''Powerbirds'' is an animated children's television series created by Stephen P. Breen and co-created by Jennifer Monier-Williams and produced by Brown Bag Films. The series is about Max and his pet

parakeets A parakeet is any one of many small- to medium-sized species of parrot, in multiple genera, that generally has long tail feathers. Etymology and naming The name ''parakeet'' is derived from the French word ''perroquet'', which is reflect ...

who owns it and transforms into superhero birds called the Powerbirds, after Max leaves for school. The Powerbirds find themselves to save the city from danger, and will stop him against the animal friends who are villains. The series premiered on 19 January 2020, on Universal Kids. It is one of the last shows to premiere on Universal Kids, before it was shut down on March 6, 2025. The series is currently seen in other languages. 20 episodes were produced.

Premise

The series follows a boy named Max with his pair of parakeets, Ace and Polly. Max counts on them to keep saving the day while he is away. The powerbirds save the city from danger and they stop the villains: Nibbles the

poodle The Poodle, called the in German () and the in French, is a breed of water dog. The breed is divided into four varieties based on size, the Standard Poodle, Medium Poodle, Miniature Poodle and Toy Poodle, although the Medium Poodle is no ...

, Clawdette the

tabby cat A tabby cat, or simply tabby, is any domestic cat (''Felis catus'') with a Cat_coat_genetics#Tabbies , coat pattern distinguished by an M-shaped marking on its forehead, stripes by its eyes and across its cheeks, along its back, around its leg ...

, Scrapper the

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the North American, northern or common raccoon (also spelled racoon) to distinguish it from Procyonina, other species of raccoon, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest ...

, Asher Stasher the

flying squirrel Flying squirrels (scientifically known as Pteromyini or Petauristini) are a tribe (biology), tribe of 50 species of squirrels in the family (biology), family Squirrel, Sciuridae. Despite their name, they are not in fact capable of full flight i ...

and Minerva the owlet from the events where Max will be going later, so then later, Max is excited to visit the events.

Cast and characters

Main

Cory Doran Cory Doran (born February 7, 1982) is a Canadian voice actor and director. He is known as the voice of Dabio & Rex in the PBS Kids animated series '' Wild Kratts'', Jimmy in the Breakthrough Entertainment animated show '' Jimmy Two-Shoes'', and ...

as Ace, a determined, daring, and playful, yellow

parakeet A parakeet is any one of many small- to medium-sized species of parrot, in multiple genera, that generally has long tail feathers. Etymology and naming The name ''parakeet'' is derived from the French word ''perroquet'', which is reflect ...

who can turn into a superhero when trouble calls. He is not fighting bad guys, but instead, he loves everything related to superheroes, and he is a food-loving bird. *

Tara Strong Tara Lyn Strong (; born February 12, 1973) is a Canadian and American actress. She is known for her voice work in animation, websites, and video games. Strong's voice roles include animated series such as '' The Powerpuff Girls'', '' The Fair ...

as Polly, a very silly and creative, blue parakeet who, like her brother Ace, can also turn into a superhero. She can think outside of the box to solve problems. She has extra powers like super stretching herself that Ace does not have.

Recurring

* Orlando Lucas as Max, an imaginative eight-year-old teenage boy who loves comic books that are about superheroes and counts on Ace and Polly to make sure no danger is around the city when he is away, despite him not seeing them saving the day like the other humans can. * Ana Sani as Gwen, Max’s little sister. He sometimes plays with him before they both leave to wherever they are going and would usually play as another character in his superhero games. * Paloma Nuñez as Mrs. Lopez, a bookmobile driver. He is Max's owner of the Powerbirds, and he speaks in a Hispanic accent. * Deven Mack as Grandpa Felix, Max’s lovable grandfather who would appear in most episodes prior to the mission and the lesson one of the Powerbirds must remember. Some of the episodes include "Time to Dino-soar", "The Powerbirds Pretender", "Midnight Scrap", "Wacky Wokka Walk", and "Scrapper’s Magnet Mayhem".

Antagonists

* Rob Tinkler as Nibbles, a selfish and greedy white

who wears a lot of purple such as a suit and hat. He speaks in a British accent and wants to gain attention to become famous, however, he ends up causing disasters, mostly because he only thinks of himself and does not know why the famous people are loved. * Evany Rosen as Clawdette, a cute and adorable, but sneaky orange

who is Max’s pet, and the Powerbirds’ adoptive sister. She believes that she is the best ninja, so she tries to get stuff so she can be the best at it, and She is dressed up in a pink-colored ninja clothing. In "Power Meower Saves the Day", she actually helped Polly and Ace by wearing out Asher Stasher, and She helps them again in "Food Caper", where Scrapper is stealing the cat food for himself to eat them. * Tyler Murree as Scrapper, a brown

whose all the food from other people are stolen. He speaks in a

New York accent The phonology, sound system of New York City English is popularly known as a New York accent. The accent (sociolinguistics), accent of the New York metropolitan area is one of the most recognizable in the United States, largely due to its p ...

and favorite food is pizza. Scrapper seems to be the least villainous of them because all he wants is food. *

as Asher Stasher, a weird-liking, gray and white

that wears glasses and a blue shirt with an acorn icon, who is trying to use a giant robot suit and collect all the stuff for his "collection of shiny things", but he sometimes wants stuff that is too big and decides that he either does not want it anyway or gets interrupted by a phone call from his mom. Despite being a flying squirrel, his bushy tail is big so he cannot seen to fly. * Shannon Hamilton as Minerva, a brown owlet and it is infamous for using different tools to cause trouble such as bad dream bubbles, magic mirrors, consoles, and more to make it herself smarter than the humans are. Minerva likes bullying them and can start to tell it to touch it at a school.

Episodes

The series has been picked up for 20 22-minute episodes. It premiered early on its original network for its first look of the show on 1 January 2020.

Production

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

has chosen to make a TV series out of Breen's children's books, which are published by

Penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

, include Stick, Violet the Pilot, Pug and Doug, Unicorn Executions and Skyhorse, and the choice was ''Powerbirds''. Universal Kids planned the series in 2017, but with a different style, before Sprout’s rebrand to Universal Kids, a different style of the characters, which was Max, Polly, Ace and another character, the Golden Eagle. 9 Story Media Group's live-action and animation division co-produced the series with animators from Brown Bag Films.

Reception

Universal Kids stated

Hollywood Life Hollywood Life is an American digital media brand launched in 2009 by magazine editor Bonnie Fuller. The site covers celebrity, fashion, beauty, women issues, and entertainment news. It also airs award shows and other pop culture events. History ...

that "The series promotes underlying positive messages that we can all be our own superhero if we do the right thing."

Release

In 2017, Universal Kids, as Sprout, set a release date for ''Powerbirds'' in 2019, but on December 11, 2019, the show was delayed to a 2020 release date instead to January 19, 2020, and the show got a first look release on January 1, 2020. The show will also air on Family Jr. in Canada.

References

{{Universal Kids 2020 American animated television series debuts 2020 American television series endings 2020s American animated television series 2020s American children's television series 2020 Canadian television series debuts 2020 Canadian television series endings 2020s Canadian animated television series 2020s Canadian children's television series American children's animated action television series American children's animated adventure television series American children's animated superhero television series American flash animated television series American preschool education television series Canadian children's animated action television series Canadian children's animated adventure television series Canadian children's animated superhero television series Canadian flash animated television series Canadian preschool education television series Animated preschool education television series 2020s preschool education television series Animated television series about birds Animated television series about children Universal Kids original programming Canadian English-language television shows Television series by Brown Bag Films Television series by Universal Television Children's television series about talking animals