Lunar Jim
| Lunar Jim | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Created by | Alexander Bar |
| Voices of |
Ben Zelkowicz Robert Tinkler Michael Cera Joanne Vannicola |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Production | |
| Running time | 25 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
Halifax Film Alliance Atlantis |
| Release | |
| Original network |
CBC (Canada) Discovery/V-me (U.S.) and CBeebies (UK) |
| Original release | January 2 – April 19, 2006 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Lunar Jim is an animated preschool-oriented stop-motion television show produced in Canada by Halifax Film and Alliance Atlantis, and aired in the USA as well on Discovery Channel and V-Me from 2006–2012. The show is based on an original concept created by Alexander Bar. Season 1 was Executive Produced by Jeff Rosen. It was script-edited in Season one by Peter Sauder. Season two was helmed by award-winning veteran producer/writer Jed MacKay. Ben Zelkowicz 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!"
Main characters
- Jim (voiced by Ben Zelkowicz) 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.
- 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.
- Zippity is a space mailman who sounds like a robot but is never described as such.
Minor characters
In the TV 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
| No. | Episode Name | Description | Air Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1A | Meteor Mystery | When all the electrical appliances in Moonaluna start malfunctioning, Jim and his friends try to find the problem. They discover a large magnetic meteor, and when Ripple tries to pull it away from Moonaluna, her scooter gets stuck. | January 2, 2006 |
| 1B | That Sinking Feeling | When Jim is placing a new satellite dish in an area, he gets distracted by the glare of the satellite dish and accidentally drops Rover's ball in a dust puddle. He tries to get the ball but falls in the puddle himself. He gets stuck and is unable to get out, and he can't call his friends for help because the dust has clogged his vuecom. | January 2, 2006 |
| 2A | Pest Problem | When Eco's moon melons are eaten, Jim and his friends find out that a lunar worm has been eating the melons, but he only eats the rinds. Jim tries to take the worm away from the Ecodome, but the lunar worm always comes back very quickly. | January 3, 2006 |
| 2B | The Secret of Crystal Cave | When all the lights in Moonaluna run out of batteries, Jim and his friends go to Crystal Cave to get crystals to replace the lights. But the crystals won't light up when they get to Moonaluna. | January 3, 2006 |
| 3A | The Moon Thief | Jim and his friends try to find the culprit which has been stealing lots of things from them. | January 4, 2006 |
| 3B | That's Odd, Where's the Pod? | When the monthly supply pod that's scheduled to arrive is nowhere to be found, Jim and his friends try to look for it, and it turns out to be a mystery when they end up finding supply pod tracks on the dark side of the moon. | January 4, 2006 |
| 4A | Up, Up, and Away (almost) | When Jim and his friends explore inside a cave, TED offers to guard outside. Bored, he decides to try driving Jim's Lunar Crawler. But he accidentally moves a large boulder which blocks Jim's entrance to the cave. So Jim tries to exit from above the cave using his gravity boots, but the boot controls are broken and he's about to float into space. So it's up to TED to learn how to drive the vehicle in order to bring Jim back down. | January 5, 2006 |
| 4B | The Whistling Craters | When strange whistling sounds are found in the Ecodome, Jim and his friends try to find the source of the whistling. | January 5, 2006 |
| 5A | Wrong Way, TED | Rover has gone missing, so Jim and TED go to search for Rover. TED remembers the route, so Jim has no concern of getting lost. Then, they find Rover in a lunar playground. When TED tries playing in it, he accidentally falls and loses his memory of the route back to Moonaluna. | January 6, 2006 |
| 5B | Running on Empty | When Rover tries to jump over a lunar clam plant, the plant snatches his tail plug, causing Rover to lose his battery power. Meanwhile, when TED gets sprayed by the lunar vehicle washer, his joints start squeaking. | January 6, 2006 |
| 6A | Jim Gets Mucky | While Eco is on vacation, Jim and his friends do the work in the Ecodome for him. Meanwhile, Ripple has prepared a robot called the Gardenbot for a surprise for Eco when he gets back to Moonaluna. Lazily, TED cons Ripple into turning on the Gardenbot so it can do the work for them, but when the Gardenbot crashes into a rock, it starts doing the opposite; it starts pulling out other plants. | January 7, 2006 |
