Dora the Explorer? Feh! Bob the Builder? Who needs him? Mickey Mouse? Old school – and old hat! You may not know it, but Israel is the birthplace of one of the cartoon world’s up and coming stars – Monkey, a fun friend who will have your kids singing, dancing and following along, using a special educational method developed by psychologists.

On TV, the Web and even on the App Store, Monkey is all about teaching preschoolers motor skills and social concepts – as opposed to certain other cartoon franchises, which often appear to be more about selling parents stuff.

“I got the idea for Smartoonz about six years ago,” says Yuval Levy, Smartoonz CEO and inventor. “Tamar, my wife, is a specialist in child education and development. I came from production and animation and owned an animation studio. We decided to work together and produce quality content for children. When I was asked by the new Baby cable TV network here in Israel for help in creating content, we sought ideas by looking at programs that were being broadcast elsewhere, but we didn’t find the kind of valuable educational content and interactivity we hoped for.”

Realizing that there was a dearth of programming for preschoolers that is both educational and entertaining, Levy began speaking to experts on translating important educational concepts into an entertaining format that would hold the interest of preschoolers.

The result was Monkey See, Monkey Do, an animated series about the adventures of its aforementioned star. A typical episode shows Monkey getting into all sorts of adventures in his jungle, where he gets help from his youthful (human) companions, who are integrated into the cartoon courtesy of advance CGI technology on HD format. Stories take place in one of five venues – Jungle, Farm, Pond, Savannah or the Arctic – and each episode includes at least three songs, since kids learn better when they are engaged with song, Levy says.

Levy is a well-known animator, who produced programs and movies for his Zeppelin Animations, and network executives contacted him for help on developing content for the new Baby channel.
“We worked with specialists on every step, from conceptualization to post-production. we applied their expertise to every detail, from the character design to the dialogue and story lines,” Levy says, and the network liked what it saw and ordered several programs.

“In 2006 we visited Mipcom, presented our new six pilots and received great feedback from major broadcasters and distributors in the market: Disney, Warner, Nick, CN, HIT Entertainment and more. This made us think that we should go ahead and produce some of the shows, and the first of them was Monkey See, Monkey Do. It took us about a year to produce the first season of Monkey, with a limited budget and a lot a passion.”

Now, Monkey is broadcast to kids around the world, including in France (France 5), Canada ( TVA, TVO and Knowledge), Eastern Europe (Minimax), Latin America (Disney Latam), the Far East (PBS Thailand) and the US (PBS Kids Sprout).

To spread the word, Levy also set up a YouTube channel for all of Smartoonz pilots, with more than 21 million viewers so far. In the US, meanwhile, the Monkey series is rated among the top 15 programs on PBS Kids Sprout. And now, Smartoonz is setting up its own Internet media site, a partnership with Navigaya’s Smartoonz.tv to get a head start on the new Internet TV revolution, which is where TV will eventually migrate, says Levy.
The series finally comes here this week, premiering on the Hop! channel on April 10, and Levy has begun work on the series’ second season.

BESIDES TV and the Internet, Smartoonz is bringing its message of quality preschool content to the new media devices. This year, Levy released an interactive iPhone/iPod touch app featuring Monkey and all his friends. Developed by top app design house Snappsi, the new app offers fun 3D animation, which is triggered when interacting with Monkey. Users can poke Monkey, tickle him until he asks them to stop, offer him bananas, rock him in his hammock until he falls, tease him with a fly, etc. Talking to Parrot, one of the characters in the series, will make him repeat everything the user says when speaking to the device, to wake up Monkey.

Kids can even use the iPhone/iPod camera and take a photo of themselves and integrate it into a postcard, as if they took a real photo with the characters and share it on Facebook or save it to their device’s photo album. And they can also watch clips from the show. The basic app (featuring Monkey’s Savannah adventures) is free, while the full app, with six different scenarios and upgraded interactivity, costs 99 cents.
“I’m thrilled with this opportunity to take Monkey out of the screen and make him more accessible for the entire family,” Levy says. “This move is consistent with Smartoonz’s strategy to develop its content for both old and new media.”

So what’s the appeal of Monkey? “It’s not just passive viewing, it’s an activity,” Levy says. “Energetic preschoolers are able to practice their motor skills, learn new words and definitions, and identify with the live-action kids they’re watching on-screen.”

