''Pinky Dinky Doo'' is an animated children's television series created by

Jim Jinkins James Jinkins (born August 8, 1953) is an American animator, cartoonist, and children's author. He is best known as the creator of the animated ''Doug (TV series), Doug'' television series which was later the basis for a Doug's 1st Movie, feature ...

. It was produced and co-owned by Jinkins'

Cartoon Pizza Cartoon Pizza is an American animation studio located in Nashville, Tennessee. It was co-founded by Jim Jinkins and David Campbell as the successor to Jinkins' former company, Jumbo Pictures. A hallmark of both Jumbo Pictures and Cartoon Pizza h ...

and

Sesame Workshop Sesame Workshop (SW), originally known as the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), is an American nonprofit organization that has been responsible for the production of several educational children's programs—including its first and best-know ...

. The series was made in association with

Discovery Kids Latin America Discovery Kids (stylized as DK) is a Latin American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and headquartered in Miami, Florida, which started as a programming block on the Latin American version of Discovery Channel. It launched ...

, and the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the governmen ...

(season 1). For the second season, Abrams Gentile Entertainment, and the Canadian studio Keyframe Digital Productions joined as production companies. Each episode follows an imaginative pink-haired girl named Pinky Dinky Doo, her brother Tyler and pet Mr. Guinea Pig as she makes up her own stories. The character of Pinky Dinky Doo was created by Jim Jinkins as a bedtime story for his daughter. In 2002, he developed the idea into a two-part web series, produced by his company Cartoon Pizza alongside Sesame Workshop. In 2003,

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

released a series of six children's books featuring the character, and on April 5, 2005, the show's first season made its worldwide premiere on Discovery Kids in Latin America. The show was first broadcast in English on

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French- ...

in December 2005. From January 17, 2016 to January 2, 2021, the series aired in reruns on

HBO Kids ''HBO Kids'' (formerly ''Jam'') is an American preschool/children's television morning block operated by Home Box Office, Inc. (HBO), a division of Warner Bros. Discovery. The block runs on HBO Family, HBO's sister station that targets children ...

as part of HBO's deal with Sesame Workshop. It was also added to the

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Ne ...

streaming service upon its launch on May 27, 2020, before being taken off on January 2, 2021. The series is now available to stream on Sensical, a free streaming service by

Common Sense Media Common Sense Media (CSM) is an organization that reviews and provides ratings for media and technology with the goal of providing information on their suitability for children.

Plot

Pinky Dinky Doo is a girl who lives in Great Big City with her parents, her little brother Tyler, and their house pet Mr. Guinea Pig. She loves to write stories, especially for Tyler. Each episode begins with Tyler having a problem, such as not being able to find his shoes or not wanting to take a bath. At that point, Pinky says, "That gives me an idea." Tyler asks, "Pinky, are you going to make up a story?" and Pinky responds, "Yes-a-rooney, positooney!" (which means "Yes, positively!"), dancing to a cardboard box called the Story Box. Using chalk and her imagination, she tells a story. In the second season, whenever the Story Box is unavailable, Pinky uses the Story Pad, a notebook in which she draws pictures using a pencil for her newer stories. Each story features Pinky herself as the main character, and the story plots are centered around Tyler's main issue. Because they are made up stories, there tends to be unusual or silly things that occur, something that Tyler typically points out although Pinky reminds him that anything can happen in a made up story. At the climax of each story a problem starts to arise, so Pinky must "Think Big," at which point her head swells (like a balloon filling with air) and she comes up with an often wacky solution to the problem while singing "If I have a problem, don't know which way to go, I think and think and think and think, and suddenly I know." Some episodes feature different variations of the "Think Big" sequence: * In ''Big Blob of Talk'', Pinky had to "Listen Big" instead, leading to her ears swelling up in addition to her head. * In ''Back to School Is Cool'', Pinky's hair swells instead of her entire head due to her having a bad hair day. * In ''Tyler to the Rescue'', ''Two Wheel Dreams'', ''Go to Bed Tyler!'', and ''Tyler's Big Idea'', Tyler thinks big instead of Pinky. * In ''Shrinky Pinky'', Mr. Guinea Pig thinks big instead of Pinky. After each story, Tyler solves his own problem and knows what to do.

