Mona, the adorable little star of Nanalan'.
Following up on yesterday's post about the Grogs, I wanted to once again mention Nanalan' because I think it's easily the best Canadian puppetry series of the past decade. It originally began as a long-running series of 3 minute interstials on Canada's youth-oriented YTV network and moved to CBC as a half-hour series two seasons ago.
Each episode is built around Mona and her dog Russell and the adventures they have exploring the world around them while Mona is babysat at her Nana's house. The show is bright, colourful and has a wonderful, simple charm. One of my favourite parts of the show are the puppet-shows-within-the-puppet-show put on by Nana's neighbor Mr. Wooka that showcase the really creative rod puppetry that the Grogs do so well.
A profile of the Grogs and Nanalan' recently appeared in Toronto's Metro newspaper.
Sadly, according to Playback Magazine, CBC has made the stupid decision to pass on a third season of the series, but distributor Lenz Entertainment is negotiating to bring the show to PBS and episodes are now available on DVD.
Nanalan' currently airs in Canada weekdays on CBC at 10:30 am in most markets. Clips from the show are available online here.
