The Octonauts
| The Octonauts | |
|---|---|
 Kwazii, Barnacles and Peso |
|
| Genre | Children |
| Created by | Meomi: Vicki Wong & Michael C. Murphy |
| Written by | Stephanie Simpson (head writer) Billy Aronson Glen Berger Ian Carney Cydne Clark Cusi Cram Sarah Durkee Steve Granat Carin Greenberg Jonathan Greenberg Peter Hirsch Adam Idelson Dave Ingham Susan Kim Catherine Lieuwen Myles Mcleod Allan Neuwirth Sascha Paladino Gabe Pulliam |
| Directed by | Darragh O'Connell Henry Lenardin-Madden (uncredited) |
| Creative director(s) | Stephen Robinson |
| Voices of | Simon Greenall Rob Rackstraw Paul Panting Keith Wickham Jo Wyatt Teresa Gallagher Michael C. Murphy |
| Theme music composer | Darren Hendley |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 68 (currently) (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Kurt Mueller Stephanie Simpson Cathal Gaffney Darragh O'Connell Jackie Edwards (CBeebies) |
| Producer(s) | Adam Idelson Karen Ialacci Gillian Higgins |
| Running time | 65 x 11 minutes 3 x 23 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Brown Bag Films |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Cbeebies |
| Original run | 4 October 2010 – present |
| External links | |
| Meomi official website | |
The Octonauts is a British children's television series, produced by Silvergate Media for the BBC channel Cbeebies. The series is animated in Ireland by Brown Bag Films but uses British voice actors. The TV series is based on American-Canadian children's books written by Vicki Wong and Michael C. Murphy of Meomi Design Inc.
The Octonauts follows an underwater exploring crew made up of stylized anthropomorphic animals, a team of eight adventurers who live in an undersea base, the Octopod, from where they go on undersea adventures with the help of a fleet of aquatic vehicles.
The subject matter is reminiscent of Star Trek and Thunderbirds[1] blended with Jacques Cousteau. Although it is science fiction as regards its technology, the exotic creatures and locations that the crew encounter are real marine animals in their natural habitats.
Books
The original books were first published in the USA by Immedium in 2006, and were republished in the UK by Harper Collins in 2009. Four titles by Meomi have been published:
- The Octonauts and the Only Lonely Monster, about an Architeuthis (Giant Squid).
- The Octonauts and the Sea of Shade, about a world where everyone's shadows have gone missing.
- The Octonauts and the Frown Fish, about a glum-looking catfish.
- The Octonauts & the Great Ghost Reef, about a dying coral reef.
TV series
In 2010 The Octonauts was adapted into a 52 episode CGI animated television series co-produced by Chorion and Brown Bag Films. It first aired in the UK on 4 October 2010 on CBeebies, a BBC television channel for the under 7's. The first series ended in February 2011, but continued to be aired as repeats. A second series of 22 episodes commenced in November 2012.
The Octonauts had its US premiere on the Disney Channel in January 2012, however many of the characters' voices were redubbed to give them American accents (Hispanic in the case of Peso and Pinto), although Captain Barnacles, Kwazii and Prof. Inkling retained their original British voices.[2] It has also been shown in Ireland (RTÉ Two) and Australia (ABC Television). The show has been translated and shown in French (TF1), Spanish and Portuguese (Discovery Kids Latin America), Finnish (YLE TV2), and Welsh (S4C).[3]
The series was made with the help of marine biologists Dr. Lara A. Ferry-Graham and Dr. Michael H. Graham, who had previously worked on the making of Finding Nemo.[1]
The TV show is episodic, with each 11 minute episode seeing them encountering an unusual but real sea creature as they explore strange underwater worlds. Often they must discover a vital biological or behavioural fact about that creature to rescue it or themselves from danger. The stories usually feature three main characters: Captain Barnacles, Kwazii and Peso, with the other five Octonauts acting in supporting roles.
In the TV series they use five sea-creature inspired underwater vehicles called GUP-A to GUP-E,a pedal driven GUP-F, driven by Captain Barnacles and Kwazii, which appears in Episode 10 of Series 1 (The Speedy Sailfish), and a powerful and sturdy tracked GUP-X, first appearing in Episode 52 of Series 1 (The Great Christmas Rescue).