Characters

Dinky Doo family

* Pinky Dinky Doo (voiced by

India Ennenga India Ennenga (born November 16, 1994) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Sofia Bernette in the HBO series '' Treme'', Camille Winship in the A&E drama '' The Returned'' and the voice of the titlular character in the Nick Jr. ...

) * Tyler Dinky Doo (voiced by Felix Chrome in season 1; Allison Wachtfogel in season 2) * Mr. Guinea Pig (voiced by Juan Van Michaelangelo in season 1; John Rogers in season 2) * Mommy Dinky Doo (voiced by Heather Dilly in season 1; Lindsie Van Winkle in season 2) * Daddy Dinky Doo (voiced by

)

Friendly characters

* Nicholas Biscuit (voiced by Justin Riordan (Thomas Sharkey) in season 1; Katherine Rose Riley in season 2) * Bobby Boom (voiced by Kalif Jenkins in season 1 and Ralph Peavy in season 2) * Daffinee Toilette (voiced by Carolina Hernandez in season 1 and Anabelle Berrido in season 2)

History

Production

The series was created and produced by

and

, which co-own the copyright to the series. These two companies were the sole producers of the show's pilot episodes. For the first season, Discovery Kids and the

joined as co-producers. Abrams Gentile Entertainment and Keyframe Digital Productions joined as production companies in the second season. Abrams Gentile financed part of the season in exchange for licensing and merchandising rights, and Keyframe animated the season. The intro for both seasons, as well as episodes from the first season, used

flash animation Adobe Flash animation or Adobe Flash cartoon (formerly Macromedia Flash animation, Macromedia Flash cartoon, FutureSplash animation, and FutureSplash cartoon) is an animation that is created with the Adobe Animate (formerly Flash Professional) ...

using Macromedia Flash, while episodes from the second season switched over to

computer animation Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes ( still images) and dynamic images ( moving images), while computer animation re ...

using

3DS Max Autodesk 3ds Max, formerly 3D Studio and 3D Studio Max, is a professional 3D computer graphics program for making 3D animations, models, games and images. It is developed and produced by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. It has modeling capab ...

, with the characters being animated via a

3D rig 3-D, 3D, or 3d may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Relating to three-dimensionality * Three-dimensional space ** 3D computer graphics, computer graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data ** 3D film, a ...

as opposed to being completely 3-Dimensional. ''Pinky Dinky Doo'' was an international co-production. Cartoon Pizza, Sesame Workshop, Noggin, and Abrams Gentile were based in the United States; CBC and Keyframe Digital were based in Canada; Discovery Kids was based in Latin America; and CBeebies was based in the United Kingdom. For season two, the budget was about 200,000 Canadian dollars per episode. Jim Jinkins originally created ''Pinky Dinky Doo'' in 2000 as a bedtime story for his then four-year-old daughter. In an interview with ''

Animation Magazine ''Animation Magazine'' is an American print magazine and website covering the animation industry and education, as well as visual effects. The print magazine is published 10 times a year in the United States. History and profile ''Animation Maga ...

'', he admitted, "It wasn't pre-meditated as a kid's show." In 2002, Jinkins worked with Sesame Workshop to create two web-based pilot episodes starring Pinky, which were released online in 2003. From 2003 to 2004,

published a series of six children's books centered around Pinky. Jim Jinkins said of his work with Sesame Workshop: "The Workshop was a beautiful partner ... they didn't overhaul it, but saw it as natural literacy project."

Broadcast

''Pinky Dinky Doo'' made its worldwide premiere on March 27, 2006, on Discovery Kids in Latin America. The show was first broadcast in English on CBC Television, which premiered the show in December 2005. Other Canadian networks that aired ''Pinky Dinky Doo'' include

TVOntario TVO Media Education Group (often abbreviated as TVO and stylized on-air as tvo) is a publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario ...

and

Knowledge Network Knowledge Network, also branded as British Columbia's Knowledge Network, is a Canadian publicly funded educational cable television network serving the province of British Columbia. It is owned by the Knowledge Network Corporation, a Crown cor ...

, as well as TFO in French Canada. In most other territories, Sesame Workshop aimed to premiere the show in the first quarter of 2006. Before the series premiere, ''

Kidscreen Brunico Communications is a Canadian magazine publishing company."Desktop tabloid publishing firm sports 2 publications and a profit". ''The Globe and Mail'', October 9, 1989. The company specializes primarily in online trade magazines serving medi ...

