Animation Column: “A Little Curious”

HBO show targets kids who are “A Little Curious”
By Helen Lee, syndicated May 9, 1999

Until now, most television shows for pre-schoolers focused on a few important aspects of learning: reading, memorizing numbers, social skills and problem solving. But HBO Family Channel’s “A Little Curious” (airs at 7:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. ET every day) adds something different to the mix: it focuses on helping kids process ideas through language play.

”The young mind is just sopping concepts up, and really trying to organize the world constantly – re-prioritizing how they make sense of it,” says producer John Hoffman. ”So we decided to focus on the area of concept organization.”

Each episode of ”A Little Curious” focuses on three words, two of which go together — such as ”empty,” ”full” and ”pop.” For example, viewers will learn about lollipops, popcorn, soda pop, popping sounds and how fathers are often called Pop.

Dr. Susan Gellman, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, who consults for the show, says. ”I think it’s really focusing on those concepts that children of this age are interested in and trying to figure out, but at the same time it touches on other sorts of issues that they haven’t worked out yet,” she says.

From his conversations with Gellman and her colleagues, Hoffman felt justified in dealing with metaphors as well as concrete meanings of words. Normally, he says, parents think their kids won’t properly understand their use of a term like ”the battery died” versus ”the cat died.” Actually, says Gellman, that’s not true.

”Preschoolers love to play with language and they will often spontaneously come up with really interesting ways of phrasing things that might not even occur to an adult, but are really charming,” she says.

The show teaches these concepts through a mix of animation styles and some live-action pieces as well. The main character is Bob the ball, an energetic red round object voiced by Cameron Bowen, a 10-year-old boy. Bob narrates the reality segments and is the ”curious” one.

Gellman notes, ”Bob is exactly the character that any little kid can identify with. He’s curious, he’s bouncing around and trying to find out what’s happening. I see him as the character that’s probably most like the child who would be watching.”

There’s also Mr. String, the Shoe Family (with kids Lacey and Mary Jane), Plush the patchwork dog, Pad and Pencil, Doris the Door and Mop, whom Hoffman calls ”the perfect babysitter.” Finally, Little Cup is the toddler ”even more babyish” than the youngest TV watchers.

”The characters are made up of these very ordinary everyday objects that a child plays with, sees, touches, experiences every day,” says Gellman. ”I love that imaginative touch — a child playing with a piece of string will be reminded of Mr. String, who can transform itself into a thousand different things…when kids are interacting in the world they have these memories of these things being animated and having their own lives.”

Hoffman feels that using objects allows the show to impart more meaning to viewers. ”If we had used little animals, little dogs and kittens or puppets that are by their nature animate…it would have been much more limiting. Having a ball and a pad and pencil and a cup learning, and being void of understanding of certain concepts, you just accept it. It’s perfectly acceptable that the slate is blank.”

The music for ”A Little Curious”’ is directed by Pat Irwin of the B-52s. Dan Hicks from the band Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks also writes songs for the series. The music includes a theme sung by Manhattan Transfer, original songs about each of the characters and licensed rock tunes that fit in with the day’s themes. For one show whose topics were loud, soft and shake, Mop belted out ”Twist and Shout.” Other songs have included Doris the Door’s rendition of Joni Mitchell’s ”Both Sides Now,” the Go-Go’s ”We Got the Beat” and Beverly Ross’ ”Lollipop.”

Why so much focus on recognizable pop hits? ”It’s turned out to be a lot of fun, because we feel that it’s one more way to engage the parents,” Hoffman explains. ”They’ll hear something that they recognize and focus in.”

Appealing to both parents and kids of different ages is important to the show’s creators. Gellman says, ”Any good children’s show should appeal…to the youngest viewers you’re trying to reach and it should also appeal to adults who watch it. This (show) deals with concepts that are really fascinating to children as young as two, but there are these layers of more sophisticated concepts that are there for an older child to pick up on.”

”A Little Curious” has been approved for a second season, and HBO is working on building a bigger audience for the show. There’s even talk of merchandising. But for Gellman, the most critical criterion of a successful children’s show has already been met. ”I loved it,” she says. ”More importantly, my kids loved it.”