Powerbirds

Powerbirds is an animated children's television series created by Stephen P. Breen and co-created by Jennifer Monier-Williams. The series premiered on 19 January 2020, on Universal Kids.[1] The series is produced by Brown Bag Films.[2]

Powerbirds
GenreChildren's television series
Action
Created by
  • Stephen P. Breen
  • Jennifer Monier-Williams
Story by
  • Ben Joseph
  • Robin J. Stein
  • Craig Martin
Directed byWilliam Gordon
Voices ofCory Doran
Tara Strong
Theme music composerPT Walkley
Opening theme"Powerbirds"
performed by Adam Sanders and Carmen Yanuzielle
Ending theme"Powerbirds" (instrumental)
ComposerRopey Sound
Country of origin
  • United States
  • Canada
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes20
Production
Executive producersCathal Gaffney
Darragh O'Connell
ProducerUma Krishnamurthy
EditorsMark Edwards
Sam Smith
Andy Brittain
Running time22 minutes
Production companyBrown Bag Films
Release
Original networkUniversal Kids
Original release19 January (2020-01-19) 
5 November 2020 (2020-11-05)

Premise

The series follows Max with his pet parakeets, Ace and Polly. Max counts on them to keep saving the day while he is away. The powerbirds save the city from danger and they stop the main villains: Nibbles, Clawdette, Scrapper, Minerva, and Asher Stasher from the events where Max will be going later, so then later, Max is excited to visit the events.[1]

Characters

Main

  • Ace (voice of Cory Doran) is a yellow parakeet, who can turn into a superhero when trouble calls. He is determined, daring, and playful. When he is not fighting bad guys, he loves everything related to superheroes, and he is a food-loving bird.
  • Polly (voice of Tara Strong) is a blue parakeet, who can also turn into a superhero like Ace. She is a very silly and creative bird, and can think outside of the box to solve problems. She has extra powers like super stretching herself that Ace does not have.

Supporting

  • Max (voice of Orlando Lucas) is an imaginative eight-year-old, who owns Polly and Ace. He loves comic books that are about superheroes and counts on Ace and Polly to make sure no danger is around the city when he is away, despite him not seeing them saving the day like the other humans can.
  • Gwen (voice of Ana Sani) is Max’s little sister, who sometimes plays with him before they both leave to wherever they are going and would usually play as another character in his superhero games.
  • Mrs. Lopez (voice of Paloma Nuñez) is a bookmobile driver who speaks in a Hispanic accent.
  • Grandpa Felix (voice of Deven Mack) is Max’s grandfather, who would appear in some episodes prior to the mission and the lesson one of the Powerbirds must remember. These episodes are "Time to Dino-soar", "The Powerbirds Pretender", "Midnight Scrap", "Wacky Wokka Walk", and "Scrapper’s Magnet Mayhem".

Villans

  • Nibbles (voice of Rob Tinkler) is a poodle dog, who tries to gain attention to become famous, but ends up causing disasters, mostly because he only thinks of himself and does not know why the famous people are loved. He speaks in a British accent.
  • Clawdette (voice of Evany Rosen) is Max’s pet tabby cat and the Powerbirds’ adoptive sister. She believes that she is the best ninja, so she tries to get stuff so she can be the best at it. In "Power Meower Saves the Day", she actually helped Polly and Ace by wearing out Asher Stasher, and she helps them again in "Food Caper", when Scrapper was stealing the cat food for himself to eat.
  • Scrapper (voice of Tyler Muree) is a striped raccoon, who likes to try to steal all other people's food, especially his favorite, pizzas. He seems to be the least villainous of them because all he wants is food. He speaks in a New York accent.
  • Minerva (voice of Shannon Hamilton) is an owl, who uses different tools to cause trouble such as bad dream bubbles, magic mirrors, consoles, and more to make herself smarter than the humans are.
  • Asher Stasher (voice of Cory Doran) is a flying squirrel, who tries to collect stuff for his "collection of shiny things", but sometimes wants stuff that is too big and decides that he either does not want it anyway or gets interrupted by a phone call from his mom.

Episodes

The series has been picked up for 20 22-minute episodes.[3] It premiered early on its original network for its first look of the show on 1 January 2020.[4]

