Tiny Planets

Tiny Planets
Genre	Children’s animation
Created by	Nina Elias-Bamberger
Directed by	Alastair McIlwain
Creative director	David J. Aldred
Voices of	Dashiell Tate Kim Goody
Opening theme	Bing and Bong by Kim Goody
Ending theme	Bing and Bong by Kim Goody
Composers	Kim Goody Alan Coates
Country of origin	United Kingdom United States
Original languages	English Grammelot
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	65[1][2]
Production
Executive producers	Paul J. Michael Nina Elias-Bamberger
Producer	Richard Morss
Editor	Samantha Hatton-Brown
Running time	5 minutes
Production companies	Sesame Workshop Pepper's Ghost Productions Ltd.
Original release
Network	ITV (CITV) (UK) Noggin (United States)
Release	10 June 2001 (2001-06-10) – 21 December 2002 (2002-12-21)

Tiny Planets is an animated children's television series co-produced by Sesame Workshop and Pepper's Ghost Productions. The concept was designed and developed by Ed Taylor. The television series consists of 65 five-minute,^[3] dialogue-free (and later narrated by Kim Goody, the singer of the theme song) episodes featuring two white-furred extraterrestrials travelling their universe and solving a specific problem each episode.^[4]

Plot

Deep in the heart of the Tiny Universe lies the North Planet where the main characters, Bing and Bong, make their home. These two explorers are catapulted to the surrounding worlds in their solar system on a flying white couch where they explore, learn about the inhabitants, develop friendships and have fun.

Characters

• Bing (voiced by Dashiell Tate) is older and much larger than Bong. His enormous appetite for exploring is dwarfed only by the endless supply of useful gadgets in an ever-present pouch. Wise and determined, he often takes the lead in adventures. Patient and thoughtful, he loves nothing more than a problem to be solved or a job to be done. He likes to help others and has an optimistic approach to life and its problems. He does not speak, but communicates with body language, expressive eyebrows, and humming sounds.
• Bong (voiced by Kim Goody, the singer of the theme song) the younger and smaller one, is Bing's appealing, coy, impulsive, and a bundle lover of energy. Impish, playful, gregarious and incredibly compassionate apprentice and a spider-dog like alien known as a "boing", she is especially miserable when on bad terms with Bing. She loves to join in games and be the centre of attention. She does not speak but has an expressive face and a body, a high-pitched sound (which is cross between a grunt and a squeak), and a multi-decibel cry of joy.
• Halley (also voiced by Kim Goody, the singer of the theme song) is a small wide-eyed insect who is named after the comet who provides a running commentary from her flying saucer and "films" the action with a remote camera to provide a summary at the end of the episode. Halley was not featured in some versions of the show, but she was featured in the Australian version on ABC Kids, and the U.S. version that aired on the Noggin channel.
• Flockers live on each of the Tiny Planets, each with its own distinctive population. More often than not, it is these social creatures that Bing & Bong are helping out of a jam. Whether it is cleaning out-of-reach windows or fortifying a house to withstand wind, Flockers are a perpetual source of problems begging to be solved. They do not speak, but communicate with body language and call sounds. Their design varies depending on the planet; they have either one or two heads and either one or two legs. Only a few have arms.
• Locals are smaller inhabitants of the planets and can appear in greater numbers than the Flockers but are just as dim. They are mostly globular in shape with blinking eyes and little antennae on top of their heads. They do not speak, but they communicate by bouncing, blinking and squeaking. On certain planets, the Locals are geometric shapes: squares, circles and triangles. Locals are always colourful, appealing and friendly.
• Robots are segmented spherical creatures with mechanical arms and either wheels or helicopter rotors. Found mostly on the Tiny Planet of Technology, like all robots, they are linear thinkers attempting to multitask. They are there to help but do not always take instructions well. Thus, they are a challenge and Bing and Bong learn to work with them to get the best out of them.

Settings

There are six Tiny Planets that Bing and Bong travel to, in addition to their Home Planet.

• Home Planet – Bing and Bong live inside the Home Planet. From here they set out every morning on a new adventure. It is an icy world, covered in snow-capped ice floes. Inside a giant crystal is Bing and Bong's home, decorated in a steampunk idiom, with much brass work. The main and most notable feature is the fuzzy white couch that doubles as both their bed and their means of intergalactic travel. Tethered to the Home Planet by a bungee cord it is launched into space by a monstrous catapult.
• Tiny Planet of
  seasons there are much like a temperate part of the Globe, with snow in winter, hot sun in summer and falling leaves in autumn
  .
• Tiny Planet of
  satellites: two cubes and two spheres. The action takes place inside this planet, with an emphasis on structures and principles of physics
  .
• Tiny Planet of Self – Bing and Bong encounter
  sports arena here, and local transport is by sky-boat. Lessons of health, feelings, and good manners
  are learned here.
• Tiny Planet of Sound – Bing and Bong join
  asteroids
  which spiral from pole to pole.
• Tiny Planet of Light and Colour – Bing and Bong discover
  optical phenomena
  . Around the planet there is a wide, circular, semi-transparent band inlaid with parallel strips of ever-changing colours. The landscape is similar to a desert, and the most notable features are the bullet-shaped rock pillars with paint coloured spots on them.
• Tiny Planet of Stuff – Bing and Bong explore groups of things and what they're made of. They play with
  numbers and sort things by colour, shape and sound. The planet is shaped like a gigantic Möbius strip and patterned like pink-and-blue graph paper; hence, this is where Bing and Bong solve problems involving arithmetic, logic and geometry
  .