Preschool Animation
The preschool audience is usually defined as children from two to five years of age. Pro-
gramming is likely to be targeted specifically at this demographic only. Some shows like
Sesame Street skew a little younger, and some like Arthurskew a little older.Dragon Tales
had an average viewer who was four years old and a reach of ages two to seven.
It’s practically impossible to get a crossover audience of older kids. Programming
professionals have discovered that preschool shows have compression—that is, that viewers
tend to graduate from these shows and into older programming at a younger and younger
age as the show goes along.Jay Jay and the Jet Planelost its audience of five- to six-year-
olds.Sesame Street, too, has lost most of its viewers by age four. Remember that most kids
don’t get control of the remote until around age five or six!
Some shows also aim for a crossover audience of mothers. As for parent crossover, some
experts will remind you that preschool programming is not about the parents; it’s about the
kids. They feel that it shouldn’t matter if parents are being entertained. Parents should watch
the programs with their kids because it’s the right thing to do.
Of course, advertisers are more concerned about the ratings. It’s harder to finance pre-
school programming because advertisers prefer to buy time in shows for the six to twelve
age group where they’ll sell more toys.
In the United States by mandate the programming must be educational or at least proso-
cial. In the United Kingdom the government has six stated goals for early learning, including
personal and social relationships, communication, language, literacy and speech, math lan-
guage and concepts (including shapes and colors), understanding of the world, physical devel-
opment and movement, and creative development. Educational programming is not required
everywhere for preschool viewers, and preschool programming from the United States and
other countries with similar guidelines is often hard to sell internationally because of this.Also,
internationally, shows for preschoolers may be a little more frightening and less friendly.
The educational curriculum in the United States includes learning issues and goals as a
part of the development package. A need is often defined prior to developing the series, and
the series is created around that learning or developmental need. Preschool program exec-
utives are expected to have an understanding of child development. Usually, a child devel-
opment professional or a team of professionals from one or more universities is attached to
the project before it’s pitched, and they help in the creation of the series from the very begin-
ning. In a very few cases the child development professionals are brought in after the sale
of the project to help develop the series further before it goes into production. Usually the
professionals are required in order to get a sale.
Whole series or individual episodes may be based on developmental issues or prosocial
values like physical development, emotional development, literature, music, diversity, simple
math concepts (shapes and sizes), making friends, sharing, and dealing with change. Devel-
opers should create interesting characters first and then add a curriculum. The stories should
come from and out of the characters. Ideas should be fresh. What excites kids?
A balance of entertainment and educational material is needed in individual preschool
episodes. If the series is too boring to kids, they won’t watch. The good idea should be what
drives the show; the curriculum shouldn’t drive the show. The curriculum should be added
to the good idea. Many programming experts would like to see more humor in the shows,
but humor doesn’t seem to be a requirement for many buyers, who have often disliked
Types of Animation and Other Animation Media 289