| 6B | Forget Me Nots | Jim and his friends have a lot of chores to do that day, but after collecting some flowers and smelling them, they suddenly forget which chores they're supposed to do. | January 7, 2006 |
| 7A | Recipe for Rover | When the supply pod arrives in Moonaluna, Jim and his friends discover that nothing's in there, so Jim reprograms the supply pod so it would go back to Earth. When they return to Moonaluna, they discover that Rover is still inside the supply pod, so they have to go back and rescue Rover before the supply pod blasts off. But the only vehicle they have that isn't broken has a flat tire, making it nearly impossible to get there in time. | January 9, 2006 |
| 7B | Voice Recorder TED | Ripple has installed a voice control unit for the Lunar Crawler, but when TED touches the voice unit, he becomes a voice recorder. When Jim climbs down to explore the cliffs, he is unable to get back up because the Crawler only responds to Jim's voice and he's too far away to be heard. So TED tries to rescue Jim by playing back Jim's commands using his newly found voice recorder unit. | January 9, 2006 |
| 8A | Real Slick, TED | When Jim discovers an area of slippery lunar moss that's perfect for skating, he gets his friends to come over and try to skate on there. When TED reluctantly tries to skate, he accidentally slips and gets stuck between two rocks, and is unable to break loose. | January 10, 2006 |
| 8B | The Space Pirate | After Eco tells everyone a story about a space pirate, the story appears to be becoming real when strange buzzing noises are heard every night. It becomes even more mysterious the next day, when everybody's chores are already done, and nobody claims that they did the chores. | January 10, 2006 |
| 9A | Puddle Predicament | When Jim tries to get Eco a Plutonian Pansy, he acciddentally falls in a green puddle. When he gets out of the puddle, the goop becomes solid and Jim is stuck in there. So his friends have to figure out how to turn the goop into a liquid again so Jim can break free. | January 11, 2006 |
| 9B | The Chime Flowers | When Ripple has gone missing, Jim searches for Ripple and finds out that Ripple is in a chime flower field, in which when anyone hears the music, they fall asleep. So Jim has to find a way to rescue Ripple without hearing the chime flower music. | January 11, 2006 |
| 10A | Mind and Muscle | When Jim tries to get a blue lunar sapphire for Eco inisde a cave, a gigantic blue sapphire rolls by and blocks the cave entrance, which is too big and heavy for them to push away using their muscles. | January 12, 2006 |
| 10B | Moonbubbles and Bellyburps | The lunar worm is sick and has the bellyburps, so Jim and his friends search for moonbubbles for the lunar worm, which is the only cure for bellyburps. But the moonbubbles are invisible, so Jim always squashes the moonbubbles when he tries to pick them. | January 12, 2006 |
| 11A | The Big Switcheroo | Ripple has invented a lunar teleporter machine, but the teleporter machine mixes up anything that's put inside there, so when Rover and TED have a fight, they accidentally get into the machine, and Rover now has TED's body and TED has Rover's body. TED is the only one who knows how to fix the machine, but he has Rover's body, and is unable to operate it. | January 13, 2006 |
| 11B | A Little Moon Music | When TED accidentally breaks Ripple's keyboard instrument, Jim and his friends try to search for new musical instruments for Ripple. They've found four objects that have instrumental sounds, but none of the objects can make music themselves. | January 13, 2006 |
| 12A | Rover's Big Dig | When Rover has dug up a lunarsaurus bone, TED becomes afraid that a lunarsaurus will look for the bone, despite everyone assuring him that lunarsauruses are extinct. The bone, which is seemingly useless, proves to be useful when a leg of the Control Tower is broken, and the bone is the perfect replacement leg. | January 14, 2006 |
| 12B | The Big Sneeze Mystery | When Ripple sneezes uncontrollably whenever Rover is around her, it's suspected that Ripple has developed an allergy to Rover, but it turns out that Ripple is just allergic to Rover's new robot polish. | January 14, 2006 |
| 13A | Too Many Fluffies | It's Lunar Winter, so Jim and his friends bring crystals from Crystal Cave back to Moonaluna for warmth. Then, a fluffy arrives, so they decide to keep it as a pet. But the fluffies start reproducing uncontrollably and there's no more space, so they have to make the fluffies leave. When they discover that the fluffies are attracted to the crystals, they try to bring the fluffies to Crystal Cave. | January 16, 2006 |
