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Work It Out Wombats!
Animated children's television series on PBS Kids From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Work It Out Wombats! is a children's animated television series that premiered on February 6, 2023, on PBS Kids. The series is produced by GBH Kids and Pipeline Studios.[1] The series is animated using Toon Boom Harmony. The series also has a podcast, which premiered on January 4, 2024.[2][3] Reception to the series has been mostly positive. The series has been renewed for a second season.
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Premise
In the land of the Treeborhood, the series follows marsupials Malik, Zadie and Zeke living with their grandmother (Super) in her apartment complex.[4] Every episode features them encountering a problem of some kind and using computational thinking to solve it.[5] In-between each of the episodes is a 90-second music video, similar to the next show, (except for steps to play or do something).
Characters
Main
- Malik (voiced by Ian Ho in Season 1 and Nylan Parthipan in Season 2)[citation needed] is a playful and curious 8-year-old (starting off at a 7 year old) grey wombat and the oldest of the siblings. He is meticulous and organized, but nonetheless likes having fun with his siblings.[6]
- Zadie (voiced by Mia SwamiNathan) is a 6-year-old (later 7-year-old) purple wombat and the middle child of the siblings. She likes to create fantastical ideas that are shown in a cardboard/puffball/popsicle stick art style.[7]
- Zeke (voiced by Rain Janjua) is a playful 4-year-old (later 5-year-old) yellow wombat and the youngest of the siblings. He usually carries a stuffed animal named Snout with him, and is fond of asking lots of questions and talking nonstop.[8]
- Super (voiced by Yanna McIntosh) is a fifty-something pink-haired cyan wombat who is the wombats' grandmother as well as the superintendent of the Treeborhood. She is open minded and encourages her grandchildren to make mistakes.[9] She has a brother named Duper who lives in another town miles away. She has many friends which include Beatrice Beaver and Chanáa.
Recurring
- Mr. E (voiced by Joseph Motiki) is an iguana who owns the Everything Emporium. He is very organized and does care for the wombats but doesn't like their antics. He has a crush on Ellie, and she is the only person that he is openly affectionate towards.[10]
- Ellie (voiced by Tymika Tafari) is a moose of Jamaican descent who is the Treeborhood's EMT. She is reliable and very kind-hearted. Some of her interests include fitness and jumping on a trampoline.[11][12]
- Louisa (voiced by Claire Mackness) is an intelligent 4-year-old adopted pink tarsier who wants to know everything. Her catchphrase is "Did/do you not know?". She is good friends with Zeke. She shares a name with another character with the same name from the next show.
- Leiko and Duffy (voiced by Ana Sani and Shoshana Sperling, respectively) are a pair of kangaroos who are a lesbian couple and the adoptive mothers of Louisa. They used to be in a rock music duo together. Duffy works at Eat 'N Greet, while Leiko is the COO of the Creation Station.
- Sammy (voiced by Baeyen Hoffman) is an 8-year-old (starting off at a 7 year old) orange laid-back emerald tree boa snake with Puerto Rican heritage.[12] He always wears a red cap, and is good friends with Malik.
- Quique, real name Enrique (voiced by B'atz' Recinos) is the father of Sammy. He is a teacher at the Starlight Room.[13] He has a wife named Yolanda whom he had divorced but still remains contact by taking turns in taking care of their son.
- JunJun (voiced by Roman Pesino) is a playful 6-year-old Philippine Eagle who likes singing and playing guitar. He occasionally speaks Tagalog words. He is good friends with Zadie.
- Kaya (voiced by Gianelle Miranda) is JunJun's 17-year-old (starting off at 16 years old) sister. She is a waitress at the Eat 'N Greet and a social media influencer.
- Amado (voiced by Mark Andrada) is JunJun and Kaya's father. He is the arborist of the Treeborhood and frequently cuts topiary trees. He wears a red barong tagalog.
- Gabriela (voiced by Carolyn Fe) is JunJun and Kaya's grandmother. She is the local mail carrier.
- Carly, CeCe, and Clyde (all voiced by Julie Lemieux), Kat (voiced by Athena Karkanis), and Kit (voiced by Dan Chameroy) are a green fiddler crab family who are farmers at the Sow 'N Grow. They are rather timid. Carly, CeCe, and Clyde are triplets who function as a single character. Carly wears red, CeCe wears green, and Clyde wears blue. Also, Cece is the only crab who wears square glasses while Kit, Kat, Carly and Clyde wear round glasses. Kit and Kat are their father and mother.
