Kiddets

Kiddets is a New Zealand-based children's television show which debuted in 2018 and sister series to The WotWots.^[1] Created by Martin Baynton and Richard Taylor, the series uses computer animation mixed with live-action clips to follow five alien friends as they learn about life in their playroom. It currently consists of one season and a total of 52 eleven-minute episodes.^[2]

Kiddets
Genre	Children's television series Comedy
Created by	Martin Baynton Richard Taylor
Written by	Terri Baynton Peter Salmon Roxane Gaiadhar Sacha Cotter Sarah Harpur Lauren Jackson
Directed by	Matthew Darragh Dries Naude
Voices of	Ian Harcourt Richard Saade Debbie Fish Liz Mullane Jacob Rajan Simon Leary Emma Draper
Narrated by	Martin Baynton
Theme music composer	David Long
Composer	David Long
Country of origin	New Zealand China
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	52
Production
Executive producers	Martin Baynton Richard Taylor Clive Spink Jianfeng Wen Bing Wang Lisa Chatfield
Producers	Angela Littlejohn Jan Haynes Jane Robertson
Production locations	New Zealand China
Editor	Owen Ferrier-Kerr
Running time	11 minutes (television series)
Production companies	Pukeko Pictures Hengxin Shambala Kids Cultural Industry Development Co., Ltd.
Original release
Network	TVNZ Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Release	3 September 2018 (2018-09-03) – present
Related
The WotWots

Plot

The show follows five young alien friends called "Kiddets" each with an area of interest and learning; Patches (health, wealth, and safety), Dapper (arts and culture), Bounce (mechanics), Stripes (leadership) and Luna (science). They are space cadets, explorers-in-training at a space academy on planet WotWot. They learn through play in their playroom that overlooks a space port floating above their planet and occasionally reach out for help from SpottyWot and DottyWot on planet Earth.^[3]

Production

Kiddets was created and developed by children's author Martin Baynton in partnership with filmmaker Richard Taylor. Kiddets is co-produced by Pukeko Pictures and Hengxin Shambala Kids Cultural Industry Development Co., Ltd. (formerly Guangdong Huawen Century Animation Company) and is the first official children's television co-production between New Zealand and China.^[4]

The Kiddets characters and their space station are animated with occasional clips from The WotWots over live-action footage by the Weta Workshop,^[5] the visual effects company founded by Taylor and Rodger, known for its work on the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

Broadcast details

Country	Broadcaster	Screen date
New Zealand	TVNZ 2, TVNZ On-Demand, TVNZ HeiHei	17 September 2018
Australia	ABC1, ABC2, ABC Kids	3 April 2018.[6]
China	China Central Television	December 2018 [7]