James R | On 15, Feb 2020

A new reboot of Where’s Wally? is leading the line-up of Sky Kids programming this year.

Sky Kids offers families 11 kids channels and over 5,000 episodes of on demand viewing as well as the Sky Kids app, a safe space for younger kids, including games and art tools with parental controls (including a sleep mode), as well as series. This is complemented by the pin protected Safe Mode on Sky Q, so there’s no danger of children straying into any areas of content that are not right for them. NOW, meanwhile, offers a Kids Membership to access Sky Kids’ line-up on-demand.

To kick off 2020, Sky has acquired the rights to the DreamWorks Animation Where’s Wally? series, which comprises two seasons and 40 half-hour episodes in total. It follows Wally and Wenda, members of the Worldwide Wanderer Society, the international order of curious travellers who circle the globe celebrating cultures and solving problems through observation. Their mentor, Wizard Whitebeard, a seasoned wanderer, sends these inquisitive young adventurers on international travel missions so they can earn their stripes and someday become wizard-level wanderers too. But standing in their way is their rival Odlulu, who can’t help but cause trouble wherever she goes.

It joins a raft of original commissions for Sky Kids, following recent success with Morph, Moominvalley and the BAFTA-winning Play Your Pets Right.

Lucy Murphy, Director of Kids Content at Sky, says: “Sky Kids is passionate about creating the best shows for under 12s and finding new talent to work with. Our new original shows, alongside DreamWorks Animation’s Where’s Wally? bring music, natural history, comedy and innovative stories to our Kids service so there is even more for the whole family to enjoy.”

Here’s the line-up of other original kids’ shows:

Not The End Of The World

Animation series Not The End Of The World (20 x 10 minutes) follows the adventures of Joe Connolly, age 11, in his first year at secondary school somewhere in the UK. Each episode sets up some sort of catastrophe that Joe firmly believes is the end of the world for him, which of course is nothing of the sort. With new situations and potential embarrassments around every corner the series is directed at older kids and adults who will be willing Joe to realise it really isn’t the end of the world! Produced by Helen Stern, created and directed by Jack Bennett, written by Ben Ward and executive produced Sarah Mattingley. Produced by Wildseed and Birkdale Film and Television with production services provided Toonz Media Group and Telegael.

Bad Nature

Prepare for a remarkable journey as we get knee deep in the amazingly hideous world of Bad Nature (25 x 5 minutes), produced by Bristol-based Rebel Television. The live-action comedy combines beautiful natural history footage with state of the art animation, seeing our anchors Marv the Mandrill, Gloria the Puma and their roving animal reporters answer all the wonderfully weird questions you never knew existed. Questions such as, which animal’s poo can be seen from space, what creature squirts blood out of its eyes to ward off potential predators and what animal turns into a block of ice to combat the cold?

Pirates Love Underpants

Pirates Love Underpants (1 x 24 minutes and 5 x music videos) is an animated musical special based on the book by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort, published by Simon & Schuster. The special episode is brought to you by the same BAFTA-nominated team behind Sky Kids previous commission Aliens Love Underpants; Tom Beattie (Producer), Steve Edge (Director), David Schweitzer (Composer) and Henry Paker (Writer). With lots of silly pirate jokes and pop pirate shanties the special will be a joyous adventure where the pirates go on a quest to find the fabled pants of gold. From Tiger Aspect Productions, an Endemol Shine company.

Streetcat Bob

Streetcat Bob (20 x 2 minutes) is a short-form pre-school animated series inspired by the International best-selling book “A Street Cat Named Bob”. The series is produced by Adam Rolston at Shooting Script Films, animated by King Rollo Films, created by Garry Jenkins and Debbie Macdonald with James Bowen as executive producer. Bob is a streetcat who lives in Bowen Park with his troupe of park animal chums. Their adventures carry gentle messages about the importance of looking out for your friends and helping others.

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