| 13B | Jim and TED's Wild Ride | Eco doesn't want to feed the animals manually, so Ripple creates a remote control for Eco's feeder. But the remote control doesn't work for Eco's feeder. Instead, it causes other trouble, when the lights in Jim's house began flicking on and off for no reason, the music in the Ecodome suddenly turns on, and then, while TED's polishing Jim's Scrambler, the Scrambler blasts off itself, carrying TED. Jim tries to rescue TED using his Lunar Lifter, but just as he's about to catch TED, the Lifter gets out of control. | January 16, 2006 |
| 14A | Cosmic Kite | Jim and his friends are flying kites, but when TED tries to fly a kite, the wind blows him off the ground, and he gets stuck on a tall ridge. Jim has a ladder but he's unable to reach TED because the wind's blowing the ladder, making it unsafe to climb. | January 17, 2006 |
| 14B | Crater Critter | When Jim and TED are replacing a satellite dish, TED finds a critter inside a crater so he decides to take the critter home. But the critter starts eating everything on sight. Another problem happens when the satellite dish stopped working because the vines next to the satellite dish have grown out of control and tangled the satellite dish. | January 17, 2006 |
| 15A | Lost and Found Friends | Eco has knitted Daisy a sweater, but since the sweater is to small for her, it's given to Rover instead. The sweater is proven to be useful when Jim and his friends explore a big cave and end up getting lost, when Rover uses the string of the sweater to mark their path. | January 18, 2006 |
| 15B | Space Junk | When the ground starts shaking, Jim and his friends go to see the reason and it turns out that some space junk have fallen and they've covered the lunar playground. So they remove the space junk, and build another playground using the materials. | January 18, 2006 |
| 16A | Ripple's Moon Blast-Off Board | When Jim explores the Lunar Fissure by scanning the fissure using Ripple's multi-tool, he accidentally drops the multi-tool inside. The fissure is very narrow, so none of the vehicles can fit inside it, but then Ripple realizes that her moon blast-off board is small enough to fit. | January 19, 2006 |
| 16B | Force Field Trampoline | The supply pod has lost control and is going to have a crash landing, so Jim and his friends have to find things that would cushion the impact of the supply pod's landing before it lands and breaks. | January 19, 2006 |
| 17A | The Fallen Star | When a star has fallen from the sky, Jim and his friends try to send the star back into the sky, but they are unable to launch the star high enough. | January 20, 2006 |
| 17B | Big Bowling Bash | When Jim teaches TED how to bowl, he starts to get obsessed with bowling. He reluctantly goes with Jim and his friends for a treasure search, but the cave with the treasure is blocked by large rocks. It turns out bowling is the solution to the answer when they notice a large boulder on a slope, which could be pushed to knock away the large rocks. | January 20, 2006 |
| 18A | Scooperbot Hide'n'Seek | When Ripple invents a robot, called Scooperbot, which collects metal things, the robot takes away TED's voice chip and hides away, so Jim and his friends have to find Scooperbot and try to get TED's voice chip back from Scooperbot. | January 21, 2006 |
| 18B | Ripple's Web Sprayer | When Jim and TED have to put a signal light on a slope, TED volunteers to do it by controlling the Lunar Crawler. But TED accidentally breaks the emergency break, and the Crawler starts going backwards towards Stinky Lake. So Jim must figure out a way to stop the Crawler from going further. | January 21, 2006 |
| 19A | Moon Mischief | After a meteor shower hits the moon, Jim and TED go to stack the meteors up, but TED is frightened because the stacked meteors look like monsters. Meanwhile, a lunar gopher has entered the Ecodome, and he starts pulling out Eco's plants just for fun. Tearfully, Eco tries to get Jim to help, but none of the suggestions are working because the gopher is fast and able to jump over fences. | February 13, 2006 |
| 19B | Short Circuit Gloves | When Jim is asked to measure the lengths of lunar craters, Ripple gives Jim heating gloves to wear because the crater area is very cold. Problems happen when after Jim measures the craters, everything Jim touches starts malfunctioning, including Ripple's multi-tool, Rover, and then TED. | February 13, 2006 |
