Team Umizoomi


Team Umizoomi is an American live-action animated musical preschool children's television series created by Soo Kim, Michael T. Smith, and Jennifer Twomey, and developed by Teri Weiss. Twomey and Kim additionally serve as executive producers, and Kim also serves as a producer with Smith and Marcy Pritchard. The series places an emphasis on mathematical concepts, such as counting, sequences, shapes, patterns, measurements, and equalities. Team Umizoomi debuted on January 25, 2010 on Nickelodeon, with "The Kite Festival" and "The Aquarium Fix-It", and ended on April 24, 2015, with "Umi Rescue Copter". Four seasons with a total of 77 episodes were made.

Premise and format

The series follows the adventures of the titular Team Umizoomi, a trio of tiny superheroes who use mathematics to solve whatever problems occur in and around their home of UmiCity in every episode.
Similar to another Curious Pictures production, Little Einsteins, the show combines live-action with animation, featuring innovative and creative combinations of 2D animation, 3D computer animation, Adobe Flash Professional, Adobe After Effects and other software. It utilizes a combination of live actors and props with animated characters, vehicles and environments.
The animation style takes visual cues from Korean culture, as stated by co-creator Soo Kim, who imbued the show with her Korean heritage.

Characters

Main

  • Milli is a 6-year-old girl. She has abilities related to patterns and measuring. By singing certain phrases, she can use patterns to solve problems. She is often the one to lead the team in many of their missions. In addition to being able to change the pattern of her dress, Milli can also alter the appearance of another object or person to match whatever pattern she is projecting on it, and her ponytails can extend to serve as measuring tools, such as a ruler, a weighing scale, and a thermometer. Later seasons would make Milli extra proficient at martial arts, primarily when it comes to jumps and karate chops, in addition to obtaining her super harness.
  • Geo is Milli's 8-year-old brother. His singing voice is provided by Brody Bett. He mainly solves problems based on shapes and can use them to make different kinds of objects, ranging from food, tools, and clothing to animals, vehicles, and buildings. For these purposes, he always has usage of his shape belt, which grants him the ability to summon any shape he needs. Later seasons would give him two more tools; the shape splitter, a longsword that can cut a shape into any form needed, and the shape magnet, a horseshoe magnet that can function as a grappling hook by attaching to any specific shape. He wears a pair of roller skates, and he rarely takes them off on dry land.
  • Bot is a green robot who can extend his limbs to reach things or use the screen on his belly to make calls and do math. He is Milli and Geo's primary caretaker, and as a robot features many retractable tools.
  • UmiCar is the car that drives the team wherever their help is needed. He primarily communicates via engine noises that sound like a cat purring through an electronic filter, though he can pronounce his name with a clear and deep voice on rare occasions. He lacks a face in the first fifteen episodes of the first series and he gains a face in three episodes of the first series.

    Recurring

  • DumpTruck is a living dump truck who doesn't speak real words and doesn't play fair.
  • The Shape Bandit is a sneaky bandit cat who as his name implies, steals shapes.
  • Squiddy is a squid who creates all sorts of inventions.
  • The TroubleMakers are two mischievous foes who, with the use of their TroubleRays, stir up all sorts of trouble in Umi City and often sabotage Team Umizoomi in their tracks.
  • * TroubleTruck is the duo's transportation unit.
  • DoorMouse is a helpful friend who guards all the doors of Umi City. He also guards bridges, animals, and anything that needs guarding. Although he may sometimes get a little confused, he usually helps the Team on their missions and knows he can rely on help from them.
  • Shark Car is UmiCar's best friend. As his name implies, he is a toy car designed to look like a shark.

    Episodes

Toys and merchandising

Fisher-Price released the first official Team Umizoomi toys in early 2012 and were made until 2015. The first products available included plush dolls, bath toys, and figurines featuring characters and vehicles from the show.

Preschool math kits

The first products released included a series of math kits designed to build preschool math skills. Each of the three kits included an episode of the show on DVD, a storybook, math activity book and math mission cards.
  1. Sorting, Classification & Reasoning Pre-K Math Kit
  2. Shapes, Measurement & Positioning Pre-K Math Kit
  3. Numbers, Counting & Patterns Pre-K Math Kit

    Books

Little Golden Books

  1. Find the Dinosaurs!
  2. Purple Monkey Rescue!

    Step Into Reading books

  3. Outer-Space Chase
  4. Top Cops
  5. Dog Days
  6. Super Soap
  7. Farm Alarm!

    Pictureback books

  8. UmiCar's Big Race
  9. Santa's Little Helpers
  10. Legend of the Blue Mermaid
  11. Save the Kitten!/Buster's Big Day
  12. Happy Love Day!
  13. Team Power!

    Board books

  14. Follow that Egg!
  15. Count with Us!
  16. First Look and Find

    Coloring and activity books

  17. Kite Riders! Coloring Book
  18. Painting Power! Painting Activity Book
  19. The Big Boat Race! Holographic Sticker Book
  20. Mighty Adventures Coloring Book with stickers
  21. Join the Team! Big Coloring Book
  22. Christmas Countdown Painting Activity Book
  23. Zoom to the Rescue! Painting Activity Book
  24. Umi Egg Hunt Activity Book with stickers
  25. Super Shapes! Activity Book with stencils

    DVD releases

is the DVD distributor for the series.

Main releases

Episodes on Nick Jr. compilation DVDs

Video games

Broadcast

Although Team Umizoomi wrapped up its run in 2015, it continues to air in reruns on the Nick Jr. Channel. The show is currently available on Paramount+.