NCircle Ent. has signed on as home video distributor of the The Jim Henson Co.’s new animated preschool series Sid the Science Kid. Henson is currently in production on 40 half-hour episodes of the science-readiness show, which is scheduled to debut during the PBS KIDS preschool block on Sep. 1. NCircle will exclusively handle all home video and digital formats in the U.S. and Canada.
Sid the Science Kid (formerly known as What’s the Big Idea?) has a sketch-comedy format and features Sid, an inquisitive youngster who tackles the everyday ideas that preschoolers find fascinating. Kids will learn why bananas go bad, why their shoes seem to shrink, how a bird is able to fly without a plane and other facts. The production employs the Henson Digital Puppetry Studio, a proprietary technology that allows the company’s performers to puppeteer and voice digitally animated characters in real time.
The series is produced through a partnership between The Jim Henson Co. and Los Angeles PBS affiliate KCET, and will premiere on the PBS national feed this fall with a two-year on-air commitment. Sid is the latest entry in a string of popular Henson preschool properties that inclues Fraggle Rock, Bear in the Big Blue House and Muppet Babies.
Brian Henson, Lisa Henson and Halle Stanford of The Jim Henson Co., along with Bradley Zweig, serve as exec producers. Joyce Campbell is exec producer for KCET, and Mary Mazur is the exec in charge of production for KCET. For more information on this and other Henson productions, go to www.henson.com.
