The Octonauts
The Octonauts is a British children's television series, produced by Silvergate Media for the BBC channel CBeebies, and based on the children's books written by Vicki Wong and Michael C. Murphy.
The show 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 which they go on undersea adventures with the help of a fleet of aquatic vehicles. Although its technology is fictional, the exotic creatures and locations that the crew encounter are based on real marine animals in their natural habitats. The show's subject matter has been compared to that of Star Trek and Thunderbirds blended with Jacques Cousteau.
The show was animated in Ireland by Brown Bag Films for its first four series. The show was renewed for a fifth series in 2018, with Canada's Mainframe Studios taking over animation work.
Characters
Main Characters
The Octonauts, consisting of the Octopod crew and captain, are the recurring main characters.Vegimals
Vegimals are half-animal, half-vegetable creatures. The vegimals were discovered by Shellington as eggs attached to the side of the Octopod. To protect them he brought them into his lab, where they hatched a few days later. After a few weeks they established themselves as an integral part of the crew. They primarily speak Vegimalese, a language made of chirps and warbles, though they also speak a limited amount of English. Shellington is the only Octonaut who has some fluency in Vegimalese.| Name | Taxonomy | Description |
| Albachoy | half-bok choy and half-albacore | |
| Barrot | half-bass, half-carrot. | Although nervous, he can go super fast in an emergency. |
| Carprika | half-paprika and half-carp | |
| Charchard | half-chard and half-char | |
| Codish | half-cod, half-radish. | He is very clumsy and also causes accidents. |
| Grouber | half-grouper, half-tuber. | He is big and can eat almost anything. |
| Halibeet | half-beet and half-halibut | |
| Maccoli | half-broccoli and half-mackerel | |
| Perchkin | half-pumpkin and half-perch | |
| Pikato | half-tomato and half-pike | |
| Tominnow | half-minnow, half-tomato. | She is the littlest one, but she is also a daredevil. |
| Tunip | half-tuna, half-turnip. | He is a recurring main character. |
| Salepeño | half-jalapeño and half-salmon | |
| Sharchini | half-zucchini, half-shark | |
| VegiBot | a vegimal robot | |
| Wallabaga | half-rutabaga and half-walleye | |
| Yamchovy | half-anchovy and half-yam |
Recurrent Minor Characters
| Name | Animal | Relationship to Octonauts | Description | First Seen |
| Calico Jack | Cat | Kwazii's grandfather | Aa a pirate, his exploits are frequently talked about but he is assumed long-dead until he finally makes an initial first appearance. 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. | Special 3 |
| Pinto | Penguin | Peso's little brother | A young penguin who visits in season 1 - episode 24, season 1 - episode 32 and Special 1. He initially aspires to be a pirate like Kwazii but later decides he'd rather be a medic like Peso. | Season 1 - Episode 24 |
| Sandy | Sea turtle | Friend | A good friend of Tweak's. She swims long distances and makes appointments to meet the Octonauts in several episodes. | |
| Boris | Narwhal | Friend | A friend of Captain Barnacle's from when he was young. Boris remains in the Arctic but the Octonauts meet him in several episodes. | |
| Pearl | sea otter | Shellington's married sister | She recently had a baby named "Periwinkle". | The Urchin Invasion |
| Bianca | polar bear | Captain Barnacles' twin sister | Special 7 | |
| Orson and Ursa | polar bear | Bianca's cubs. Captain Barnacles' niece and nephew | Special 7 and season 4 - episode 7 | |
| Professor Natquik | artic fox | Captain Barnacles's old friend | A polar explorer | Special 8 |
| Ranger Marsh | Rabbit | Tweak's father | A park ranger | Episode 9 |
| Koshi | Dog | Dashi's little sister | Season 4 - Episode 17 |
Vehicles
Books
The original books were first published in the US by Immedium in 2006, and were republished in the UK by Harper Collins in 2009. Six titles by Meomi have been published:- The Octonauts & the Only Lonely Monster, about an Architeuthis.
- The Octonauts & the Sea of Shade, about a world where everyone's shadows have gone missing.
- The Octonauts & the Frown Fish, about a glum-looking catfish.
- The Octonauts & the Great Ghost Reef, about coral bleaching.
- The Octonauts Explore the Great Big Ocean, about the search for Tunip the Vegimal's home.
