Powerbirds

Powerbirds is an animated children's television series created by Stephen P. Breen and co-created by Jennifer Monier-Williams and produced by Brown Bag Films.^[1] The series is about Max and his pet parakeets who owns it and transforms into superhero birds called the powerbirds, after Max leaves for school. The powerbirds find themselves to save the city from danger, and will stop him against the animal friends who are villains.

Powerbirds
Genre	Children's television series Action Superhero
Created by	Stephen P. Breen Jennifer Monier-Williams
Story by	Ben Joseph Robin J. Stein Craig Martin
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 Canada
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	20
Production
Executive producers	Cathal Gaffney Darragh O'Connell
Producer	Uma Krishnamurthy
Editors	Mark Edwards Sam Smith Andy Brittain
Running time	22 minutes
Production company	Brown Bag Films
Original release
Network	Universal Kids
Release	19 January (2020-01-19) – 5 November 2020 (2020-11-05)

The series premiered on 19 January 2020, on Universal Kids.^[2] The series is available in 18 languages and his aired over 50 countries worldwide.

Premise

The series follows a boy named Max with his pair of 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 villains: Nibbles the poodle, Clawdette the tabby cat, Scrapper the raccoon, Asher Stasher the flying squirrel and Minerva the owlet from the events where Max will be going later, so then later, Max is excited to visit the events.^[2]

Cast and characters

Main

• Cory Doran as Ace, a determined, daring, and playful, male yellow parakeet who can turn into a superhero when trouble calls. He is not fighting bad guys, but instead, he loves everything related to superheroes, and he is a food-loving bird.
• Tara Strong as Polly, a very silly and creative, female blue parakeet who, like his brother Ace, can also turn into a superhero. He can think outside of the box to solve problems. She has extra powers like super stretching herself that Ace does not have.

Recurring

• Orlando Lucas as Max, an imaginative eight-year-old teenage boy who 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.
• Ana Sani as Gwen, Max’s little sister. He sometimes plays with him before they both leave to wherever they are going and would usually play as another character in his superhero games.
• Paloma Nuñez as Mrs. Lopez, a bookmobile driver. He is Max's owner of the Powerbirds, and he speaks in a Hispanic accent.
• Deven Mack as Grandpa Felix, Max’s lovable grandfather who would appear in most episodes prior to the mission and the lesson one of the Powerbirds must remember. Some of the episodes include "Time to Dino-soar", "The Powerbirds Pretender", "Midnight Scrap", "Wacky Wokka Walk", and "Scrapper’s Magnet Mayhem".

Antagonists

• Rob Tinkler as Nibbles, a selfish and greedy white-colored poodle who wears a purple hat and suit, and speaks in a British accent. She wants to gain attention to become famous, however, she ends up causing disasters, mostly because he only thinks of himself and does not know why the famous people are loved.
• Evany Rosen as Clawdette, an orange tabby cat who is Max’s pet, and the Powerbirds’ adoptive sister. He believes that she is the best ninja, so she tries to get stuff so she can be the best at it, and he can dressed up in a pink-colored ninja clothing. In "Power Meower Saves the Day", she actually helped Polly and Ace by wearing out Asher Stasher, and he helps them again in "Food Caper", where Scrapper is stealing the cat food for himself to eat them.
• Tyler Murree as Scrapper, a brown striped raccoon who wants to steal food from other people and speaks in a New York accent. Scrapper's favorite food is pizza and seems to be the least villainous of them because all he wants is food.
• Cory Doran as Asher Stasher, a weird-liking, gray and white flying squirrel who wears glasses and a blue shirt with an acorn icon. He is trying to use a giant robot suit and collect all the stuff for his "collection of shiny things", but she sometimes wants stuff that is too big and decides that he either does not want it anyway or gets interrupted by a phone call from his mom. Despite being a flying squirrel, his bushy tail is big so he cannot seen to fly.
• Shannon Hamilton as Minerva, a brown owlet who is infamous and he can use different tools to cause trouble such as bad dream bubbles, magic mirrors, consoles, and more to make it herself smarter than the humans are. Minerva likes bullying them and can start to tell it to touch it at a school.

