Super Why! (found stop-motion Nick Jr. pilot of PBS Kids CGI animated series; 1999): Difference between revisions

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''Super Why!'' is an  computer animated television show from 2007 to 2016 about a kid who lives in storybrook village. When him or his friends have an issue, they can jump into storybooks to collect "Super Letters" which they use to solve problems. The show was originally meant to be a puppet show but was later changed to a stop-motion show, and then after lots of development hell became the 2007 PBS show we all know today. When the show was still meant to be stop-motion, '''a pilot was produced to pitch to Nick Jr. The show's pilot was in production by ''Blue's Clues'' creator Angela Santomero and Cuppa Coffee Studios in Toronto, Canada between early-mid 1999'''. According to the pilots director, the pilot was greenlit by Nick Jr but later was cancelled in favor of another Nick Jr show "Oswald". The pilot was unreleased, created with a working title, ''Superwhy?''.<ref>[http://kidscreen.com/1999/07/01/25954-19990701/ Kidscreen article on the ''Super Why!'' pilot.] Retrieved 22 Mar '14</ref> No footage of the pilot has surfaced anywhere, however.
''Super Why!'' is an  computer animated television show from 2007 to 2016 about a kid who lives in storybrook village. When him or his friends have an issue, they can jump into storybooks to collect "Super Letters" which they use to solve problems. Super Why originally started life as Angela Santomero's masters thesis, which is said to predate Blue's Clues, before being developed into a TV show <ref> https://youtu.be/nLDAPrXtNfE?t=173 </ref>. The show was initially meant to be a puppet show, but it was later decided to produce it as a stop-motion show, and then after lots of development hell was released in 2007 on PBS as the CGI show known today. After it was decided to produce the show in stop-motion, '''a pilot was produced to pitch to Nick Jr. The show's pilot was in production by ''Blue's Clues'' creator Angela Santomero and Cuppa Coffee Studios in Toronto, Canada between early-mid 1999'''. According to the pilots director, the pilot was greenlit by Nick Jr but later was cancelled in favor of another Nick Jr show "Oswald". The pilot was unreleased, created with a working title, ''Superwhy?''.<ref>[http://kidscreen.com/1999/07/01/25954-19990701/ Kidscreen article on the ''Super Why!'' pilot.] Retrieved 22 Mar '14</ref> No footage of the pilot has surfaced anywhere, however.


On February 19th, 2021, the unused theme song for the pilot was found by Stephen Laurent and Scramble Fan 2021. However, the audio is higher-pitched, and the beginning and end of the music are cut off, the used theme song was completely different. A high-quality version of the unused theme song can be found on Nick Balaban's website, the composer of the unused theme song. The used theme song was made by artist Daniel Leblanc who uploaded an altered version of the instrumentals to pond5 after realizing the show runners didn’t care about the pilot anymore.
On February 19th, 2021, the unused theme song for the pilot was found by Stephen Laurent and Scramble Fan 2021. However, the audio is higher-pitched, and the beginning and end of the music are cut off, the used theme song was completely different. A high-quality version of the unused theme song can be found on Nick Balaban's website, the composer of the unused theme song. The used theme song was made by artist Daniel Leblanc who uploaded an altered version of the instrumentals to pond5 after realizing the show runners didn’t care about the pilot anymore.

Revision as of 23:26, 22 May 2022

Super Why Pilot Logo.png

The pilot's logo found by OS2GameDeveloper on Scratch on a Wikimedia Commons upload from 2004.

Status: Partially Found

Super Why! is an computer animated television show from 2007 to 2016 about a kid who lives in storybrook village. When him or his friends have an issue, they can jump into storybooks to collect "Super Letters" which they use to solve problems. Super Why originally started life as Angela Santomero's masters thesis, which is said to predate Blue's Clues, before being developed into a TV show [1]. The show was initially meant to be a puppet show, but it was later decided to produce it as a stop-motion show, and then after lots of development hell was released in 2007 on PBS as the CGI show known today. After it was decided to produce the show in stop-motion, a pilot was produced to pitch to Nick Jr. The show's pilot was in production by Blue's Clues creator Angela Santomero and Cuppa Coffee Studios in Toronto, Canada between early-mid 1999. According to the pilots director, the pilot was greenlit by Nick Jr but later was cancelled in favor of another Nick Jr show "Oswald". The pilot was unreleased, created with a working title, Superwhy?.[2] No footage of the pilot has surfaced anywhere, however.

