Boowa & Kwala are cartoon characters created and voiced by Véronique and Jason Barnard. Boowa is a blue dog and Kwala is a yellow koala. Starting in 1998, their initial success came on the web through boowakwala.com. In 2000, they became part of the UpToTen website and, at their peak, received visits from over a million children a month. They were also the stars of a series of CD-ROMs and a 52 episode TV series produced by PMMP. Currently all the games, songs, activities, animations and TV episodes remain available online at uptoten.com.
Contents
History
In summer 1998, Véronique and Jason Barnard created Boowa & Kwala. Initially a music CD for children, the characters came alive in a story book (narrated by Sir Tony Robinson in English and Jean Claude Dreyfus in French). The book is now out of print, but available online on the UpToTen website.
Failing to find a publisher for the book, in autumn 1998, the Barnards developed the first interactive games, songs and activities using Macromedia Flash (version 3).
On December 1, 1998, boowakwala.com was launched in French and English with several games, a song, and an advent calendar. Between 1998 and 2008, the Barnards went on to create over 600 educational interactive games and wrote and performed over 100 songs for (and as) Boowa & Kwala. At their peak, the characters' site attracted over a million children every month.
For several years in the mid-2000s, Boowa & Kwala were available in France through the Orange portal and through the Tata portal in India.
Their families
In 2002, Boowa & Kwala introduced their families to the world.
Boowa's family
Kwala's family
CD-ROMs
The songs and activities from the site were released as a series of CD-ROMs by Emme in 2006.
TV series
In 2007, a 52-episode TV series, directed by Xavier Picard and produced by PMMP in association with ITV International and Guilli, was released in French and English and screened in France, Canada (TVO), Poland, USA, New Zealand. It was also released as a DVD in the US.
Each episode contains a song, written by Véronique and Jason Barnard, and released as a 53-title music album. All 52 episodes are available online.