The opening theme tune finishes with the chant "Explore! - Rescue! - Protect!", which informs the narrative of all the episodes.
TV spin-off books
A series of shorter books based on individual episodes from the TV series is being published by Simon and Schuster. These titles can be distinguished by the "As seen on TV" label on the covers and are not written or illustrated by Meomi.[4] The books have the same titles as the episodes they are based on.
Reception
The TV series was well received when shown on CBeebies in the UK and by ABC in Australia. According to the authors' website, it was the No. 1 pre-school age show in the UK, and the first pre-school show to be ranked in the top ten by older audiences (aged 4–15).[5] In Australia it was the top-ranked ABC programme for 5-12 year olds in January 2011, with ABC calling its first month an "unprecedented success online and on-air".[6] It has been rated 7.4 out of 10 on IMDb.[7] In 2013, Octonauts was nominated for (but did not win) two awards: an International Emmy Award in the "Kids—Preschool" category[8] and an Irish Film and Television Award in the "Best Children's/Youth Programme" category.[9] The Octonauts DVD boxed set was 4th best-selling Children's TV DVD at Amazon UK as of 7 April 2013.[10]
Characters
| Part | Name | Species | Voice cast | Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Captain | Barnacles | Polar Bear | Simon Greenall (speaking voice) Ross Breen (singing voice) |
Barnacles is the brave polar bear captain of the Octonauts. He can drive any ship or gup, and is strong enough to lift a giant clam. Catchphrases: "Octonauts, let's do this", "Sound the Octo-Alert!" and "Octonauts, to the launch bay!". |
| Lieutenant and Cryptozoologist | Kwazii | Cat | Rob Rackstraw | Kwazii is a daredevil cat with a mysterious pirate past. He believes in many sea monsters such as the Nackerwhack,Tri-Toothed-Terror, Giant Shrimp Monster, Monster of Creepy Cove and other monsters and likes to drive fast in the Gup-B. In the episode "The Octonauts and the Giant Spider Crab", it is revealed that he has a fear of spiders. Catchphrase: "Shiver me whiskers". |
| Medic | Peso | Penguin | Paul Panting | He is the medic of the Octonauts. He's not too fond of scary situations, but if someone is hurt or in trouble he can be the bravest Octonaut of all. He has a younger brother called Pinto. Catchphrase: "Flappity flippers!". |
| Oceanographer and Founder | Professor Inkling, Inkling, or Professor | Grimpoteuthis (Dumbo Octopus) | Keith Wickham | Inkling brought the Octonauts together, to study the oceans and have adventures. Catchphrase: "Fascinating!" |
| Scientist (Marine biologist) | Shellington (Dr) | Sea otter | Keith Wickham | Scottish. Shellington is a scientist who knows a lot about ocean creatures. He is not a very good driver. Catchphrase: "Jumping jellyfish!" and "Fascinating". |
| Engineer | Tweak | Rabbit | Jo Wyatt | American with a Southern drawl. Tweak lives and works in the launch bay. She often invents things like the Friend Finder she made for her friend, Sandy the Leatherback Sea Turtle. She often refers to Captain Barnacles as "Cap". Catchphrases: "Right away, Cap!" and "...faster than you can say 'buncha munchy crunchy carrots'!". |
| Information technology Officer and Photographer | Dashi (Sauci In The Books) | Dog (Dachshund) | Teresa Gallagher | Australian. Dashi is the photographer for the Octonauts, and takes care of all the computers aboard the Octopod. Catchphrase: "Already on it captain!". |
| Ship's Cook and Gardener | Tunip | Vegimal | Michael C. Murphy | Tunip is half-animal, half-vegetable, like all the vegimals. He loves to make kelp cakes and work in the garden-pod. He and the other vegimals speak another language that only Shellington understands (sometimes). He often faints at shocking news. |
Note: Recent UK editions of the books changed Sauci's name to Dashi to match the television series.
Recurrent minor characters
- Calico Jack, a pirate cat and Kwazii's grandfather. His exploits are frequently talked about but he is assumed long-dead until he finally makes an appearance in the Amazon Adventure special. In real life, the pirate Calico Jack was the creator of the Jolly Roger, though the Octonauts character's name might also be an allusion to the Calico cat.
