books and the Penguin Group published four books by Mandy Archer based on the series: the Animalia Colouring Book, the Animalia Sticker Activity Book, plus two storybooks, Animalia: Hello, we must be going and Animalia: Goodbye, we must be staying which were based upon the first and second episodes of the same name and adapted from the scripts by Tom Ruegger. All four books have text and design by Children's Character Books and all but the colouring book are heavily illustrated with colour screenshots from the series.