The #Kazoops are coming to CBeebies!

The CBeebies network has been a firm favourite in the Dove household for some time now and POD has grown up with many of the characters featured in their programmes. Her current favourites include The Octonauts, Andy’s Prehistoric Adventures and the Go Jetters but there’s a superb new series on the way too. The global premiere of #Kazoops took place over the weekend at the Charlotte Street Hotel and we got to have a sneaky peek at the first few episodes.

It was a really great event which saw POD tuck into sandwiches and impressive pink piggy cakes. She also got to play the odd sock game (which relates to an episode of Kazoops) and colour the main characters. She was intrigued to see a few of them in person although became uncharacteristically shy when introduced! However having secured herself a bag of popcorn, she was one happy five year old in the screening room. Kazoops is a superb animation, by children’s TV producers Cheeky Little Media, which follows the adventures of six-year-old Monty and his best friend Jimmy Jones – an endearing pig with one tooth. What tickled me about Jimmy Jones is that he snorts rather like I do when I laugh and forget to breathe. Giggling aside, what I love about this new series is that it highlights the importance of imagination and how you can use it to challenge preconceptions in every day life. The main character Monty is always wondering “why” and in doing so demonstrates it’s alright to think and see things in a different way.

If you’ve seen the preview teaser, you will have heard Monty say “it’s like the universe is one big glass of fizzy pop and we’re just standing on one of the bubbles” which is the kind of thing POD would say. She has the most amazing imagination and can incorporate pretty much anything into creative play. As well as the animation and sound effects being spot on, the #JustImagine segments in each episode are accompanied by catchy music. There is a real sense of the feel good factor as you watch Monty and Jimmy Jones’s imaginative adventures come to life.

Monty lives with his parents, sister, Gran and Jimmy Jones. POD already has the list of the cast members proudly displayed on her wall along with postcards from the event. She saw a clip of Kazoops today and her excitement levels were almost stratospheric! The series really does capture the sense of wonder in children and how their imaginations play such a huge part. Rather cleverly, the team has adopted a fun and non-preachy approach, showing children it’s alright to question and not to take the world at face value.

The first episode of Kazoops is ‘Animal Pals’ which sees Monty wonder why Jimmy Jones is jealous and eventually challenges the notion that you can only have one best friend. This excellent new CBeebies series (suitable for age 3-7 years and adults too) kicks off on 20th June 2016 at 4.20pm. As POD said only the other day “Just Imagine, Jimmy Jones just imagine”.