# Powerbirds

Powerbirds is an animated children's television series created by Stephen P. Breen and co-created by Jennifer Monier-Williams and produced by Brown Bag Films. The series is about Max and his pet parakeets who owns it and transforms into superhero birds called the powerbirds, after Max leaves for school. The powerbirds find themselves to save the city from danger, and will stop him against the animal friends who are villains.
The series premiered on 19 January 2020, on Universal Kids. It is one of the last shows to premiere on Universal Kids, before it was shut down on March 6, 2025. The series is currently seen in other languages. 20 episodes were produced.

## Premise

The series follows a boy named Max with his pair of parakeets, Ace and Polly. Max counts on them to keep saving the day while he is away. The powerbirds save the city from danger and they stop the villains: Nibbles the poodle, Clawdette the tabby cat, Scrapper the raccoon, Asher Stasher the flying squirrel and Minerva the owlet from the events where Max will be going later, so then later, Max is excited to visit the events.

## Cast and characters
### Main

* Cory Doran as Ace, a determined, daring, and playful, male yellow parakeet who can turn into a superhero when trouble calls. He is not fighting bad guys, but instead, he loves everything related to superheroes, and he is a food-loving bird.
* Tara Strong as Polly, a very silly and creative, female blue parakeet who, like her brother Ace, can also turn into a superhero. She can think outside of the box to solve problems. She has extra powers like super stretching herself that Ace does not have.

### Recurring

* Orlando Lucas as Max, an imaginative eight-year-old teenage boy who loves comic books that are about superheroes and counts on Ace and Polly to make sure no danger is around the city when he is away, despite him not seeing them saving the day like the other humans can.
* Ana Sani as Gwen, Max’s little sister. He sometimes plays with him before they both leave to wherever they are going and would usually play as another character in his superhero games.
* Paloma Nuñez as Mrs. Lopez, a bookmobile driver. He is Max's owner of the Powerbirds, and he speaks in a Hispanic accent.
* Deven Mack as Grandpa Felix, Max’s lovable grandfather who would appear in most episodes prior to the mission and the lesson one of the Powerbirds must remember. Some of the episodes include "Time to Dino-soar", "The Powerbirds Pretender", "Midnight Scrap", "Wacky Wokka Walk", and "Scrapper’s Magnet Mayhem".

### Antagonists

* Rob Tinkler as Nibbles, a selfish and greedy white-colored poodle who wears a lot of purple such as a suit and hat. He speaks in a British accent and wants to gain attention to become famous, however, he ends up causing disasters, mostly because he only thinks of himself and does not know why the famous people are loved.
* Evany Rosen as Clawdette, a cute, but sneaky orange tabby cat who is Max’s pet, and the Powerbirds’ adoptive sister. She believes that she is the best ninja, so she tries to get stuff so she can be the best at it, and She is dressed up in a pink-colored ninja clothing. In "Power Meower Saves the Day", she actually helped Polly and Ace by wearing out Asher Stasher, and She helps them again in "Food Caper", where Scrapper is stealing the cat food for himself to eat them.
* Tyler Murree as Scrapper, a brown striped raccoon who wants food from other people and speaks in a New York accent. Scrapper's favorite food is pizza and seems to be the least villainous of them because all he wants is food.
* Cory Doran as Asher Stasher, a weird-liking, gray and white flying squirrel that wears glasses and a blue shirt with an acorn icon. Asher is trying to use a giant robot suit and collect all the stuff for his "collection of shiny things", but he sometimes wants stuff that is too big and decides that he either does not want it anyway or gets interrupted by a phone call from his mom. Despite being a flying squirrel, his bushy tail is big so he cannot seen to fly.
* Shannon Hamilton as Minerva, a brown owlet. It is infamous, so it uses different tools to cause trouble such as bad dream bubbles, magic mirrors, consoles, and more to make it herself smarter than the humans are. Minerva likes bullying them and can start to tell it to touch it at a school.

