Netflix Orders Four New Animated Preschool Shows, Renews Two More
Netflix is making a big play for the preschool crowd.
The streamer has renewed two series that recently debuted: Ridley Jones and Ada Twist, Scientist. It has ordered second seasons for both, which will launch in November 2021 and in 2022 respectively. Both shows are created by Chris Nee (Disney’s Doc McStuffins), who has an overall deal with the streamer.
In addition, Netflix has ordered four new shows: Action Pack, Big Tree City, The Creature Cases, and Deepa and Anoop. All will premiere in 2022. See more details below.
Subscribers with young children are attractive to streaming companies competing in an ever-busier marketplace. Children are famously loyal to their favorite shows, and parents are therefore seen as less likely than others to cancel their subscription (they are “sticky,” in industry parlance).
Netflix’s rivals are increasingly investing in this area — not least Warnermedia, which launched dedicated preschool block Cartoonito on HBO Max and Cartoon Network earlier this month. Meanwhile, this demographic is dominant among the most popular Youtube animation channels, as our new research shows.
Here are the details of the new shows, complete with official blurbs:
Action Pack (January 2022)
A preschool superhero adventure series from Oddbot Inc. The Action Pack is a group of heroic kids — Treena, Watts, Wren, and Clay — who use their incredible superpowers as they take on the biggest threats in Hope Springs, implement the lessons taught by Mr. Ernesto at the Action Academy, and fulfill their ultimate mission of bringing out the good in everything, even in villains! The series is animated by Icon Creative Studios.
Executive producer/showrunner: Chris Hamilton (Muppet Babies, Corn & Peg)
Story editor: Shea Fontana (DC Super Hero Girls, Wonder Woman)
Creator: Bill Harper
The Creature Cases (spring 2022)
An animated action-comedy series which follows the adventures of Sam Snow and Kit Casey, agents of CLADE: the Covert League of Animal Detective Experts. In a world populated exclusively by animals, these brilliant sleuths travel the globe solving mind-boggling mysteries that mix real zoological facts with wild detective action! The series is produced by Silvergate Media and animated by TeamTO.
Executive producers: Kurt Mueller, Adam Idelson
Creator/head writer: Gabe Pulliam
Big Tree City (spring 2022)
An all-action, all-comedy series from Emmy Award-winning Blue Zoo Animation. Hot-sauce volcanoes, biscuit dinosaur mysteries, and exploding soda pop factories; join the wild rescues of Major Prickles and his overzealous team, as they try to save the animal citizens of Big Tree City.
Executive producers: Adam Shaw, Oli Hyatt
Head writer: Sam Morrison
Deepa & Anoop (2022)
An all-new animated preschool series from Mattel Television that follows the adventures of fun-loving seven-year-old Deepa and her best friend Anoop, a color-changing elephant, at Deepa’s family’s bed and breakfast Mango Manor. Deepa and Anoop are the unofficial “ambassadors of fun” and make sure every guest has the best time possible, often solving the simplest of problems with the most imaginative (and complicated!) solutions that frequently involve large-scale musical numbers.
Creators: Munjal Shroff, Lisa Goldman, Heather Kenyon (Gnomeo & Juliet)
Executive producers: Fred Soulie, Christopher Keenan
Image at top: “Deepa & Anoop”
