''Octonauts'' is an

animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...

children's television series Children's television series (or children's television shows) are Television show, television programs designed specifically for Child, children. They are typically characterised by easy-going content devoid of sensitive or adult themes and are ...

, produced by

Chorion The chorion is the outermost fetal membrane around the embryo in mammals, birds and reptiles (amniotes). It is also present around the embryo of other animals, like insects and molluscs. Structure In humans and other therian mammals, the cho ...

in series 1 and Silvergate Media starting from series 2 for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

channel

CBeebies CBeebies is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content targeted for children aged six year ...

. It is based on the children's books written by Meomi, the design team of Vicki Wong and Michael C. Murphy. The show follows an underwater exploring crew made up of stylised

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

animals, a team of eight adventurers who live in an undersea base, the ''Octopod'', from which they go on undersea adventures with the help of a fleet of aquatic vehicles. Although its technology is fictional, the exotic creatures and locations that the crew encounter are based on real marine animals in their natural habitats. The show's subject matter has been compared to that of ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

'' and '' Thunderbirds'' blended with

Jacques Cousteau Jacques-Yves Cousteau, (, also , ; 11 June 191025 June 1997) was a French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author. He co-invented the first successful open-circuit self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA), called the ...

. The show was animated in Ireland by Brown Bag Films for its first four series. The show was renewed for a fifth series in 2018, with Canada's

Mainframe Studios Mainframe Studios is a Canadian animation studio owned by Wow Unlimited Media and based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Founded in 1993 as Mainframe Entertainment Inc. by Christopher Brough, Ian Pearson, Phil Mitchell, Gavin Blair and John Gr ...

taking over animation work. A

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

-original spinoff, subtitled '' Above & Beyond'', was released in September 2021, and featured the Octonauts venturing onto more land-based habitats of the natural world. In March 2023, five new episodes under the original ''Octonauts'' branding and format were released via the BBC iPlayer.

Characters

Main characters

The Octonauts, consisting of the Octopod crew and captain, are the recurring main characters.

Vegimals

Vegimals are half-animal, half-vegetable creatures. The vegimals were discovered by Shellington as eggs attached to the side of the Octopod. To protect them he brought them into his lab, where they hatched a few days later. After a few weeks, they established themselves as an integral part of the crew. They primarily speak Vegimalese, a language made of chirps and warbles (heavily accented English with inter-mixed gibberish), though they also speak a limited amount of English (with an accent). Shellington is the only (non-vegimal) Octonaut who has some fluency in Vegimalese.

Minor characters

Vehicles

Books

The original books were first published in the US by Immedium in 2006 and were republished in the UK by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

in 2009. Six titles by Meomi have been published: * ''The Octonauts & the Only Lonely Monster'', about an Architeuthis (Giant Squid). * ''The Octonauts & the Sea of Shade'', about a world where everyone's shadows have gone missing. * ''The Octonauts & the Frown Fish'', about a glum-looking

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order (biology), order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Catfish are common name, named for their prominent barbel (anatomy), barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, though not ...

. * ''The Octonauts & the Great Ghost Reef'', about

coral bleaching Coral bleaching is the process when corals become white due to loss of Symbiosis, symbiotic algae and Photosynthesis, photosynthetic pigments. This loss of pigment can be caused by various stressors, such as changes in water temperature, light, ...

. * ''The Octonauts Explore the Great Big Ocean'', about the search for Tunip the Vegimal's home. * ''The Octonauts & the Growing Goldfish'', about Dunkie, a giant goldfish who won't stop growing. A series of shorter books based on individual episodes from the TV series is being published by

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

. These titles can be distinguished by the "As seen on TV" label on the covers and are not written or illustrated by Meomi. The books have the same titles as the episodes they are based on.

History

In 2010, ''The Octonauts'' was adapted into a 52-episode CGI animated television series co-produced by

and Brown Bag Films. It first aired in the UK on 4 October 2010 on CBeebies, a

television channel for children under 7. The first series ended in February 2011 but continued to be aired as repeats. A second series of 22 episodes commenced in November 2012. ''The Octonauts'' had its US premiere on the

Disney Channel Disney Channel is an American pay television television channel, channel that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company ...

on 9 January 2012 In September 2014, Silvergate Media announced its sale of season 4 to the Disney Channel, to be aired in 2015. In Australia, in 2014, the Octonauts became the second most-watched children's TV show in the country, seen daily on ABC2 by 257,000 viewers nationally. By season 4, the Octonauts had been picked up in more than 100 countries, including

RTÉ Two (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Republic of Ireland, Irish Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, television, RT� ...

(Ireland),

Treehouse TV Treehouse TV (commonly known as Treehouse) is a Canadian English-language Discretionary service, discretionary specialty channel that was launched in 1997. Its name comes from sister network YTV (Canadian TV channel), YTV's former programming b ...

(Canada),

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 ...

(Australia), TF1 (France), SuperRTL (Germany), CCTV (China), Karusel (Russia), Disney Junior (Spain, Portugal), and SVT (Sweden). The show has been translated and shown in French (

TF1 TF1 (; standing for ''Télévision Française 1'') is a French commercial television network owned by TF1 Group, controlled by the Bouygues conglomerate. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network. TF1 is part ...

