AustLit

'Everything in Australia will kill you! Whether it grows, swims, flies, crawls, slithers, hops or glides etc; it will either kill you, kill you then eat you, “violate” you or just settle for laying its eggs in your brain!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

A second series of the adventures of phobia-wracked Figaro Pho.

'Meet Ace McDougal... just your average, everyday nerdy school kid... Well he was, until he happened to be in the wrong dentist’s chair at the wrong time and accidentally said the secret codeword. Next thing he knew he’d been fitted with a set of top-secret, ultra high-tech experimental braces. From that moment on he’s catapulted - teeth first - into one oddball adventure after another! Now he’s the kid proving you’re never too nerdy to be cool!'

Source: Screen Australia.

'Funny, fast and furry - the WOODLIES are kobolds (small troll-like creatures) that are nuttier than a squirrel's lunch, on a mission to protect their forest from Uglies (the Woodlies call all humans Uglies) and get their paws on the greatest stash of food they can find!

'Big job when you're not much bigger than a squirrel ...

'Fearless FIREHEAD, gentle SEVENPOINTS and Curious NINEEYES are a mischievous crew with two rules. Rule number one? Never be seen by Uglies. Rule number 2? Never be seen by Uglies while stealing their food or sabotaging their weird Ugly plans.

'But when streetwise MIA and her nature-loving dad WELLIE take over a run-down campsite nearby, they bring with them disasters in the form of clumsy campers, greedy developers and a mean cat with a real taste for Woodlies!

'Think that's bad? A gang of renegade Woodlies known as the SWAMP RATS, led by WHITETAIL and his obnoxious cronies - FOULTOE and GNARLYBUTT, are determined to take over the forest and all the food in it. And they're not about to let a bunch of do-gooder Tree Saps get in their way ...

'As if that's not enough, nature itself serves up a menu of freezing blizzards, searing droughts and loads of creatures ready to make the Woodlies their next main course!

'So when NineEyes breaks the number one rule and becomes friends with Mia, it seems like things couldn't get any worse. Is this the end for the Woodlies?

'One thing's for sure... life's about to get a whole lot more interesting!'

Source: Flying Bark Productions (http://www.flyingbark.com.au/?portfolio=the-woodlies). Sighted: 12/4/2012

Best friends Jason and Lee, on a quiet boating trip in Vancouver, Canada, find themselves transported through a vortex to Stormworld, a mysterious world with three suns and mind-distorting storms. Since visitors are not uncommon in Stormworld, they find themselves incorporated into The Settlement, one of three principal settlements on Stormworld.

Stormworld is a complex example of world-building. For example, the program concentrates heavily on the effects of the ecosystem on the planet's inhabitants: as a hot-climate archipelago on a salt-water ocean, Stormworld has a dearth of fresh water, which subsequently becomes a highly valuable resource for the planet's inhabitants. Similarly, the program focuses strongly on the planet's economy (a barter system based on the rare and exotic artefacts that travellers bring through the vortexes with them), on inter-community rivalry among the three main settlements (the democratic Settlement, the patriarchal and hierarchical Arkoddians, and the piratical Drogue), and on the dangerous and mysterious weather patterns peculiar to Stormworld (such as the Winders--horizontal lightning--that are attracted to mental activity).

Three friends—Jack, Comet, and Asteroid—are launched into outer space when they discover what they think is a rocket-shaped ride at an abandoned fairground. To make the best of the situation, they form a touring rock group.

The program was a showcase for children's pop-music group Rock It!

Four children stumble into the secret underground lair of a long-dead super-hero, the Silver Shadow. Defeated (and killed) by his arch-nemesis, The Crab, in the 1950s, the Silver Shadow lives on as a digital recording in his base's computer. Just as he convinces the four to take up his role as the city's defender, The Crab, now an old man in a retirement village, trains his grand-daughter to be his own successor.

As with other programs produced by the Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF), Legacy of the Silver Shadow concentrated strongly on questions of self-identity, peer pressure and conformity, and individualism.

Australian Screen includes some clips from Legacy of the Silver Shadow: http://aso.gov.au/titles/tv/legacy-silver-shadow-feral/clip1/ (Sighted: 23/2/2012). The program is also available on DVD via the ACTF.

'The humorous adventures of a group of young Australian native animals.'

Source: Screen Australia.

Thirteen-year-old Lauren's life is confusing enough, with her mother remarrying, moving to another country, and introducing Lauren to a new stepfather and little stepbrother. But that's not nearly as confusing as the day two Nelfs (Santa's helpers) jump from his sleigh and into Lauren's life. With Santa's rounds finished for another year, Lauren is stuck with the bickering, meddling siblings until next Christmas. But when only Lauren can see them, her family start to think she's going mad.

A live-action puppet show, Li'l Horrors followed the misadventures of the students at a school run by Morbidda Bates, a retired horror-film actress. The students included examples of key monsters from horror films: vampires, Frankenstein's monster, gorgons, mummies, zombies, werewolves, and swamp creatures.

According to December Films' press release for the series:

Li'l Horrors is a children's puppet sitcom specifically produced for the 5-8 year old age group. This is an age group who are currently not well catered for. Much programming is made for pre-schoolers and for 9 year olds and above. Li'l Horrors is created for this in between age group. It does not talk down to its audience or aim over its head. It is, however, infused with enough wit and off-the-wall humour to engage an even wider audience. Aimed well at [its] target audience, it is modern, slick, sly, funny and irreverent.

The program also focuses strongly on difference, with each of the characters quite strongly physically different from one another, as well as widely different in behavious and characteristics.

When Rodney and Jessica witness two aliens crash landing on Earth, they undertake to protect them by roping them into joining the world's most unsuccessful children's television program, Kid's Breakfast (nicknamed Pig's Breakfast). Disguised as characters on the program, Grob and Meeba (and their pilot Queegle) are forbidden to reveal their real identities: the media believe them to be eccentric actors who prefer to stay in character (and costume). But the situation is complicated by the fact that the crashed spaceship was a school bus, and Grob and Meeba, although genuine aliens, are also genuine teenagers.

Thrown out of a gold Cadillac in a guitar case one night (strongly suggesting that he is the illegitimate child of Elvis Presley, as well as casting Presley in a rather unfortunate light), Li'l Elvis is raised by Grace and Len, fervent Elvis fans who run an outback diner in the small town of Wannapoo. The problems arise when the world's 'nicest billionaire' W.C. Moore decides to turn Wannapoo into a 1950s' theme town called Li'l Memphis. Every day, L'il Elvis and his Truckstoppers play sets that knock the audience dead, but L'il Elvis secretly wishes he could be a normal kid. But if they stop playing, the tourists stop coming, and Moore calls in everyone's outstanding loans ...