No.TitleDirected byWritten byStoryboarded byOriginal air dateProd.
code
U.S. viewers
(millions)
1a"World's Awesomest Villain"William GordonS: Ben Joseph/T: Ben Joseph & Steve WestrenTBA19 January 2020 (2020-01-19)102N/A
Asher Stasher steals all the trophies in town.
1b"Owl of Nod"William GordonHeather JacksonTBA19 January 2020 (2020-01-19)102N/A
Minerva ruins everyone’s dreams.
2a"That'll Teach Em"William GordonS: Robin J Stein/ T: Robin J Stein & Steve WestrenTBA21 January 2020 (2020-01-21)103N/A
Minerva hypnotizes several teachers so she can be the smartest one on earth.
2b"Space Odyssey"William GordonEvan Thaler HickeyTBA21 January 2020 (2020-01-21)103N/A
The powerbirds see an UFO in their yard one day.
3a"Scrapperlicious"William GordonScott AlbertTBA26 January 2020 (2020-01-26)104N/A
The powerbirds chase Scrapper around town to get some pizzas.
3b"Book Bedlam"William GordonRobin J SteinTBA26 January 2020 (2020-01-26)104N/A
Minerva drives around Mrs Lopez’s Bookmobile without knowing how to drive, so the Powerbirds must get the bookmobile back to safety.
4a"Nibbles takes the Cake"William GordonSteve WestrenTBA2 February 2020 (2020-02-02)105N/A
Nibbles ruins several birthdays by taking all the cakes.
4b"Clash of the Critters"William GordonJosh SaltzmanTBA2 February 2020 (2020-02-02)105N/A
Clawdette and Scrapper fight over a trash can.
5a"Time to Dino-Soar"William GordonS: Robin J Stein/ T: Robin J Stein & Steve WestrenPaul Gunson
Antonella Maringola
9 February 2020 (2020-02-09)101N/A
Nibbles ruins the grand opening of the dinosaur exhibit and throws a party there.
5b"Birdy Guards"William GordonBen JosephTBA9 February 2020 (2020-02-09)101N/A
The powerbirds must protect a famous wrestler’s belt before Asher Stasher and Clawdette take it.
6a"Haywire Hayride"William GordonS: Craig Martin T:Craig Martin & Steve WestrenTBA16 February 2020 (2020-02-16)106N/A
Ace and Polly have to stop Nibbles, who’s ruining the Harvest festival by taking over the hayride.
6b"The Powerbirds Pretender"William GordonSteve WestrenTBA16 February 2020 (2020-02-16)106N/A
Ace and Polly have to save the day and their reputations when Minerva poses as a fake Powerbird to make them look bad.
7a"Power Meower Saves the Day"William GordonRobin J SteinTBA23 February 2020 (2020-02-23)107N/A
Clawdette inadvertently sabotages Ace and Polly’s attempts to stop Asher Stasher from collecting all the soccer balls in town.
7b"Midnight Scrap"William GordonScott AlbertTBA23 February 2020 (2020-02-23)107N/A
Scrapper schemes to sneak into the house to take the cupcakes Max has baked for his classmates.
8a"Wacky Wokka Walk"William GordonS: Craig Martin T: Craig Martin & Steve WestrenTBA1 March 2020 (2020-03-01)108N/A
Nibbles steals the finish line for the big race so that no one can win it.
8b"Owl’s Spoilers"William GordonS: Ben Joseph T: Ben Joseph & Steve WestrenTBA1 March 2020 (2020-03-01)108N/A
Ace and Polly team up against Minerva, who’s stolen the last page out of every copy of Max’s favorite comic book, Idaho Smith, so only she knows the ending.
9a"Cement Your Legacy"William GordonBen JosephTBA8 March 2020 (2020-03-08)109N/A
Nibbles plans to write his name in some freshly poured cement so it will be there forever.
9b"The Greatest Inventor"William GordonS: Ben Joseph T: Ben Joseph & Steve WestrenTBA8 March 2020 (2020-03-08)109N/A
Minerva sneaks into the museum before it opens and switches all the plaques to make it seem like she invented everything.
10a"Owl Got Your Tongue"William GordonSteve WestrenTBA15 March 2020 (2020-03-15)110N/A
Minerva takes away everyone’s ability to talk, while Polly learns that words aren’t the only way to communicate.
10b"Cereal Box Bandit"William GordonElliot SokolskyTBA15 March 2020 (2020-03-15)110N/A
Asher Stasher collects all the breakfast cereal in town while The Powerbirds’ power belts have been damaged.
11a"Clawdette Chaos!"William GordonElliot SokolskyTBA17 June 2020 (2020-06-17)111N/A
It’s up to the Powerbirds to stop Clawdette, who’s planning to ruin the big Kite Festival.
11b"Food Caper"William GordonHeather JacksonTBA17 June 2020 (2020-06-17)111N/A
The Powerbirds and Clawdette team up to stop Scrapper.
12a"Asher’s Moving Castle"William GordonRobin J SteinTBA19 June 2020 (2020-06-19)112N/A
Ace and Polly have to think things through when Asher Stasher steals the bouncy castle from the big block party.
12b"Villain-Palooza"William GordonSteve WestrenTBA19 June 2020 (2020-06-19)112N/A
All the villains team up to stop the Powerbirds once and for all.
13a"Asher Goes Bananas"William GordonDiana MooreTBA26 June 2020 (2020-06-26)113N/A
Asher Stasher becomes obsessed with getting to the moon so he can put all of his extra collectibles in it.
13b"Scrapper’s Magnet Mayhem"William GordonBen JosephTBA26 June 2020 (2020-06-26)113N/A
Scrapper gets a hold of a really powerful magnet so he can take every item of canned food he can find, Even on Max’s food drive.
14a"Clawdette’s Mischievous Monkey"William GordonBen JosephTBA3 July 2020 (2020-07-03)114N/A
Ace and Polly are scared when Clawdette gets control of a toy Monkey, when she lets it gets loose in town.
14b"Take back the Fort"William GordonEvan Thaler HickeyTBA3 July 2020 (2020-07-03)114N/A
The Powerbirds have to stop Scrapper, who’s taken over Max’s tree fort and using it for his very own villains’ lair.
15a"Major Mishap"William GordonAndrew HarrisonTBA10 July 2020 (2020-07-10)115N/A
Asher hatches a plan to take all Major Justice action figures, so only HE’ll have them.
15b"King Wasteville"William GordonSteve WestrenTBA10 July 2020 (2020-07-10)115N/A
Scrapper is launching mounds of waste into town trying to turn it into his own wasteful paradise.
16a"Asher’s Tooth Fairy Wish"William GordonBen JosephTBA17 July 2020 (2020-07-17)116N/A
Ace and Polly have to protect Max’s tooth from Asher who wants to add it to his loose teeth collection.
16b"Power Meower Strikes Again"William GordonJosh SaltzmanTBA17 July 2020 (2020-07-17)116N/A
Gwen’s stuffy, Boo Boo, is gone and she couldn’t find it! While Max searches for it with her, Ace and Polly do their own searching with the unlikely help of Clawdette... or should we say: Power Meower.
17a"Clawdette Who cried Wolf"William GordonKatherine SandfordTBA24 July 2020 (2020-07-24)117N/A
17b"Arf-Tastic Tales of Nibbles"William GordonS: Ben Joseph & Steve Westren T: Steve WestrenTBA24 July 2020 (2020-07-24)117N/A
18a"Doggoween"William GordonKatherine SandfordTBA1 August 2020 (2020-08-01)118N/A
18b"Clash with Clawdette"William GordonDiana MooreTBA1 August 2020 (2020-08-01)118N/A
19a"Asher’s Eggstravaganza"William GordonS: Josh Saltzman & Steve Westren T: Steve WestrenTBA8 August 2020 (2020-08-08)119N/A
19b"Big Balloon Afternoon"William GordonS: Nate Knetchel & Steve Westren T: Steve WestrenTBA8 August 2020 (2020-08-08)119N/A
20a"Clawdette's Christmas Caper"William GordonHeather JacksonTBA5 November 2020 (2020-11-05)120N/A
20b"Hologram Hijinks"William GordonBen JosephTBA5 November 2020 (2020-11-05)120N/A

