Downward Doghouse (found precursor to "Ni Hao, Kai-Lan" Nick Jr. animated series; 2000s)

Title card from the animated series.

Status: Partially Lost

Downward Doghouse was an animated series on Nick Jr. and a predecessor to Ni Hao, Kai-Lan. It was a part of the interstitial series Nick Jr. Presents: My World.^[1] Most of the characters remained the same between series minus some design changes, with the biggest change being that Hoho originally only talked in gibberish, although Rintoo and Lulu were not present at all (an earlier version of Lulu appears in "Dragon Dance" though). Three episodes of the short series have been produced, titled "Follow That Slipper", "Where's Hoho?", and "Dragon Dance".

Availability

Promotional screenshots using the Downward Doghouse designs are available on the Internet. Some storyboards for an episode featuring Rintoo, and using the final designs from Ni Hao, Kai-Lan, but still using the "Downward Doghouse" title have also surfaced.

The Nick Jr. website had a link to the My World section, via the Web Archive. None of the episodes work because while the page source does contain file names, no actual video files exist in the page source. There also existed an e-card maker and even a full website, which included a game titled "Kai-Lan's First Lantern Festival".

A British dub was also available on the British Nick Jr. channel. The UK dubs of "Follow That Slipper" and "Dragon Dance" have surfaced, the former being sourced from a camrip in which the episode has been fast-forwarded through, currently leaving the audio for that dub lost.

On August 15, 2023, the US dub for "Follow That Slipper" was found by Vance's Media Treasures on a VHS tape dated September 7, 2005 with the short shortly being uploaded to YouTube by encodestvdotcom.

Gallery

Screenshots

A still from the website featuring Kai-Lan in her Downward Doghouse appearance.
Another still featuring Kai-Lan, Tolee and Hoho, taken from an e-card maker (see below).
A still from the ending of the "Kai-Lan's First Lantern Festival" game.
A screenshot from the episode "Follow That Slipper", from an archived version of the Nick Jr. website.
A screenshot from the episode "Dragon Dance", from an archived version of the Nick Jr. website.
A screenshot from the episode "Where's Hoho?", from an archived version of the Nick Jr. website.
A screenshot from the episode "Follow That Slipper".
A screenshot from the episode "Dragon Dance".
A screenshot from the episode "Where's Hoho?".

Storyboards

Page 1 of the storyboard.
Page 2 of the storyboard.
Page 4 of the storyboard.
Page 6 of the storyboard.
Page 7 of the storyboard.
An unknown page of the storyboard, as it is not numbered.
Note: It is possible that this was either for another project or was drawn as a joke.
Page 1 of the storyboard from the third short