Team Umizoomi

Team Umizoomi
Genre	Children's television series
Created by	Soo Kim Michael T. Smith Jennifer Twomey
Directed by	Matt Sheridan
Voices of	Sophia Fox (season 1) Madeleine Rose Yen (season 2–4) Ethan Kempner (season 1–3) Juan Mirt (season 4) Donovan Patton
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	78 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Jennifer Twomey
Producer(s)	Soo Kim Michael T. Smith
Running time	24 minutes
Production company(s)	Nickelodeon Productions
Distributor	MTV Networks International Disney-ABC Domestic Television[1]
Release
Original network	Nickelodeon
Picture format	4:3 480i (SDTV) (Season 1-3) 16:9 1080i (HDTV) (Season 4)
Original release	January 25, 2010 (2010-01-25) – April 24, 2015 (2015-04-24)
External links
Website

Team Umizoomi is an American computer animated fantasy musical series with an emphasis on preschool mathematical concepts, such as counting, sequences, shapes, patterns, measurements, and comparisons.^[2] The eponymous team consists of mini superheroes Milli and Geo, a robot named Bot, and the audience who is viewing the show. Milli, Geo and Bot refer to the viewers as their Umifriend and encourage him or her to develop their "Mighty Math Powers!" The action generally takes place in and around Umi City, a colorful city where the streets are paved with origami inspired patterns.

In the United States Team Umizoomi was first shown on both Nick Jr. and Nickelodeon. It is also available on iTunes. It first aired on January 25, 2010. On February 20, 2014, a crew member of Team Umizoomi stated that the series had not been renewed for a fifth season by Nickelodeon.^[3]

General characteristics

Each episode of Team Umizoomi feature each of the following:

• A task or quest to be completed, usually to assist a child in need. Completing the main task requires completion of several sub-tasks, and there are often unforeseen difficulties that must be surmounted. Each sub-task generally involves mathematical reasoning about patterns, sequences, counting, geometric shapes, or other age-appropriate mathematical concepts.
• Breaking the fourth wall, where the characters on screen communicate directly to the child viewing the show and encourage him or her to participate with the show.
• A mixture of live-action and animation. The team and the surroundings are animated, but the person being helped is often a real child, or sometimes an adult. In the city, or in other crowd scenes, other real people are shown in the background. In comparison to the regular people, the animated characters on the team are less than a foot tall.
• Once the main task has been completed the team sings a song and performs a dance called the Crazy Shake, which involves shaking and wiggling back and forth quickly. The Crazy Shake was called the "Umi Shake" in the first season. The child viewing the show is encouraged to participate in the dance.
• "How does it work? " In some episodes a simple explanation is given of an everyday process, such as how milk gets from farm to market, or how packages are sorted at the post office.

Characters

Milli

Geo's older sister who has abilities related to patterns and measuring. She can change her pink dress to any pattern and can then project that pattern by singing "Pattern Power". Milli is usually the one to interact with the child viewing the show Come it is necessary to complete the next element in a pattern in order to accomplish something. Her ponytails can be used to measure things, which is initiated by singing "Milli Measure".

Milli is voiced by Madeleine Rose Yen, and Sophia Fox.

Geo

Milli's younger brother who travels everywhere on his Super Skates while wearing a blue helmet and shirt. He has abilities related to geometric shapes and wears a Shape Belt that can create objects by assembling shapes and then singing "Super Shapes". Often when Team Umizoomi is stuck and needs some type of vehicle to assist them Geo will figure out what they need, present a blueprint for the vehicle needed, and then interact with the child viewer to assemble shapes needed to fill in the blue-print. He also has a Shape Magnet to help him find shapes through obstacles and a Shape Splitter to help him split shapes.

Geo is voiced by Ethan Kempner, and Juan Mirt.

Bot

Bot is a green robot and friend of the siblings who likes to sing and dance with a fun-loving, childlike personality. His abilities are more functional than math-related. His arms and legs can be extended to reach things, by saying "Arms Extendo" or "Legs Extendo" Sometimes "Jaw EXTENDO!". He has a small receiver (like a satellite dish) on his head to receive calls (called the Umi Alarm). He also has a screen on the front (called a "Belly Belly Belly Screen" stylized as "Belly Belly, Belly Screen!") that they can view videos/pictures on as well as have a video call with someone who needs their help. He also has a storage compartment on the back of his body, called a Bot-o-mat, which frequently is carrying whatever the team happens to need. In each episode, he is introduced, usually by Milli, as their "Best Robot Friend."

Bot is voiced by Donovan Patton.

UmiCar

The team's beloved little orange car who drives the team wherever their help is needed. He is seen playing basketball with the team against the puppets. The UmiCar is adapted to fit the needs of the team by transforming or adding camouflage depending on the mission.

UmiCar is voiced by P.T Walkley.

DoorMouse

The security mouse of Umi City and frenemy to Team Umizoomi. He often blocks the team's entry into parks or buildings, stating a key is needed for access. The team must then complete a math-related challenge to retrieve the key. Team Umizoomi have helped Door Mouse several times when he was sick or accidentally shot into space . Nevertheless Door Mouse insists on Team Umizoomi's compliance with whatever minute bureaucratic impediments he is in charge of enforcing.

DoorMouse is voiced by Joe Narcisco, and Chris Phillips.

The Troublemakers

The Troublemakers are a group of antagonists from Season 4. Their only goals in life are to cause havoc, chaos, and trouble in Umi City, as well as defeat Team Umizoomi. They have a secret weapon called the Trouble Ray, which fulfills their malicious troublemaking ways, and a vehicle they call the TroubleTruck, which they use to get away. The Troublemakers are named Little Trouble and Big Trouble.

The Troublemakers are voiced by Nick Heatherington, Jason Harris.

Episode list

Cancellation

A crew member of Team Umizoomi has confirmed that Nickelodeon will not be renewing Team Umizoomi for a fifth season.^[4]

Toys and merchandising

Fisher Price released the first official "Team Umizoomi" toys in early 2012. The first products available included plush dolls, bath toys, and figurines featuring characters and vehicles from the show.^[5]

DVD releases

Video games

These video games based on the show are all published by Take-Two Interactive's label, 2K Play.

References

External links

• Team Umizoomi on Nick Jr.
• Team Umizoomi on the Internet Movie Database