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 two seasons before ending on 7 November 2008.

Premise

The series 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

Animalians

Note: In a nod to the book, the names of all the Animalians begin with the first letter of their species name.

Corespore types

There have been many different types of Corespores throughout the series, each causing a wide variety of adverse effects on Animalia and its inhabitants when they blast off from the Core (with the exception of the Superspore).

Episodes

Note: All episodes of the series were directed by David Scott.

Series overview

Season 1 (2007–08)

Season 2 (2008)

Production

The series is computer-animated, and 40 half-hour episodes were produced by Animalia Productions, based at Village Roadshow Studios in Queensland, and visual effects companies Photon VFX, and Iloura Digital Pictures. The animation was rendered by Autodesk Maya.

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.

Broadcast

BBC Worldwide initially handled distribution in all territories except for North America, where PorchLight Entertainment distributed the series. In December 2009, Cyber Group Studios took over global distribution rights from both companies. The series began running in Australia on Network Ten at noon on Sundays beginning on 11 November 2007, and also on Nickelodeon since May 2008. In the United Kingdom it aired on CBBC on BBC One beginning on 19 November 2007. The series also aired in the United States on PBS Kids Go! beginning on 5 January 2008. As of 3 November 2008, the show is also running on NRK in Norway. In Latin America, the series began running on Animal Planet and later in Venezuela on Tves. In India, the show 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.

Home media releases

Reception

Critical response

A reviewer for The New York Times 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 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 (APRA) and Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC).

Merchandise

PorchLight Entertainment owned worldwide licensing and merchandising rights to the series while BBC Worldwide handled the UK, Australia and New Zealand. 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.