AustLit

'Insanely talented and passionate, pop act HJ5 have never finished a concert. G, LOVE, ANGEL, MUSIC and BABY adore their well-meaning, hip manager RUDIE, but he books them in some crazy places. Aliens, giant spiders, squids and dictators interrupt their concerts, but the girls struggle against all odds to bring the spirit of Harajuku to the world through music and dance. KUUKUU HARAJUKU is a collision of cultures, a grab bag of music, fashion and style. It’s a ping-pong match between East and West.'

Source: Screen Australia.

'World explorer Augustus Skinner has died! Now, his three young teen grandsons have inherited the big, old Skinner Mansion and its contents. But Grandfather Skinner also left them a big surprise… the Skinner Boys are now Guardians of the Lost Secrets… a collection of unique artefacts across the world that possess incredible powers.

'An even bigger surprise is in store! Grandpa Skinner also appointed a fourth Guardian a long lost cousin, the feisty teenage Tara. And as these boys know almost nothing about girls – she’s probably their biggest challenge of all. And vice-versa. As the anonymous Guardians of these artefacts, Tara and the boys must dedicate their lives to protecting them against the forces of evil that would corrupt their powers and endanger the planet. In the wrong hands, the fabled Skull of Medusa could turn a whole army to stone. The legendary philosopher’s stone, which turns any metal into gold, could make its owner wealthy and powerful beyond belief. This is the legacy of Grandpa Skinner.

'But these unsuspecting kids have a secret weapon – their youth. Nobody would ever guess that four goof-ball teens would be capable of outsmarting the powerfully evil Shadow League and protecting the world.

'It’s like handing the keys to the world to an erratic teenager. Times four.'

Source: SLR Productions (http://www.australiantelevision.net/skinner-boys/). (Sighted: 11/12/2015)

'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.

'A pair of unlikely friends - a dog and a flea - escape the dog pound for hair-raising and hilarious adventures in the big city and beyond. Flea-bitten! is cartoon comedy in the grand old tradition, with frantic chases, slapstick hilarity and the nuttiest cast of recurring guest characters ever assembled – colourful canines, feral felines and bizarre bugs that inhabit this animal-centric world'.

Source: Australian Children's Television Foundation. (Sighted: 26/9/2012)

'In each episode, Cal [Wilson] will be joined by a special guest comedian who will be asked to solve the crime in front of a live studio audience. They will have no script - just witness statements, footage flashback and forensic evidence. And finally, in homage to the classic murder mysteries, the suspects return to the scene of the crime where our novice detective will make their accusation. But will they be right?'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 3/5/2013)

Two girls from opposite sides of the world are forced to learn to live together on a snake farm in a remote and possibly mystical area of the Australian outback. Though superficially the program is a 'clash of cultures' narrative in which the British Skye and the Australian Tiger have to come to terms with one another and with their life on the snake farm, it incorporates such fantastic elements as the breeding of brand new species of snakes, snakes suddenly growing to enormous size, and teenage werewolves.

'Follows the wild adventures of three young friends - Zigby the Zebra, McMeer the Meerkat and Bertie the Guinea Fowl. Based on the internationally successful children's book series by [British] writer Brian Paterson...'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 17/8/2012)

In a future in which alien insects crawling through the galaxy create a dangerous rift between man and nature, Dex Hamilton, entomologist and adventurer, is called into action, along with 'frog boy' Tung and fellow scientists Zap and Jenny 10. However, a super-villain is secretly creating superbugs that could destroy all life as we know it.

Dex Hamilton: Alien Entomologist was an Australian and Canadian co-production.

A co-production between companies in Singapore, New Zealand, and Australia, Master Raindrop follows the adventures of the students at a small martial-arts academy in the Land of a Thousand Legends. When their school is destroyed and their master kidnapped by the sinister General Bu, they learn that the general is looking for the five elements: Earth, Metal, Water, Wind, and Fire. Twelve years earlier, General Bu wounded the Golden Dragon, which split off into the five anthropomorphised elements. If the elements are reunited, peace will be returned to the land. But General Bu is determined to destroy the Golden Dragon once and for all ...

