Thursday, 20 October 2011
Mike the Knight coming soon to CBeebies
Coming soon to CBeebies is a new adventure series from the makers of Bob the Builder, HiT Entertainment.
Mike the Knight is a CGI animated series all about the adventures of a young lad who just happens to be a medieval knight, living in the mythical land of Glendragon. Mixing dragons, sorcery and plenty of knightly antics with a whole host of interesting new characters, we were fortunate enough to take a look at three episodes of the series ahead of broadcast beginning on Halloween (Monday, October 31st 2011).
The main characters in the series are:
Mike - The young man in question and a brave soul able to throw himself into any task, but often needing a little help from his friends
Evie - Mike's sister, a little girl with a touch of magic about her. Evie often helps Mike in his adventures.
Galahad - Mike's trusty horse
Fernando - The hispanic bard, always on hand to provide a tinkling tune or sage rhyme or two.
Queen Martha - Mike's mum, who offers timely advice (and a cuddle where needed!)
Sparkie and Squirt - Mike's trusty dragons, one breathes fire and the other breathes water.
The animation on the show is top notch, as you'd expect from a HiT Entertainment show. Charlotte's favourite character was Evie (naturally, good to have a girl-friendly character in a series that you'd imagine was aimed squarely at boys - but actually has a fairly universal appeal). We rather liked the various gadgets and of course the "Big Book for Little Knights" which gets Mike out of trouble on several occasions.
The only minus point was the theme tune (argh, my ears!) but you can bet by christmas you'll be hearing children up and down the land saying "Be a Knight, Do it Right!" as this looks set to become an extremely popular addition to the CBeebies programme schedule.
Keep a keen eye out for Mike the Knight and the Smiley Treasure, the first episode airing on October 31st and the other 9 episodes following on Tuesday November 1st, Thursday November 3rd and thereafter.
Now all HiT need to do is get the Mike the Knight merchandise in the shops before christmas, as a toy line based on this show would definitely end up at the top of most children's christmas lists.
Charlotte's best bit - Evie and her spellcasting and she also loves Mike's Mum, the Queen
Daddy's favourite bit - Loved the animation on the titles (cardboard cut-out style backgrounds and lots of medieval styling) but noooo not the theme song.
Find out more at http://www.miketheknightonline.com/about/
(PS - Site owners, you need to fix your broken link to the 'Characters' section)
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