''Mega Babies'' is an
animated
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...
children's television series
Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during the early evenin ...
created by the Tremblay brothers, Christian and Yvon, who previously had made the
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...
show ''
SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron''. It is produced by
CinéGroupe
CinéGroupe is a Canadian animation studio based in Montreal, Quebec. The company was founded in 1974. Its shows and films have been seen in over 125 countries.
Notable franchises from CinéGroupe include: ''What's with Andy?'', ''The Kids from R ...
and
Landmark Entertainment Group
Landmark Entertainment Group is a global entertainment design firm based in Los Angeles, California, United States, that creates theme parks, theme park attractions, live entertainment productions, and virtual reality attractions. Co-founded by G ...
in association with
Sony Wonder
Sony Wonder (founded as Sony Kids’ Music) is the kids and family entertainment label of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and the former record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment.
Despite the similarity in name, Sony Wonder is not direct ...
.
The series was broadcast on
Fox Family Channel
The American cable and satellite television network that is now known as Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through several different owners (and six different name changes) during its h ...
and
Teletoon
Teletoon (stylized as TELETOON) is a Canadian English-language specialty channel owned by Teletoon Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of Corus Entertainment. Its name is a portmanteau of "television" and " cartoon". The channel primarily broadcasts ...
. The show was also aired in UK on
Sky One's weekday mornings and later repeated on
Channel 5 on weekend mornings between 2001 and 2002.
Synopsis
The show is about a trio of mutant babies who are three characters that fight off evil monsters and aliens. Their names are Meg, Derrick and Buck and their care-giver's name is Nurse Lazlo. The show takes place in Your City, USA.
After their birth, they are brought to an orphanage. When the entire solar system aligned itself, the babies and their nurse were struck by lightning. The babies were given super strength and other powers, and Nurse Lazlo's IQ rose.
Voice actors
Buck was voiced by Sonja Ball, Dean Hagopian voiced many male characters, Laura Teasdale did Derrick's voice, Meg was voiced by
Jaclyn Linetsky
Jaclyn Michelle Linetsky (January 8, 1986 – September 8, 2003) was a Canadian actress who played Megan O'Connor on ''15/Love'' and the title character on '' Caillou'' during the show's second and third seasons, replacing the character's origina ...
, and
Bronwen Mantel
Bronwen Mantel (born 29 October 1948) is a Canadian actress. Mantel has appeared in numerous movies and has done extensive voice acting in animated films and television series.
Early life and career
Mantel was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ...
voiced Nurse Lazlo.
Even though the voice acting was done in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
, the voice directing was done by
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
based veteran voice actor and voice director
Terry Klassen
Terry Klassen is a Canadian voice actor, ADR director and writer. Before animation, Klassen worked in radio in Winnipeg (CITI-FM), Toronto (Q107), Calgary (CFAC), Portage la Prairie (CFRY) and part-time at CFOX and CFMI. In animation, he is best ...
who has done voiceovers for many animated television series and films such as voicing Krillin in the
Ocean
The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wo ...
dubbed version of ''
Dragon Ball Z''. Klassen has also voice directed other works such as ''
Ed, Edd n Eddy
'' Ed, Edd n Eddy'' is a Canadian animated comedy television series created by Danny Antonucci for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. The series revolves around three friends named Ed, Edd (called "Double D" ...
'', ''
Johnny Test
''Johnny Test'' is an animated television series created by Scott Fellows, originally produced in the United States by Warner Bros. Animation and later produced in Canada by Cookie Jar Entertainment. It premiered on Kids' WB on September 17 ...
'', ''
Cardcaptors
, abbreviated as ''CCS'', is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by the manga group Clamp. Serialized monthly in the ''shōjo'' manga magazine ''Nakayoshi'' from May 1996 to June 2000, it was also published in 12 ''tankōbon'' ...
'', several ''
Barbie
Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by American toy company Mattel, Inc. and launched on March 9, 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration. ...
'' films, and more recently, ''
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic''. This was the only time that Klassen has ever voice directed an animated project outside of Vancouver. During the later episodes,
Terrence Scammell, who also voiced several characters in the series, as well as providing the main title narration, took over as voice director. Scammell has also done many voice acting roles for film, television and video games in both Montreal and
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
, Ontario.
Production
The show was announced in January 1999 as a co-production between
CinéGroupe
CinéGroupe is a Canadian animation studio based in Montreal, Quebec. The company was founded in 1974. Its shows and films have been seen in over 125 countries.
Notable franchises from CinéGroupe include: ''What's with Andy?'', ''The Kids from R ...
and
Sony Wonder
Sony Wonder (founded as Sony Kids’ Music) is the kids and family entertainment label of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and the former record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment.
Despite the similarity in name, Sony Wonder is not direct ...
set to premier on the
Fox Family Channel
The American cable and satellite television network that is now known as Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through several different owners (and six different name changes) during its h ...
in fall of that year. The show was created by Christian and Yvon Tremblay and
Landmark Entertainment Group
Landmark Entertainment Group is a global entertainment design firm based in Los Angeles, California, United States, that creates theme parks, theme park attractions, live entertainment productions, and virtual reality attractions. Co-founded by G ...
budgeted between $5.9 million (C$9 million) and $6.6 million for 52 10-minute episodes which were pre-produced in Montreal and animated in Asia then bundled into 26 half-hour daily shows.
Episodes
Season 1 (1999)
Season 2 (2000)
Video game
Entitled with the same name, this video game based on the show was developed and published by
Global Star Software
Global Star Software was a Canadian video game publisher based in Mississauga. It was founded in 1995 by Craig McGauley and Damian Cristiani and operated alongside their Triad Distributors, which had been founded in 1993. Both companies were acqu ...
in 2000, exclusively for
PC.
Reception
''Mega Babies'' was not well received by critics and audiences, and was criticised for its excessive crude and
gross-out humor
Gross out is described as a movement in art (often with comical conotations), which is intended to shock the viewer(s) and disgust the wider audience by presenting them with controversial material (such as toilet humor and fetishes) that might be ...
, especially for a children’s series .
WatchMojo
WatchMojo is a private company in video producing, publishing and syndicator that is based in Canada. The company has created around 20,000 videos on YouTube, and 5,000 additional videos from other platforms. It primarily is known for their ...
ranked the series #4 in a "Top 10 Most Embarrassing ‘90s Cartoons" list.
IMDb
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
's user score for the series, as of November 2022, is 2.6 out of 10.
References
External links
*
{{Teletoon
1990s American animated television series
2000s American animated television series
1999 American television series debuts
2000 American television series endings
1990s Canadian animated television series
2000s Canadian animated television series
1999 Canadian television series debuts
2000 Canadian television series endings
American children's animated action television series
American children's animated adventure television series
American children's animated comedy television series
American children's animated comic science fiction television series
Canadian children's animated action television series
Canadian children's animated adventure television series
Canadian children's animated comedy television series
Canadian children's animated comic science fiction television series
Television shows filmed in Montreal
Fox Family Channel original programming
Teletoon original programming
Television series by Sony Pictures Television
Television shows set in the United States
Animated television series about children