Waybuloo

Waybuloo
The Piplings: Yojojo (upper left), NokTok (upper right), De Li (bottom left) and Lau Lau (bottom right).
Format	Children's television series
Created by	Dan Good
Developed by	RDF Media Decode Entertainment
Country of origin	United Kingdom Canada
Language(s)	English
No. of episodes	100
Production
Cinematography	Keith Reed
Running time	20 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	CBeebies (UK) BBC HD (UK) Treehouse TV (Canada)
Original run	11th May 2009 – present

Waybuloo is a pre-school British and Canadian children's television series originally created by Dan Good and Absolutely Cuckoo.^[1] It was commissioned by Michael Carrington at the BBC, and first aired on CBeebies in May 2009. The 100-episode show is filmed by the Foundation in Glasgow (Scotland) and animated and directed by Gallus Entertainment^[2] for Decode Entertainment.^[3] Post production, including audio, sound design & editing is done by Platform Post Production.^[4] in Toronto (Canada). Line produced by Matt Porter and the series producer is Simon Spencer,^[5] part of the independent company, RDF Media's subsidiary The Foundation.^[6] The program makers describe it as "...a philosophy for a happy life, and is like nothing children will have ever seen before".^[6]

Waybuloo is set in the land of Nara. The main characters are the four Piplings, 3D CGI animated creatures with large heads and eyes, placed on a filmed background, with the second half of each twenty-minute show featuring human children ("cheebies").

The Piplings practise yogo, a gentle form of exercise similar to yoga^[7] so that the viewers and their parents can participate.^[8]

Characters

Nok Tok

Nok Tok is a bear with a blue body with slightly tanned skin. He has a little patch of spiky bits on top of his head which resembles hair and wears a yellow t-shirt. He also has a little tail and big brown eyes. Nok Tok is the practical one who fixes things.

De Li

De Li the cat (pronounced /ˈdiːlaɪ/) has a pink body and big blue eyes, with slightly pointed ears on top of her head and a tail with a white tip. She wears a flower on top of her head. She wears a pale pink dress. De Li is very fond of her garden.

Lau Lau

Lau Lau the rabbit has a lilac coloured body and green eyes, has long ears on top of her head and a puff tail. She also wears a plain vest with skirt. Lau Lau loves painting and can often be seen behind her easel.

Yojojo

Yojojo the monkey has an amber coloured body and blue eyes, and has rounded ears on the side of his head. He has four thick hairs rising above his right ear which flop over to his left like a comb-over. In Peeka he is often seen hiding in the log and his long tail is often shown. He also wears a blue pair of pants. Yojojo is a talented musician and juggler. He is the cheeky one who likes playing tricks on the others.

Cheebies

A different group of six children who play Peeka and yogo with the Piplings and engage with them in every episode. The Cheebies often find the solutions to the Piplings' problems.

Narabugs

Four small butterfly-like creatures who are thought to be the Piplings' pets. Each one is coloured like their respective Pipling.

Episodes

There are 100 episodes in Waybuloo, 50 in series 1 and 50 in series 2 ^[1]

