Introducing: "It's ALL (owl) Good Times"
Introducing: "It's ALL (owl) Good Times"
An Animated Comic Strip / TV Show
Have you ever tried to do something nice, but it turned out badly?
Image by L.E. Wilson from RedBubble
Logline: Inspired by the news from a messenger pigeon named Davie Attenbirdie, young Aura Air Owl tries to change the world.
Who? Who? Who? — You’ll see
It’s ALL (Owl) Good Times: Grab your binoculars and observe some funny fowls frolicking in the whimsical woodland town of Hoo Hills, where three young owl siblings are led into mischievous adventures by a messenger pigeon named Davie Attenbirdie! The local elementary school also houses the headquarters of an engineering company, Mechanical Laboratory Things (MeLT), which is led by five bickering bird engineers who are alumni of Wing Soar Elementary School.
The Main Characters: Three young owl siblings and a “television”
Davie Attenbirdie—a messenger pigeon with a “press” pass—is a David Attenborough-like character who drops by to deliver the day’s news by perching on a large window, the “television,” in the owlet’s home.
Who is Davie Attenbirdie ?
Davie Attenbirdie is the voice of the world, delivering information to the denizens of “Hoo Hills.” When Davie Attenbirdie is not dropping by to read off the daily news, the owlets enjoy looking out the same window at the shapes of the clouds, waving to neighbors that fly by, and seeing for themselves what’s going on down in the valley.
Davie Attenbirdie also occasionally steps in to narrate short factoids over a freeze frame of a bird character when it first appears in a scene. The bite-sized educational tidbits about individual bird species can easily be gathered from sources like The Cornell Lab of Ornithology or the National Audubon Society. For example, when the owlet’s neighbor, a wild turkey, is first seen in an episode, Davie Attenbirdie steps into the frame like a news reporter with the following narration: “Turkeys use their strong, large feet to scratch the ground in search of food like nuts and berries.” In another episode featuring this neighbor or different turkey, a new factoid is revealed.
Aura Air Owl: An innocent, gentle, naive girl who wants to be helpful, kind, and generous—but all her good intentions backfire and lead to unexpected problems. Her catchphrase is, “Hey, I think I did that!” when noticing the events she put into motion while trying to be helpful.
Who is Aura Air Owl ?
Aura Air Owl is our sweet, earnest, and well-meaning hero who wants to change the world for the better! She is the eldest of the owl siblings, who all reside in a simple log cabin outfitted with items typically found in a home, including a living room with a colorful round rug and a large window that they look out of while sitting on the floor. The owlets live with their parents, who are unseen except for their legs, in a town known as “Hoo Hills.”
Aura Air Owl absurdly commits 100% to any idea she gets from the “television” news, often resulting in unfortunate and unforeseen outcomes. She remains undaunted, however, and is ready to be inspired and try something new the next day. She just wants to make others happy, but her overzealous nature and misunderstandings constantly bring about the opposite response in those she interacts with—except for her siblings, because they understand her. However, all is not lost, since there is always a happy resolution in the end. Aura Air Owl cannot help the original character she intended to help, but she incidentally helps another.
What does Aura Air Owl want ?
She wants everyone around her to be happy, to smile, to feel joy—just like she does. She believes that if she can be helpful to others that it will make them feel glad so that they will want to play games and have fun with her. But she is unable to get the cheerful, friendly reaction she wants from those she tries to help. In fact, they usually get mad. She doesn’t have a wide range of emotions. When her attempts fail, she is simply surprised and tilts her head as she tries to understand what just happened in an intellectual rather than an emotional way, like an observer.
Golden Glen Owl: Comic relief. Always there to offer a joke or funny take when the actions that Aura Air Owl takes backfire.
Who is Golden Glen Owl ?
Golden Glen Owl is the younger sibling of Aura Air Owl and the middle child. He is a jokester, and like Aura Air Owl, lives in a bubble of contentment.
What does Golden Glen Owl want ?
Unlike Aura Air Owl, he is not driven to help others, rather he just wants to crack jokes and make himself laugh [insert visual gags here]. He also likes to eat snacks, especially sweets.
Thatch Timber Owl: Emotional support. Always there to offer a comforting message when the actions that Aura Air Owl takes backfire.
Who is Thatch Timber Owl ?