- Pinto, Peso's little brother, a young penguin who visits in episode 24, episode 32 and the Great Penguin Race special. He initially aspires to be a pirate like Kwazii but later decides he'd rather be a medic like Peso.
- Sandy the sea turtle, a good friend of Tweak's. She swims long distances and makes appointments to meet the Octonauts in several episodes.
Vehicles
- The Octopod is their mobile home base and the biggest vehicle. It is built to look like a giant octopus.
- The GUP-A is propeller-powered and Captain Barnacles' favorite. It is built to look like an anglerfish.
- Kwazii's favorite, the GUP-B is a turbo sub so is the fastest of all GUPs. It is built to look like a tiger shark.
- The strong GUP-C has a towline and is powerful enough to tow an elephant seal. It can also be used as an icebreaker when fitted with a special reinforced prow. It is built to look like a blue whale.
- Multi-purpose GUP-D has two claws, two drills and six legs. It is also Tweak's favorite. It is built to look like a manta ray (or a crab when legged).
- The GUP-E is an ambulance GUP and colored green. A tank behind can be filled with water for creatures with gills. It is built to look like a guppy.
- The GUP-F is a pedal-powered metal-framed vehicle only seen in series 1, episode 10, Octonauts and the Speedy Sailfish, used to round up the runaway GUPs A-E. It is built to look like a clownfish.
- The GUP-X is a powerful and sturdy tracked vehicle presented to Captain Barnacles as a Christmas present from Tweak. It is first seen in series 1, episode 52, The Great Christmas Rescue. It is built to look like a horseshoe crab.
- The Deep Sea Station is a submersible for exploring the deepest parts of the ocean and first appears in the 4th special episode, The Mariana Trench Adventure.
Episodes
Series 1
| # | Title | Original air date[11] |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Octonauts and the Whale Shark" | 4 October 2010 |
| When Dashi is swallowed by a whale shark she thought was a cave, the Octonauts venture inside it to rescue her. | ||
| 2 | "Octonauts and the Undersea Storm" | 5 October 2010 |
| An undersea storm is approaching so Kwazii helps some creatures on a coral reef reach safety, but then he crashes the Gup-B while trying to race back to the Octopod. When the GUP-C's tow-rope snaps while rescuing him, some reef lobsters Kwazii helped earlier lend a hand by holding the broken rope ends together with their strong claws. | ||
| 3 | "Octonauts, the Crab, and the Urchin" | 6 October 2010 |
| A carrier crab and the urchin it keeps on top of its shell as a defence against predators[12] have a falling out. | ||
| 4 | "Octonauts and the Walrus Chief" | 7 October 2010 |
| A walrus mistakes Peso's medical bag for a clam and takes it home. Walruses don't like other animals near their colonies, so Captain Barnacles, Kwazii and Peso disguise themselves as a fellow walrus to sneak into the dangerous colony and retrieve the medical bag. | ||
| 5 | "Octonauts and the Flying Fish" | 8 October 2010 |
| A school of flying fish accidentally make off with Professor Inkling's rare book. | ||
| 6 | "Octonauts and the Giant Squid" | 11 October 2010 |
| The Octonauts set out to find and photograph Inkling's long lost cousin, the giant squid. | ||
| 7 | "Octonauts and the Orcas" | 12 October 2010 |
| An enormous Orca whale is stranded on a beach, and with some help from some crabs, the Octonauts manage to rescue it. | ||
| 8 | "Octonauts and the Great Algae Escape" | 13 October 2010 |
| The crew must catch a runaway Octopod after it is hijacked by a group of crustaceans who are trying to flee an area of seabed being polluted by a broken pipeline. | ||
| 9 | "Octonauts and the Remipedes" | 14 October 2010 |
| Shellington goes to search for a group of Remipedes in a cave but he hasn't driven the GUP-D before and ends up crashing it and breaking it. The other Octonauts try to save him but they get lost too. Luckily, a group of blind Remipedes help them find their way out of the cave. | ||
| 10 | "Octonauts and the Speedy Sailfish" | 15 October 2010 |
| Tweak's remote control system for the Gups goes haywire, so Barnacles and Kwazii are forced to chase after them with the pedal-driven Gup-F. Luckily some speedy Sailfish, the fastest fish in the sea, are persuaded to show their off prowess by rounding up the speeding Gups. | ||