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 1 January 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 Westren	TBA	19 January 2020 (2020-01-19)	102	N/A
Asher Stasher steals all the trophies in town.
1b	"Owl of Nod"	William Gordon	Heather Jackson	TBA	19 January 2020 (2020-01-19)	102	N/A
Minerva ruins everyone’s dreams.
2a	"That'll Teach Em"	William Gordon	S: Robin J Stein/ T: Robin J Stein & Steve Westren	TBA	21 January 2020 (2020-01-21)	103	N/A
Minerva hypnotizes several teachers so she can be the smartest one on earth.
2b	"Space Odyssey"	William Gordon	Evan Thaler Hickey	TBA	21 January 2020 (2020-01-21)	103	N/A
The powerbirds see an UFO in their yard one day.
3a	"Scrapperlicious"	William Gordon	Scott Albert	TBA	26 January 2020 (2020-01-26)	104	N/A
The powerbirds chase Scrapper around town to get some pizzas.
3b	"Book Bedlam"	William Gordon	Robin J Stein	TBA	26 January 2020 (2020-01-26)	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 Westren	TBA	2 February 2020 (2020-02-02)	105	N/A
Nibbles ruins several birthdays by taking all the cakes.
4b	"Clash of the Critters"	William Gordon	Josh Saltzman	TBA	2 February 2020 (2020-02-02)	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 Westren	Paul Gunson Antonella Maringola	9 February 2020 (2020-02-09)	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	9 February 2020 (2020-02-09)	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 Westren	TBA	16 February 2020 (2020-02-16)	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 Westren	TBA	16 February 2020 (2020-02-16)	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	23 February 2020 (2020-02-23)	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	23 February 2020 (2020-02-23)	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 Westren	TBA	1 March 2020 (2020-03-01)	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 Westren	TBA	1 March 2020 (2020-03-01)	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	8 March 2020 (2020-03-08)	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 Westren	TBA	8 March 2020 (2020-03-08)	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 Westren	TBA	15 March 2020 (2020-03-15)	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	15 March 2020 (2020-03-15)	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	17 June 2020 (2020-06-17)	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	17 June 2020 (2020-06-17)	111	N/A
The Powerbirds and Clawdette team up to stop Scrapper.
12a	"Asher’s Moving Castle"	William Gordon	Robin J Stein	TBA	19 June 2020 (2020-06-19)	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 Westren	TBA	19 June 2020 (2020-06-19)	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	26 June 2020 (2020-06-26)	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	26 June 2020 (2020-06-26)	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	3 July 2020 (2020-07-03)	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	Evan Thaler Hickey	TBA	3 July 2020 (2020-07-03)	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	Andrew Harrison	TBA	10 July 2020 (2020-07-10)	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	10 July 2020 (2020-07-10)	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	17 July 2020 (2020-07-17)	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	Josh Saltzman	TBA	17 July 2020 (2020-07-17)	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.
17a	"Clawdette Who cried Wolf"	William Gordon	Katherine Sandford	TBA	24 July 2020 (2020-07-24)	117	N/A
17b	"Arf-Tastic Tales of Nibbles"	William Gordon	S: Ben Joseph & Steve Westren T: Steve Westren	TBA	24 July 2020 (2020-07-24)	117	N/A
18a	"Doggoween"	William Gordon	Katherine Sandford	TBA	1 August 2020 (2020-08-01)	118	N/A
18b	"Clash with Clawdette"	William Gordon	Diana Moore	TBA	1 August 2020 (2020-08-01)	118	N/A
19a	"Asher’s Eggstravaganza"	William Gordon	S: Josh Saltzman & Steve Westren T: Steve Westren	TBA	8 August 2020 (2020-08-08)	119	N/A
19b	"Big Balloon Afternoon"	William Gordon	S: Nate Knetchel & Steve Westren T: Steve Westren	TBA	8 August 2020 (2020-08-08)	119	N/A
20a	"Clawdette's Christmas Caper"	William Gordon	Heather Jackson	TBA	5 November 2020 (2020-11-05)	120	N/A
20b	"Hologram Hijinks"	William Gordon	Ben Joseph	TBA	5 November 2020 (2020-11-05)	120	N/A

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.^[2] 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.^[1]

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] The show will also air on Family Jr. in Canada.

References

1. Powerbirds | BRAND NEW SERIES, retrieved 7 January 2020
2. "Universal Kids' 'Powerbirds' Leave the Nest Jan. 19". Animation Magazine. 11 December 2019.
3. "Powerbirds scored by Sanj Sen takes flight in the US".
4. "Powerbirds | TV Guide". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
5. Milligan, Mercedes (22 June 2017). "Sprout Adds 2 New Toons, Jason Alexander Joins 'Kody Kapow'". Animation Magazine. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
6. "Powerbirds | NBCUniversal Together". together.nbcuni.com. 6 August 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
7. Boren, Jade (17 January 2020). "'Powerbirds' Preview: Ace & Polly Rush To Save The Day After Asher Stasher Steals The Town's Trophies". Hollywood Life. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
8. Kidscreen. "Universal Kids expands original Sprout programming". Retrieved 7 January 2020.
9. "Universal Kids". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 22 January 2020.