Production

Universal Pictures has chosen to make a TV series out of Breen's children's books, which are published by Penguin, include Stick, Violet the Pilot, Pug and Doug, Unicorn Executions and Skyhorse, and the choice was Powerbirds.[1] Universal Kids planned the series in 2017, but with a different style, before Sprout’s rebrand to Universal Kids,[5] a different style of the characters, which was Max, Polly, Ace and another character, the Golden Eagle.[6]

9 Story Media Group's live-action and animation division co-produced the series with animators from Brown Bag Films.[2]

Reception

Universal Kids stated Hollywood Life that "The series promotes underlying positive messages that we can all be our own superhero if we do the right thing."[7]

Release

In 2017, Universal Kids, as Sprout, set a release date for Powerbirds in 2019,[8] but on December 11, 2019, the show was delayed to a 2020 release date instead to January 19, 2020, and the show got a first look release on January 1, 2020.[9] The show will also air on Family Jr. in Canada.

References

  1. "Universal Kids' 'Powerbirds' Leave the Nest Jan. 19". Animation Magazine. 11 December 2019.
  2. Powerbirds | BRAND NEW SERIES, retrieved 7 January 2020
  3. "Powerbirds scored by Sanj Sen takes flight in the US".
  4. "Powerbirds | TV Guide". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  5. Milligan, Mercedes (22 June 2017). "Sprout Adds 2 New Toons, Jason Alexander Joins 'Kody Kapow'". Animation Magazine. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  6. "Powerbirds | NBCUniversal Together". together.nbcuni.com. 6 August 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  7. Boren, Jade (17 January 2020). "'Powerbirds' Preview: Ace & Polly Rush To Save The Day After Asher Stasher Steals The Town's Trophies". Hollywood Life. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  8. Kidscreen. "Universal Kids expands original Sprout programming". Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  9. "Universal Kids". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
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