Hey Duggee is a British animated educational television series aimed at 2 to 5 year olds. Created by Grant Orchard, it is produced by Studio AKA in association with BBC Studios.
The programme is based around The Squirrel Club, an activity club for children. The children take part in all kinds of activities, have adventures and earn badges for their accomplishments.
Hey Duggee has aired for two series, commencing and concluding in January 2015. BBC and Studio AKA produced a second series in early 2016, with the first episode airing in the United Kingdom on 26 September 2016. A third series was commissioned in October 2017, with the first episode to be broadcast in Autumn 2018.
Video Hey Duggee
Production
The programme is animated using the computer program Flash, with a minimalist style using filled shapes with no outlines, and only effects that Flash is capable of. The frog character is represented as a plain green triangle, and only the Duggee character uses any gradients.
The production team consists of around 16 in-house animators, with six to eight scriptwriters.
Maps Hey Duggee
Format
In each episode, a situation will present itself that can be solved by learning a new skill. When the skill has been learned, and the situation resolved, the Squirrels receive one of Duggee's badges. Each episode ends with a "Duggee Hug", where all the children hug Duggee at once. They then return to their parents with the badge they have earned.
The voice of the narrator is provided by English entertainer Alexander Armstrong. The narrator frequently talks to Duggee and the children.
Characters
Main
- Sander Jones as Duggee - A brown dog who is the protagonist of the series. He is the leader of The Squirrel Club. Unlike the children, he does not speak and only communicates via the onomatopoeia "Woof". In spite of this, everybody understands him perfectly.
- Jasmine Bartholomew as Betty - An intelligent and imaginative octopus.
- Duke Davis as Happy - A tall, happy crocodile who enjoys splashing in the water and wears light teal eyeglasses. Happy is adopted, and his adoptive parents are elephants.
- Dexter Varral and Leo Templer as Roly - An enthusiastic, loud and hyperactive hippo.
- Alfie Sanderson as Tag - A sweet-natured rhino with thick skin.
- Poppie Boyes as Norrie - A chatty, giggly and fast moving mouse.
Supporting
- Sander Jones as Enid - Duggee's pet cat.
- Sander Jones as the Rabbits - They live in the field near the clubhouse. They all speak in similar voices and sound like 60's hippies. Besides one that speaks French.
- Phillip Warner as Naughty Monkey.
- Grant Orchard as Mice - A gang of three trouble-making mice styled as a 50's biker gang; usually leaving with the phrase "Let's bounce"
- Adam Longworth as Lord Fingal of Skye Castle - A Scottish Scottish Terrier wearing a kilt.
- Adam Longworth as the Soldier Ants - An army of ants in uniform. A large ant is a parody of Sylvester Stallone.
- Adam Longworth as Tino the Artistic Mouse - A mouse who is a perfectionist and whom Roly describes as grumpy.
- Adam Longworth as Hedgley - An African-American accented hedgehog.
- Adam Longworth as John Crab - A dramatic orange crab. He is in an same-sex relationship with a mute crab named Nigel.
- Adam Longworth as Eugene - The leader of the parade.
- Adam Longworth as Penguins - First seen in "The Snowman Badge," they make fun of Duggee's snowman.
- Adam Longworth as Thora and Agnes, the two old deers - (Old Dear is a British term for an elderly lady, sometimes used derogatively).
- Phillip Warner as King Tiger
- Poppy Green as and crying voice Charley Orchard as Duglee - Duggee's little nephew who loves to cause chaos in the clubhouse.
- Lucy Montgomery as Hennie - A tall, sports-loving ostrich.
- Phillip Warner as Wilbert/Chipmunk - A postman.
- Sander Jones as Diesel - An angry bull who often chases Duggee and the squirrels.
- Lucy Montgomery as Chew Chew the Panda- A confectionery-loving panda.
- The Hummingbirds - The other group of young animals in Jamboree, with their very own version of Duggee. In Jamboree, these were Finbar and Merry (voiced by Charley Orchard), Chad (voiced by Bastian Varrall), Rochelle (voiced by Poppy Green) and Ottie/Otzi (voiced by Sean Orchard)
- Morgana Robinson as Peggee - A peach dog in Jamboree. She is the leader of The Hummingbird Club. Unlike Duggee, she does speak English.
- Morgana Robinson as Katarina the Flamingo - the lead swimmer of a synchronised swimming team.
- Morgana Robinson as Buggee - a small bug who feels useless due to her small size until the Squirrels show her otherwise.
Release, merchandise and other licensing deals
Broadcast
The series made British television debut when the episode "The Tinsel Badge" was aired in advance on 17 December 2014 as a Christmas special on CBeebies. Its regular run began on 12 January 2015, when the first episode, "The Drawing Badge", was shown.
Internationally, the series is distributed by BBC Worldwide, a commercial arm of the BBC which also operates the versions of CBeebies channel in select areas outside the UK.
A deal announced on 23 February 2015 by BBC Worldwide for the series include RTÉ in the Republic of Ireland, France Télévisions in France, YLE in Finland, NRK in Norway, SVT in Sweden, and RÚV in Iceland.
In Italy, The series premiered on 6 June 2016 on Cartoonito.
In the United States, The series premiered on 11 July 2016 on Nick Jr. with the first episode The Drawing Badge.
In Latvia, LTV1 premiered the series on 2 September 2017 with a second season. On 15 October through 4 November, 12 episodes were announced including a Halloween special in the UK and most countries.
Home media and online viewing
In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, BBC Worldwide so far released two volumes of DVDs, each containing ten episodes. There will be all of The episodes have now been made available through iTunes.
'Stick Song'
The Stick Song premiered in the Season 2 episode, 'Hey Duggee: The Stick Badge,' which was first broadcast in the UK on 7 December 2017. Duggee and the Squirrels are making a campfire when Roly discovers one of his sticks can talk. The talking stick begins to chant the word "stick!" repeatedly. The chant is set to dance music and the stick sings and dances to the beat.
To date, the Stick Song has been viewed more than 3.5 million times on YouTube. The track has been featured on BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Newsnight. There is a heavy metal cover version.
Episodes
Season 1 (2015)
Season 2 (2016-2018)
Reception
Stuart Heritage, writing in The Guardian, described the series as being "peerless." Elements of the London Fire Brigade (LFB) complained on social media about "The Dressing-Up Badge". In the episode, Roly dresses up as a firefighter, but is described as being a fireman, which the LFB described as being "outdated" and [that] the term "'Firefighter' is the preferred respectful, inclusive, non-sexist, non-gendered term that should be being widely used by all media but especially the BBC [sic].
Critical reception
Awards and nominations
References
External links
- Hey Duggee - The Official Website of Hey Duggee
- Hey Duggee at BBC Online
- Hey Duggee at Studio AKA
- Hey Duggee at Internet Movie Database
Source of article : Wikipedia
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