Powerbirds

Powerbirds is a American-Irish children's animated television series created by Stephen P. Breen, and co-created by Jennifer Monier-Williams. The series premiered on January 19, 2020 on Universal Kids.[1] This series is produced by HappyAnimation and Brown Bag Films.[2]

Powerbirds
Genre	Children's television series Action
Created by	Stephen P. Breen Jennifer Monier-Williams
Directed by	William Gordon
Voices of	Cory Doran Tara Strong
Theme music composer	PT Walkley
Opening theme	"Powerbirds" performed by Adam Sanders and Carmen Yanuzielle
Ending theme	"Powerbirds" (instrumental)
Composer	Ropey Sound
Country of origin	United States Ireland
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	19
Production
Executive producers	Cathal Gaffney Darragh O'Connell
Producer	Uma Krishnamurthy
Editors	Mark Edwards Sam Smith Andy Brittain
Running time	22 minutes
Production companies	HappyAnimation Brown Bag Films
Distributor	NBCUniversal Television Distribution
Release
Original network	Universal Kids
Original release	January 19, 2020 – present
External links
Website

Premise

The series follows Max with his pet 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 main villains: Nibbles, Clawdette, Scrapper, Minerva, and Asher Stasher from the events that Max will be going to later, so then later, Max is excited to visit the events.[1]

Characters

Main

• Ace (voice of Cory Doran) is a yellow parakeet who can turn into a superhero when trouble calls. He is determined, daring, and playful. When he's not fighting bad guys, he loves everything related to superheroes, and he's a food loving bird.
• Polly (voice of Tara Strong) is a blue parakeet who can also turn into a superhero like Ace. She is a very silly and creative bird, and can think outside of the box to solve problems. She has extra powers like super stretching herself that Ace doesn’t have.

Supporting

• Max (voice of Orlando Lucas) is an imaginative eight-year-old who owns Polly and Ace. He 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.
• Gwen (voice of Ana Sani) is Max’s Little Sister who sometimes plays with him before they both leave to wherever they’re going and would usually play as another character in his superhero games.
• Mrs. Lopez (voice of Paloma Nuñez) is a bookmobile driver who speaks in a Hispanic accent.
• Grandpa Felix (voice of Deven Mack) is Max’s grandfather who would appear in some episodes prior to the mission and the lesson one of the Powerbirds must remember. These episodes are “Time to Dino-soar”, “The Powerbirds Pretender”, “Midnight Scrap”, “Wacky Wokka Walk”, and “Scrapper’s Magnet Mayhem”.

Villains

• Nibbles (voice of Rob Tinkler) is a dog who tries to gain attention to become famous but ends up causing disasters, mostly because he only thinks of himself and doesn’t know why the famous people are loved. He speaks in a British accent.
• Clawdette (voice of Evany Rosen) is Max’s cat 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. 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" when Scrapper was stealing the cat food for himself to eat.
• Scrapper (voice of Tyler Muree) is a raccoon that likes to try to steal all other people's food, especially his favorite, pizzas. He seems to be the least villainous of them because all he wants is food. He speaks in a New York accent.
• Minerva (voice of Shannon Hamilton) is an owl who uses different tools to cause trouble such as bad dream bubbles, magic mirrors, consoles, and more to get herself smarter then the humans are.
• Asher Stasher (voice of Cory Doran) is a squirrel that tries to collect stuff for his "collection of shiny things", but sometimes wants stuff that is too big and decides that he either doesn’t want it anyway or gets interrupted by a phone call from his mom.

Episodes

The series has been picked up for 20 22-minute episodes.[3] It premiered early on its original network for its first look of the show on January 1, 2020.[4]

