| Voices: | Georgia MacPherson Sunday James-Ross Finlay Christie Oliver Dillon |
| Narrated: | Dave Lamb (Spin-off version) |
| Creator: | Dan Good |
| Executive Producer: | Nigel Pickard Vanessa Hill Angus Fletcher Steven DeNure |
| Producer: | Vanessa Hill |
| Composer: | James Burrell |
| Cinematography: | Keith Reed |
| Country: | United Kingdom Canada |
| Language: | English |
| Company: | The Foundation DHX Media Toronto |
| Network: | CBeebies (United Kingdom) Treehouse TV (Canada) |
| Num Series: | 3 |
| Num Episodes: | 150 |
Waybuloo is a live-action/animated children's television series created by Dan Good and Absolutely Cuckoo.[1] Set in the fictional land of Nara, it features four CGI creatures with large heads and eyes called Piplings who practise a form of yoga which they call "Yogo". They are visited in each episode by live action children who are referred to as "Cheebies". It was broadcast on CBeebies in the UK between 2009 and 2012.
Waybuloo was commissioned by Michael Carrington at the BBC, and first aired on CBeebies in May 2009. The 150-episode show was head-written by Marc Seal (who worked on Bob the Builder), filmed by the Foundation in Glasgow and animated and directed by Gallus Entertainment. Repeats of the show also aired on BBC Two and BBC HD.[2] [3]
The series is set in the fictional land of Nara. The main characters are the four Piplings, 3D CGI animated creatures with large heads and eyes and possessing the ability to fly and float around. They are made in Autodesk Maya, placed on a filmed background, with the second half of each twenty-minute show featuring human children (called the "Cheebies").
The Piplings practice yogo, a gentle form of exercise similar to yoga,[4] which the viewers and their parents can participate in.[5] The Piplings demonstrate several poses inspired by things they see in their homeworld, Nara, such as owls, trees, and insects. Each group of poses indicates a certain group of Cheebies. When the children (or Cheebies) arrive later during an episode, they then practice the same poses demonstrated by the Piplings at the start of the show. The cue for both the Piplings and the Cheebies to perform Yogo is an ancient machine, which activates when sunlight falls upon it.
Yogo was developed by the show's producers in association with a Paediatrician and a Health and Safety Consultant. The leaflet produced by the BBC warns parents not to practise Yogo with their children if they are or have been ill, and always to speak to a GP before starting the program.
The Piplings also play Peeka, a hide and seek game, when the Cheebies (live action children) arrive at Nara. At the end of every episode, when the Piplings find out their problems or are so happy, they experience Waybuloo, where all Piplings rise up towards the sky.
The program makers describe it as "...a philosophy for a happy life, and is like nothing adults will have ever seen before". It was reported that some Christian groups complained that the program promoted Buddhist or Hindu practices.[6]
Post-production, including audio, sound design and editing is done by Platform Post Production. in Toronto, Canada. Line produced by Matt Porter and the series producer is Simon Spencer (who works for Thomas & Friends), part of the independent company, RDF Media's subsidiary The Foundation.[7]
On September 8, 2011, Zodiak Kids announced a “Spin-Off” version of the series. This version would feature shortened 11-minute episodes with the addition of Dave Lamb as the narrator. The changes were said by the company as to be “constructed to work on multiple levels of humor in an effort to appeal to preschoolers and parents alike”.[8]
When this version premiered on CBeebies in January 2012, it was met with much criticism, with comments on the CBeebies Grown-Ups blog criticising Dave's narration.[9] The negative feedback was so strong, that CBeebies decided to pull the spin-off version in favour of the original version on the very next night.
