Time Warp Trio (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Time Warp Trio is an animated television series, based on the children's book series written by Jon Scieszka
. Produced by Soup2Nuts
in association with WGBH
Boston, the show airs on Discovery Kids
(now The Hub
) in the United States
and on CBBC
in the United Kingdom
(it also aired as part of a two-hour Discovery Kids block on NBC
until September 2, 2006). It is currently the only program by a PBS
station, in this case WGBH, that did not air on PBS.
. Using an often unpredictable number of voice and print clues, The Book transports Joe and his friends Fred and Sam to a variety of different times and places, from Camelot
's medieval court of knights and dragons to the year 2105, where they meet their own great-granddaughters. The only way they are able to return present-day Brooklyn, New York is to find The Book again within whatever time period they are in. Later in the series, Joe's evil uncle, Mad Jack, makes several attempts to capture the children and The Book with his crafty tricks, whether stranding them in Antarctica or trying to make their new home China.
Jon Scieszka
Jon Scieszka was born September 8, 1954 in Flint, Michigan is an American author of children's literature, best known for his collaborations with illustrator Lane Smith. He is also a nationally recognized reading advocate, and in early 2008 was named the National Ambassador for Young People's...
. Produced by Soup2Nuts
Soup2Nuts
Soup2Nuts is an American animation studio founded by Tom Snyder, Loren Bouchard, Brendon Small, Jody Snider, and Amanda Normoyle. It is known for its animated comedy series...
in association with WGBH
WGBH-TV
WGBH-TV, channel 2, is a non-commercial educational public television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. WGBH-TV is a member station of the Public Broadcasting Service , and produces more than two-thirds of PBS's national prime time television programming...
Boston, the show airs on Discovery Kids
Discovery Kids
Discovery Kids is an American website owned by Discovery Communications, Inc. created for children. Until October 10, 2010, it was an American digital cable specialty channel, owned by Discovery Communications with television programming for education of children. It was launched in October 1996...
(now The Hub
The Hub (TV network)
The Hub is an American digital cable and satellite television channel that launched on October 10, 2010. The channel, which replaced Discovery Kids, is a joint venture of Discovery Communications, Inc. and Hasbro...
) in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and on CBBC
CBBC
CBBC is one of two brand names used for the BBC's children's television strands. Between 1985 and 2002, CBBC was the name given to all the BBC's programmes on TV for children aged under 14...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
(it also aired as part of a two-hour Discovery Kids block on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
until September 2, 2006). It is currently the only program by a PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
station, in this case WGBH, that did not air on PBS.
Plot
For his tenth birthday, Joe receives a mysterious blue book from his magician uncle and namesake, "Joe the Magnificent," known only as The BookThe Book (Time Warp Trio)
The Book is a fictional item that the Time Warp Trio book and television series revolve around. Depending on what Joe, Fred, and Sam say or do at the time, The Book disperses green mist to carry the three anywhere in time and space...often leading to trouble.-The Books Powers:The Book could very...
. Using an often unpredictable number of voice and print clues, The Book transports Joe and his friends Fred and Sam to a variety of different times and places, from Camelot
Camelot
Camelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and eventually came to be described as the fantastic capital of Arthur's realm and a symbol of the Arthurian world...
's medieval court of knights and dragons to the year 2105, where they meet their own great-granddaughters. The only way they are able to return present-day Brooklyn, New York is to find The Book again within whatever time period they are in. Later in the series, Joe's evil uncle, Mad Jack, makes several attempts to capture the children and The Book with his crafty tricks, whether stranding them in Antarctica or trying to make their new home China.
Characters
- Joseph "Joe" Arthur (voiced by Mark RandallMark RandallMark Christopher Randall is an American former professional basketball player who was selected by the Chicago Bulls in the 1st round in the 1991 NBA Draft...
) - An up-and-coming magician and the present-day owner of The Book, Joe is the unofficial leader of the Time Warp Trio. While his penchant for carrying The Book around with him and experimenting with it often results in many of their adventures, his talent for magical tricks also helps them out of many tough situations. Joe is at one point awarded the title of Time Page (which Jodie says she hasn't since she was five, despite not receiving The Book herself until her tenth birthday) and is said to eventually become a Warp Wizard. According to Freddi and Jodie, Joe will fight his uncle, Mad Jack, in a great battle that will determine the fate of time itself. He lives in Brooklyn with his archeologist father, his mother, and his little sister Anna. - Sam (voiced by Darren Frost) - A friend of Joe and Fred who contributes his intelligence and historical knowledge to the group's problems. He wears thick glasses (he is self-conscious about being a nerd) and is lactose intolerant. Sam is also very wary of time travelTime travelTime travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
, convinced their doom is imminent every time they open The Book. An amateur inventor, he is told by Freddi that he will invent something very important in the future (though it is not revealed what). - Fred (voiced by Scott McCord) - A friend of Joe and Sam who is a sports fan and known for being headstrong, sometimes to the point of idiocy. Fred is known for being the one of the group most interested in using The Book for material gains, whether hunting for treasure or patenting future technology (although in 'Dude, Where's my Karma?' he decides to use the book in order to save Joe). He has a bullying older brother named Mike.
