HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (January 30, 2019) – The Jim Henson Company has received the greenlight to produce a fourth season (20 x 11′) of the vocabulary-building early preschool series, Word Party, bringing the total number of episodes to 60 x 11’. Word Party, a Netflix Original, is available for streaming on Netflix in the U.S. and in territories around the world.
Created by Alex Rockwell (Pajanimals, Bear in the Big Blue House), Word Party is a preschool show that invites the youngest children to help take care of four adorable baby animals as they sing, dance and play their way through their daily routines, learning new and exciting words along the way! This season, the “Babies” welcome Tilly, a new baby tortoise character that will be part of the show’s new dual-language format, teaching Mandarin in English-speaking countries, and English in non-English speaking countries. Tilly and the other Babies (Lulu the panda, Bailey the elephant, Kip the wallaby, and Franny the cheetah) will directly ask for help from the “Big Kids” at home, granting the audience authority to guide the action, as well providing a context for vocabulary acquisition. Also new this season are ten short-form music videos that will reflect the show’s curriculum with fun and catchy original songs.
“On social media, we’ve seen our youngest fans having a blast dancing, playing, and really engaging with the Word Party Babies,” commented Halle Stanford, President of Television, The Jim Henson Company. “Kids and parents have been asking for more Word Party fun and our new episodes will deliver with a new baby, Tilly the Tortoise, and more original dance party songs!”
“There’s a new baby coming to the playroom! Our new episodes will tell stories, sing songs, and teach words that can help our young audience grapple with the complex emotions around the arrival of a younger sibling,” said Alex Rockwell, creator and executive producer of Word Party. “We’ll also Introduce a new dual language format, which is especially exciting since the earlier you introduce a second language, the easier it is for a child to pick up its unique sounds. Parents and kids will join us in celebrating the joy of learning words in two languages!”
Word Party is produced using the groundbreaking Henson Digital Puppetry Studio, a proprietary CG-animation technology from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop that allows puppeteers to perform digitally animated characters in real time—enabling the animation to be more lifelike and spontaneous. The series is a production of The Jim Henson Company and is executive produced by Lisa Henson, Halle Stanford, and Alex Rockwell.
About The Jim Henson Company
The Jim Henson Company has remained an established leader in family entertainment for over 60 years and is recognized worldwide as an innovator in puppetry, animatronics and digital animation. Best known as creators of the world-famous Muppets, Henson has received over 50 Emmy Awards and nine Grammy Awards. Recent credits include Dot. (Universal Kids /Hulu), Word Party (Netflix), and Doozers (Hulu/ Sprout), and the Emmy®-nominated Splash and Bubbles (PBS), Julie’s Greenroom (Netflix), Sid the Science Kid (PBS), Dinosaur Train (PBS), and Pajanimals (Universal Kids). Television productions include Fraggle Rock, The Storyteller and the sci-fi cult series Farscape. Features include Sony Pictures Animation’s The Star and Disney’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, as well as The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, MirrorMask, and Jim Henson’s Turkey Hollow. The Company is currently in production on the upcoming Netflix original series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio (Netflix). Projects in development include the highly anticipated film Fraggle Rock.
With additional locations in New York and London, The Jim Henson Company is headquartered in Los Angeles on the historic Charlie Chaplin lot, complete with soundstage and post production facilities. The Company is home to Jim Henson’s Creature Shop™, a pre-eminent character-building and visual effects group with international film, television, theme park and advertising clients, as well as Henson Recording Studios, one of the music industry’s top recording facilities known for its world-class blend of state-of-the-art and vintage equipment. The Company’s Henson Alternative brand recently premiered The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell (Netflix) and is currently touring Puppet-Up! – Uncensored, a live puppet improvisational show. Its feature The Happytime Murders, starring Melissa McCarthy, was released last summer.
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