- The Octonauts & the Growing Goldfish, about Dunkie, a giant goldfish who won't stop growing.
These titles can be distinguished by the "As seen on TV" label on the covers and are not written or illustrated by Meomi. The books have the same titles as the episodes they are based on.
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 on 9 January 2012 In September 2014, Silvergate Media announced its sale of season 4 to the Disney Channel, to be aired in 2015. 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 Professor Inkling retained their original British voices.. Another notable difference between the British version and the US version is the absence of the “Creature Report” feature at the end of each episode. This educational and melodic recap of the adventure is missing from the UK version, but available to view in Britain through Netflix, which streams the American version.
In Australia, in 2014, the Octonauts became the second most watched children's TV show in the country, seen daily on ABC2 by 257,000 viewers nationally.. By season 4, the Octonauts had been picked up in more than 100 countries, including RTÉ Two, Treehouse TV, ABC Television, TF1, SuperRTL, CCTV, Karusel, Disney Junior and SVT.
The show has been translated and shown in French, Spanish and Portuguese, Finnish, Welsh and Slovakian.
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 Finding Nemo.
Episodes
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 behavioral 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.The opening theme tune finishes with the chant "Explore! - Rescue! - Protect!", the Octonauts’ motto.
Creature Reports
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. The exception is the episode of "The Surfing Snails", where it was replaced with a surf rock song called, "Surf's Up, Bubbles Up ".The creature reports addictive repetitive nature has been postulated to have psychologically benefits for both children, providing a sense of predictability that promotes good feelings and mental balance, and adults, providing a sense of virtual participations via the principle of involuntary musical imagery.
Initial working title of the 2017 American Super hero film "" was "Creature Report", a reference the Octonauts, which acted as the movie production's code word.
Video Services
Seasons of The Octonauts are available on variety of streaming and direct purchase video services.Streaming Services
| Service Provider | Country Availability | Content |
| ABC iView | Australia |
|
| Netflix | Worldwide | |
| Stan | Australia |
Direct Purchase Services
| Service Provider | Country Availability | Content |
| Apple TV+ | Worldwide |
|
| Google Play | Worldwide | |
| Microsoft Store | Worldwide |
| Package | Episodes |
| Meet the Octonauts | Season 1 |
| To the Gups! | Season 1 |
| Ready for Action! | Season 1 |
| Sound the Octoalert! | Season 1 |
| Jumpin' Jelly Fish | Season 1 |
| Shiver me Whiskers | Season 1 |
| The Great Penguin Race | Season 1 & Special 1 |
| GUP X to the Rescue! | Season 2 & Special 2 |
| Amazon Adventure | Season 2 & Special 3 |
| Calling All Gups! | Season 2 |
| Deep Sea Adventures! | Season 2 & Season 3 & Special 4 |
| Flappity Flippers | Season 2, Season 3 |
| Great Arctic Adventure | Season 2, Season 3 & Special 7 |
| Here Come the Vegimals | Season 3 & Special 5 |
| Over Under Adventure | Season 3 & Special 6 |
| The Great Swamp Search | Season 4 & Special 9 |
| Octopod Mystery | Season 4 |
| Operation Deep Freeze | Season 4 & Special 8 |
| ABC Kids | Season 4 |
DVD Releases
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. The show was the top-ranked ABC programme for 5-12 year olds in January 2011 in Australia, with the ABC calling its first month an "unprecedented success online and on-air".It has been rated 7.4 out of 10 on IMDb. In 2013, Octonauts was nominated for two awards: an International Emmy Award in the "Kids—Preschool" category
and an Irish Film and Television Award in the "Best Children's/Youth Programme" category.
The Octonauts DVD boxed set was 4th best-selling Children's TV DVD at Amazon UK as of 7 April 2013.
Spin-offs
The Octonauts brand has been licensed by the production company for numerous spin-off activities. These include Octonauts Rollercoaster Adventure, a themed rollercoaster within the CBeebies Land of Alton Towers theme park and themed bedrooms with the CBeebies Land Hotel. There is also a travelling live show called Octonauts Live, which has toured in the U.S. and other countries.An Octonauts app was launched for iOS on 17 November 2016, produced in partnership with Night and Day Studios.
Channels
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Other links