## Episodes

The series has been picked up for 20 22-minute episodes. It premiered early on its original network for its first look of the show on 1 January 2020.
| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Storyboarded by | Original release date | Prod. code | U.S. viewers (millions) |
| 1a | "World's Awesomest Villain" | William Gordon | S: Ben Joseph/T: Ben Joseph & Steve Westren | TBA | 19 January 2020 (2020-01-19) | 102 | N/A |
| Asher Stasher steals all the trophies in town. ||||||||
| 1b | "Owl of Nod" | William Gordon | Heather Jackson | TBA | 19 January 2020 (2020-01-19) | 102 | N/A |
| Minerva ruins everyone’s dreams. ||||||||
| 2a | "That'll Teach Em" | William Gordon | S: Robin J Stein/ T: Robin J Stein & Steve Westren | TBA | 21 January 2020 (2020-01-21) | 103 | N/A |
| Minerva hypnotizes several teachers so she can be the smartest one on earth. ||||||||
| 2b | "Space Odyssey" | William Gordon | Evan Thaler Hickey | TBA | 21 January 2020 (2020-01-21) | 103 | N/A |
| The powerbirds see an UFO in their yard one day. ||||||||
| 3a | "Scrapperlicious" | William Gordon | Scott Albert | TBA | 26 January 2020 (2020-01-26) | 104 | N/A |
| The powerbirds chase Scrapper around town to get some pizzas. ||||||||
| 3b | "Book Bedlam" | William Gordon | Robin J Stein | TBA | 26 January 2020 (2020-01-26) | 104 | N/A |
| Minerva drives around Mrs Lopez’s Bookmobile without knowing how to drive, so the Powerbirds must get the bookmobile back to safety. ||||||||
| 4a | "Nibbles takes the Cake" | William Gordon | Steve Westren | TBA | 2 February 2020 (2020-02-02) | 105 | N/A |
| Nibbles ruins several birthdays by taking all the cakes. ||||||||
| 4b | "Clash of the Critters" | William Gordon | Josh Saltzman | TBA | 2 February 2020 (2020-02-02) | 105 | N/A |
| Clawdette and Scrapper fight over a trash can. ||||||||
| 5a | "Time to Dino-Soar" | William Gordon | S: Robin J Stein/ T: Robin J Stein & Steve Westren | Paul GunsonAntonella Maringola | 9 February 2020 (2020-02-09) | 101 | N/A |
| Nibbles ruins the grand opening of the dinosaur exhibit and throws a party there. ||||||||
| 5b | "Birdy Guards" | William Gordon | Ben Joseph | TBA | 9 February 2020 (2020-02-09) | 101 | N/A |
| The powerbirds must protect a famous wrestler’s belt before Asher Stasher and Clawdette take it. ||||||||
| 6a | "Haywire Hayride" | William Gordon | S: Craig Martin T:Craig Martin & Steve Westren | TBA | 16 February 2020 (2020-02-16) | 106 | N/A |
| Ace and Polly have to stop Nibbles, who’s ruining the Harvest festival by taking over the hayride. ||||||||
| 6b | "The Powerbirds Pretender" | William Gordon | Steve Westren | TBA | 16 February 2020 (2020-02-16) | 106 | N/A |
| Ace and Polly have to save the day and their reputations when Minerva poses as a fake Powerbird to make them look bad. ||||||||
| 7a | "Power Meower Saves the Day" | William Gordon | Robin J Stein | TBA | 23 February 2020 (2020-02-23) | 107 | N/A |
| Clawdette inadvertently sabotages Ace and Polly’s attempts to stop Asher Stasher from collecting all the soccer balls in town. ||||||||
| 7b | "Midnight Scrap" | William Gordon | Scott Albert | TBA | 23 February 2020 (2020-02-23) | 107 | N/A |
| Scrapper schemes to sneak into the house to take the cupcakes Max has baked for his classmates. ||||||||
| 8a | "Wacky Wokka Walk" | William Gordon | S: Craig Martin T: Craig Martin & Steve Westren | TBA | 1 March 2020 (2020-03-01) | 108 | N/A |
| Nibbles steals the finish line for the big race so that no one can win it. ||||||||
| 8b | "Owl’s Spoilers" | William Gordon | S: Ben Joseph T: Ben Joseph & Steve Westren | TBA | 1 March 2020 (2020-03-01) | 108 | N/A |
| Ace and Polly team up against Minerva, who’s stolen the last page out of every copy of Max’s favorite comic book, Idaho Smith, so only she knows the ending. ||||||||
| 9a | "Cement Your Legacy" | William Gordon | Ben Joseph | TBA | 8 March 2020 (2020-03-08) | 109 | N/A |
| Nibbles plans to write his name in some freshly poured cement so it will be there forever. ||||||||
| 9b | "The Greatest Inventor" | William Gordon | S: Ben Joseph T: Ben Joseph & Steve Westren | TBA | 8 March 2020 (2020-03-08) | 109 | N/A |
| Minerva sneaks into the museum before it opens and switches all the plaques to make it seem like she invented everything. ||||||||
| 10a | "Owl Got Your Tongue" | William Gordon | Steve Westren | TBA | 15 March 2020 (2020-03-15) | 110 | N/A |
| Minerva takes away everyone’s ability to talk, while Polly learns that words aren’t the only way to communicate. ||||||||
| 10b | "Cereal Box Bandit" | William Gordon | Elliot Sokolsky | TBA | 15 March 2020 (2020-03-15) | 110 | N/A |
| Asher Stasher collects all the breakfast cereal in town while The Powerbirds’ power belts have been damaged. ||||||||
