Mondo TV Teaches Kids About the Environment

Luana Perrero, Mondo TV’s head of content sales, talks to TV Kids about the company’s titles that aim to teach kids about the environment.

With its finger on the pulse of timely topics, Mondo TV has a trio of kids’ shows that aim to teach children about the environment: YooHoo to the Rescue, Robot Trains and MeteoHeroes. The health of the environment affects children’s everyday lives—from recycling to transportation to the way they play. “Kids are just as concerned as adults about the environment,” says Luana Perrero, Mondo TV’s head of content sales. “They live in the same world and see what is going on. Our aim, therefore, is to address the issues kids hear from grown-ups with original ideas and engaging entertainment.”

The issues of global warming and climate change can be tough ones to breach for many parents, as they try to present these frightening realities to their children in ways that they can easily digest. Mondo TV has bundled an environmental education with kid-friendly entertainment so that children can better understand the world around them. “Through our programs, we want to entertain youngsters everywhere—but also to transfer knowledge, and to help them enjoy a better life in a more peaceful, friendly and safe planet,” says Perrero. By engaging kids through memorable designs, entertaining storytelling and characters that they can relate to, the shows sensitively transfer their otherwise dire messages to their young audiences. “Our series don’t present issues as daunting; we believe for every problem there is a solution, and teamwork leads to a successful mission!” she says.

The shows also aim to make young viewers feel like they’re part of something worthwhile; they incorporate themes about climate change and the extreme weather phenomena it causes, pollution and its direct effects and how rare animals can indeed survive if we treat their environments with respect, “helping viewers to feel involved in the fight against the despoliation of the Earth,” Perrero says.

The Netflix original YooHoo to the Rescue, which launched last March, is an animated series based on the global plush line of Aurora World toys. It follows the adventures of five animal friends—the titular and quick-witted YooHoo is their leader—who travel from their magical planet to different destinations on Earth to help the endangered animals that live there. Over the course of meeting these new creatures and seeing their habitats, YooHoo and his crew learn about a wide variety of species and ecosystems. “Fun, friendship and fantasy coexist in this show with a very strong environmental theme and a large supporting cast of rare or endangered species,” Perrero says. The show is currently on air or will soon appear on Frisbee in Italy, TVP ABC in Poland, Canal Panda in Portugal, Karousel in Russia and Clan TVE in Spain.

The second season of Robot Trains introduces Rail Watch, the trusted guardians of Rail World, who transform from trains to robots to protect their home—which is made up of Water Land, Sunny Land, Wind Land and Mountain Land—and its vital energy supplies. “There’s an emphasis on energy protection and sustainability in the show alongside action, adventure and humor,” says Perrero. The series’ sophomore run recently rolled out across multiple markets, and Mondo TV and South Korean co-producer CJ ENM have already struck a deal to produce a third season of the show.

MeteoHeroes, meanwhile, is a Mondo TV co-production with MOPI (Meteo Operations Italia), a weather forecasting and meteorological research group. Additionally, it has gained the patronage of three important Italian public institutions: the ministries of the environment and education, as well as Legambiente, a leading Italian environmentalist association. “It has also received numerous letters of support and endorsements from international weather forecasting centers in the U.S. and Europe, which is a very encouraging sign,” says Perrero.

The action-comedy series, which is scheduled to launch this year, sees six children discover that they have superpowers that allow each of them to control a weather phenomenon and to fight against pollution and the causes of climate change. The show will be accompanied by an information-packed website and app. “The delightful stars of MeteoHeroes will be reaching out to new generations—the ‘digital natives’—and raising awareness on such subjects as global warming, pollution and the sort of behaviors that are good for our planet,” she says.

Though YooHoo to the Rescue, Robot Trains and MeteoHeroes have overlapping themes and messages, each show is distinct in its story, design and appeal. Each show is “uniquely itself,” Perrero says, just like its viewers, who latch on to their favorite brand of action, adventure or humor from each of the series. The “hot topic” of environmentalism shows no signs of cooling down, and Mondo TV has its eye toward the future. “Our approach to storytelling is to entertain our audience while planting the seeds for a new generation of kids that is environmentally aware,” says Perrero.