''Pic Me'' (or ''PICME'') is an Irish

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preschool A preschool (sometimes spelled as pre school or pre-school), also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, play school, is an school, educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they ...

children's animated television series that premiered on 1 August 2005 on

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

, later airing on

TG4 TG4 (; , ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television channel. It launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on-demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was initially known as (TnaG), before bein ...

and

Nick Jr. Nick Jr. (sometimes disambiguated as Nick Jr. on Nickelodeon or Nick Jr. on Nick, and sometimes referred to as Nick, Jr.) is an American morning programming block that airs on Nickelodeon every weekday. It was launched on January 4, 1988. Nick ...

channels throughout Europe.

HIT Entertainment HIT Entertainment Limited (stylised as HiT) was a British-American entertainment company founded in 1982 as Henson International Television, the international distribution arm of The Jim Henson Company, by Jim Henson, Peter Orton, and Sophie Turn ...

held worldwide distribution rights. Since mid-2008, episodes of ''Pic Me'' have aired in the United States on

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and Sprout. Also, in the United States, a Spanish-dubbed version airs on

V-Me V-me (, a pun on ''veme'', 'watch me' or 'see me') is a Hispanic-Latino American Spanish-language television network, formerly carried as an over-the-air public broadcasting network in association with public television stations. V-me airs a var ...

Format

Episodes of ''Pic Me'' last for approximately five to ten minutes. ''Pic Me'' is an innovative show in that it allows its viewers to star in each episode. Every episode has one viewer's photograph

superimposed Superimposition is the placement of one thing over another, typically so that both are still evident. Superimpositions are often related to the mathematical procedure of superposition. Audio Superimposition (SI) during sound recording and repro ...

on a cartoon child's body. These characters then roam around the story, walking, running, jumping, and physically interacting with the main cartoon characters. The viewer characters neither speak, nor do the characters refer to them by each of their names. Instead, they are referred to as "Little Boy" (if the avatar is male) or "Little Girl" (if the avatar is female) as is relevant. Since the start of 2005, many new episodes of ''Pic Me'' have involved two viewers, instead of just one. These "best friends" type episodes have the main star viewer holding, or looking at, a picture of their real-life "best friend". Another episode starring the "best friend" is shown at a later date, with the situation regarding the pictures mirrored.

Characters

The 6 main characters in ''Pic Me'' include: *Juno – a male lion with a nasal voice. He is generally insecure and often seen to be frightened of confrontation. He is very forgetful, but loves having fun with his friends. *Gerty – a female giraffe. She is quite intelligent and loves to cook, but is very fussy and likes things to be clean. *Banjo – a male purple monkey. *Umi – a red female parrot. She is clever and fun-loving, but can have a brash attitude towards other characters, although not the "Little Boy" or "Little Girl". She is very talkative, but friendly. She enjoys carrying her friends into the air to "look at the sky". Presumably they enjoy this. *Clarence – a male crocodile who has an inferiority complex. He is proud of his ability to swim, but otherwise can get very nervous around other characters. *Neville – a blue male elephant. He is the most intelligent character and is the character who gives everyone else good advice. They all ask him questions and – after screwing up his eyes – he will eventually give the right answer. He is a moral character and teaches the others right from wrong. The goal of the show is to help teach children. The viewers learn lessons from the differences between right and wrong (not telling lies etc.) to learning shapes, colours and counting.

DVD releases

A DVD release of the series titled: "Pic Me: You're the Star!" was released by

in the United Kingdom on 23 October 2006. It contained twelve episodes of the show in its original widescreen format, alongside a bonus CD-ROM containing

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software to create your own ''Pic Me'' cartoons. A similar DVD - titled "Pic Me: Personalised Early Learning", was released in Ireland by

, however, the episodes featured were shown in a cropped fullscreen ratio. The episode "Journey into Space" was included as a bonus episode on several HIT Entertainment DVDs in the United Kingdom in January 2007, such as "Incredibubble Children's Favourites", ''

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- Angelina Sets Sail'', and ''

Fireman Sam ''Fireman Sam'' () is a British animated children's television series about a fireman named Sam, his fellow firefighters, and other residents in the fictional Welsh rural village of Pontypandy (a portmanteau of two real towns, Pontypridd and T ...

on Stage''.

Awards

* Best digital storytelling category (2005 Digital Media Awards) * Best Youth Programme (2005 Irish Film and Television Awards)

References