And Levy is just getting started; several months ago, he attended a meeting with the leading decision makers of major media companies in Los Angeles (the ones we think of when we think “Hollywood”) as a part of Yossi Vardi’s New Media Delegation to share his achievements and in search of a strategic partner. They all expressed great interest in working with Levy on future projects. Meanwhile, kids around the world are having a rollicking time, singing and dancing along with Monkey – courtesy of Israel’s Smartoonz.

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Smartoonz has just released its first entertaining interactive 3D application, for Apple iPhone® and iPod touch®. The application is based on the successful Series “Monkey See Monkey Do”.

“Monkey See Monkey Do – Savanna” is an easy to use interactive fun App for the whole family. Monkey loves interacting with his fans, and with six entertaining screens he can do exactly that! Users can play with him, tease him and even take a picture with him.

The new app, developed by Snappsi and powered by iCore264, offers fun 3D animation, which is triggered when interacting with Monkey: Users can poke Monkey, tickle him until he asks them to stop, offer him bananas, rock him in his Hammock until he falls, tease him with a fly etc. Talking to Parrot will make him repeat everything user say in order to wake up Monkey… they can also create their own picture with Monkey or his Friends, send it by email, share it on Facebook and save it to Library. Last but not least, users can watch fun clips from the TV show.

Read the full Press Release

Go to the App homepage

Please visit our Youtube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/smartoonz

He seemed shorter than on screen, but something about his cheerful attribute was familiar.  He gave me his famous smile and shook my hand with the naïve enthusiasm of a rising star.

Monkey, how does it feel to be a star?
It’s a little hard to digest. The success came overnight. One day I was hanging out with my buddies, just playing around, imitating each other, you know, having fun. And the next day I can’t go out to buy bananas. It’s wild.

Tell us how it all began.
Look, I never told this to anyone, but this is all a result of distress.  I have zero memory for faces or bodies – just dance moves. I have to dance with the animals in order to remember them at all, you see? I can’t remember if the one with the crest on the head is a rooster or a cow.  But I can tell you precisely if he is a head-bobber, a wing-flapper or a bootie-shaker.

I don’t quite understand what you mean…
Let me tell you a story.
We have this rooster in our neighborhood. By now I know he’s a rooster, but back then he used to speak to me and I had no idea who he was. So every time he came over my house I asked him to do a little dance as he cams in. Then I saw his unmistakable head-bob and his signature leg-lift and I said, “Hello, Rootser!”  It became a sort of a ritual. Nowadays, all the animals I meet dance for me, and that’s how I remember them.

What a cool idea! And how did this method spread to children around the world?
My agent, Mr. Snake, saw me getting the jungle to start dancing and quickly made some phone calls. Before I could say Banaza, the place was filled with cameras and children who joined me in identifying the animals who came to visit me.

So this is actually an ordinary day in your life, in which you teach children how you cope, like a reality show.
Look, when they first said “Reality”, I said no way! I wasn’t looking for this kind of publicity. I’m a simple monkey. But when I saw those kids use my method to identify animals, I agreed.
Anyways, since there are no doors in the jungle, the animals come in and out of my house whenever they feel like it. That’s why we didn’t even bother to hire a scriptwriter, you see? There is plenty of material for a show.

No scriptwriter? So the whole staff is made up of you and the children and several friends that drop by?
Absolutely not! We have a big production team behind the scenes.

Next thing you’ll be telling me is that it includes animals as well.
Of course! First of all it’s cheaper. We get paid with bananas and peanuts.
Secondly, we can do things that human beings can’t do.

What do you mean? Give me an example.
The giraffe, for instance, holds the boom, and I guarantee you that with a neck like hers the microphone never gets inside the frame. The skunk replaces the smoke machine.  The rooster shouts “action!”  The lion is the director, of course, and the ants carry the catering in on their backs. It all works great.

It looks like you’ve built yourselves quite an empire. How do you see yourself a few years from now?
It’s hard to say. Life can lead you in unexpected directions. The only thing I know is that I have to continue dancing.  It is in my soul you see, and when someone joins me… well, the more the merrier!

Quote:
“One day I was hanging out with my buddies… and the next day I couldn’t go out to buy bananas.”