Additional Information about the TV Cartoon The Ant Playground

This series introduces pre-schoolers to the many aspects of Chinese culture and language through a five-year-old Chinese-American girl named Kai-lan. Following in the tradition of Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego, Go!, this new play-along series features an intergenerational Chinese-American family and teaches the Mandarin language to pre-schoolers at home- a first for pre-school television. Each show centers on Kai-lan and her relationships with her grandfather, her animal friends and the natural world. Kai-lan is an emotionally gifted child who is driven to understand the world and how things are linked together both physically and emotionally. Every episode follows the adventures of Kai-lan and her friends as they learn to identify their emotions and stop to consider the feelings of others. The series explores the colorful aspects of Kai-lan's upbringing and background, including family, food and language, while encouraging pre-schoolers to care for others and their environment.

Animation took place in both Shanghai and Taiwan. In addition to animation work, key episode designs were created and produced at the Wang studio in China.

Alternate Series Title: "Downward Doghouse" (Working Title).

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