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Cartoon

The WotWots

Worldwide

The story

The WotWots is a New Zealand children's television show which premiered in 2009 and has since aired in several other countries worldwide. Created by Martin Baynton and Richard Taylor, the series uses a mix of live-action and animation to follow a pair of inquisitive, creative alien siblings as they learn about life on Earth. It currently consists of two series, produced from 2009 to 2011, and a total of 78 ten-minute episodes. In 2018, spin-off series Kiddets began airing.

Plot

The show features a pair of tiny, young alien twin siblings who spend their days exploring the environment where their steam-powered spaceship has landed, in an effort both to learn more about Earth fauna and to try to determine what they themselves will grow up to look like. DottyWot, the smart and responsible ship's captain, spends most of her time supervising her more boisterous, fun-loving brother SpottyWot, the ship's engineer and a talented artist. Episodes are set in a zoo, at a farm, or on a beach and most often tie their discovery of an animal characteristic into their own adventures.

Production

The WotWots was created and developed by children's author Martin Baynton in alliance with filmmaker Richard Taylor, who had previously worked on the TV series adaptation of Baynton's book Jane and the Dragon. WotWots is produced by Pūkeko Pictures, a production company founded by Baynton, Taylor, and Tania Rodger. Baynton's son Theo is the series' director, and his daughter Terri is one of the writers.
The puppet-like WotWots characters are animated over live-action footage by the Weta Workshop, the special effects company founded by Taylor and Rodger, well known for its work on the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Episodes are filmed on location at Auckland Zoo, Wellington Zoo and Melbourne Zoo, as well as undisclosed beach and farm regions.
Since the WotWots' language consists almost entirely of the syllables "wot" and "wotty", Baynton also acts as an interactive narrator for the series, serving as a translator both for the aliens' efforts to understand Earth and the human viewership trying to understand them. Baynton also provides the voice for SpottyWot, while South African actress Nathalie Boltt voices DottyWot whilst Janet Roddick voices the WotWots' computer.
In September 2008, Pūkeko Pictures appointed ABC Commercial, the Australian distribution division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to handle worldwide distribution of the series in other countries.
On March 27, 2009, British broadcasting channel Five acquired UK broadcasting rights to The WotWots from ABC Commercial. Five appointed British production company Impossible Television to re-edit the series for the UK audience with Nicholas Parsons taking the role as narrator and British actress Fiona Lewis taking the role of the ship's computer (Baynton still provided the voice for SpottyWot).

Partnership with the NZ Ministry of Health

In August 2011, it was announced by New Zealand's Minister of Health, Tony Ryall, that the WotWots would serve as ambassadors for B4 School Checks, an initiative offering a comprehensive assessment of four-year-old children's health and development.

Broadcast details

In addition, selected episodes from the show's first season are currently available on Netflix in the United States and episodes can be seen online on Pluto TV's Kids TV channel (ch. 989).

Merchandise

Playskool, a toy brand of Hasbro, is licensed to produce the WotWots toy range, and the toys were launched on 2 September 2009.
In 2011 the intellectual property and outbound licensing division of American Greetings Corporation announced it had acquired the licensing and merchandising rights to the WotWots. As part of the agreement with Pūkeko Pictures, American Greetings Properties signed on to represent the WotWots brand worldwide.