Esme & Roy

***Esme & Roy*** is an American/Canadian animated children's television series created by Dustin Ferrer and Amy Steinberg. The series is produced by Canada-based animation studio Nelvana and *Sesame Street* creator Sesame Workshop, in association with Corus Entertainment. It first aired on August 18, 2018, on *HBO Kids* alongside *Treehouse TV* in Canada. The series was HBO Family's first original series since *Classical Baby* in 2005.

On HBO Kids, the show aired until late October 2020 and its second season was moved exclusively to HBO Max. Despite the Sesame Workshop-owned programs (or namely, Pinky Dinky Doo and The Electric Company) taken off of HBO Max in January 2021, with the obvious exception of Sesame Street, Esme & Roy continued to be on the service until August 2022.

## Synopsis

*Esme & Roy* follows a young girl named Esme and her best monster friend, Roy, the most in-demand "monster sitters" in Monsterdale, a town populated mostly by monsters. Each day, the two are assigned to watch a monster child when their parents leave them for a while. Often there is a problem with the monster they watch when they are unable to do something they're supposed to or something they want to do, which results in them having a "Monster Meltdown". Esme is able to calm them down with one of her techniques which includes belly breathing, shaking her pink glitter jar, or by having them repeat a phrase to raise their self-confidence, then they compromise to solve the problem.

## Characters

### Main

* **Esme (voiced by Millie Davis) -** A 9-year-old black girl and a monster sitter. She has a skill for inventing activities to fix the monsters' problems, with the help of the MonsterCase, a suitcase full of fun and games that encourages the monsters to play their problems away and turns into a motorized scooter when taking Esme and Roy to where their monster-sitting service is needed. Her catchphrases include "Don't you just love monsters?", "It's playtime!", and "Uh-oh! Monster Meltdown!"

* **Roy (voiced by Patrick McKenna) -** Esme's best friend and a yellow monster. He is a lovable silly monster who knows everything about monsters with his Monster Fact book, and seems to have a love for meatballs. Whenever he gets too excited, he often asks "Too much?" to Esme.

* **Dumpling (voiced by Frank Welker) -** Esme and Roy's pet monster resembling a hamster. She can roll herself up into a ball and loves to dance.

* **Hugo Ooga (voiced by Shayle Simons/David Kohlsmith) -** A theatrical 4-year-old winged monster. He loves to be the star of the show and creates his own spotlight by clapping his hands.

* **Fig Ooga (voiced by Elle Simons/Markeda McKay) -** Hugo's 1-year-old baby sister. Unlike her brother, she has no wings. While small, she has super strength and loves to pick up Roy to demonstrate it. She shrinks if she smells a Sludgeflower.

* **Tillie Plink (voiced by Abigail Oliver/Summer Rose Castillo) -** An active 3-year-old monster with pink fur, blue eyes, and red hair tied into pigtails with a pair of blue hairbows. She has a need for speed and loves cars and playing rough-and-tumble games and can spin around like a tornado. She also speaks in third person.

* **Snugs Muzzywump (voiced by Benjamin Hum/Charlie Zeltzer) -** An adorable 3-year-old monster who loves to hug and snuggle with people and monsters alike. He puffs up when he gets scared, but can be easy to calm down. He is later a big brother following the episode "Big Brother Snugs" when his mother gives birth to Fuzzy Muzzywump.

* **Simon Swoozle (voiced by Jacob Soley/Rain Janjua) -** A 4-year-old six-tentacled green monster with yellow hair, brown eyes, and blue glasses. He loves enforcing routine and order and loves living with his grandmother, who is an actress herself. He has a big heart and is very artistic, and seems to enjoy learning about space with his favorite comic book character, Mighty Monster.

* **Sid and Lucy Hoozlewoo (voiced by Christian Corrao/David Kohlsmith and Hattie Kragten/Ellora Lopez respectively) -**  Two respectively green and pink sibling monsters who can change colors, copy what each other do, and bounce around on their springy tails. Often when they have their meltdowns, they bounce all over the place. Most of the time, they get along well with each other.

* **Frank and Franny Bleederblop (voiced by Justin Paul Kelly and Lilly Bartlam respectively) -**  Much like Sid and Lucy, both are siblings and are green and pink respectively and love playing. They are the only monsters Esme and Roy watched that never had Monster Meltdowns, though that's because their only major appearance was in "Two Can Play at That Game" (in that episode, Roy was the one who had the meltdown). The rest of their appearances followed were silent cameos, though Frank spoke in "A Mighty Shy Guy".

## Trivia

* This show is probably is the last original HBO Family series, considering that as previously stated before, the show had moved to HBO Max for its second season, and new HBO Family series haven't aired before or after this show. Plus, the HBO Kids block now only airs decades-old programming that was previously seen on Jam.
* The series also aired on the 24/7 *PBS Kids* sub-channel beginning in August 2019. As opposed to on HBO, the second season aired on television starting March 6, 2021. The show stopped airing on June 27th of that same year.
* An early picture from around 2016 indicates that Roy was originally gonna be blue/purple. Esme's design hadn't changed much, beside her hairstyle which had two buns. Also, the series was originally announced to premiere in the spring of 2018.
* The show also aired on Cartoon Network's *Cartoonito* block from September 18, 2021 to March 25, 2022.