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Storyboarded by	Original air date	Prod. code	U.S. viewers (millions)
1a	"World's Awesomest Villain"	William Gordon	S: Ben Joseph/T: Ben Joseph & Steve Westeren	TBA	January 19, 2020	102	N/A
Asher Stasher steals all the trophies in town.
1b	"Owl of Nod"	William Gordon	Heather Jackson	TBA	January 19, 2020	102	N/A
Minerva ruins everyone’s dreams.
2a	"That'll Teach Em"	William Gordon	S: Robin J Stein/ T: Robin J Stein & Steve Westeren	TBA	January 21, 2020	103	N/A
Minerva hypnotizes several teachers so she can be the smartest one on earth.
2b	"Space Odyssey"	William Gordon	Robin J Stein	TBA	January 21, 2020	103	N/A
The powerbirds see an UFO in their yard one day.
3a	"Scrapperlicious"	William Gordon	Scott Albert	TBA	January 26, 2020	104	N/A
The powerbirds chase Scrapper around town to get some pizzas.
3b	"Book Bedlam"	William Gordon	Robin J Stein	TBA	January 26, 2020	104	N/A
Minerva drives around Mrs Lopez’s Bookmobile without knowing how to drive, so the Powerbirds must get the bookmobile back to safety.
4a	"Nibbles takes the Cake"	William Gordon	Steve Westeren	TBA	February 2, 2020	105	N/A
Nibbles ruins several birthdays by taking all the cakes.
4b	"Clash of the Critters"	William Gordon	Katherine Sandford	TBA	February 2, 2020	105	N/A
Clawdette and Scrapper fight over a trash can.
5a	"Time to Dino-Soar"	William Gordon	S: Robin J Stein/ T: Robin J Stein & Steve Westeren	Paul Gunson Antonella Maringola	February 9, 2020	101	N/A
Nibbles ruins the grand opening of the dinosaur exhibit and throws a party there.
5b	"Birdy Guards"	William Gordon	Ben Joseph	TBA	February 9, 2020	101	N/A
The powerbirds must protect a famous wrestler’s belt before Asher Stasher and Clawdette take it.
6a	"Haywire Hayride"	William Gordon	S: Craig Martin T:Craig Martin & Steve Westeren	TBA	February 16, 2020	106	N/A
Ace and Polly have to stop Nibbles, who’s ruining the Harvest festival by taking over the hayride.
6b	"The Powerbirds Pretender"	William Gordon	Steve Westeren	TBA	February 16, 2020	106	N/A
Ace and Polly have to save the day and their reputations when Minerva poses as a fake Powerbird to make them look bad.
7a	"Power Meower Saves the Day"	William Gordon	Robin J Stein	TBA	February 23, 2020	107	N/A
Clawdette inadvertently sabotages Ace and Polly’s attempts to stop Asher Stasher from collecting all the soccer balls in town.
7b	"Midnight Scrap"	William Gordon	Scott Albert	TBA	February 23, 2020	107	N/A
Scrapper schemes to sneak into the house to take the cupcakes Max has baked for his classmates.
8a	"Wacky Wokka Walk"	William Gordon	S: Craig Martin T: Craig Martin & Steve Westeren	TBA	March 1, 2020	108	N/A
Nibbles steals the finish line for the big race so that no one can win it.
8b	"Owl’s Spoilers"	William Gordon	S: Ben Joseph T: Ben Joseph & Steve Westeren	TBA	March 1, 2020	108	N/A
Ace and Polly team up against Minerva, who’s stolen the last page out of every copy of Max’s favorite comic book, Idaho Smith, so only she knows the ending.
9a	"Cement Your Legacy"	William Gordon	Ben Joseph	TBA	March 8, 2020	109	N/A
Nibbles plans to write his name in some freshly poured cement so it will be there forever.
9b	"The Greatest Inventor"	William Gordon	S: Ben Joseph T: Ben Joseph & Steve Westeren	TBA	March 8, 2020	109	N/A
Minerva sneaks into the museum before it opens and switches all the plaques to make it seem like she invented everything.
10a	"Owl Got Your Tongue"	William Gordon	Steve Westeren	TBA	March 15, 2020	110	N/A
Minerva takes away everyone’s ability to talk, while Polly learns that words aren’t the only way to communicate.
10b	"Cereal Box Bandit"	William Gordon	Elliot Sokolsky	TBA	March 15, 2020	110	N/A
Asher Stasher collects all the breakfast cereal in town while The Powerbirds’ power belts have been damaged.
11a	"Clawdette Chaos!"	William Gordon	Elliot Sokolsky	TBA	June 17, 2020	111	N/A
It’s up to the Powerbirds to stop Clawdette, who’s planning to ruin the big Kite Festival.
11b	"Food Caper"	William Gordon	Heather Jackson	TBA	June 17, 2020	111	N/A
The Powerbirds and Clawdette team up to stop Scrapper.
12a	"Asher’s Moving Castle"	William Gordon	Robin J Stein	TBA	June 19, 2020	112	N/A
Ace and Polly have to think things through when Asher Stasher steals the bouncy castle from the big block party.
12b	"Villain-Palooza"	William Gordon	Steve Westeren	TBA	June 19, 2020	112	N/A
All the villains team up to stop the Powerbirds once and for all.
13a	"Asher Goes Bananas"	William Gordon	Diana Moore	TBA	June 26, 2020	113	N/A
Asher Stasher becomes obsessed with getting to the moon so he can put all of his extra collectibles in it.
13b	"Scrapper’s Magnet Mayhem"	William Gordon	Ben Joseph	TBA	June 26, 2020	113	N/A
Scrapper gets a hold of a really powerful magnet so he can take every item of canned food he can find, Even on Max’s food drive.
14a	"Clawdette’s Mischievous Monkey"	William Gordon	Ben Joseph	TBA	July 3, 2020	114	N/A
Ace and Polly are scared when Clawdette gets control of a toy Monkey, when she lets it gets loose in town.
14b	"Take back the Fort"	William Gordon	Heather Jackson	TBA	July 3, 2020	114	N/A
The Powerbirds have to stop Scrapper, who’s taken over Max’s tree fort and using it for his very own villains’ lair.
15a	"Major Mishap"	William Gordon	Karen Moonah	TBA	July 10, 2020	115	N/A
Asher hatches a plan to take all Major Justice action figures, so only HE’ll have them.
15b	"King Wasteville"	William Gordon	Steve Westren	TBA	July 10, 2020	115	N/A
Scrapper is launching mounds of waste into town trying to turn it into his own wasteful paradise.
16a	"Asher’s Tooth Fairy Wish"	William Gordon	Ben Joseph	TBA	July 17, 2020	116	N/A
Ace and Polly have to protect Max’s tooth from Asher who wants to add it to his loose teeth collection.
16b	"Power Meower Strikes Again"	William Gordon	Karen Moonah	TBA	July 17, 2020	116	N/A
Gwen’s stuffy, Boo Boo, is gone and she couldn’t find it! While Max searches for it with her, Ace and Polly do their own searching with the unlikely help of Clawdette... or should we say: Power Meower