On February 19th, 2021, the unused theme song for the pilot was found by Stephen Laurent and Scramble Fan 2021. However, the audio is higher-pitched, and the beginning and end of the music are cut off, the used theme song was completely different. A high-quality version of the unused theme song can be found on Nick Balaban's website, the composer of the unused theme song. The used theme song was made by artist Daniel Leblanc who uploaded an altered version of the instrumentals to pond5 after realizing the show runners didn’t care about the pilot anymore.

Footage of the pilot was once available on Cuppa Coffee animations old website with 2 clips entitled "Opening Shot" and "Willa blows". Curiously, these clips are from an earlier version of the pilot that use an altered version of the unused theme song as well as different BGM entirely. Unfortunately these files were never archived and are likely lost for good.

On May 2021 a listing for the pilot was found at a library by user pdog64. It was only the audio however and on August 2nd, 2021 he uploaded the audio to YouTube.

Description

Annecy Festival 2000

"6 cm tall Superwhy lives in a children's library. When he needs answers to his questions, he jumps into the right storybook. Characters like "The Three Little Pigs" and "Red Riding Hood" answer his questions and teach him how to solve problems.[3]

Cuppa Coffee

"Who do you call when you need to know why? Superwhy, of course! This award winning pre-school pilot encourages critical thinking and reinforces reading skills in young viewers. Stop-motion and cutout animation bring this curious little tyke, his kangaroo friend and all of his favorite storybooks to life."[4]

"Eyewitness"

"The video reel was maybe about a minute long. The theme song was a chill reggae track, and a Jamaican singer said: "Wonder why, Just like Super Why!" It was very chill. The proto-Super Why character then said: "Hello! I'm hiding. Can you find me?" The rest of the video is kind of a blur after that. When the yellow-skinned girl appeared, she created some kind of wind/tornado, causing the buttons around the room to whirl around. Proto-Super Why then said something to the camera in reaction to this."

Cuppa Coffee (Variant 1)

"Who do you call when you need to know why? Superwhy of course! Cuppa recently produced this pilot episode for Nickelodeon. The show encourages kids to read, and reinforces reading skills. We used stop motion animation as well as cut-out to bring this curious little tyke to life."[5]

Cuppa Coffee (Variant 2)

"A pilot for Nick Jr, Superwhy was centred around a superhero whose ability is to question why - AND find out! Superwhy takes place in the book of the three little pigs and the animations in the book come to life. The action gets kids to look into books to find out, well...why!?!"[6]

BAMKids Film Festival

Tiny Super Why doesn't take up much space in the children's library where he lives. When he needs answers to problems, he effortlessly hops into storybooks to find solutions.[7]

ChicagoReader.com

In Adam Shaheen's Super Why? an imp interacts with illustrations from a book of The Three Little Pigs, inviting the viewer into its world.[8]

Lyrics (Unused Intro)

  • "Tell me why."
  • "Why Why (Why, Why)"
  • "Tell me Super Why."
  • "Tell me why? (Tell me why)"
  • "From his wee home in the library, Willy. (also known as Wee Willy)"
  • "Asks the burning question why?"
  • "This powerful need to know transforms him into Super Why!"
  • "Tell me why."
  • "Why Why (Why, Why)"
  • "Tell me Super Why."
  • "Tell me why? (Tell me why)"


Lyrics (Used Intro)

  • The world is full of questions
  • Everywhere I look
  • And when I need an answer
  • I look inside a book
  • Anything I wanna be
  • I'm reaching for the sky
  • I can do anything that's why
  • SUPERWHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
  • He's Superwhy!

Gallery

Images

Videos

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The full audio for the pilot.

See Also

External Links

References