Wonder pets

Wonder Pets! is an American animated children's television series created by Josh Selig for Nickelodeon and the Nick Jr. channel. It centers on a trio of classroom pets—Linny the guinea pig, Tuck the turtle, and Ming-Ming the duckling—who use teamwork to help animals in need. Much of the characters' dialogue is sung in the style of operetta.[3] Each episode is set to original music by a 10-member live orchestra.

Selig created Wonder Pets! using funds from his previous Nickelodeon show Oobi, which was a live-action puppet series. When Oobi wrapped production, he had enough profit to start an animation division at his studio, Little Airplane Productions. He and Jennifer Oxley directed two animated shorts called "Linny the Guinea Pig," which acted as a pilot episode for Wonder Pets!. They featured Linny going on adventures set to classical music.[4] In 2005, Nickelodeon ordered a full-length series based on the shorts, citing the success of Oobi as a reason to continue partnering with Selig.[5] The characters of Tuck and Ming-Ming were added to form a team of hero pets.

The two original shorts were completed and aired in 2004.[6] The full-length series debuted on March 3, 2006,[1] as part of the Nick Jr. block of the Nickelodeon network. On December 27, 2006, the series started airing on Nickelodeon's sister channel Noggin. It ran for three seasons and 62 episodes. The first two seasons aired on Nickelodeon, while the majority of season three aired exclusively on the Nick Jr. channel.

## History

Wonder Pets! was created by Josh Selig at his New York studio, Little Airplane Productions. Before Wonder Pets! started, he had only produced live-action works: Oobi and a short film titled The Time-Out Chair.[7] After Oobi became a breakout success for his company, he had enough profits to start an animation division at Little Airplane.[8] He produced two animated shorts called "Linny the Guinea Pig." At the time, he wanted the cartoon to focus on a silent guinea pig who left her classroom to go on fantastic adventures, each set to classical music. Jennifer Oxley, who had joined Little Airplane as an animator, signed on as the director of the two shorts.[9]

Selig first screened the shorts at the wrap party for Oobi's first season. The crew of Oobi was impressed with them and urged Selig to pitch them to a broadcast network. He waited until Oobi finished production to start focusing on the shorts. He eventually decided to send the shorts to Nickelodeon executives. Selig called Nickelodeon "a great partner," saying "They're really the company that first believed in us when we pitched Oobi, and then they believed in us again on Wonder Pets!."[10]

Nickelodeon picked up Wonder Pets! for a season of 20 episodes in 2005. Tuck and Ming-Ming were added to the cast to form a team of superhero pets, and the characters were given voices; the dialogue-free nature of the original shorts did not translate well to half-hour episodes. At the time, Selig wanted to call the show The Super Singing Power Pets!, but it was renamed Wonder Pets! because the former name was too long.[7] Selig turned to various former crew members of Oobi to help him develop the show, including writers Chris Nee and Sascha Paladino and composers Larry Hochman and Jeffrey Lesser.[11]

The animation style used to create Wonder Pets! is called "photo-puppetry," and was created for the series to allow animators to manipulate photographs of real animals. It also uses drawn objects (not characters), so the total presentation could be considered animated mixed-media. Jennifer Oxley considers this technique her own invention and first used it to create lifelike transitions for Little Airplane's previous works.[8]

A good deal of the dialog is sung, so the show has been likened to operetta or singspiel. A 10-member live orchestra performs each episode, sometimes including other instrumentalists skilled in music from the region to which the pets are traveling during the episode.[12] Completing each episode took thirty-three weeks from script to final delivery.[13]

## Formatting

Each episode follows a similar structure, with many hallmarks and repeated elements. As each episode begins, schoolchildren are heard from off-screen, leaving school at the end of the day. They say goodbye to the classroom pets. The classroom is always decorated with student artwork and other items related to a given episode's particular storyline, featured animal, or geographic location. Once the classroom is empty, a pencil holder rattles to create the ringing of a telephone.

One by one, the classroom pets notice the ringing phone. As the phone rings, they put on their hats and make their way towards the phone while singing their opening verses. The Wonder Pets answer the phone and find that an animal is in trouble somewhere. Linny, the guinea pig, explains the situation to the other two: Tuck the turtle and Ming-Ming the duckling. They all jump into a box filled with fabric scraps and jump back out wearing different outfits, often alluding to the area of the world they will be visiting. They make a quick joke and jump back into the box, emerging again in superhero capes.

Once dressed, they assemble a flying vehicle called the "Flyboat" from classroom objects: a disc for a body, felt marker caps as rocket exhausts, a marble, wheels, the mast, and a sheet of paper for the sail. In some episodes, the Wonder Pets opt for a different mode of transportation by adjusting the Flyboat. Usually, the pets encounter an obstacle before leaving the classroom. The solution is invariably similar to the action they will need to take to save the animal in trouble.

When saving the animal, the Wonder Pets always fail on the first few attempts. The danger escalates, prompting Ming-Ming to sing, "This is se-wious!" Suddenly, the Wonder Pets remember how they solved the problem in the classroom and realize that the rescue has a similar solution. They have to work together to achieve the rescue. Once the animal is saved, its parent or other relative appears to give grateful thanks to the Wonder Pets. The pets celebrate with a celery snack. The rescued animal's parent sometimes adds a bit of regional food or insists on a regional preparation. The pets fly back to the classroom and wordlessly return to their cages as their hats and capes come off. The Flyboat automatically disassembles upon landing. Ming-Ming is always the first one to get back in her cage, Tuck is the second, and Linny is the last. A musical riff relating to the episode's rescue is played as Linny takes a bite out of the celery in her cage and winks at the camera, thus ending the episode.