- Joe the Magnificent (voiced by Tony Daniels) - Joe's uncle, a would-be magician who fails at live performances. He originally sent his nephew Joe The Book, which he didn't know how to use, and instead traverses time and space with an enchanted pocket watch. He believes in the Tooth FairyTooth fairyThe tooth fairy is a fantasy figure of early childhood. The folklore states that when a child loses a baby tooth, if he or she places it beneath the bed pillow, the tooth fairy will visit while the child sleeps, replacing the lost tooth with a small payment....
and Easter BunnyEaster BunnyThe Easter Bunny or Easter Rabbit is a character depicted as a rabbit bringing Easter eggs, who sometimes is depicted with clothes...
. - Mrs. Arthur (voiced by Susan Roman) - Joe's mother, who is known for being short-tempered. She understands how to use The Book, originally giving it to her brother (Joe's uncle) and later showing her son the page for choosing the specific time to visit.
- Anna Arthur (voice by Annick Obonsawin) - Joe's annoying younger sister, who shows having more knowledge of The Book than her brother.
- Jodie (voiced by Sarah Gadon then Tajja Isen) - Joe's great-granddaughter from the year 2105, who occasionally cross the paths of the trio with her friends Samantha and Freddi (all three have a great mastery of The Book). She is known for being bossy, complaining, loving fashion, and allergic to cats. Jodie is also a third-level warper.
- Samantha (voiced by Laurie Elliot) - Sam's great-granddaughter from the year 2105, who occasionally cross the paths of the trio with her friends Jodie and Freddi (all three have a great mastery of The Book). She is known for being teasing, daring, and a bit clumsy, an exact opposite of Sam. Samantha owns a robot cat named Rivites and a time-traveling pocket watch that belonged to Sam.
- Freddi (voiced by Sunday Muse) - Fred's great-granddaughter from the year 2105, who occasionally cross the paths of the trio with her friends Jodie and Samantha (all three have a great mastery of The Book). She has a fear of heights and bugs and seems to be an exact opposite of Fred.
- Mad Jack (voiced by Tony Daniels) - A character created for the TV series, Mad Jack is the evil brother of "Joe the Magnificent" and Anna Arthur. He is intent on getting his hands on The Book so that he can rule all of time and space, shadowing the trio in many of their travels and even once facing his nephew Joe down.
Episodes
- "The Not-So-Jolly Roger" - The boys' first adventure with the book where they accidentally join the crew of the pirate, BlackbeardBlackbeardEdward Teach , better known as Blackbeard, was a notorious English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of the American colonies....
. - "2105" - The boys warp 100 years into the futureFutureThe future is the indefinite time period after the present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the nature of the reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently exists and will exist is temporary and will come...
and meet their great-granddaughters. (First appearances of Jodie, Samantha and Freddi.) - "You Can't, But Genghis Khan" - When Sam accidentally throws a Mongolian menu into The BookThe Book (Time Warp Trio)The Book is a fictional item that the Time Warp Trio book and television series revolve around. Depending on what Joe, Fred, and Sam say or do at the time, The Book disperses green mist to carry the three anywhere in time and space...often leading to trouble.-The Books Powers:The Book could very...
, the boys almost get turned into roadkill and meet and become friends with the boy who will grow up to become Genghis KhanGenghis KhanGenghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....
(Temüjin). - "Tut, TutThutmose IIIThutmose III was the sixth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. During the first twenty-two years of Thutmose's reign he was co-regent with his stepmother, Hatshepsut, who was named the pharaoh...
" - Anna warps the boys back to Ancient EgyptEgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, where they meet and befriend a Pharaoh and find themselves almost being mummified. - "Sam Samurai" - The boys warp back to JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, befriend a SamuraiSamuraiis the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
, and get involved in a battle. The girls turn up just in time to save their lives, but then Sam and Samantha get separated from the others when The Book warps them away. - "See You Later, Gladiator" - The boys warp to ancient RomeAncient RomeAncient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
and are almost forced to fight a gladiatorGladiatorA gladiator was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their legal and social standing and their lives by appearing in the...