), Spanish and Portuguese ( Discovery Kids Latin America), Finnish ( YLE TV2), Welsh (

S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speakin ...

), and Slovakian (STV 2). The series was made with the help of

marine biologist Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms that inhabit the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology clas ...

s Dr. Lara A. Ferry-Graham and Dr. Michael H. Graham, who had previously worked on ''

Finding Nemo ''Finding Nemo'' is a 2003 American animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Andrew Stanton, co-directed by Lee Unkrich, and produced by Graham Walters, from ...

''.

Episodes

The TV show is episodic, with each 11-minute episode seeing them encountering an unusual but real sea creature as they explore strange underwater worlds. Often they must discover a vital biological or behavioral fact about that creature to rescue it or themselves from danger. The stories usually feature three main characters: Captain Barnacles, Kwazii, and Peso, with the other five Octonauts acting in supporting roles. The opening theme tune finishes with the chant "Explore! – Rescue! – Protect!", the Octonauts' motto.

Creature Reports

Creature Reports are one-minute, musical, poem-like sequences that recap the facts learned about the sea creature that the Octonauts encountered in the associated episode. In the UK, these were shown as separately scheduled items, but in the American version, they were used after each regular episode. The exception is the episode of "The Surfing Snails", where it was replaced with a

surf rock Surf music (also known as surf rock, surf pop, or surf guitar) is a genre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1958 to 1964 in two major forms. The first is inst ...

song called, "Surf's Up, Bubbles Up (Ready to Ride)". The Creature Report's addictive, repetitive nature has been postulated to have psychological benefits. For children, it provides a sense of predictability that promotes good feelings and mental balance. For adults, it provides a sense of virtual participation via the principle of involuntary musical imagery. The initial working title of the 2017 American Superhero film " Thor: Ragnarok" was "Creature Report", a reference to the Octonauts, which acted as the movie production's code word.

Video services

Seasons of The Octonauts are available on variety of streaming and direct purchase video services.

Streaming services

Direct purchase services

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...

and

Microsoft Store The Microsoft Store (formerly known as the Windows Store) is a digital distribution platform operated by Microsoft. It was created as an app store for Windows 8 as the primary means of distributing Universal Windows Platform apps. With ...

organise their episodes into packages, similar to the region 4 DVD titles.

Reception

The TV series was well received when shown on CBeebies in the UK and by

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

in Australia. According to the authors' website, it was the No. 1 pre-school age show in the UK, and the first pre-school show to be ranked in the top ten by older audiences (aged 3–4 and up). The show was the top-ranked ABC programme for 5- to 12-year-olds in January 2011 in Australia, with the ABC calling its first month an "unprecedented success online and on-air". ''The Octonauts'' DVD boxset was the 4th best-selling Children's TV DVD at

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

UK as of 7 April 2013.

Awards and nominations

In 2013, Octonauts was nominated for two awards: an

International Emmy Award The International Emmy Awards, or International Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. Bestowed by the New York City, New York–based International Academy of Televisi ...

in the ''"Kids—Preschool"'' category and an Irish Film and Television Award in the ''"Best Children's/Youth Programme"'' category. In 2017, the series took home the

Annie Award for Best Animated Television Production The Annie Award for Best Animated Television Production is an Annie Award, awarded annually to the best animated television/broadcasting productions. The categories for television/broadcasting productions have gone through several name changes ...

in the Preschool category for the episode "Operation: Deep Freeze".

Films

In 2020, two new movies were released on Netflix: on August 14, ''The Octonauts Movie: The Caves of Sac Actun'' (which takes place in a

cenote A cenote ( or ; ) is a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting when a collapse of limestone bedrock exposes groundwater. The term originated on the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, where the ancient Maya commonly used cenotes for water supplies, and ...

in Mexico) and on October 13, ''The Octonauts & the Great Barrier Reef'' (a musical). In 2021, ''The Octonauts Movie: The Ring of Fire'' was released March 30 on Netflix in the United States.

Spin-offs

The Octonauts brand has been licensed by the production company for numerous spin-off activities. These include Octonauts Rollercoaster Adventure, a themed rollercoaster within the CBeebies Land of

Alton Towers Alton Towers Resort ( ) (often shortened to Alton Towers) is a theme park and resort complex in Staffordshire, England, near the village of Alton, Staffordshire, Alton. The park is operated by Merlin Entertainments, Merlin Entertainments Group a ...

theme park and themed bedrooms with the CBeebies Land Hotel. There is also a travelling live show called ''Octonauts Live'', which has toured in the U.S. and other countries. An ''Octonauts'' app was launched for iOS on 17 November 2016, produced in partnership with Night and Day Studios. A spin off series, titled ''Octonauts: Above and Beyond'', premiered on September 7, 2021, with the full first episode being released on YouTube on August 25. Rather than an aquatic setting, ''Above and Beyond'' features the crew exploring and assisting in natural habitats such as forests and deserts; essentially all terrestrial habitats. In 2024, a new spin-off set in China aired exclusively on Chinese broadcast stations, with no news for an international release date.

References

External links

* *

Channels

Octonauts on Disney Junior US

Octonauts on Discovery Kids

Octonauts on Discovery Kids Brazil

Octonauts on TF1

Octonauts on TFOU

Octonauts on Treehouse