''Blippi'' is an American educational

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel/video live-action program for toddlers and children up to the age of about five years old.

History

The show was created and the character originally played by

Stevin John Stevin W. John (born May 27, 1988), better known by his alias Blippi, is an American children's entertainer and educator on YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video. The Blippi character that John portrays has a childlike, energetic ...

, who posted the first episode of the show on YouTube on February 18, 2014. Aiming to keep Blippi going, John joined the

multi-channel network A multi-channel network (MCN) is an organization that works with video platforms to offer assistance to a channel owner in areas such as "product, programming, funding, cross-promotion, partner management, digital rights management, monetizati ...

Moonbug Entertainment Moonbug Entertainment (also known as just Moonbug, stylised as all-lowercase moonbug) is a British children's media company and multi-channel network headquartered in London, with an overseas office in Los Angeles, United States which creates ...

in 2020, which funds the series and other children's programs. It is dubbed in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

, French,

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

and

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

. Until May 2021, the Blippi character was only portrayed by

. On May 8, Clayton Grimm, who played Blippi in live performances, performed as Blippi for the first time on the channel and would host as an alternative Blippi with John. On October 9, 2021, Moonbug announced the addition of a new character named Meekah (played by Kaitlin Becker). The spin-off series ''Blippi's Treehouse'' started airing on December 1, 2021, on Amazon Kids+, with two more characters, Scratch and Patch (both are puppets).

Development

The eponymous YouTube series features Blippi, an adult with a childlike curiosity and energetic persona, who wears a blue and orange beanie cap, blue shirt, orange suspenders, and an orange bow tie.

Distribution

In October 2020 Moonbug Entertainment partnered with

Virgin Media Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, Cable television, television and Internet access, internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Engla ...

to bring Blippi and other Moonbug programs to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. The show expanded to

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

in March 2021 when Moonbug partnered with POPS Worldwide to bring children's content to the POPS Kids app. Netflix acquired the streaming license to Blippi in January 2022.

Licensing and merchandise

In 2019 Blippi signed a master toy deal with Jazwares LLC to sell a variety of merchandise such as toy vehicles, plush and educational toys based on the Blippi show, beginning in spring 2020. In early 2020 Jazwares created "My Buddy Blippi," a plush toy that can recreate 15 of the character's sounds and phrases. In January 2021 Blippi launched an educational toy line. In addition to toys, books and more, Blippi merchandise also includes clothing.

''Blippi The Musical''

''Blippi The Musical'' is a live show produced by Round Room Live in partnership with Moonbug Entertainment, and was scheduled to tour North America in summer 2021. In previous tours of Blippi there had been some outcry as a result of the performances not being performed by Stevin John but by another actor. Originally scheduled in 2020, live performances were postponed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

''Blippi Wonders''

''Blippi Wonders'' is a

computer-animated Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes ( still images) and dynamic images (moving images), while computer animation refe ...

children's web series based on

's ''Blippi''. The series is about Blippi, along with either TABBS (an orange cat) or D.BO (a blue dog) on a blue car called the Blippi Mobile. The Blippi Mobile can change into many elements, such as

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expres ...

s and shrinking down. The series is produced by London-based

, Italy-based Rainbow S.p.A.

Reception

Nathan J. Robinson of '' Current Affairs'' criticized Blippi's programming, calling it "dead and sterile" and lacking intellectual curiosity that children can understand. Common Sense Media, however, says Blippi’s programs incorporate simple preschool skills like color recognition and counting. It teaches preschoolers to engage in their surroundings and explore their curiosity.

References

23. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/blippi

External links

* {{Moonbug Entertainment American preschool education television series Moonbug Entertainment YouTube channels launched in 2014 YouTube original programming