Tinga Tinga Tales: Why Monkeys Swing in the Trees

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The "Aardvark" episode has this. Firstly, Mama Cheetah is teaching Aardvark how to hunt an Impala, despite impalas being just as sapient as any other animal in Tinga Tinga. Also, in the same episode, Bat says he likes eating mosquitos, despite Mosquito being a character. Breaking the Fourth Wall: Monkey talks to the audience in the beginning of the end of every episode. There is nothing more important than community and friendship in Tinga. There are good animals and bad animals, grumpy animals and patient animals, water animals and land animals, tall animals, short animals, loud animals and shy animals – but they all have their role to play. Big personalities for big characters, running jokes, catchphrases and lots of music.

Dumb Muscle: Elephant, the strongest animal in the kingdom, often says he has a big head, but a tiny brain. Majitu the giant doesn't sound all that intelligent either. Produced on location in Kenya by Tiger Aspect Productions in conjunction with Homeboyz Entertainment, the show draws upon the inspiring talent of local artists and musicians and is expertly computer-animated using beautiful, hand-painted imagery. Once an Episode: Monkey talking with Lion at the end of the episode appears in every single episode. (At least the US dub)

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Tinga Tinga Tales was also broadcast in the United States. Some characters are dubbed in Disney Character Voices International to give them American accents. The series had its first U.S. premiere on The Disney Channel. Although the series aired on The Disney Channel, the series ended its run on September 2011. The series also aired reruns on Disney Junior: The Channel. However, the series ended its airing on May 2014. Somewhere, a Herpetologist Is Crying: Crocodile swims with motions of his feet, while Real Life crocodiles use their tails. Misplaced Wildlife: A skunk appears in several episodes, even though skunks only live in the Americas. It's possible that Skunk is actually supposed to be a striped polecat , which is a similar mammal native to Africa, but he looks more like the striped skunk familiar to North Americans than to said animal. Red Monkey (voiced by Eugene Muchiri (UK)/Geoffrey Curtin (US)): Red Monkey is the narrator of all of the episodes. It takes nine months to complete an episode from storyboard to final music. Each animator produces approximately 30 seconds a week.

Expository Theme Tune: The theme song explains how the land of Tinga Tinga has alot of stories to share. From the producer of the multi award-winning Charlie And Lola, Tiger Aspect's Claudia Lloyd, this vibrant, new animated series (52 x 11-minute episodes), for children aged three to six years, brings to life the traditional art of storytelling with tall tales of how all your favourite animals came to be the way they are today. You may think you know the reason why Elephant has a long trunk, or why Tortoise has a broken shell... but as brand new pre-school series, Tinga Tinga Tales, is soon to reveal – the reason for each is a whole other story! Michael Carrington, Controller of CBeebies, said: "When Claudia Lloyd first approached me with the idea for Tinga Tinga Tales I knew it would be perfect for CBeebies. The series is a unique, beautiful production capturing a flavour of Africa and some extraordinarily tall tales. Storytelling is at the heart of what we do, engaging children with characters and tales that will stay with them forever, and Tinga Tinga Tales continues that tradition on CBeebies." Notes to Editors In the "Skunk" episode, Baboon gives some "smelly fruit" to Skunk as a prank, which gives him a stinky fart.Lion often uses his roar to calm things down or attract the attention of the other animals, often in Swahili, followed by English. If Lion is called in to help out with a problem, it must be serious. Lion shares his wisdom but he gets annoyed when animals have behaved badly and done things at odds with nature's way. Lion (voice by Patrice Naiambana): He's well known as the king of Tinga Tinga since he found his roar. Furry Confusion: The flies and termites are non-sapient, despite other insects, such as ants, bees, mosquitos and even fleas all being sapient. In the "Giraffe" episode, Giraffe has "tummy trouble" and has to eat some honey to stop her runny stomach. Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All of the episodes follow the pattern "Why [Animal] [Action]" or "Why [Animal] Is [Adjective]".

Never Smile at a Crocodile: Crocodile. But since this is a show for little children, he is portrayed as The Bully rather than an actual killer. Snakes Are Sinister: Averted with Snake and Puff Adder, who are both pleasant to everyone around them despite being their respective species. Puff Adder in particular doesn't like being treated as The Dreaded to all the other animals because he is a snake, to the point that he Took a Level in Jerkass as a way to cope with the hate and fear he receives. It only took Camal's advice after saving Puff Adder to make the latter mellow out from his cold behavior and become openly friendly to everyone else. Bat Out of Hell: Like all the animals, Bat is very cute, but he originally acted as hellish bat for the other animals as he would scare them for fun.

Network TV

Same Language Dub: The show got a US dub which aired on Disney Junior. The dub only replaced voice actors of a select few characters and the episodes were pitched lower for unknown reasons. Based on the traditional tales from Africa, the show relies on the stories of why animals have gained abilities. An example is like "Why do flamingos stand on one leg?" or "Why does the lion roar?", etc. Somewhere, a Mammalogist Is Crying: A little forgivable given that the series is based on old fairy tales, but can still crop up. It's odd that an elephant was given the role as Dumb Muscle (claiming to have a "tiny brain") given they're among the most intelligent animals. Likewise, some of the animals living in Tinga Tinga do not actually live in Africa, like moles (it's possible she's meant to be a golden mole, but it's unlikely given that she's purple.)