| Episode | Series 1 | Plot/Summary | UK air date | Canadian air date | Episode | Series 2 | Plot/Summary | UK air date | Canadian air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Moving Things | De Li stands on a box to pick plumatoes, but Yojojo wants to store his instruments in it and the other Piplings want to use it to play hopsy. They decide it's better to share it. | 11 May 2009 | 15 September 2009 | 1 | Magical Music | Lau Lau hears some beautiful music. It makes her want to dance, but when the music stops, she looks for its source. | 21 September 2010 | |
| 2 | Showtime | Lau Lau wants to dance, but not everyone can fit on her stage, so the Cheebies make a larger space so everyone can dance. | 28 May 2009 | 2 | A Surprise for Yojojo | Yojojo breaks a drumskin. The others decide to surprise him by fixing it, but while they put him off the scent he thinks they don't love him. He cheers up when he finds out what they were up to. | 16 October 2010 | ||
| 3 | Trumpet | Yojojo and Nok Tok find a hollow branch that makes a good trumpet. They go around frightening everyone by blowing it but this frightens Lau Lau's Narabug away. Yojojo plays it softly instead and all the Narabugs come to listen. | 19 May 2009 | 8 September 2009 | |||||
| 3 | Cheebie Tune | Nok Tok makes a xylophone but one of his notes doesn't sound right. So everyone helps him find a bit of wood with the right pitch. | 23 October 2010 | ||||||
| 4 | Strawberries | De Li trains her Narabug to find a strawberry bush by smelling a strawberry. But the Piplings eat them all and have none left for the Narabug to smell. The Cheebies find the bush and pick all the strawberries. When De Li finds it too they're all gone. She's sad until her Narabug traces the strawberries back to the Cheebies and they all eat them. | 5 May 2009 | 10 September 2009 | De Li and the Shoehorns | Everyone loves walking with Nok Tok's shoehorns except De Li, who's afraid she won't be able to use them. She overcomes her fear with the help of the others. | |||
| 5 | Snuggly Nest | Lau Lau makes cushions from Narabug thread, one for each Pipling, but her own cushion goes missing. They trace the unravelled thread to a bird's nest and leave the cushion there. | 2 June 2009 | 19 September 2009 | Star | Lau Lau thinks she's found a star that grants her wishes until De Li points out it's only a flower. The Cheebies make her a new star and Nok Tok launches it into the sky with the Anything Machine. | |||
| 6 | Whistle | Nok Tok wants to call his Narabug by whistling like the other Piplings but he can't. He practices and eventually works out how. | 4 June 2009 | Singball Statues | Yojojo's good at juggling singballs but eventually drops them. He's upset by this until the Cheebies use his mistakes to play musical statues. | ||||
| 7 | Shy Flower | De Li has a large plant in her garden that won't open its flower. She tries putting it in the sun and watering it but it won't flower. Eventually she works out it flowers by stroking it. It produces many seeds and soon the flowers are everywhere. | 9 June 2009 | Go Get Game | The Piplings play a game where the first to go get a named fruit is the winner. De Li is upset she keeps coming last until they realise she picked all the best fruit to eat. | ||||
| 8 | Going Bananas | Lau Lau wants to paint three bananas but when she's gone Yojojo can't resist and eats two of them. The Cheebies stop him eating the last one. When she's finished painting Lau Lau offers it to Yojojo but he wants to share it. There's not enough to go round but Nok Tok and De Li bring enough bananas for everyone. | Pictures | Lau Lau tries to paint the other Piplings but they won't sit still. To make up for it they make her presents but while they're doing that she's able to paint them. The Cheebies surprise everyone with a painting of Lau Lau. | |||||
| 9 | Nok Tok's Naracar | Nok Tok offers to help the other Piplings carry some heavy things but there's too much to carry at once. So he makes a car to help transport them. | Snuggly Slide | De Li wants Yojojo to show her how to play lifty leaf but he wants to play on his slide with his snuggly. So the Cheebies get the snuggly its own lifty leaf and he can play with it and help De Li at the same time. | |||||
| 10 | Bubble | A huge bubble arrives in Nara and Yojojo tries to keep it from bursting. Eventually it disappears into the sky. Yojojo's sad until the Cheebies find a waterfall making hundreds of bubbles and they have fun bursting them. | De Li's Garden | ||||||
| 11 | Nok Tok's Happy Plant | Nok Tok's plant is sad, even though he gives it sun, soil and water. He doesn't believe the others when they say it likes music, bongleberries and Cheebies until he's proven wrong. He feels silly until they tell him it's alright to be wrong. | Dance | Nok Tok tries to dance like Lau Lau, but he can't. Instead he accidentally creates his own dance, which everyone wants to do. | |||||