Similarities have been noted between this series and other martial arts-themed animated series, such as Avatar: The Last Airbender and Xiaolin Showdown.

Animated series for children based on the Gasp! series of pictue books by Terry Denton. The program explores family relationships through the medium of the family pets, who are left alone each day as their family goes out to work and school.

A humorous pseudo-biographical series, Whatever Happened to that Guy? followed comedian Peter Moon (playing himself) into a life post fame.

'Slipping down the plughole starts the ride of a lifetime for John Stanley Staines and his sister Mary Jane. They travel a maze of drains all the way to a huge underground world full of fantastic creatures and fabulous places. Even though it lies right beneath us it's a world most people don't know about. It's a world only kids can get into'.

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 26/9/2012)

Dogstar, an award-winning children's animated series, follows the misfortunes of the inhabitants of a future Earth–and their dogs. According to the production company's website:

'After thousands of years of wars, pollution, undrinkable water and silly

cartoon shows, humans are forced to leave Earth and move everything and

everyone to a new planet: New Earth. But not everything goes to plan

and the Dogstar, a giant space ark containing all of the world's dogs,

becomes lost in space. On New Earth, the evil Bob Santino makes his

fortune selling canine replacement units, Robogs, and plots to ensure

the Dogstar is never found. But the Clark kids desperately miss their

real dog, Hobart, and begin a quest through space to find the Dogstar -

with Santino in hot pursuit'

Source: Media World website, http://www.mediaworld.com.au/ (Sighted: 3/5/2012)

As of 2012, Dogstar runs to 52 episodes, or two seasons of 26 episodes each, both of which were (almost exclusively) written by Doug MacLeod and Philip Dalkin. Series one aired in 2007, and series two will air in 2012.

The first series has been adapted into book form (see note above).

The official Dogstar website is www.dogstar.tv (Sighted: 3/5/2012).

Crimes are being committed within fairy tales. And this means that the fairy tales in our world are losing their happy (or unhappy) endings. Two police officers (no-nonsense Christine Anderson and bumbling Johnny Legend) are sent inside fairy tales to establish the Fairy Tale Police Department and restore the happy endings.

Australian Screen says of Fairy Tale Police Department, 'Despite the title, which suggests a sweet little cartoon, this is a robust and very original series and loads of fun for all ages. Fairytale Police Department is a zany cross between Twisted Tales and the X Files for kids. Female detective Chris Anderson, like X Files cop Dana Scully ..., is strong, capable and ambitious, while her bumbling, vain metrosexual partner Johnny Legend is always getting into in trouble. Other characters are also terrific with strong characterisations and great scripts.'

Source: Australian Screen (http://aso.gov.au/titles/tv/fairytale-police-black/notes/). (Sighted: 12/9/2012)

The adventures of a group of geometric shapes that live in Zac's toybox. The first series focuses on the attempts to reunite the divided group of Shapies in the new territory of Zac's bedroom; the second series focuses on more general adventures and the Shapies' side hobby as a rock group. The program was aimed at four- to eight-year-old viewers.

The production company website makes note of a program called Shapies Jnr, which seems to be a new production, based on the original concept but aimed at a younger audience. However, no information on this second program exists outside the production company website itself.

See also the Light Knight Productions' home page for this program: http://www.lightknights.com/# (Sighted: 30/8/2012)

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.

Chuck Finn follows Charles 'Chuck' Finn, a Canadian boy whose parents move from Toronto to the Australian country town of Tingalla. At first, he longs desperately to return to Toronto, but he soon finds the decommissioned and derelict paddle steamer the Tingalla Rose. Soon, he and his friends--some of whom are ghostly, rather than mortal--are enchanted by the possibility of getting the Tingalla Rose running again and seduced by life on the Murray River.

Unfortunately for Chuck Finn, Barron Entertainment declared bankruptcy during the production of season two. A truncated season of six episodes was completed and released, but the production was abandoned at that point.