| 20A | I'm Like a Bird | When Jim and his friends are exploring, a lunar loon takes away the Scrambler's chain, and the Scrambler's unable to fly without the chain. The lunar loon refuses to give it back, so they have to make the lunar loon open its mouth and drop the chain. | February 20, 2006 |
| 20B | Lunar Lily Pads | When Jim finds floating lunar lily pads, he brings them home to show to his friends. When Jim finds out Eco isn't there, they realize that when Eco's collecting mushrooms, he accidentally parked the Hopper into a lunar mud puddle, and the vehicle is sinking, so Jim and his friends must figure out how to get the Hopper out of the puddle. | February 20, 2006 |
| 21A | The Topsy Turvy Zone | After Jim and his friends visit the Topsy-Turvy zone, Jim mysteriously starts doing things backwards, such as driving and walking backwards, uprooting plants, bringing in the garbage, having breakfast at dinnertime, and sleeping in the daytime. So everyone tries to figure out what did Jim do to make him start doing things backwards. | April 7, 2006 |
| 21B | Robo Puzzle | After a meteor shower, Jim and his friends find Colby the Collector stuck under a meteor, with his body pieces dissembled. So they try to get his pieces reassembled, but the pieces don't seem to fit each other. | April 7, 2006 |
| 22A | Lunar Litter Bugs | The garbage pipeline seems to be broken when all the garbage has been appearing on the sides of Stinky Lake instead of in the Recycler. So Jim has to dive into Stinky Lake to check out the reason. At first, Jim is hesitant because the lake is stinky and looks dangerous, but then realizes that it's beautiful down there and there's no danger. | April 8, 2006 |
| 22B | Rhyme Me a River | When Jim and his friends are discovering new places, TED finds an interesting rock, and takes it with him. Then, he suddenly starts a rhyming streak and rhymes every sentence, but once they get back home, TED stops rhyming and everyone else seems to start rhyming. | April 8, 2006 |
| 23A | Incredibly Shrinking TED | When Jim and Ripple bring home a Shrinkberry plant for Eco, TED accidentally touches the juice of a berry of the plant and shrinks, becoming tiny. So Jim and his friends have to find something that would make TED big again. | April 10, 2006 |
| 23B | Rover's Rocket Roamer | The supply pod has lost control and has landed on a ledge under the Lunar Cliffs. Someone has to push a button to get the supply pod back up, but nobody can reach the button using their hands while driving a vehicle. | April 10, 2006 |
| 24A | TED and the Beanstalk | When Jim and TED are collecting lunar seeds for Eco, TED loses his balance while carrying a heavy seed. So he trips over Jim, and Jim, TED, and Rover all fall into a deep ravine. They're unable to get out because it's too steep to climb up and all the vehicles are too big to get into the ravine and rescue them. | April 17, 2006 |
| 24B | Moon Pixies | Mysterious things start happening in Moonaluna when Eco's Hopper's wheels have come off for no reason, Ripple's tools start moving by themselves, and TED's had suddenly getting turned backwards. The pranksters turn out to be moon pixies, which are tiny creatures that live in Orbit Orchids. | April 17, 2006 |
| 25A | Lunar Attraction | When Jim and his friends are watching a comet fly over, a part of the comet crashes in the moon, which hits TED in the head. After the hit, TED loses his memory because the impact made the memory chip bounce out of his head. So they find that the memory chip is stuck inside a rock, but the rock's opening is too small for anybody's hands to reach it. | April 18, 2006 |
| 25B | The Floating Fruit | When Jim discovers two different types of lunar fruit, he brings them home. After finding out that the fruits are safe to eat, they eat the fruit, but afterwards, Jim starts floating and Eco feels heavy and is unable to move. | April 18, 2006 |
| 26A | Cowboy TED | When Eco teaches TED how to be a cowboy, TED goes overboard with it. But his cowboy skills prove to be helpful when Delores gets stuck on a tall beanstalk. | April 19, 2006 |
| 26B | A Surprise for Jim | It's Jim's birthday, and Ripple and Eco are planning a surprise birthday party for him, so they give Jim a mission to do in order to stall him. | April 19, 2006 |
| 27A | The Skys A Limit | ||
| 27B | Spaceship Makes A Splash |
External links
- (English)
- (English) Official site This site is not currently available.
- (English) Lunar Jim at the Internet Movie Database
- (Portuguese) Lunar Jim at the TV Cultura
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