| 12 | Counting Seeds | De Li wants to count her jumpy seeds but they keep moving. The others don't help by putting her off her counting, but the Cheebies count with her. When they know how many pots they need they plant them, and they soon flower producing many more seeds. | Lost | De Li wants to play her whistle stick but the others are playing their drums so loudly she can't hear it. She tries to find somewhere quiet to play but gets lost. Then she hears the drums and knows which way to go. The others agree to play quietly and they all play together. | |||||
| 13 | Being Brave | Yojojo thinks he's brave until he's scared by the shadow of a big flappy thing. The Cheebies find out that it's the shadow of Yojojo's Narabug and Yojojo feels brave again. | The Gift | Lau Lau gives De Li a painting, so De Li wants to get her a gift in return. She gets her flowers but her Narabug eats them, then gets her bongleberries but squashes them. The Cheebies make a painting for Lau Lau but De Li wants to get her something herself, so gives her a huggle. | |||||
| 14 | Catch | The Piplings play catch but Nok Tok can't catch. After trying different ways to learn he realises he's been shutting his eyes, so he keeps them open and catches the ball. | Loving Laughing | The Piplings try to make Nok Tok laugh but he wants to work on the Anything Machine. Soon they're worried he's lost his laugh but when he's finished working he gets the Anything Machine to make funny noises he can laugh at. | |||||
| 15 | Nok Tok Thinks Big | De Li builds a sandcastle but Nok Tok accidentally squashes it. So he builds a new bigger one and needs a lot of help. As it's her present he won't let De Li help, even though she wants to. He finishes it but De Li decides it's not quite finished, and decorates it with special stones. | Feather | Yojojo finds a feather and sets about finding out where everyone's ticklish. He tries to tickle himself but it doesn't work. He thinks he's lost his tickle until the Cheebies tell him he can't tickle himself, and tickle him all over. | |||||
| 16 | Tricky Kicky | Nok Tok wants De Li to play tricky kicky but she can't kick the ball into the goal even using the other Piplings' special techniques. A cheebie gives her a lucky pebble and suddenly she can do it. She loses the pebble and is worried she'll fail, but manages to do score without it. | Neepnip | ||||||
| 17 | Green Mango | Yojojo and Nok Tok want to eat a mango but it's green and doesn't taste good. De Li tells them it's not ready so they try to make it soft and yellow but that doesn't make it taste better. De Li tells them they can't do it, they have to wait for it to ripen. It does and it tastes much better. | Pipling Pegs | ||||||
| 18 | Songbird | Yojojo finds a bird singing a pretty song and puts it in his basket, but the bird won't sing again no matter what the Piplings do to make it happy. The Cheebies suggest taking it out of the basket and it sings but flies away. They call it back with whistles and Pipling pipes. | No Talk Game | Yojojo wants to play the No Talk Game. He tries not to say anything, but the other Piplings keep making him talk. | |||||
| 19 | Fruity Fun | Nok Tok gives Lau Lau his fir cones, so she wants to give him a present in return. De Li suggests giving him her mangoes, but now Lau Lau has to find De Li a present. Yojojo suggests his apples, but now Yojojo needs a present. So Nok Tok uses the Anything Machine to turn all the fruit into juice so everyone can have some. | Dry Garden | ||||||
| 20 | Hiccups | Yojojo has the hiccups so the piplings and cheebies try to find a solution to cure the hiccups. | Carrotbeet Day | ||||||
| 21 | Cheep Cheep | Lau Lau's Story | |||||||
| 22 | Echo Cave | The Piplings hear their voices echo in a cave and think they have found new friends that are shy and live in the cave. | Toot Toot | ||||||
| 23 | Frog | Statue | |||||||
| 24 | Whizzcrackers | The Piplings spot whizzcrackers in the skies over Nara, but Yojojo is easily distracted and keeps missing them. Eventually he stays still long enough to see them. | Choosy | ||||||
| 25 | Glitter Crystal | Walking Backwards | |||||||
| 26 | Missing Seed | De Li leaves her quick-grow seed with Yojojo to look after, but he's distracted and loses it. Nok Tok finds it and goes to cook it, but Lau Lau finds it and decides to paint it. It disappears again, but a Narabug finds it and plants it in De Li's garden. | String Goes Ping | Yojojo plays his banjojo for the Narabugs, but breaks a string. The Cheebies help find a new string. | |||||
| 27 | Flittery Narabug | Where Have All The Narabugs Gone? | |||||||
| 28 | Perfect Picnic | Singing Bowl | Lau Lau finds a bowl in a cave and looks for a way everyone can use it together. The Cheebies discover it makes a sound they can dance to. | ||||||
| 29 | Clever Tree | Bop Bop Bat | Nok Tok makes bop bop bats but Yojojo breaks his. He tries to fix it himself without telling Nok Tok but in the end only Nok Tok can mend it. | ||||||
| 30 | Mice | Nok Tok's Narabug | Nok Tok's concerned his Narabug isn't good at anything. This makes it sad, so he decides it's good at being a friend. It cheers up enough to win the blow-leaf race. | ||||||
| 31 | Bongleberry Juice | Old Made New | Yojojo breaks his special bowl and bongleberries just don't taste as good from any other bowl. So Nok Tok fixes the bowl with mud in the Anything Machine. | ||||||
