Wonder Pets!

Wonder Pets is an American animated children's television series. It debuted on March 3, 2006, on the Nick Jr. block of the Nickelodeon cable television network and Noggin on August 31, 2006.

The show's main characters are three elementary school classroom pets — Linny the Guinea Pig, Turtle Tuck, and Ming-Ming Duckling. They are presented as a trio of heroes who rescue baby animals as they demonstrate the benefits of teamwork.

Production

The show was created by Josh Selig for Little Airplane Productions, which also created Piper O'Possum for Nick Jr. as well as other shows and shorts for kids. The show began as a short Brøderbund's film series called "The New Adventures of Linny the Guinea Pig," in which Linny traveled into space and under the ocean by herself. Ming-Ming Duckling and Turtle Tuck were created later, making a longer show that was called The Super Singing Power Pets!, later shortened to just Wonder Pets.

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.

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. Completing each episode takes 33 weeks from script to final delivery.

Episode list

Season One: March 2006

1. "Save the Dolphin!" / "Save the Chimp!"
2. "Save the Sea Lions!" / "Save the Kangaroo!"
3. "Save the Caterpillar!" / "Save the Crane!"
4. "Save the Duckling!" / "Save the Kitten!"
5. "Save the Pigeon!" / "Save the Dinosaur!"
6. "Save the Cow!" / "Save the Skunk!"
7. "Save the Swan!" / "Save the Puppy!"
8. "Save the Tree!" / "Save the Elephant!"
9. "Save the Panda!" / "Save the Mouse!"
10. "Save the Unicorn!" / "Save the Penguin!"
11. "Save the Camel!" / "Save the Ants!"
12. "Save the Hedgehog!" / "Save the Crocodile!"
13. "Save the Bullfrog!" / "Save the Poodle!"
14. "Save the Sheep!" / "Save the Hermit Crab!"
15. "Save the Black Kitten!" / "Save the Yak, the Pig, and the Dancing Bear!"
16. "Save the Reindeer!" (double-length)
17. "Save the Three Little Pigs!" / "Save the Owl!"
18. "Save the Wonder Pets!" (double-length)
19. "Save the Goldfish!" / "Save the Baby Birds!"
20. "Save the Turtle!" / "Save Little Red Riding Hood!"
21. "Save the Egg!" / "Save the Flamingo!"
22. "Save the Bee!" / "Save the Squirrel!"
23. "Save the Chameleon!" / "Save the Platypus!"
24. "Save the Dragon!" / "Save the Beaver!"
25. "Save the Ladybug!" / "Save the Sea Turtle!"
26. "Save the Gosling!" / "Ollie to the Rescue!"
27. "Save the Pangaroo!" / "Save the Cricket!"

Age range

Preceding each show is a disclaimer indicating the show develops vocabulary and the concept of teamwork in pre-schoolers. Unlike most shows on Nick Jr., Wonder Pets is made for younger audiences, similar to shows on Noggin.

Characters and voice cast

Linny the Guinea Pig

Linny the Guinea Pig
First appearance	Save the Dolphin!
Created by	Little Airplane Productions
In-universe information
Species	Guinea Pig
Gender	Female
Occupation	Wonder Pet
Family	Guinea Pig

Linny the Guinea Pig, age 5, is the leader of The Wonder Pets. As a superhero, she wears a yellow cap and a blue cape.

Linny is voiced by Sofie Zamchick (Isabella Moylan - UK Version). Before Wonder Pets, Linny starred in a few 3-minute shorts on Nick, Jr. entitled " Linny the Guinea Pig", where Linny would explore different environments such as the ocean or travel to outer space.

Linny appears to be the most educated of the group, often providing different zoological and geographical information to the others. She is usually the one to remind the group about teamwork or other values and offer praise such as "Good eye, Tuck". She leads Ming-Ming and Tuck in most of the show's primary songs and usually has the responsibility of starting the "Flyboat" by pressing the rear flashing light after assembly.

Linny's catch phrase is "This calls for some celery!" at the conclusion of each adventure.

Ming-Ming the Duckling

Ming-Ming Duckling
First appearance	Save the Dolphin!
Created by	Little Airplane Productions
In-universe information
Species	Duckling
Gender	Female
Occupation	Wonder Pet
Family	Duck

Ming-Ming the Duckling, age 3, is an overconfident young duckling. As a superhero, she wears an old fashioned leather pilot helmet, goggles, and a green cape.

Unlike the other Wonder Pets, she has the ability to fly. She can also speak "bird", allowing her to talk to other birds that the Wonder pets encounter. Ming-Ming also believes that her great grandfather was an eagle.

Ming-Ming is voiced by Danica Lee (Khloe Fry - UK Version). When Danica first auditioned for the part, she pronounced "R" sounds as "W" sounds, a common speech problem in young children. One user on the Internet Movie Database criticized this, claiming this is not a show for children starting to speak, stating this may worsen the problem. On the contrary, the producers found it endearing; so, even though by the time Danica was hired she had lost that problem, they asked her to continue speaking that way for the character.