Production

Universal Pictures has chosen to make a TV series out of Breen's children's books, which are published by Penguin, include Stick, Violet the Pilot, Pug and Doug, Unicorn Executions and Skyhorse, and the choice was Powerbirds.[1] Universal Kids planned the series in 2017, but with a different style, before Sprout’s rebrand to Universal Kids,[5] a different style of the characters, which was Max, Polly, Ace and another character, the Golden Eagle.[6]

9 Story Media Group's live-action and animation division co-produced the series with animators from Brown Bag Films.[2]

Reception

Universal Kids stated Hollywood Life that "The series promotes underlying positive messages that we can all be our own superhero if we do the right thing.”[7]

Release

In 2017, Universal Kids, as Sprout, set a release date for Powerbirds in 2019,[8] 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.[9]

References

1. "Universal Kids' 'Powerbirds' Leave the Nest Jan. 19". Animation Magazine. December 11, 2019.
2. Powerbirds | BRAND NEW SERIES, retrieved 2020-01-07
3. http://www.thecomposerworks.com/news/powerbirds/
4. "Powerbirds | TV Guide". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
5. Milligan, Mercedes (2017-06-22). "Sprout Adds 2 New Toons, Jason Alexander Joins 'Kody Kapow'". Animation Magazine. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
6. "Powerbirds | NBCUniversal Together". together.nbcuni.com. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
7. Boren, Jade (2020-01-17). "'Powerbirds' Preview: Ace & Polly Rush To Save The Day After Asher Stasher Steals The Town's Trophies". Hollywood Life. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
8. Kidscreen. "Universal Kids expands original Sprout programming". Retrieved 2020-01-07.
9. "Universal Kids". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2020-01-22.