| 11 | "Octonauts and the Blobfish Brothers" | 18 October 2010 |
| The Octonauts must evacuate some slow moving, gelatinous Blobfish before an undersea volcano erupts. | ||
| 12 | "Octonauts and the Monster Map" | 19 October 2010 |
| Kwazii has a pirate map showing the location of a sunken treasure ship which allegedly harbours a Kraken-like sea monster (but which turns out to be an octopus which can change colour to camouflage itself). | ||
| 13 | "Octonauts and the Lost Sea Star" | 20 October 2010 |
| A sea star (starfish) has got lost, but the Octonauts have to search the sea from top to bottom to find its home, as there are nearly 2000 species of sea star living at all levels of the ocean. On a reef in the Sunlight Zone they encounter a Sunflower seastar and a predatory Porcupine Pufferfish. In the Twilight Zone they encounter Brittle stars and get chased into a cave by a Wolf eel, where they notice the sea star glows in the dark, which means it is from the Midnight Zone. They end up crashing the Gup at the bottom of an ocean trench, but luminous sea stars light the way out for them. | ||
| 14 | "Octonauts and the Albino Humpback Whale" | 21 October 2010 |
| The Octonauts think they've seen a ghost but it turns out to be an albino Humpback Whale which is moaning from the pain of some nasty sunburn. | ||
| 15 | "Octonauts and the Giant Kelp Forest" | 22 October 2010 |
| Kwazii's favorite sub, the Gup B, goes missing in a huge kelp forest due to Kwazii pressing the eject button while the engine was active (Something Tweak advised him not to do) and the Octonauts must retrieve it. | ||
| 16 | "Octonauts and the Enemy Anemones" | 25 October 2010 |
| The Octonauts land on an island for a picnic but must first help some crabs trapped between two warring groups of aggregate anemones. Meanwhile back on the Octopod, a hoard of out of control puddings are attacking. | ||
| 17 | "Octonauts and the Narwhal" | 26 October 2010 |
| Cruising underwater to Captain Barnacles' homeland, the North Pole, the Octopod gets trapped in the Arctic sea ice. But one of Barnacles' old friends, Boris the Narwhal, helps them to break through the ice with his long tusk. | ||
| 18 | "Octonauts and the Midnight Zone" | 27 October 2010 |
| The Octonauts explore the deepest part of the ocean where no daylight ever reaches and find some hydrothermal vents where vent fish, limpets and tube worms live, and also discover a new species of worm to put in Shellington's book. | ||
| 19 | "Octonauts and the Snapping Shrimp" | 28 October 2010 |
| A little shrimp with a big claw makes such a loud noise that it stuns the Octonauts. A video of it made by Dashi reveals that the sound and accompanying shock wave are caused by the shrimp making a cavitation bubble with her claw. | ||
| 20 | "Octonauts and the Snot Sea Cucumber" | 29 October 2010 |
| An injured snot sea cucumber named Slippy gets loose on the Octopod, so to let her breathe, they flood the ship. | ||
| 21 | "Octonauts and the Giant Whirlpool" | 1 November 2010 |
| The Octonauts race against time to rescue Tweak's pal, a Leatherback sea turtle named Sandy, when she is swept away from the Australian coast where she was about to lay her eggs. | ||
| 22 | "Octonauts and the Hermit Crabs" | 2 November 2010 |
| With half the crew stranded in a rock pool due to a low tide, Peso and Tweak help to remove a stuck Hermit Crab from the shell it has outgrown. | ||
| 23 | "Octonauts and the Mixed Up Whales" | 3 November 2010 |
| The Octonauts clean and repair the Octopod, but the loud noises they are creating confuse the sonar of two Blue Whales who are looking for each other so much that they almost crash into the ship. | ||
| 24 | "Octonauts and the Kelp Forest Rescue" | 4 November 2010 |
| Peso's little brother Pinto visits the Octonauts and gets an eyepatch from Kwazii. He becomes more interested in being a pirate than a medic (stating that he wanted to be a 'real' Octonaut like Kwazii). But when he helps Barnacles, Kwazii and Peso in a mission to help Dashi and Shellington escape, he begins to like being a medic. | ||
| 25 | "Octonauts and the Decorator Crab" | 5 November 2010 |
| The Octonauts stake out a thief, who turns out to be a decorator crab. | ||
| 26 | "Octonauts and the Beluga Whales" | 6 December 2010 |