| 32 | Jumping | Pipling Playday | Lau Lau finds she's no good at any of the games because her long ears keep getting in the way. That's until she finds they make her the best at spinning. | ||||||
| 33 | Follow the Pipling | De Li is perfectly happy to play a copying game with her Narabug, but feels too shy to do the same with everyone else. When the Cheebies arrive, one is also shy and she and De Li work together to gain confidence. | Sssh! | Nok Tok scares away the bird Lau Lau's trying to paint with sounds he's recorded on the Anything Machine. So he records the bird's song to attract it instead. | |||||
| 34 | Dancing Feet | Lau Lau loves dancing so much that she wants to paint it, but can't get it right until the cheebies arrive. | Enough | Yojojo collects many flowers for the Piplings. Then he realises he's picked them all and ruined De Li's favourite place. So the Cheebies make a giant flower picture instead. | |||||
| 35 | The Tallest Pipling in Nara | Nok Tok is very proud of the measuring stick he's made. | Pod Men | Lau Lau and Yojojo make a pod man, fixing the head with mud. Nok Tok makes a pod man but the head falls off. He won't ask for help. His pride dented, he gets everyone to work together to make a pod face instead. | |||||
| 36 | Pipling Rhythm | Too Slow | De Li keeps losing races and wants to go faster. But when she comes last in a race around Nara she decides being slow is good as it enabled her to collect some nice things. | ||||||
| 37 | Narabug Chase | Chimey Leaves | Lau Lau finds a plant whose leaves chime when they knock together. She takes the leaves home but then no one else can hear them chime. So they plant it in De Li's garden where everyone can hear. | ||||||
| 38 | Catch the Plumato | Nok Tok's Rock | Nok Tok finds a box full of useful objects and hands them out to the Piplings. Everyone's pleased except Nok Tok, who's left with a rock. The Cheebies show him he can use it to play games, but then it gets broken. So he uses the hollow halves to make clip-clop sounds like a horse. | ||||||
| 39 | Fireflies | Swapping | Lau Lau swaps her paintbrushes for Yojojo's banjojo, but neither of them are any good at the other's hobby. So Lau Lau paints the banjojo and Yojojo uses the brushes as drumsticks. | ||||||
| 40 | Jumpybug | Bluebell | Yojojo tricks everyone into thinking bluebells ring when they touch them. Soon everyone's tricking each other with sounds, so they decide instead to make noise together. | ||||||
| 41 | Leaf | Nok Tok finds a leaf, which he keeps under a stone. Yojojo comes to see it, but then Nok Tok's leaf flies off and gets stuck to a tree, then to another tree. The Cheebies help Yojojo catch the leaf. Once Yojojo retrieves the Leaf to Nok Tok, Yojojo is told that he can have the leaf as a gift.Moral: Finders, Keepers | The Search For Lau Lau's Glowstone | Lau Lau finds a glowstone, and immediately loses it. The Piplings help look for it but only find things they'd lost. The Cheebies suggest retracing her steps. | |||||
| 42 | Picnic | Yojojo's Plumpkin | The Piplings grow vegetables for soup, but Yojojo doesn't want to eat his huge plumpkin so it can grow bigger. The Cheebies tell him it might go off and get smaller, so he picks it straight away and plants the seeds for more plumpkins. | ||||||
| 43 | Treasure Hunt | Fairy Thing | De Li finds a floaty, sparkly thing in her shed which the Piplings think might be a fairy. The Cheebies realise they are fireflies and build a new home for them in De Li's shed. | ||||||
| 44 | Sad Narabug | Surprise | Nok Tok sets up the Anything Machine to give the Cheebies a bubble surprise. He leaves it with Yojojo to look after but he accidentally sets it off. Yojojo hides it in De Li's shed so the surprise isn't ruined, but the bubbles escape and the Cheebies see them. Nok Tok doesn't mind as the Cheebies love the bubbles anyway. | ||||||
| 45 | Balancing | Round and Round | Nok Tok finds a golden feather and puts it in a safe place. The other Piplings find it, not realising it's Nok Tok's, and hide it somewhere else. Soon none of them can find it. When they realise they're all looking for the same feather they search for it together, until a bird finds it. | ||||||
| 46 | De Li's Trick | Swapsy Box | The Piplings each put presents in a box and swap them. De Li is puzzled by the stick in her box until she discovers it's for planting special seeds in her garden. | ||||||
| 47 | Ball | Den For Ten | Lau Lau makes a den, but when the other Piplings join her it falls down. So they make the den bigger. | ||||||
| 48 | Clouds | Shaker Breaker | Yojojo lets Nok Tok play with his shakers but he loses one. The Cheebies make new shakers but De Li finds Yojojo's in her bush. | ||||||
| 49 | Nok Tok Goes Driving | Nok Tok is driving his Naracar so fast he destroys various things, first he cracks open Yojojo's Tricky Kicky ball, then De Li's flower Bed, and finally Lau Lau's beautiful thing she has built. | Lau Lau's Quiet Day | Lau Lau and Jumpy Bug have a quiet day, but everyone else is too noisy. They decide to have a loud day instead. | |||||
| 50 | Tricky Stick | Snuggly | |||||||
Footnote 1: S02E38 does not have a title recorded, although it has been aired by the BBC.
