Word Party Explained

Genre:	Educational
Creator:	Alex Rockwell
Voices:	Dorien Davies Victor Yerrid Donna Kimball John Tartaglia Alice Dinnean Risa Mei
Narrated:	Patina Miller
Theme Music Composer:	Alex Geringas, Mike Himelstein, Dena Diamond
Opentheme:	"Word Party"
Endtheme:	"Word Party" (instrumental)
Composer:	Michael Silversher and Patty Silversher
Country:	United States
Language:	English
Num Seasons:	5
Num Episodes:	60
Executive Producer:	Lisa Henson Halle Stanford Alex Rockwell
Producer:	The Jim Henson Company
Location:	Clubhouse
Runtime:	13 minutes
Company:	The Jim Henson Company

Word Party (also known as Jim Henson's Word Party) is an American animated children's television series that began streaming on Netflix in 2016. The series was created by The Jim Henson Company, using Henson Digital Puppetry Studio.

Overview

The vocabulary-building program features a group of five young animals, Kip the wallaby (John Tartaglia), Bailey the elephant (Victor Yerrid), leader Franny the cheetah (Donna Kimball), the mascot Lulu the panda (Dorien Davies), and Tilly the tortoise (Alice Dinnean), "as they sing, dance and play."^[1] The show invites young viewers to help teach the baby animals new words, practice these new words themselves, and celebrate these achievements with a "Word Party!", hence the series' title name. The show is narrated by Patina Miller.

Characters

Main

• Kip is a baby wallaby and is the second oldest of the group. He loves to jump and is the jokester of the group. Sometimes when he tries to guess what the other babies are feeling, or what someone else is trying to tell him, he has trouble finding out what it is, with him comically and humorously failing. With help from the other babies and Word Wally, he finds the words for what someone else is feeling or saying.
• Franny is a baby cheetah and the eldest and leader of the group. Lulu is her best friend. Sometimes, when she is in a low mood, it is difficult for the others to tell what is bothering her, but she accepts help when she needs it most. She has stated several times, "Well, I am the oldest."
• Bailey is a baby elephant who loves to pretend. He has a big heart and cares a lot about the other babies. He often helps the other babies when they do not have the words to express their feelings.
• Lulu is a baby panda who is the second youngest of the group and the title character of the series. Due to being younger than the other babies (with the exception of Tilly), it is often difficult for her to fully express how she is feeling. She finds it harder to find the necessary words to express what she wants to say, occasionally does not speak in full sentences, and gets frustrated when others cannot understand her.
• Tilly is a Mandarin-speaking baby tortoise who appears as a main character in season 4. She is the smallest of the babies. Due to being the youngest of the group alongside Lulu, she is often soft-spoken and does not talk very much, though words cannot always describe what she wants to express. She only speaks Chinese

Episodes

Season 5 (2021)

Word Party Presents: Math!

Word Party Presents: Math! is a spinoff that teaches math. It was released on Netflix on December 28, 2021. A sneak peek of the spinoff was uploaded on the Netflix Jr channel on December 1, 2021.

Episodes

See also

• List of original programs distributed by Netflix

Notes and References

1. Milligan. Mercedes. Netflix Adding Three Original Preschool Toons. Animation Magazine. June 30, 2015. August 13, 2015.