| The Octonauts lead a pod of Beluga Whales stuck under the pack ice to safety by getting them to follow Peso while he's playing the same tune as the Beluga's song on his xylophone. | ||
| 27 | "Octonauts and the Hungry Pilot Fish" | 7 December 2010 |
| The Octonauts are chased by a whitetip shark only to discover all it really needed was a pilot fish to clean its teeth, and it just so happens that they have just met a lonely pilot fish that is hungry for action. | ||
| 28 | "Octonauts and the Vampire Squid" | 8 December 2010 |
| On a solo training dive to the Midnight Zone, Peso encounters a hurt vampire squid. Scared by the sudden arrival of Kwazii and Captain Barnacles it sprays them with sticky bioluminescent mucus and flees, but in the end Peso is able to help it. | ||
| 29 | "Octonauts and the Seahorse Tale" | 9 December 2010 |
| After a storm, the Octonauts help a female seahorse search for her missing mate. She tells them to Kwazii's surprise that the missing male seahorse is about to give birth. | ||
| 30 | "Octonauts and the Giant Jelly" | 10 December 2010 |
| The Octonauts must rescue Peso when he gets trapped inside a giant Comb Jelly. | ||
| 31 | "Octonauts and the Cookiecutter Sharks" | 13 December 2010 |
| Some mysterious holes that keep appearing in the Octonauts' equipment turn out to be the work of Cookiecutter Sharks whose bioluminescence initially made them invisible against the light coming down from the sea surface. | ||
| 32 | "Octonauts and the Oarfish" | 14 December 2010 |
| Dashi catches a glimpse of an elusive creature that appears to be a giant sea serpent and manages to photograph its tail. | ||
| 33 | "Octonauts and the Combtooth Blenny" | 15 December 2010 |
| Kwazii crashes the GUP-E, leaving him and Peso marooned on a desert island inhabited by a fish that can walk on land. Their SOS message to the Octonauts is relayed in increasingly garbled form via the Blenney, a squid, and an Angler fish. | ||
| 34 | "Octonauts and the Jellyfish Bloom" | 16 December 2010 |
| Shellington gets trapped by sea nettle jellyfish whilst observing garden eels in the GUP-E. Barnacles, Kwazii and Peso attempt to save him but Barnacles gets stung by a jellyfish. Luckily, Peso heals it using vinegar and then goes to save Shellington along with Kwazii. | ||
| 35 | "Octonauts and the Baby Dolphin" | 29 December 2010 |
| A young dolphin follows Kwazii home and the Octonauts must search for its mother. | ||
| 36 | "Octonauts and the Scary Spookfish" | 24 January 2011 |
| Peso gets jammed in an ocean trench when the GUP-E's battery dies and is surprised by a strange deep sea fish with a transparent head: a Spookfish called Boo, whose ability to see vertically comes in handy as GUP-C winches GUP-E back up the narrow trench. | ||
| 37 | "Octonauts and the Arctic Orcas" | 25 January 2011 |
| Captain Barnacles and Peso get lost in the icy Arctic sea when the GUP-E gets stuck in an iceberg and the gup finder is damaged. | ||
| 38 | "Octonauts and the Slime Eels" | 26 January 2011 |
| In the North Atlantic, Kwazii searches the sunken shipwreck of his pirate grandfather, Calico Jack, for his gold spyglass. It's guarded by blind hagfish (slime eels), but their slime unexpectedly helps him when he gets stuck. Kwazii ends up leaving the spyglass because it's now the home of sea creatures. | ||
| 39 | "Octonauts and the Enormous Elephant Seal" | 27 January 2011 |
| An enormous Elephant seal is brought into the Octopod to moult as moulting underwater is dangerous. | ||
| 40 | "Octonauts and the Sardine School" | 29 January 2011 |
| The Octonauts must work together as a team to help a lost sardine find her school. | ||
| 41 | "Octonauts and the Dolphin Reef Rescue" | 31 January 2011 |
| Peso and the gang try to cure bleached dead areas on a coral reef by transplanting healthy coral, but a pod of playful dolphins make mischief for them until they realise that helping can be fun too. | ||
| 42 | "Octonauts and the Eel Ordeal" | 1 February 2011 |
| In a rare journey into fresh waters (a river), the Octonauts follow some migrating eels and help an injured eel on his difficult journey when he gets stranded from the others. | ||
| 43 | "Octonauts and the Marine Iguanas" | 2 February 2011 |