Thatch Timber Owl is the baby. Like the other siblings, Thatch Timber Owl is serene and observes the world as an interesting curiosity rather than an emotional rollercoaster. Thatch Timber Owl is also a sage, who offers advice, support, and encouragement to Aura Air Owl.
What does Thatch Timber Owl want ?
Thatch Timber Owl is a baby who spends a good amount of time sleeping, and just wants to be physically comfortable and at peace.
The World:
Hoo Hills
“Hoo Hills” is the whimsical woodland town where the owlets live. It’s a suburban community populated by all kinds of bird species. “Hoo Hills” is bounded on one side by “Feather Peak Forest” and on the other side by “Flock Beach.” It is in many ways a typical, ordinary town where residents have access to jobs, stores, recreation, and education.
Wing Soar Elementary School
“Wing Soar Elementary School” is the owlet’s school where Ms. Regal, a bald eagle, is the science teacher, and Mr. Bogart, a satin bowerbird, is the art teacher. It has an interior courtyard where the owlets have their lunches under a beautiful tree.Mechanical Laboratory Things (MeLT)
“Mechanical Laboratory Things” is an engineering company specializing in educational robotics founded by five alumni of Wing Soar Elementary School. The five engineers are: a parrot, a mockingbird, a woodpecker, a magpie, and a hawk. They also like blowing things up, and were influenced by the success of ACME corporation.
Mechanical Laboratory Things (MeLT)
Sample Episodes:
EXAMPLE 1 — Cold Turkey:
Aura Air Owl and her siblings are watching Davie Attenbirdie “television,” which is a window where a messenger pigeon comes to read off the day’s news. A snippet of Davie Attenbirdie reading the news is heard, “Some senior birds have difficulty picking up objects off the ground.” Aura Air Owl announces that she will go help their elderly neighbor, Chirpy Turkey, right away. She goes outside, sees that there is a newspaper on the neighbor’s front lawn, picks it up and takes it to the neighbor’s front door. The neighbor, a wild turkey, suddenly flings the door open and angrily screeches, “What are you doing? You got my paper all wet! Get away! Mind your own business!”
Back home Thatch Timber Owl tells her, “Don’t mind him. There’s never any GOOD news in that paper. That’s why he’s always mad,” while Golden Glen Owl says, “If you want to pick things off the ground, pick me up so I can reach the cookie jar! Chip, Chip, hooray! (hip, hip, hooray!) Chocolate chip, of course, for one and all!”
Happy resolution: The art teacher Mr. Bogart, a satin bowerbird, walks by and gives Chirpy Turkey his dry newspaper in exchange for letting him do a paper mache statue on the front lawn with the newspaper that got wet. Also, later that day at school, Aura Air Owl’s science teacher, Ms. Regal, a bald eagle, drops a pencil, which Aura Air Owl picks up and hands over. The teacher is very happy and grateful, which makes Aura Air Owl break into a big wide smile and flutter her wings.
It CAN be helpful to others to pick up objects off the ground!
EXAMPLE 2 — Eagle Advice:
Aura Air Owl and her siblings are watching Davie Attenbirdie “television,” which is a window where a messenger pigeon comes to read off the day’s news. A snippet of Davie Attenbirdie reading the news is heard, “The teacher appreciates it when students assist in the classroom.” Aura Air Owl announces that she will be sure to help her teacher the very next day. She goes to school early and sees a stack of papers on the teacher’s desk, so she decides to distribute them to the students coming in thinking they are for a new class activity. The teacher, a bald eagle, enters the classroom and angrily shrieks, “Why do you kids have the quiz for my afternoon class in your hands? Now all the papers are out of order and wrinkled! It will take hours to organize them again!”
Back home Thatch Timber Owl tells her, “Well, the students who didn’t have to take a quiz today are very happy!” while Golden Glen Owl says, “Don’t quiz (kiss) and tell, I always say! How about some fizz for the whiz at quiz (this) point in time? Orange sodey-pop? …It’s hit and quiz (miss) around here.”
Happy resolution: Aura Air Owl overhears the art teacher, Mr. Bogart, who is a satin bowerbird, say that he needs some shiny objects for his classroom supplies. Aura Air Owl remembers seeing some shiny shells by the beach, Flock Beach, and fetches some for the art teacher. The satin bowerbird is very happy and grateful when he sees the shells, which makes Aura Air Owl break into a big wide smile and flutter her wings.