Ming-Ming sometimes tries to take on big problems by herself and in one episode ("Save the Duckling") became the animal that needed rescuing.

Ming-Ming often provides comic relief in the show. In the episode, "Save the Mouse!", Tuck and Ming-Ming bump into a cuckoo clock, resulting in the cuckoo popping out. Ming-Ming then asks the cuckoo, "Excuse me, do you have a cousin named Pablo?", referring to the penguin in The Backyardigans. She mistook a pine cone for an owl in "Save the Owl!". Though this was pointed out by her team-mates, she seemed to not react to this.

Ming-Ming's catch phrase is "This is Sewious!" (This is Serious!)

Tuck the Turtle

Turtle Tuck
First appearance	Save the Dolphin!
Created by	Little Airplane Productions
In-universe information
Species	Turtle
Gender	Male
Occupation	Wonder Pet
Family	Turtle

Turtle Tuck (who is actually a terrapin and more specifically a Red Eared Slider) age 4, is a down-to-earth turtle who sometimes disagrees with Ming-Ming. As a superhero, he wears a white French sailor's cap, blue sneakers, and a red cape.

Tuck is voiced by Teala Dunn (Callum Hanks - UK Version).

Tuck is arguably the most empathetic of the trio, often desiring to give the rescued animals a hug or keeping them company while Linny and Ming-Ming put their rescue plan into action. He also has keen observational skills, spotting things from a distance, which often garners him the compliment, "Good eye, Tuck!"

Episode structure

Each episode follows a similar structure, with some variation, in terms of the storyline and the musical form.

As each episode begins, viewers hear the school children, off-screen, leaving school at the end of the day. Once the classroom is vacant, a pencil holder rattles to create the ringing of a tin can telephone. Often, the classroom will be decorated with student artwork or other items related to the storyline, particular animal or geographic location of that episode. As the phone is ringing, the Wonder Pets make their way towards the phone and sing their opening verses:

Linny: The phone, the phone is ringing.
Ming-Ming: The phone, we'll be right there.
Tuck: The phone, the phone is ringing.
Linny: There's an animal in trouble...
Ming-Ming: There's an animal in trouble...
Tuck: There's an animal in trouble somewhere.

The Wonder Pets answer the phone and find that an animal is in trouble somewhere. They jump into a box filled with fabric scraps and jump back out, wearing various different outfits, often alluding to the area of the world they will be visiting. They make a quick joke then jump back into the box and emerge in their Wonder Pets costumes. They board a flying toy sailboat called "The Flyboat," (which they assemble from classroom objects: a frisbee for a body, magic marker caps as rocket exhausts, a marble, etc.). Occasionally the Wonder Pets will encounter some sort of difficulty assembling the Flyboat. The solution will often be similar to the action they will need to take to save the animal in danger. They rush off to the rescue, singing:

All: Wonder Pets! Wonder Pets! We're on our way,
To help (whatever's being rescued) and save the day.
Ming-Ming: We're not too big
Tuck: And we're not too tough
All: But when we work together we've got the right stuff!
Go Wonder Pets! Yay!

(When they sing the song as they're coming back, the first line is changed to 'we found a way' instead of 'we're on our way'.)

When saving the animal, the Wonder Pets often fail on the first attempt and have to work as a team to achieve the rescue. They sing a song as they work together: "What's gonna work? Teamwork!, What's gonna work? Teamwork!" Once the animal is free, its parents often come out of nowhere to give grateful thanks to the Wonder Pets for saving their baby. The Wonder Pets enjoy some celery and return to their classroom and cages until the next episode.

Media

• Save the Wonder Pets! DVD, release April 2007
  • Includes: "Save the Wonder Pets!", "Save the Caterpillar!", "Save the Crane!", "Save the Sea Lions!", "Save the Kangaroo!", "Save the Hedgehog!", and "Save the Crocodile!"
• Save The Unicorn! DVD, release September 2007
  • Includes: "Save the Unicorn!", "Save the Penguin!", "Save the Swan!", "Save the Puppy!", "Save the Three Little Pigs!", "Save the Owl!", "Save the Bullfrog!", and "Save the Poodle!"
• Save the Reindeer! DVD, release October 2007
  • Includes: "Save the Reindeer!", "Save the Goldfish!", "Save the Baby Birds!", "Save the Camel!", "Save the Ants!", "Save the Egg!", and "Save the Flamingo!"
• Save the Dinosaur! DVD, release February 2008
  • Includes: "Save the Dinosaur!", "Save the Pigeon!", "Save the Dragon!", "Save the Beaver!", "Save the Bee!", "Save the Squirrel!", and "Save the Dolphin!", and "Save the Chimp!"
• Save the Beetles! DVD, release April 2008
• Save the Nursery Rhyme! DVD, release June 2008
• Wonder Pets! CD

External links

• Wonder Pets! web page at NickJr.com
• Wonder Pets! at IMDb
• Wonder Pets! opening theme song (:30 min)
• Wonder Pets! page at TV.com
• Wonder Pets! page at TV Guide
• Wonder Pets! Official page of the production company