| The team are preparing for a feast of red seaweed on the Galapagos Islands but a trio of salt-sneezing Marine Iguanas raid the Octopod and eat it all. | ||
| 44 | "Octonauts and the Dwarf Lanternshark" | 3 February 2011 |
| The Octonauts must help a tiny, injured Dwarf Lanternshark, but they have to find him first. | ||
| 45 | "Octonauts and the Pirate Parrotfish" | 4 February 2011 |
| Kwazii discovers Calico Jack's Parrot Island treasure map behind an old photo. Whilst looking for the island they meet a Parrotfish, who helps them clear away dense algae and hide from vicious moray eels. | ||
| 46 | "Octonauts and the Electric Torpedo Rays" | 7 February 2011 |
| Some electric torpedo rays give the Octopod a jump-start when its batteries go flat during a trip to see Tweak's pal, Sandy the leatherback sea turtle. | ||
| 47 | "Octonauts and the Crafty Cuttlefish" | 8 February 2011 |
| Captain Barnacles allows Tunip to use his Octo-compass. But when Tunip loses it, a Cuttlefish takes it. | ||
| 48 | "Octonauts and the Lost Lemon Shark" | 9 February 2011 |
| The Octonauts look after a Lemon Shark who has hurt his nose and can't find his way home. | ||
| 49 | "Octonauts and the Humuhumunukunukuapua'a" | 10 February 2011 |
| The Octopod's waterworks become flooded with frightened Humuhumu fish. | ||
| 50 | "Octonauts and the Giant Spider Crab" | 11 February 2011 |
| The Octonauts help a 100-year-old spider crab which has got its leg trapped in a giant clam whilst en route to its own 100th birthday party. It turns out that Kwazii's afraid of spiders, but he still helps, even though he thought it was a real spider at first. | ||
Series 2
A second series of 22 episodes started on 19 November 2012 on the UK's CBeebies channel[13] but was halted with no explanation after 10 episodes leading to criticism from viewers.[14] Broadcasts resumed in March 2013 but stopped a week later with the last 6 episodes still unaired.
| # | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Octonauts and the Colossal Squid" | 19 November 2012 |
| The Octopod is grabbed by a Colossal Squid which drags it down into the depths. The Octonauts are unable to break free due to the hooks on the ends of the Squid's tentacles. Fortunately the arrival of some sperm whales turns the squid from hunter to hunted. | ||
| 2 | "Octonauts and the Adelie Penguin" | 20 November 2012 |
| Kwazii and Peso have to babysit some penguin chicks whilst their parents go hunting for fish. Captain Barnacles uses the GUP-C's icebreaking powers to get them home when an iceberg blocks the way. | ||
| 3 | "Octonauts and the Coconut Crabs" | 21 November 2012 |
| Kwazii is driving the GUP-B when a school of flying fish comes around and he is gliding with the fish Kwazii notices he is hit by a coconut and it has the symbol of his grandfather Calico Jack so then Kwazii, Captain Barnacles, Peso, and Tweak get a family of coconut crabs to help him open it. | ||
| 4 | "Octonauts and the Great White Shark" | 22 November 2012 |
| Peso narrowly escapes when a hungry great white shark tries to eat him. Despite this he wants to help it after it injures its fin against the Octopod. The Octonauts use the Gup-X to turn the shark upside down and induce tonic immobility whilst Peso bandages it, but it comes round and in the end they escape by feeding it Tunip's fish biscuits to satisfy its hunger. | ||
| 5 | "Octonauts and the Sea Snakes" | 23 November 2012 |
| Dashi discovers that the octopod is being threatened by a whirlpool and then Tunip later sees that there are some strange objects in the Garden Pod so he goes and gets Shellington and he later sees that they are sea krait eggs. The Octonauts try to find all the snakes so they won't get sucked into the whirlpool. Then the Octonauts later discover that one of the snakes is missing the Octonauts venture throughout the octopod to find it. The snake ends up in HQ and reversing the ship and the octopod gets sucked into the whirlpool. | ||
| 6 | "Octonauts and the Bowhead Whales" | 26 November 2012 |
| Captain Barnacles' narwhal friends (see Series 1, episode 17) are trapped under the Arctic ice. After failing to rescue them with the GUP-C's icebreaker and the GUP-D's drill, they enlist the help of some bowhead whales whose massive heads can break through thick ice. | ||
| 7 | "Octonauts and the Jawfish" | 27 November 2012 |
