Lunar Jim is an animated preschool oriented around Lunar Jim who is an astronaut on the blue moon L22 stop-motion television show produced in Canada by Halifax Film and Alliance Atlantis, and aired in the US as well on Discovery Channel and V-Me from 2006 to 2012. The show was based on an original concept created by Alexander Bar.
Season One was executive produced by Jeff Rosen. It was script edited in this season by Peter Sauder. Season Two was penned by the award-winning veteran producer/writer Jed MacKay. Ben Small provided the voice of Jim.
Jim and his team; Rover the Robot Dog, Ripple the Super Space Mechanic, Eco the Farmer, and TED, the Technical Equipment Device, live on Blue Moon L22, the second-to-last moon on the edge of the Milky Way. Focusing on exploration and inquiry, Lunar Jim intends to promote such life skills as problem-solving, persistence, creativity, and cooperation, with an emphasis on "pre-science skills". His rallying cry is "Let's get lunar!"
Maps, Directions, and Place Reviews
Main characters
- Jim (voiced by Ben Small) is the main character in the series. He is an adventure and mystery loving guy. He is a very curious character, which should inspire children to follow his example by asking questions and actively seeking their answers.
- Rover (voiced by Robert Tinkler, then Michael Cera) is a robot dog and is always by Jim's side. Rover loves to play fetch and is always helping Jim on his lunar missions. He speaks in beeps, and only Jim and TED are able to understand him.
- Ripple (voiced by Joanne Vannicola) is the engineer on the moon. She is always coming up with new inventions to help Jim and often helps him on his missions. She drives the Scooter.
- Eco is the farmer on the moon who works in the Eco dome growing plants and raising the animals. Eco loves to collect rocks and plants to study and help Jim. He doesn't often go on missions because he is too busy farming in the Eco dome. He usually drives the Hopper.
- TED (Technical Equipment Device, voiced by John Davie) is another robot. Unlike Rover, TED is a humanoid robot. He is the clumsiest on the moon and usually having his clumsiness creating simple slapstick comedy. He is somewhat paranoid, being afraid of lots of things that are non-existent. However, he is quite smart and sometimes solves the problem in the story. TED represents a child and essentially, the show's target audience.
- Pixel is the computer that helps Jim and his friends find things on the lunar surface and tells them their jobs for the day.
- Daisy is a cow. Lunar Jim and his team get their milk from Daisy.
- Delores is a chicken. She provides eggs for the team.
- Skye is a young space cadet who comes to Moonaluna for "hands-on" training. she appeared in the second series
- Yik Yak is an alien who speaks in rhyme. He visits Jim and his friends often, but his visits usually result in some sort of unintentional problem. He is a turtle like alien apart from that he is blue/turquoise. he appeared in the second series and he made a cameo in the first series
- Zippity is a space mailman who sounds like a robot but is never described as such. he appeared in the second series
Blue Moon Gym Video
Minor characters
In the television series, there are a handful of minor characters who make an appearance. These characters usually make a one time appearance on the show, and cause some trouble.
- Colby the Collector - Used to collect objects on the moon to study. He was sent to the moon before Lunar Jim. he makes more than one appearance.
- The Garden-bot - Built by Ripple to help Eco garden, but malfunctions and destroys all the plants.
- The Lunar worm - A worm that lives in a compost crater who the peels of fruits and jupiterbugs.
- The Fluffies- A small species of animals on the moon who reproduce on the double. They are sometimes seen in the background of a few episodes.
Blue Moon L22
Blue Moon L22 is the moon where the series takes place. For the show, the moon is divided into sectors (e.g. sector "L" or sector "12"). Each sector also contains certain locations like "The Crystal Caves" or "The Chime Flower Meadow". Lunar Jim usually explores these sectors in each episode, and is always finding new ones.
Moonaluna
Moonaluna is the small settlement where Jim and his friends live. The settlement includes the Eco dome, Mission control, Jim's home, Ripple's home (never mentioned) and a windmill which is also never mentioned. Mission control is the building where Jim "gets lunar" and where all the vehicles are stored. The Eco dome is a lunar greenhouse.
This is the place where Eco is usually found farming and taking care of the livestock Daisy and Dolores. Jim's home is where he and Rover live and is usually the place where each episode begins. In Season Two, the Moonport, which is a spaceship landing, refueling and repair port, is built, although few other spaceships visit. The places where TED or Eco live are never mentioned. In many episodes it has been mentioned that there are other colonies of astronauts on the moon, but they're never seen in person.
Vehicles
When Jim "gets lunar", he chooses one of the following vehicles for his mission.
- The Hopper - The hopper is the only wheeled vehicle on the moon. It comes with a trailer and a winch.
- The Lunar Lifter - A hovering vehicle. Its main use is using the built-in winch on the bottom.
- The Crawler - The crawler is a simple backhoe on tracks. It has a selection of arms and once had a voice control unit.
- The Scrambler - The fastest vehicle on the moon. It is small and sleek for getting to a mission fast.
- The Scooter - Similar to the Scrambler, only it has a winch at the bottom and is only used by Ripple when she accompanies Jim on a mission.
List of Lunar Jim episodes
Season one
Broadcast
The series was broadcast on CBC Television in Canada, TG4 in Ireland, Discovery Kids in Latin America, Canal Panda in Portugal, MiniMini in Poland, EBS in South Korea, NRK Super in Norway, Boomerang in Spain, and Nickelodeon in the Netherlands.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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