. - "Lewis and Clark... and Jodie, Freddi and Samantha" The girls accidentally warp into 1800 wilderness, where they befriend Lewis and Clark and Sacagewea.
- "VikingVikingThe term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
it and Liking it" - The boys befriend Leif Eriksson and help him discover AmericaAmericasThe Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
. - "Hey Kid, Want to Buy a BridgeBridgeA bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...
?" - The boys warp back in time while trying to go into the future to help Sam make an inventionInventionAn invention is a novel composition, device, or process. An invention may be derived from a pre-existing model or idea, or it could be independently conceived, in which case it may be a radical breakthrough. In addition, there is cultural invention, which is an innovative set of useful social...
. Sam gets Edison's ideas stuck in his head. - "Me Oh Maya" - The boys warp back to an ancient MayanMaya civilizationThe Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
civilization and interrupt a sacred game. - "The Good, the Bad, and the Goofy" - The trio is warped back to the time of the Indians and the "cowboys". After a frantic bull charge, the boys get stuck an Indian camp. They end up befriending the chief and save him and his people from the US Army, although the same chief was revealed to have been killed two weeks later.
- "Able Was I Ere I Saw ElbaElbaElba is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino. The largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago, Elba is also part of the National Park of the Tuscan Archipelago and the third largest island in Italy after Sicily and Sardinia...
" - When Joe accidentally says a palindromePalindromeA palindrome is a word, phrase, number, or other sequence of units that can be read the same way in either direction, with general allowances for adjustments to punctuation and word dividers....
, he and Fred, along with Samantha, accidentally change history by having Napoleon win the Battle of WaterlooBattle of WaterlooThe Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
, as they discover on returning to the present which is radically different from how they left it; America is now called New France and everyone speaks French. The boys must return to the past to ensure that history takes its proper course. - "The Seven Blunders of the World" - A weird man steals The Book and plots to rule the world with it. However, someone else also has the same plans (First time Mad Jack is not a background character)...
- "Jinga All the Way" - When Fred stabs The Book, he, Sam and Jodie warp to Africa and meet King Jinga .
- "Birdman or Birdbrain?" - Samantha, Fred and Freddi warp to Easter IslandEaster IslandEaster Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people...
when the contents of The Book become a strange language. - "Dude, Where's My Karma?" - Fred and Sam intervene when Mad Jack tries to kill Joe's ancestor so he will never be born.
- "My Big Fat Greek Olympics" - Fred accidentally warps himself and Samantha to the GreekAncient GreeceAncient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
Olympics, while simultaneously warping Sam to a futuristic, topsey-turvy diner. - "WushuChinese martial artsChinese martial arts, also referred to by the Mandarin Chinese term wushu and popularly as kung fu , are a number of fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in China. These fighting styles are often classified according to common traits, identified as "families" , "sects" or...
Were Here" - Fred, Joe and Anna warp to China to find a way to free Sam, who has become trapped inside The Book. - "What's So Great About Peter?" - Fred convinces Sam and Samantha to go back in time to Russia to look for a family fortune.
- "The Caveman Catastrophe" - On a visit to the Stone AgeStone AgeThe Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...
, Sam, Fred, and Jodie get turned into Neanderthals after accidentally changing events there. The only way for them to return to normal is to discover the reason behind the change and ensure that history is set straight. - "Nightmare on Joe's Street" - Frankenstein's MonsterFrankenstein's monsterFrankenstein's monster is a fictional character that first appeared in Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. The creature is often erroneously referred to as "Frankenstein", but in the novel the creature has no name...
gets unleashed in Joe's kitchen after the creature mysteriously turns up in the hall closet. Joe and Sam go back in time to find Mary Shelly and set things straight. - "Breaking the Codex" - The kids have to save Leonardo Da VinciLeonardo da VinciLeonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
from Mad Jack. - "Break an Egg" - Mad Jack attempts to trap the boys in Antarctica during Robert F. Scott's 1911 expedition. Scott befriends the trio and helps them retrieve the book.
- "The High and the Flighty" - Jodie, Samantha and Freddi warp back in time to try to find out what happened to Amelia EarhartAmelia EarhartAmelia Mary Earhart was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean...
, and try to prevent her disappearance. - "Harem Scare'em" - The kids warp to the Ottoman EmpireOttoman EmpireThe Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
to find the Time Map. - "Plaid to the Bone" - Joe, Jodie and Anna are forced to help a castle from an invasion.
Comics
- Nightmare on Joe's Street
- The Seven Blunders of the World
- Plaid to the Bone
- Meet you at Waterloo (Able Was I, Ere I Saw Elba)
Chapter Books
- You Can't, But Genghis Khan
- Lewis and Clark...and Jodie, Freddi, and Samantha
- Wushu Were Here