Episode	Series 1	Synopsis	Series 2	Synopsis
1	Moving Things	De Li stands on a box to pick plumatoes, but Yojojo wants to store his instruments in it and the other Piplings want to use it to play hopsy. They decide it's better to share it.	Magical Music
2	Showtime	Lau Lau puts on a dancing show. The other Piplings decide to join her to make a show for the Cheebies but the stage isn't big enough. So they make a bigger one.	A Surprise for Yojojo	Yojojo breaks a drumskin. The others decide to surprise him by fixing it, but while they put him off the scent he thinks they don't love him. He cheers up when he finds out what they were up to.
3	Trumpet	Yojojo and Nok Tok find a hollow branch that makes a good trumpet. They go around frightening everyone by blowing it but this frightens Lau Lau's Narabug away. Yojojo plays it softly instead and all the Narabugs come to listen.	Cheebie Tune	Nok Tok makes a xylophone but one of his notes doesn't sound right. So everyone helps him find a bit of wood with the right pitch.
4	Strawberries	De Li trains her Narabug to find a strawberry bush by smelling a strawberry. But the Piplings eat them all and have none left for the Narabug to smell. The Cheebies find the bush and pick all the strawberries. When De Li finds it too they're all gone. She's sad until her Narabug traces the strawberries back to the Cheebies and they all eat them.	De Li gets her Shoehorns on	Everyone loves walking with Nok Tok's shoehorns except De Li, who's afraid she won't be able to use them. She overcomes her fear with the help of the others.
5	Snuggly Nest	Lau Lau makes cushions from Narabug thread, one for each Pipling, but her own cushion goes missing. They trace the unravelled thread to a bird's nest, and leave the cushion there.	Star	Lau Lau thinks she's found a star that grants her wishes, until De Li points out it's only a flower. The Cheebies make her a new star and Nok Tok launches it into the sky with the Anything Machine.
6	Whistle	Nok Tok wants to call his Narabug by whistling like the other Piplings but he can't. He practices and eventually works out how.	Singball Statues	Yojojo's good at juggling singballs but eventually drops them. He's upset by this until the Cheebies use his mistakes to play musical statues.
7	Shy Flower	De Li has a large plant in her garden that won't open its flower. She tries putting it in the sun and watering it but it won't flower. Eventually she works out it flowers by stroking it. It produces lots of seeds and soon the flowers are everywhere.	Go Get Game	The Piplings play a game where the first to go get a named fruit is the winner. De Li is upset she keeps coming last until they realise she picked all the best fruit to eat.
8	Going Bananas	Lau Lau wants to paint three bananas but when she's gone Yojojo can't resist and eats two of them. The Cheebies stop him eating the last one. When she's finished painting Lau Lau offers it to Yojojo but he wants to share it. There's not enough to go round but Nok Tok and De Li bring enough bananas for everyone.	Pictures	Lau Lau tries to paint the other Piplings but they won't sit still. To make up for it they make her presents but while they're doing that she's able to paint them. The Cheebies surprise everyone with a painting of Lau Lau.
9	Nok Tok's Naracar	Nok Tok offers to help the other Piplings carry some heavy things but there's too much to carry at once. So he makes a car to help transport them.	Snuggly Slide	De Li wants Yojojo to show her how to play lifty leaf but he wants to play on his slide with his snuggly. So the Cheebies get the snuggly its own lifty leaf and he can play with it and help De Li at the same time.
10	Bubble	A huge bubble arrives in Nara and Yojojo tries to keep it from bursting. Eventually it disappears into the sky. Yojojo's sad until the Cheebies find a waterfall making hundreds of bubbles and they have fun bursting them.	De Li's Garden
11	Nok Tok's Happy Plant	Nok Tok's plant is sad, even though he gives it sun, soil and water. He doesn't believe the others when they say it likes music, bongleberries and Cheebies until he's proven wrong. He feels silly until they tell him it's alright to be wrong.	Dance
12	Counting Seeds	De Li wants to count her jumpy seeds but they keep moving. The others don't help by putting her off her counting, but the Cheebies count with her. When they know how many pots they need they plant them, and they soon flower producing many more seeds.	Lost	De Li wants to play her whistle stick but the others are playing their drums so loudly she can't hear it. She tries to find somewhere quiet to play but gets lost. Then she hears the drums and knows which way to go. The others agree to play quietly and they all play together.
13	Being Brave	Yojojo thinks he's brave until he's scared by the shadow of a big flappy thing. The Cheebies work out it's the shadow of Yojojo's Narabug and Yojojo feels brave again.	The Gift	Lau Lau gives De Li a painting, so De Li wants to get her a gift in return. She gets her flowers but her Narabug eats them, then gets her bongleberries but squashes them. The Cheebies make a painting for Lau Lau but De Li wants to get her something herself, so gives her a huggle.
14	Catch	The Piplings play catch but Nok Tok can't catch. After trying different ways to learn he realises he's been shutting his eyes, so he keeps them open and catches the ball.	Loving Laughing	The Piplings try to make Nok Tok laugh but he wants to work on the Anything Machine. Soon they're worried he's lost his laugh but when he's finished working he gets the Anything Machine to make funny noises he can laugh at.
