With short episodes and help of yellow space blob, new show Bumpadoo finds 'path forward' for kids' TV

CBC

3 days ago

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An extraterrestrial yellow blob, a curious preschooler and thousands of painstakingly crafted stop-motion frames come together in Bumpadoo, a new children's show aiming to make science and math fun.
Bumpadoo came out on YouTube and TVO online Aug. 8 and will broadcast on TVO Aug. 17.
The short stop-motion show follows four-year-old LiLi, voiced by Olivia Yang, and her shape-shifting alien friend Bumpi.
The pair learn about and discuss topics related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), such as the difference between up and down, and why you get hungry.
The show, created by Carmen Albano and Celeste Koon, was first pitched in 2022 and the first season was later shot in a Toronto studio.
Characters LiLi and Bumpi may be besties on screen, but in the studio they "can't go anywhere near each other," said Hamilton-raised Evan DeRushie, who is the show's stop-motion director.
"Bumpi, we love him, but he's messy," he said, explaining how Bumpi's materials don't allow him to be physically with the rest of the cast.
"He's oily, he's made of plasticine and he gets everywhere."
That made production of the show a bit challenging, he said, as scenes between the two had to be filmed separately.
Stop-motion animation is already careful, slow work, with still images put together to make movement on screen.
The show was shot at 12 frames per second, and episodes are around three and a half minutes long. The math says that would be just over 2,500 frames per episode of handmade movements, not counting the scenes that had to be shot multiple times because of Bumpi's messiness.
Hamilton a big influence for animator
DeRushie grew up in Hamilton's Westdale neighbourhood. He said it was a co-op placement at Cable 14 while he was in school that set him up to eventually create his own studio, Stop Motion Department.
"There's just a lot of patient people that have been there for a long time. And they show you how to coil cables and how to be respectful of the talent when they come in and how to manage a room of people," he said.
"There's a lot of skills there that I think were really influential for me."
DeRushie is now based in Toronto, where his studio is. Stop Motion Department now runs co-op programs with students from Sheridan College and Ontario College of Art & Design University.
Some of the students there also took part in the making of Bumpadoo, said DeRushie. Them and the rest of the animation staff "really embraced the show and these characters," he said.
"We were all quoting Bumpi all throughout the day."
DeRushie said the animation team built the characters by hand and then photograph each frame.
"It's a bit of just a photo collage of photos of props that are stuck together," he said.
'A lot of pressures' on children's TV industry
The price and effort that goes into stop-motion animation is one of a few reasons why the episodes are short, said Hamilton-based producer Kat Hayduk.
"In children's media, things are generally shorter," said Hayduk, founder of Turtlebox Productions, the company behind the show.
"But this was also designed to be a digital-first show … So we put it together as little three and a half minute shorts. It's also a way to build the brand and see where it goes."
Hayduk said with the children's television industry struggling, partly due to kids turning to YouTube content that may lack educational value, the show's digital nature was also intentional.
"There's been a lot of pressures on the industry right now, but creators will find a way and creating a show like this that kids can find online is one path forward," she said.
Albano and Koon originally pitched the show to Turtlebox Productions, led by Hayduk and her partner Cam, and the couple was "charmed by it immediately."
"We loved the look of it," said Hayduk, "and we loved the pitch."
The show is a comedy, she said, "which kids love and respond to," but it is also educational, exploring preschool STEM concepts such as shapes, colours and textures.
"I like to think that the show is inspiring a little bit of STEM education in kids," said Hayduk. "But it's also the beautiful nature of the animation and the [colours], that could inspire some kid to become an artist."
Hayduk said the team is already working toward a second season of Bumpadoo and producing "at least twice as many episodes" in 2026 to push the show internationally.
"Who knows what Bumpadoo could become. We could see the potential for spinoffs and potentially some fun toys or books," she said.