Four music-loving friends tour the world in a camper van. The dream right? Well… being with your besties all the time has its highs and lows… but making music is the glue that holds them together.
Four music-loving friends tour the world in a camper van. The dream right? Well… being with your besties all the time has its highs and lows… but they have music, and making music is the glue that holds them together. Whether they are rehearsing, performing, or helping a friend, Billy and the Boingo Band’s adventures are inspired by their individual ways of listening to their world, uniquely weaving their perspectives into a magically musical celebration every time.
Episodes start either at home in Mammoth Woods or in a new place, as the band is on tour. Wherever they are, Billy & the Boingo Band meet new boingos and welcome exciting challenges. In each instance, they listen to the rhythms of the place they are in, feel the beat, interpret the vibrations, fix problems, and celebrate joy through music. Whether they are rehearsing, performing, or helping a friend, Billy and the Boingo Band’s daily adventures always inspire their music and every episode ends with a short celebration!
Directors statement
I am proud to be directing Billy & the Boingo Band, an animated TV show for preschoolers and the first of its kind, setting out to tackle issues of neuro-divergence. Our main characters are different from neurotypical characters, as they may have physical, mental, or emotional shortcomings. We want to provide a new point of view, by stepping into their shoes. With lots of fun adventures of travel and music, audiences learn to find problems for solutions and overcome challenges.
The style of the series is based on the art of award-winning children’s book illustrator Tim Budgen. Tim typically uses beautiful watercolor palettes, adorable characters and relies on facial expressions to advance a story. The style of our series harks back to a simpler time when books ruled. It commands the same kind of simplicity in its message, its animation, and environments, which use a lot of white to provide the calmness we seek. While the movement of the characters will use fluid 2D animation, the backgrounds, and surroundings will always project quiet. We will use simple camera movements and transitions. It is through silence and quiet that we learn to listen and that is one of the biggest messages of our series.
The show has been developed with Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility in mind, ensuring we respect these elements throughout this production. We hire cast and crew with neurodiversity in mind, to ensure the show is rich in content, and true to lived experiences of these diverse characters.
SHABNAM REZAEI founded Big Bad Boo Studios to produce and distribute quality family programming. Shabnam has produced and directed Hulu Original Series The Bravest Knight, winner of 2020 GLAAD Award, with a second season currently in production. She has also created and directed original shows such as 16 Hudson (Amazon Prime/TVOKids), climate change series Galapagos X (TVOKids, Knowledge Kids, Radio-Canada, Mediacorp), mini-series Lili & Lola (Oznoz/ICI TV), and musical series ABC with Kenny G (TVOKids, Radio-Canada).
Shabnam started her career producing series Mixed Nutz, and her first creation was 1001 Nights, currently airing in 80 countries on Disney, Teletoon, Discovery Kids, Gloob Brazil, RTBF Belgium, and MTV3 Finland. Based in Vancouver and New York, the company’s own streaming channel Oznoz provides cartoons in 10+ languages including Thomas and Friends, Bob the Builder, Babar and more.
With a BS in Computer Science, a BA in German Literature from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from New York University, Shabnam spent 10 years in financial software industry in New York and London at Fortune 500's such as Deloitte & Touche and Misys. She has been featured on CBC, CNN, Forbes, BBC, FOX, the New York Times and NPR. She was born in Iran and grew up in Austria. She speaks English, German, Persian, French, and Spanish and is raising her two daughters trilingual.
Based in Vienna and Vancouver, Big Bad Boo Studios is an award-winning, creative-led animation and production studio, originating, developing, producing and distributing compelling kids content.
Shows include Galapagox X, Judge Jodhi, The Bravest Knight, 16 Hudson, Lili & Lola, Mixed Nutz, and 1001 Nights, which was nominated for 14 LEO awards with 5 wins. Our shows, books and games are entertaining, educational, and multicultural. Our programs air in over 120 countries and 15 languages. The company’s own streaming channel, Oznoz, provides cartoons in 10+ languages including classics such as Thomas and Friends, Bob the Builder, Babar and more.
We pride ourselves on our commitment to gender equity and support a strong Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) mantra. We focus our efforts to use media to raise globally minded children. Our offices also have a green production and sustainability directive, named GREENCAP, which ensures our pipelines are efficient, environmentally conscious, and mindful.
Our goals are to find a European broadcaster to partner with us along with TVOKids Canada. We are also open to another coproduction partner and additional territories in the European region. We hope to solicit feedback and finalize our finance plan for the next year.