15	Nok Tok Thinks Big		Feather	Yojojo finds a feather and sets about finding out where everyone's ticklish. He tries to tickle himself but it doesn't work. He thinks he's lost his tickle until the Cheebies tell him he can't tickle himself, and tickle him all over.
16	Tricky Kicky		Neepnip
17	Green Mango		Pipling Pegs
18	Songbird		No Talk Game
19	Fruity Fun		Dry Garden
20	Hiccups		Carrotbeet Day
21	Cheep Cheep		Lau Lau's Story
22	Echo Cave		Toot Toot
23	Frog		Snuggly
24	Whizzcrackers		Choosy
25	Glitter Crystal		Walking Backwards
26	Missing Seed		String Goes Ping	Yojojo plays his banjojo for the Narabugs, but breaks a string. The Cheebies help find a new string.
27	Flittery Narabug		Where Have All The Narabugs Gone?
28	Perfect Picnic		Singing Bowl	Lau Lau finds a bowl in a cave and looks for a way everyone can use it together. The Cheebies discover it makes a sound they can dance to.
29	Clever Tree		Bop Bop Bat	Nok Tok makes bop bop bats but Yojojo breaks his. He tries to fix it himself without telling Nok Tok but in the end only Nok Tok can mend it.
30	Mice		Nok Tok's Narabug	Nok Tok's concerned his Narabug isn't good at anything. This makes it sad, so he decides it's good at being a friend. It cheers up enough to win the blow-leaf race.
31	Bongleberry Juice		Old Made New	Yojojo breaks his special bowl and bongleberries just don't taste as good from any other bowl. So Nok Tok fixes the bowl with mud in the Anything Machine.
32	Jumping		Pipling Playday	Lau Lau finds she's no good at any of the games because her long ears keep getting in the way. That's until she finds they make her the best at spinning.
33	Follow the Pipling	De Li is perfectly happy to play a copying game with her narabug, but feels too shy to do the same with everyone else. When the Cheebies arrive, one is also shy and she and De Li work together to gain confidence.	Sssh!	Nok Tok scares away the bird Lau Lau's trying to paint with sounds he’s recorded on the Anything Machine. So he records the bird’s song to attract it instead.
34	Dancing Feet		Enough	Yojojo collects lots of flowers for the Piplings. Then he realises he's picked them all and ruined De Li's favourite place. So the Cheebies make a giant flower picture instead.
35	The Tallest Pipling in Nara		Pod Men	Lau Lau and Yojojo make a pod man, fixing the head with mud. Nok Tok also makes a pod man but the head falls off. He won't ask for help. His pride dented, he gets everyone to work together to make a pod face instead.
36	Pipling Rhythm		Too Slow	De Li keeps losing races and wants to go faster. But when she comes last in a race around Nara she decides being slow is good as it enabled her to collect some nice things.
37	Narabug Chase		Chimey Leaves	Lau Lau finds a plant whose leaves chime when they knock together. She takes the leaves home but then no-one else can hear them chime. So they plant it in De Li's garden where everyone can hear.
38	Catch the Plumato		Nok Tok Rock	Nok Tok finds a box full of useful objects and hands them out to the Piplings. Everyone's pleased except Nok Tok, who's left with a rock. The Cheebies show him he can use it to play games, but then it gets broken. So he uses the hollow halves to make clip-clop sounds like a horse.
39	Fireflies		Swapping	Lau Lau swaps her paintbrushes for Yojojo's banjojo, but neither of them are any good at the other's hobby. So Lau Lau paints the banjojo and Yojojo uses the brushes as drumsticks.
40	Jumpybug		Bluebell	Yojojo tricks everyone into thinking bluebells ring when they touch them. Soon everyone's tricking each other with sounds, so they decide instead to make noise together.
41	Leaf		The Search For Lau Lau's Glowstone	Lau Lau finds a glowstone, and immediately loses it. The Piplings help look for it but only find things they'd lost. The Cheebies suggest retracing her steps.
42	Picnic		Yojojo's Plumpkin	The Piplings grow vegetables for soup, but Yojojo doesn't want to eat his huge plumpkin so it can grow bigger. The Cheebies tell him it might go off and get smaller, so he picks it straight away and plants the seeds for more plumpkins.
43	Treasure Hunt		Fairy Thing	De Li finds a floaty, sparkly thing in her shed which the Piplings think might be a fairy. The Cheebies realise they are fireflies and build a new home for them in De Li's shed.
44	Sad Narabug		Surprise	Nok Tok sets up the Anything Machine to give the Cheebies a bubble surprise. He leaves it with Yojojo to look after but he accidentally sets it off. Yojojo hides it in De Li's shed so the surprise isn't ruined, but the bubbles escape and the Cheebies see them. Nok Tok doesn't mind as the Cheebies love the bubbles anyway.
45	Balancing		Round and Round	Nok Tok finds a golden feather and puts it in a safe place. The other Piplings find it, not realising it's Nok Tok's, and hide it somewhere else. Soon none of them can find it. When they realise they're all looking for the same feather they search for it together, until a bird finds it.
46	De Li's Trick		Swapsy Box	The Piplings each put presents in a box and swap them. De Li is puzzled by the stick in her box until she discovers it's for planting special seeds in her garden.
47	Ball		Den For Ten	Lau Lau makes a den, but when the other Piplings join her it falls down. So they make the den bigger.
48	Clouds		Shaker Breaker	Yojojo lets Nok Tok play with his shakers but he loses one. The Cheebies make new shakers but De Li finds Yojojo's in her bush.
49	Nok Tok Goes Driving		Lau Lau's Quiet Day	Lau Lau and Jumpy Bug have a quiet day, but everyone else is too noisy. They decide to have a loud day instead.
50	Tricky Stick