'' announced that broadcast rights for ''Pinky Dinky Doo'' had been sold to

ABC Television ABC Television most commonly refers to: *ABC Television Network of the American Broadcasting Company, United States, or *ABC Television (Australian TV network), a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia ABC Television or ABC ...

in Australia. It was also announced that Sesame Workshop was "focusing on securing German and French roadcastpartners," which became

Super RTL Super RTL is a German free-to-air television network owned by the RTL Group. The channel originally launched in 1995 as a joint venture between RTL Group predecessor company CLT-UFA and Disney's Buena Vista International Television Investments ...

in Germany and

France 5 France 5 () is a French free-to-air public television channel, part of the France Télévisions group. Principally featuring educational programming, the channel's motto is ''la chaîne de la connaissance et du savoir'' (the knowledge network). ...

. ''Pinky Dinky Doo'' was sold to over 35 international broadcasters. The

American Forces Network The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the U.S. military provides to those stationed or assigned overseas. Headquartered at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, AFN's broadcast operations, which ...

, a channel operated by the U.S. Armed Forces, aired ''Pinky Dinky Doo'' from 2006 to 2016. In the United States, Noggin had temporary broadcast rights for ''Pinky Dinky Doo'' in 2006 and aired it as one of several acquired shows. The show continued to air upon Noggin's rebranding into the Nick Jr. channel on September 28, 2009, where the show aired until April 8, 2011. The Spanish-language U.S. network

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and include ...

aired Spanish dubs of the show as part of its Saturday morning programming block for children,

Planeta U ''Planeta U'' (English: ''"Planet U"''), usually referenced as ''Tu Planeta U'' (''"Your Planet U"'') is an American children's programming block that airs on the Spanish language television network Univision, which debuted on September 15, 2001. ...

, from Planeta U’s launch on April 5, 2008, to September 3, 2011.

aired the series in reruns as part of HBO's partnership with Sesame Workshop between 2016 and 2021. The show was made available on the

streaming service upon its launch on May 27, 2020, and it was available until January 2, 2021. The series is now available to stream on Sensical, a free streaming service by

Common Sense Media Common Sense Media (CSM) is an organization that reviews and provides ratings for media and technology with the goal of providing information on their suitability for children.

. In the United Kingdom, the show was broadcast on the BBC's children's network

CBeebies CBeebies is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 years and under. Its sister channel CBBC is aimed at older childr ...

. It was originally shown in American English, but it was later redubbed and broadcast with British English voices, although the series was put on hiatus between December 31, 2006, and May 28, 2007. In Brazil,

TV Cultura TV Cultura or simply Cultura, is a free Brazilian public television network headquartered in São Paulo and a part of Father Anchieta Foundation, a non-profit foundation funded by the São Paulo State Government. It focuses on educational and ...

aired a Brazilian Portuguese dub. The series also aired on

Rai Yoyo Rai Yoyo is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana. It is the company's television channel for kids, and is known for its programming for children between ...

in Italian,

Baraem Baraem ( ar, براعم) (meaning: buds) is a Qatari pay television channel aimed at preschool kids. It was launched on January 16, 2009, and broadcasts 17 hours daily. Previously co-owned by Al Jazeera Media Network and the Qatar Foundation, A ...

in Arabic, and Hop! Channel in Hebrew (Hop! Channel being available exclusively In Israel).

Episodes

Description

The show was intended to help preschool-aged viewers increase their vocabularies with its Great Big Fancy Word, which is featured several times during the episode. It also addresses problem-solving skills as well as the basics of narrative stories—character, dialogue, plot, details, main idea, and sequence of events. After Pinky tells her story and solves the problem of the day, kids are invited to play an interactive game on the Cheese Sandwich toy, where they review details about the story. At the end of each episode, Pinky says, "I love to make up stories. I'll bet you can make up a story too." In each episode, there is also a "Great Big Fancy Word", but when somebody is about to say the word, Mr. Guinea Pig will blow a trumpet and then the character says the word. This series was created by Jim Jinkins, who originally made up Pinky's adventures as bedtime tales for his children. The executive producers are Jinkins and David Campbell. It is a production of

, Keyframe Digital, and Abrams Gentile Entertainment. According to the show's website, it is intended to promote reading and imaginative storytelling.

Notes

References

External links