| 11a | "Clawdette Chaos!" | William Gordon | Elliot Sokolsky | TBA | 17 June 2020 (2020-06-17) | 111 | N/A |
| It’s up to the Powerbirds to stop Clawdette, who’s planning to ruin the big Kite Festival. ||||||||
| 11b | "Food Caper" | William Gordon | Heather Jackson | TBA | 17 June 2020 (2020-06-17) | 111 | N/A |
| The Powerbirds and Clawdette team up to stop Scrapper. ||||||||
| 12a | "Asher’s Moving Castle" | William Gordon | Robin J Stein | TBA | 19 June 2020 (2020-06-19) | 112 | N/A |
| Ace and Polly have to think things through when Asher Stasher steals the bouncy castle from the big block party. ||||||||
| 12b | "Villain-Palooza" | William Gordon | Steve Westren | TBA | 19 June 2020 (2020-06-19) | 112 | N/A |
| All the villains team up to stop the Powerbirds once and for all. ||||||||
| 13a | "Asher Goes Bananas" | William Gordon | Diana Moore | TBA | 26 June 2020 (2020-06-26) | 113 | N/A |
| Asher Stasher becomes obsessed with getting to the moon so he can put all of his extra collectibles in it. ||||||||
| 13b | "Scrapper’s Magnet Mayhem" | William Gordon | Ben Joseph | TBA | 26 June 2020 (2020-06-26) | 113 | N/A |
| Scrapper gets a hold of a really powerful magnet so he can take every item of canned food he can find, Even on Max’s food drive. ||||||||
| 14a | "Clawdette’s Mischievous Monkey" | William Gordon | Ben Joseph | TBA | 3 July 2020 (2020-07-03) | 114 | N/A |
| Ace and Polly are scared when Clawdette gets control of a toy Monkey, when she lets it gets loose in town. ||||||||
| 14b | "Take back the Fort" | William Gordon | Evan Thaler Hickey | TBA | 3 July 2020 (2020-07-03) | 114 | N/A |
| The Powerbirds have to stop Scrapper, who’s taken over Max’s tree fort and using it for his very own villains’ lair. ||||||||
| 15a | "Major Mishap" | William Gordon | Andrew Harrison | TBA | 10 July 2020 (2020-07-10) | 115 | N/A |
| Asher hatches a plan to take all Major Justice action figures, so only HE’ll have them. ||||||||
| 15b | "King Wasteville" | William Gordon | Steve Westren | TBA | 10 July 2020 (2020-07-10) | 115 | N/A |
| Scrapper is launching mounds of waste into town trying to turn it into his own wasteful paradise. ||||||||
| 16a | "Asher’s Tooth Fairy Wish" | William Gordon | Ben Joseph | TBA | 17 July 2020 (2020-07-17) | 116 | N/A |
| Ace and Polly have to protect Max’s tooth from Asher who wants to add it to his loose teeth collection. ||||||||
| 16b | "Power Meower Strikes Again" | William Gordon | Josh Saltzman | TBA | 17 July 2020 (2020-07-17) | 116 | N/A |
| Gwen’s stuffy, Boo Boo, is gone and she couldn’t find it! While Max searches for it with her, Ace and Polly do their own searching with the unlikely help of Clawdette... or should we say: Power Meower. ||||||||
| 17a | "Clawdette Who cried Wolf" | William Gordon | Katherine Sandford | TBA | 24 July 2020 (2020-07-24) | 117 | N/A |
| 17b | "Arf-Tastic Tales of Nibbles" | William Gordon | S: Ben Joseph & Steve Westren T: Steve Westren | TBA | 24 July 2020 (2020-07-24) | 117 | N/A |
| 18a | "Doggoween" | William Gordon | Katherine Sandford | TBA | 1 August 2020 (2020-08-01) | 118 | N/A |
| 18b | "Clash with Clawdette" | William Gordon | Diana Moore | TBA | 1 August 2020 (2020-08-01) | 118 | N/A |
| 19a | "Asher’s Eggstravaganza" | William Gordon | S: Josh Saltzman & Steve Westren T: Steve Westren | TBA | 8 August 2020 (2020-08-08) | 119 | N/A |
| 19b | "Big Balloon Afternoon" | William Gordon | S: Nate Knetchel & Steve Westren T: Steve Westren | TBA | 8 August 2020 (2020-08-08) | 119 | N/A |
| 20a | "Clawdette's Christmas Caper" | William Gordon | Heather Jackson | TBA | 5 November 2020 (2020-11-05) | 120 | N/A |
| 20b | "Hologram Hijinks" | William Gordon | Ben Joseph | TBA | 5 November 2020 (2020-11-05) | 120 | N/A |

## Production

Universal Pictures has chosen to make a TV series out of Breen's children's books, which are published by Penguin, include Stick, Violet the Pilot, Pug and Doug, Unicorn Executions and Skyhorse, and the choice was Powerbirds. Universal Kids planned the series in 2017, but with a different style, before Sprout’s rebrand to Universal Kids, a different style of the characters, which was Max, Polly, Ace and another character, the Golden Eagle.
9 Story Media Group's live-action and animation division co-produced the series with animators from Brown Bag Films.

## Reception

Universal Kids stated Hollywood Life that "The series promotes underlying positive messages that we can all be our own superhero if we do the right thing."

## Release

In 2017, Universal Kids, as Sprout, set a release date for Powerbirds in 2019, but on December 11, 2019, the show was delayed to a 2020 release date instead to January 19, 2020, and the show got a first look release on January 1, 2020. The show will also air on Family Jr. in Canada.