Students CAN be helpful to teachers!
EXAMPLE 3 — Bowerbird’s Eye View:
Aura Air Owl and her siblings are watching Davie Attenbirdie “television,” which is a window where a messenger pigeon comes to read off the day’s news. A snippet of Davie Attenbirdie reading the news is heard, “Taking care of the environment is important.” Aura Air Owl declares that she will go find how she can help the environment. She walks down the street and notices a glass bottle on the ground that she believes is litter. She picks it up and starts heading home with the intention of recycling it when a satin bowerbird angrily howls, “Thief! Thief! That’s my shiny object! You’ve destroyed my artwork! I had it angled just so to reflect the sunlight! Give it back!”
Back home Thatch Timber Owl tells her, “It’s not litter if you think it’s beautiful,” while Golden Glen Owl says, “It’s never too light (late) to learn something new! Better light (late) than never!”
Happy resolution: Aura Air Owl’s notices water puddles forming on the lawn of her neighbor, a wild turkey. Aura Air Owl sees that the neighbor’s water hose is leaking and turns it off. The neighbor is very happy and grateful, which makes Aura Air Owl break into a big wide smile and flutter her wings.
Kids CAN help others take care of the environment!
Why ?
Have you ever tried to do something nice, but it turned out badly?
Kids—and some adults—may relate to the experience of trying to implement an idea or suggestion only to have Murphy’s Law interfere such that anything that could possibly go wrong does.
How should one deal with this type of setback and failure?
It’s ALL Good Times takes the approach that it’s ok to fail if you learn from the experience and are able to stay positive. The theme is perseverance.
Aura Air Owl, in particular, is like the child who wants to make breakfast in bed for her parents, but burns the skillet in the process, filling the house with smoke and setting off the smoke detector, thus upsetting her parents. But when they fling the skillet out the window and the owlets go look at it out of curiosity, their artistic neighbor—and the art teacher at their school—is happy to receive the scorched skillet, which he can put to good use. In the world of It’s ALL Good Times, good intentions may not help the intended recipients, but someone is unintentionally helped, so there is always a happy ending!
The three owl siblings are also unlike typical cartoon characters in that they are rather placid and goodnatured, thus creating a calming, relaxing, and fun atmosphere when they are together. Rather than showing the extreme emotional reactions seen in animation, negative events roll off the owlets like water off a duck’s back. They are in many ways better role models for how to handle disappointment than the overwrought reactive characters that are typical in animation.
The three owlet siblings are unfazed, and wise beyond their years. It’s the side characters who hilariously lose it when they are inconvenienced or disturbed.
More Story Ideas (edutainment):
11 minute cartoon, broken up into three “scenes,” each ~4 minutes long.
Ages, inclusive, 2 - 7+ (no songs with lyrics, only instrumental background music)
These characters are cute, but they are not simple. This is a kinder and gentler version of SpongeBob SquarePants, where the lead characters have the same optimistic, funny, happy energy of the lead character, SpongeBob, except without the gross/rude humor or the dramatic pathos that SpongeBob sometimes displays.
The visuals are attractive and calming, but this does not mean that the writing or humor is restricted to preschool. The visual style is Kawaii, which means lovable, cute, or adorable in Japanese. It is a style that extends to popular culture and is not limited to a preschool audience, e.g. Hello Kitty and Pikachu.
It’s ALL Good Times (IAGT) shares other similarities to SpongeBob SquarePants: instead of a world populated by marine animals, It’s ALL Good Times is populated by birds. Instead of Jacques Cousteau as a narrator and explorer, IAGT has famed documentarian Sir David Attenborough as a guide, and instead of the three main character providing pathos, it is the side characters that they interact with who portray the over-the-top reactions that are so funny in animation.
It’s ALL Good Times also aims to have the intelligence, humor, and whacky fun of Phineas and Ferb, particularly in the way IAGT introduces the factoids about birds, with running gags, and maintains a standard plot structure that gets repeated in each episode. Additionally, IAGT incorporates the antics of Loony Tunes, particularly in reference to to MeLT and in the exaggerated overreactions of some of the characters.
Finally, IAGT teaches viewers to care about the environment and conservation by peaking curiosity about numerous bird species and how we can all happily coexist.
A 15 page pilot script is available upon request: e-mail: lewilsonbooks@icloud.com
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