Series 3 aired on CBeebies beginning 3 October 2011.[10]
| Episode | Series 3 | Plot/Summary | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Crawly Caterpillar | ||
| 2 | Happiness Parade | Yojojo wants everyone to do one thing together that makes them happy. | |
| 3 | Nok Tok's Promise | ||
| 4 | Thirsty Day | ||
| 5 | Most Beautiful Thing | ||
| 6 | Yojojo's Twinkler Show | ||
| 7 | Lau Lau's Picture | Lau Lau makes a picture of Nara and gives it to Yojojo, but she is sad to see it go. | |
| 8 | Narabug Games | ||
| 9 | Bye Bye Snuggly | ||
| 10 | Home Swapsy | ||
| 11 | Happy Yojojo | Lau Lau, De Li and Nok Tok gather presents for the cheebies. | |
| 12 | A Surprise For De Li | ||
| 13 | Feely Box | ||
| 14 | De Li's Harvest | ||
| 15 | De Li's Dance | ||
| 16 | Lau Lau's Bird | ||
| 17 | Flower Surprise | ||
| 18 | Flowerstrings | Nok Tok tries to make a flowerstring. | |
| 19 | Cloud Gazing | ||
| 20 | Follow Nok Tok | ||
| 21 | Bell-buloo! | ||
| 22 | Froggy Rock | ||
| 23 | Nok Tok Builds a Follow Box | ||
| 24 | Bongleberry Bubbles | ||
| 25 | Neither Nest | ||
| 26 | Glittery Narmole | ||
| 27 | Go Yojojo | ||
| 28 | De Li's Flower | ||
| 29 | The Plumpkin and the Caterpillar | De Li finds a caterpillar on her plumpkin. | |
| 30 | Very Special Flower | ||
| 31 | Sneezy Nok Tok | ||
| 32 | Nok Tok's Talent | ||
| 33 | Yojojo's Big Music Day | ||
| 34 | Hop Chase Game | ||
| 35 | Narmole Trouble | ||
| 36 | Lau Lau's Special Day | ||
| 37 | Narmole Day | ||
| 38 | Puppet Show | ||
| 39 | Wobbly Wheelbarrow | ||
| 40 | Narabug and Songbird | ||
| 41 | Blossom Berry Hop | ||
| 42 | Everybody Happy | ||
| 43 | Needing Help | ||
| 44 | Yojojo Wants to Share | ||
| 45 | Being Happy | ||
| 46 | Everyone Play Together | ||
| 47 | Lost Leaf | ||
| 48 | Keep Trying | ||
| 49 | Trumpet Up Top | ||
| 50 | Can't Do It |
DVD releases of the series were released by 2Entertain.[11] Later DVDs were released by Delta Leisure.
| Release name | UK release date |
|---|---|
| Meet the Piplings | 26 October 2009 |
| Adventures in Nara | 30 November 2009 |
| Piplings Love to Play | 29 March 2010 |
| Hi-Hi Cheebies | 6 September 2010 |
| Piplings Feel Buloo | 22 November 2010 |
| 1-5 Box Set | 6 December 2010 |
| Piplings Love to Care | 23 May 2011 |
| Piplings Love to Share | 19 September 2011 |
| Piplings Love to Exercise | 5 March 2012 |
| Piplings Love to Help | 24 September 2012 |
| Piplings Love to Explore | 3 December 2012 |
| Box Set Volume 2 | 10 December 2012 |
| Being Brave & Four Other Stories | 24 February 2014 |
| Going Bananas & Four Other Stories | 24 February 2014 |
| Nook Took's Nara Car & Four Other Stories | 24 February 2014 |
| Hiccups & Four Other Stories | 24 February 2014 |
| Magical Music & Four Other Stories | 24 March 2014 |
| Dancing Feet & Four Other Stories | 24 March 2014 |
| Nook Took Rock & Five Other Stories | 23 June 2014 |
| Pipling Pegs & Five Other Stories | 23 June 2014 |
| Swapsy Boxes & Five Other Stories | 23 June 2014 |
| Pipling Fun | 3 September 2014 |
In February 2010, DHX Media announced that Nelvana Enterprises would be the show's Canadian Home Video partner.[12]