| A jawfish father has lost the eggs he was brooding. | ||
| 8 | "Octonauts and the Porcupine Pufferfish" | 28 November 2012 |
| The Octonauts venture inside a whale shark again (see Series 1, episode 1), this time to rescue a porcupine puffer fish. | ||
| 9 | "Octonauts and the Damselfish" | 29 November 2012 |
| Some algae-eating fish need help dealing with damselfish that chase them off the algae they are farming. | ||
| 10 | "Octonauts and the Sperm Whale" | 30 November 2012 |
| Peso tries to help a young sperm whale overcome his fear of deep diving, an ability it must later use to rescue Peso when he gets caught by a giant clam on the seabed. | ||
| 11 | "Octonauts and the Long-armed Squid" | 11 March 2013 |
| Peso and Kwazii search a creepy shipwreck in the midnight zone, looking for an injured creature that their friend the vampire squid (see Series 1, episode 28) has heard moaning in the dark. Peso soon finds an injured angler fish but the real source of the moaning turns out to be a long-armed squid, a strange ghostly white creature with elbows in its extraordinarily long tentacles, one of which has become trapped in the timbers of the wreck. | ||
| 12 | "Octonauts and the Fiddler Crabs" | 12 March 2013 |
| The Octopod's periscope breaks off during a storm and lands up on a beach, lost amongst other marine debris. The Octonauts clean up the beach whilst searching for the periscope but a resident colony of fiddler crabs mistake the GUP-D and its claw gestures for a hostile giant crab and attack. The GUP-D goes haywire with a fiddler crab at the controls and burrows under the beach causing a sink hole to appear which almost swallows them all up. In the end the crabs fill the hole in with the sand balls they regurgitate whilst feeding. | ||
| 13 | "Octonauts and the Manta Rays" | 13 March 2013 |
| A young manta ray needs help finding the secret manta ray feeding grounds. | ||
| 14 | "Octonauts and the Swashbuckling Swordfish" "Octonauts and the Flying Swords" (US title)[citation needed] |
14 March 2013 |
| When Kwazii sees what seem to be three flying swords under the Pirate's Moon, he embarks on a quest to find the Sword of the Pirate King, which legend says is on a wreck guarded by magical flying swords. The "flying swords" turn out to have been swordfish, which love jumping out of the water, but the pirate sword proves to be real. Meanwhile the others are led on a wild goosechase into a kelp forest following the pirate wreck's drifting figurehead, a carving of a pirate cat, which they mistake for Kwazii. | ||
| 15 | "Octonauts and the Triggerfish" | 15 March 2013 |
| The Octonauts' floating temperature sensors alert them to a risk of waterspouts due to a rise in sea surface temperature so they decide to retrieve the devices for safe-keeping. But Kwazii gets into an argument with a possessive triggerfish which has adopted one of the devices as its home, and they both get carried away by a waterspout. Kwazii ends up having to defend the fish from a seabird and a swordfish that want to eat it. Luckily the characteristic grunting sounds that triggerfish make when distressed enables the other Octonauts to locate them. | ||
| 16 | "Octonauts and the Mimic Octopus" | 13 May 2013 |
| Peso is gathering red algae to cure the sick vegimals but needs the shapeshifting skills of a Mimic Octopus to scare off a Moray eel by using its striped tentacles to pretend to be a group of poisonous sea snakes. | ||
| 17 | "Octonauts and the Lionfish" | 14 May 2013 |
| Invasive Lionfish are damaging coral reefs in the Atlantic Ocean and need taking back to their native Pacific Ocean. | ||
| 18 | "Octonauts and the Leafy Sea Dragons" | 15 May 2013 |
| Some leafy sea dragons accidentally get into the Octopod. | ||
| 19 | "Octonauts and the Manatees" | 16 May 2013 |
| After his Gup is struck by lightning, Captain Barnacles gets trapped by a giant clam but doesn't call for help as he wants the others to go help some manatees at risk from the electric storm. | ||
| 20 | "Octonauts and the Saltwater Crocodile" | 17 May 2013 |
| An enormous Australian saltwater crocodile is lost in the Antarctic Ocean and needs taking home. | ||
Special episodes
The specials are double-length episodes which are first broadcast during the Christmans or New Year period before being repeated alongside regular episodes.
| # | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Octonauts and the Great Penguin Race" | 13 December 2010 |
| Peso is going home to Antarctica to watch an annual penguin triathalon, the Iron Clam Competition, but learns to his dismay that his little brother Pinto has entered him in it. Peso will have to slide, dive and swim his way to victory, against the annual winner, Hugo. | ||
| 2 | "Octonauts and the Great Christmas Rescue" | 24 December 2011 |
| The Octonauts travel for Christmas to Professor Inkling's childhood home, a seamount, but soon get involved in a rescue mission when a rockslide endangers a rare 500 year-old golden coral and traps Professor Inkling's nephew Squirt. They also learn about Christmas tree worms which live in holes in rocks. Crucial to completing the mission is the new heavy-duty vehicle GUP-X which Tweak has built as a present for Captain Barnacles. | ||
| 3 | "Octonauts and the Amazon Adventure" | 1 January 2013 |
| Kwazii enters a shipwreck to get Calico Jack's map to an underwater city of gold. This leads the octonauts up the Amazon River, past parrots, freshwater stingrays, caiman and manatees. But a falling tree traps the GUP-A, and a tidal bore comes up the river, scattering the octonauts. Captain Barnacles looks for the others with the aid of a river dolphin and its echolocation abilities. The octonauts help an electric eel, a stranded arapaima, and get chased by piranhas. But a wood-eating panaque frees the trapped GUP-A. Meanwhile Kwazii has been saved by Calico Jack who turns out to be alive, but lost his ship after an attack by fire ants and an anaconda. His incomplete map had led him in circles, but Kwazii's piece completes it so they can finish the quest. After being blocked by hostile capybaras, they are reunited with the others in time to fight off more anacondas. Finally the "city of gold" turns out to be a colony of golden freshwater sponges in the bottom of a pool! | ||
| 4 | "The Mariana Trench Adventure" | 27 May 2013 |
| The Octonauts use Tweak's newly built Deep Sea Station to study the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench. | ||
Creature Reports
The Creature Reports are one-minute, musical, poem-like sequences which recap the facts learned about the sea creature that the Octonauts encountered in the associated episode. In the UK these were shown as separately scheduled items but in the American version they were used at the conclusion of each regular episode.
DVDs
The BBC have released three Octonauts DVDs, comprising episodes from the first series along with their associated "Creature Reports". The DVDs are Region 2 format, playable in European DVD players only:
- Here Come the Octonauts (episodes 1–8)
- Octonauts – To The Gups (episodes 9–16 plus 1st special episode)
- Octonauts – Ready for Action (episodes 17–24, 2nd special episode, plus 3 minute video How to Make a Gup X)
A boxed set of all three DVDs was released under the title Octonauts – The Collection in September 2012.[15]
References
- ^ a b interview with executive producer Kurt Mueller BBC Press Office
- ^ Amazon customer review
- ^ S4C Octonots page.
- ^ Amazon customer review
- ^ Meomi Octonauts website
- ^ Multiplatform success for ABC For Kids series, Octonauts
- ^ The Octonauts at the Internet Movie Database (Retrieved 8 April 2013)
- ^ International Emmy Kids Awards Nominees
- ^ Irish Film and Television Awards
- ^ Amazon best-seller list retrieved 7 April 2013
- ^ Cbeebies broadcast schedules
- ^ Symbiotic relationships on the Reef
- ^ CBeebies Grownups - Octonauts
- ^ Cbeebies Grownups - Comments at BBC website.
- ^ Octonauts - The Collection (DVD) at BBC website
External links
Channels
- Octonauts on CBeebies
- Octonauts on Disney Junior US
- Octonauts on ABC 4 Kids
- Octonauts on Discovery Kids
- Octonauts on Discovery Kids Brazil
- Octonauts on TF1
- Octonauts on TFOU
- Octonauts on Treehouse
Other links
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