Oobi facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Oobi |
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| Genre | Puppetry |
| Created by | Josh Selig |
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| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
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| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Josh Selig |
| Producer(s) |
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| Production location(s) | Kaufman Astoria Studios New York City |
| Cinematography | Randy Drummond |
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| Production company(s) | Little Airplane Productions |
| Distributor | Viacom Media Networks |
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| Picture format | NTSC (480i) |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original release |
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| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Dasdasi |
Oobi is a television show for children. It was made by Josh Selig in New York City. It is about a group of talking hand puppets with eyes and clothes. The main character, Oobi, is a four-year-old boy hand. He has a sister named Uma, a friend named Kako, and a grandfather named Grampu.
The show was first played in 2000 as a series of two-minute short episodes. It started as a series of longer half-hour episodes in 2003. It was shown on the channels Nickelodeon and Noggin.
While it was being made, the show was popular with preschoolers and fans of puppetry. It won awards from groups like Parents' Choice and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. In the mid-2000s, there was a cult following of small filmmakers who used Oobi-style puppets in short movies. In 2012, a spin-off of Oobi called Dasdasi was made in Iran. The entire original show is currently included on Amazon Prime Video.
Structure and plot
Most episodes are split into two or three parts. Every episode has a main story and some interviews. In the interviews, the puppets ask real kids and families about a topic or place. Episodes in season one also have a "game segment" where the puppets play a simple learning game. In season two, there were no game segments anymore and the main stories were made longer instead.
The show takes place in an old-fashioned town where almost everyone is a talking hand puppet. The puppets have eyes that they wear on the middle finger. The kids have four of their fingers straight, and they use their thumbs as their bottom lips. The adults have their fingers curled up, which makes them look taller. The only regular character who is not a hand is Frieda, a foot puppet.
Cast
- Tim Lagasse as Oobi
- Stephanie D'Abruzzo as Uma and Inka
- Noel MacNeal as Kako
- Tyler Bunch as Grampu
- Matt Vogel as Angus
- Jennifer Barnhart as Mrs. Johnson
- Cheryl Blaylock as Frieda the Foot
Characters
- Oobi is a four-year-old boy hand with brown eyes. His favorite thing to do is play the piano. His favorite toy is a red model car.
- Uma is Oobi's little sister. She wears a purple and blue ring on her pinky finger. She loves to talk about chickens, her favorite animal.
- Kako is the best friend of Oobi. He wears a red hat. He likes to visit Oobi's house. His parents are Mamu and Papu.
- Grampu is the grandfather and caretaker of Oobi and Uma. He likes to cook food and work in his garden.
- Frieda is a talking foot puppet. She is five years old. She likes to play with Oobi at the park.
- Angus is Oobi and Kako's nerdy friend. He is usually nervous and has trouble talking in front of people.
- Inka is Oobi's piano teacher. She is also Grampu's girlfriend. She has purple hair. She likes to talk about her home country, France.
- Mrs. Johnson is Oobi's old neighbor. She has a white wig, big round glasses, and a brown dress that she wears like a shirt sleeve.
International broadcast
The show has also been shown in:
Australia — ABC
Canada — TVOKids
France — Nickelodeon Junior
Iceland — Stöð 2
Israel — BabyTV (until 2010), Nickelodeon Israel (2010–13)
Marshall Islands — AFN
Saudi Arabia — Nickelodeon Arabia
Pakistan — Nickelodeon Pakistan
Poland — Nickelodeon Poland
Thailand — Nickelodeon Southeast Asia
Dasdasi
Dasdasi was a spin-off/adaptation of Oobi made in the country of Iran for a TV channel called IRIB TV2. In Dasdasi, there is a bigger family of hand puppets: a son, a daughter, two parents, and a grandfather. The kids are counterparts to Oobi and Uma, and the grandpa is Grampu's counterpart. Kako does not have a counterpart, but the kids have neighbors and a baby cousin who usually fills the role of a close friend instead. Dasdasi was first shown on September 22, 2012, and the last episode was shown on December 20, 2012. There were 78 episodes.
In other media
- Nate Ruess's rock band, The Format, made a music video with Oobi puppets for their song "Dog Problems" in November 2006. The video was shown on the cable channels MTV2 and MTVU.
- A talk show called The Soup showed clips from Oobi many times. Oobi was a regular part of the part called "What Your Kids Are Watching". In this part, the host Joel McHale made comments about funny scenes from children's shows and movies.
- John Green, a writer, played Oobi in a video blog (vlog) that he posted to his YouTube channel in May 2007. The vlog was called "Vlogbrothers: How to Write a Book Proposal".
- A runner-up of the 2009 Cannes Young Lions Competition, a TV advertising contest for kids, was a video based on Oobi called "Let Your Hands Do the Talking." The video showed spoofs of celebrities played by hand puppets with "Oo"-themed names, just like Oobi and Uma.
- A television pilot inspired by Oobi called "Right Hand Guy" was made for the channel Disney XD in summer 2016. It was about a boy whose hand came to life and became his friend. The director who made the pilot, Dan Lagana, showed the Oobi episode "Babysitter!" to the actors so that they would be familiar with it.
