Work It Out Wombats!

Work It Out Wombats!

Work It Out Wombats! is an animated television series for preschoolers that premiered on February 6, 2023 on PBS Kids. The series is produced by GBH Kids and Pipeline Studios.

Work It Out Wombats!

What the series is about?

The series follows the adventures of Malik, Zadie and Zeke, three creative marsupial siblings who live with their grandmother (Super) in a treetop apartment complex called the Treeborhood. Each episode sees them tackle a problem of some sort and use computational thinking to solve it. Between one episode and another, a 90-second music video is broadcast.

Characters

The series' main and supporting cast includes:

  • Malik (voiced by Ian Ho) – a gray wombat and the older brother of the brothers. He is meticulous and organized, but also likes to have fun with his siblings.
  • Zadie (voiced by Mia Swami-Nathan) – a female purple wombat and the brothers' middle-aged sister. She likes to create fantastic ideas displayed in an artistic style with cardboard, sponge balls and popsicle sticks.
  • Zeke (voiced by Rain Janjua) – a yellow wombat and the younger brother of the brothers. He usually carries a stuffed animal named Snout with him and likes to ask lots of questions and talk non-stop.
  • Super (voiced by Yanna McIntosh) – a pink-haired cyan wombat who serves as the wombats' grandmother and overseer of the Treeborhood. She is open-minded and encourages her grandchildren to make mistakes.
  • Mr. E (voiced by Joseph Motiki) – an iguana who owns the Everything Emporium. He is very organized and seems to be grouchy most of the time, but eventually he cares about the wombats. He has a crush on Ellie, as he is the only person he is openly affectionate towards.
  • Ellie (voiced by Tymika Tafari) – a Jamaican-born moose who is the EMT of the Treeborhood. She is reliable and very kind. Some of her interests include fitness and jumping on a trampoline.
  • Louisa (voiced by Claire Mackness) – a 4-year-old adopted tarsier who wants to know everything. Her motto is “Didn't you know / don't you know?” She is Zeke's best friend.
  • Leiko and Duffy (voiced by Ana Sani (Leiko) and Shoshana Sperling (Duffy)) – a pair of lesbian kangaroos who are Louisa's adoptive mothers. They used to be part of a rock music duo together. Duffy works at Eat 'N Greet, while Leiko is the COO of Creation Station.
  • Sammy (voiced by Baeyen Hoffman) – a young relaxed emerald boa constrictor with Puerto Rican ancestry.
  • Quique, real name Enrique (voiced by B'atz' Recinos) – Sammy's single father. He is a teacher at the Starlight Room.
  • JunJun (voiced by Roman Pesino) – A Philippine eagle who likes to sing and play guitar. From time to time he utters Tagalog words. He is Zadie's best friend.
  • Kaya (voiced by Gianelle Miranda) – JunJun's XNUMX-year-old sister. She is a waitress at Eat 'N Greet and a social media influencer.
  • Amado (voiced by Mark Andrada) – JunJun and Kaya's father. He is the Treeborhood's arborist and frequently cuts topiary trees. He wears a brown Barong tagalog.
  • Gabriela (voiced by Carolyn Fe) – JunJun and Kaya's grandmother. She is the local postman.
  • Kat (voiced by Athena Karkanis), Kit (voiced by Dan Chameroy) and Carly, CeCe and Clyde (all voiced by Julie Lemieux) – A family of green crabs who are farmers at Sow 'N Grow. They are quite shy. Carly, CeCe and Clyde are triplets who function as one character. Carly dresses in red, CeCe in green and Clyde in blue. Also, Cece is the only crab who wears square glasses while Kit, Kat, Carly and Clyde wear round glasses. Kit and Kat are their father and mother.
  • Fergus and Felicia Fishman (voiced by Michael Gordin Shore (Fergus) and Katie Griffin (Felicia Fishman)) – Fish entrepreneurs who live in a tank near the top of the Treeborhood. They have three children: Flip, Frannie and Finn.

Production

The show's themes and ideas have previously been covered in Aha Island, a WGBH multimedia project on monkeys using computational thinking.

Some elements of Aha Island were recycled for Work It Out Wombats, such as the existence of the Everything Emporium. The series was greenlit in October 2020, under the working title of Wombats! Wombats were chosen as the main character species because they are underused in the media.

Early-career writers were awarded grants so they could bring different viewpoints and BIPOC representation to the series. The production team worked to ensure authentic representations of names, language and some of the cultural origins found with the animals themselves, keeping in mind that animals are not a proxy for race and ethnicity. For example, JunJun and his family are Philippine eagles, while Ellie is a moose; an animal not found in Jamaica.

Technical data

Gender preschool
Authors Kathy Waugh, Marcy Gunther, Robby Hoffman, Marisa Wolsky
Voice actors Ian Ho, Mia Swami-Nathan, Rain Janjua, Yanna McIntosh
Music Bill Shermann, Nina Woodford Wells, Asher Lenz, Fabiola Mendez, Stephen Skratt, Stephen Salas

country of origin United States, Canada
Original language English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 14
Executive producers Marcy Gunther, Marisa Wolsky
Manufacturing companies GBH Kids, Pipeline Studios
Original Network Publishing PBS Kids
Date of transmission 6 February 2023