- Fergus and Felicia Fishman (voiced by Michael Gordin Shore and Athena Karkanis, respectively) are a married couple of fish entrepreneurs who live in a tank near the top of the Treeborhood.
- Flip, Frannie, and Finn Fishman are the three children of Fergus and Felicia. Because they are only just babies, they do not talk.
- Sylvia (voiced by Paloma Nuñez) is a white cow with lavender spots, dark blue glasses, and curly maroon hair. She wears a purple button-up shirt. She drives a train that runs on the ground instead of on rails.
- Duper (also known as Great Uncle Duper, voiced by Martin Roach) is Malik, Zadie, and Zeke’s granduncle and Super’s brother.
- Buckley (voiced by Jayd Deroché) is a beaver and the wombats' friend.
- Yolanda (voiced by Margarita Varderrama) is the ex-wife of Quique and Sammy’s mother. She lives in the Flowerhood, a place with giant flowers.
- Benito (voiced by Juan Pablo Romero) is Sammy’s younger but taller cousin. Benito speaks Spanish in the English version and English in the Spanish version.
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Episodes
Summarize
Perspective
Series overview
Season 1 (2023–25)
Season 2 (2025–)
Nylan Parthipan replaced Ian Ho in the role of Malik.
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Related media
Games
These games were released on the PBS Kids website, as well as the PBS Kids Games App.
- Step It Out!
- Road Repair
- Story Emporium
- Toy Maker
- Pattern Palooza Fair!
Development
Summarize
Perspective
The themes and ideas of the show were previously covered in Aha Island, a WGBH multimedia project about monkeys who use computational thinking.
Some elements from Aha Island were recycled for Work It Out Wombats!, such as the existence of the Everything Emporium.[44]
The series was greenlit in October 2020, under the working title of Wombats![45] Wombats were chosen as the species of the main characters because they are underused in media.[46]
Early-career writers were granted fellowships so they could bring diverse viewpoints and BIPOC representation to the series.[47]
The production team worked to ensure authentic representations of names, language, and some of the cultural origins found with the animals themselves, while keeping in mind that animals are not a proxy for race and ethnicity.
For example, JunJun and his family are Philippine eagles, while Ellie is a moose; an animal not found in Jamaica.[48]
Casting
The producers deliberately sought out voice actors that match the ethnicity of the characters to ensure authenticity.[49] Rain Janjua, the voice of Zeke, originally auditioned for the role of Malik for being asked to try out for Zeke. To create the voice, Janjua tried to recall how his voice sounded between four and five years old.[50]
Animation
The series is animated using Toon Boom Harmony. The characters are animated using complicated rigging systems that allow the animators to draw things by hand, thus giving each character their own nuances and walk cycles. The designs of the characters and settings are rounded in order to create a friendly, welcoming feel. Curvilinear perspective and hazing is used for the backgrounds to make the characters stand out.[51]
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Reception
Audience viewership
Work It Out Wombats! achieved 23 million streams on PBS Kids video platforms within its first two weeks, as well as over 1.7 million views on YouTube.[52]
Critical response
The series was praised for its positive messages, educational value, and high-energy characters. Writing for Common Sense Media, Diondra Brown rated it 5/5 stars, saying "The show's quality matches -- actually, exceeds, the high expectations viewers have for PBS Kids programming."[53]
Controversy
The lesbian characters of Leiko and Duffy caused the series to be controversial among conservative crowds. In May 2023, the Governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, vetoed a measure to provide state funding to Oklahoma Educational Television Authority for three years, due to their broadcasting of Work It Out Wombats! (and of Clifford the Big Red Dog (2019 TV series), which also features same-sex parents) and the claims that it "overly sexualizing" kids.[54]
Accolades
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Marketing
To promote the series, a walkaround mascot of Zeke traveled to different places in the Boston area from February 22 to February 24, under the title "Zeke's Big Boston Adventure." Zeke went to the Boston Children's Museum, the Franklin Park Zoo, and the Boston Public Library. The Mayor of Boston, Michelle Wu, declared February 21 as "Work It Out Wombats! Day."[56]
See also
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References
External links
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