Footnote 1: S02E38 does not have a title recorded, although it has been aired by the BBC.

Season 3 & 4 Decode Entertainment started that 2 more CGI seasons of "Waybuloo" will be made. Aired on CBeebies on 3 October 2011.

DVD releases

Release name	UK release date	Notes
Meet the Piplings	Monday 26th Oct 2009	Despite being filmed in HD no Blu-ray release
Adventures In Nara	Monday 30th Nov 2009	Despite being filmed in HD no Blu-ray release
Yo Jojo Nok Tok	Monday 12th Jan 2010	Despite being filmed in HD no Blu-ray release
Piplings Love to Pla	Monday 29 Mar 2010	Despite being filmed in HD no Blu-ray release
Hi-Hi Cheebies	Monday 6th Sep 2010	Despite being filmed in HD no Blu-ray release
Piplings Feel Buloo	Monday 22nd Nov 2010	Despite being filmed in HD no Blu-ray release
Series 1-5 Box Set	Monday 6th Dec 2010	Despite being filmed in HD no Blu-ray release

See also

Holland Publishing (licensee)

References

1. ^ ^{a b} http://www.absolutelycuckoo.com
2. ^ Gallus Entertainment, http://www.gallusentertainment.com, retrieved 2010-09-20 
3. ^ Decode Entertainment Homepage, Decode Entertainment, http://www.decode-ent.com, retrieved 2009-11-07 
4. ^ Platform Post Production, http://www.platformpp.tv, retrieved 2010-09-20 
5. ^ "Waybuloo Full Cast and Crew credits". IMDB.com. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1361469/fullcredits. Retrieved 2009-11-07. 
6. ^ ^{a b} "Waybuloo puts the kids back in kids' TV". The Guardian. http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/tv-radio/yoga-for-tots-meet-the-new-teletubbiesii-1756223.html. Retrieved 2009-11-07. 
7. ^ "Yoga for tots? Meet the new Teletubbiesii". www.independent.ie. http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/tv-radio/yoga-for-tots-meet-the-new-teletubbiesii-1756223.html. Retrieved 2009-11-07. 
8. ^ "Cbeebies GrownUps page about Waybuloo". Cbeebies. http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/grownups/about/programmes/waybuloo.shtml. Retrieved 2009-11-07. 

External Sources

BBC iPlayer with Episodes currently aired in series 2

External links

• BBC - CBeebies - Waybuloo (BBC official home page)
• Official Waybuloo Site
• Waybuloo at the Internet Movie Database
• Waybuloo on Treehouse Website