Genre Children, comedy Directed by Kim, Min-sung Ending theme Vroom, Vroom, Vroom! | Written by Choi, Jong-Il Opening theme Tayo the Little Bus | |
Voices of Robyn Slade - TayoNolan Balzer - RogiKami Desilets - LaniKerri Salki - Gani |
Tayo the Little Bus (Hangul: 꼬마버스 타요; RR: Kkoma-beoseu Tayo) is a South Korean computer-animated television series created by Iconix Entertainment and Educational Broadcasting System of Seoul. The show was produced with the help of Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon's administration. It began airing in South Korea on EBS in 2010, and an English-dubbed version of the series began airing on Disney Junior (Asia) in 2012, with Disney Junior (Australia and New Zealand) following in 2013. In the United States and Canada, Hulu is the exclusive distributor of the series, though the second season is on Netflix.
Contents
- Season 1
- Season 2
- Season 3
- Main characters
- Supporting characters
- Frequent supporting characters
- Recurring supporting characters
- Guest characters
- Reception
- Cultural impact
- References
The series is available in Korean, English, Spanish, Turkish and Russian on the production company's Tayo YouTube channel.
Season 1
- A Day in the Life of Tayo
- Tayo gets lost
- Tayo's First Drive
- Good Friends
- Afraid of the Dark
- Thanks, Cito!
- Let's All Get Along
- I Want New Tires
- Our New Friend, Gani
- Hana and Gani
- I Want to Go on a Picnic!
- Let's Be Friends
- Nuri is a Superstar
- Rogi's Hiccups
- Hana's Day Out
- The Best Heavy Equipment
- Joey, the Magician
- Frank and Alice Are Awesome!
- Lani's Misunderstanding
- Make Up, Frank and Alice
- Tayo's Space Adventure
- Speeding is Dangerous
- Lani's Day Off
- My Job's the Hardest
- Gani is Sick
- Tayo is the Best
Season 2
- Tayo and Bongbong
- The Perfect duo, Rookie and Pat
- Gani the Teacher!
- I'll help you, Big
- Please Pick Me
- A New Playground!
- Nana Visits the City
- Nuri's worst Day
- The Treasure is Mine!
- Rogi the Detective!
- Rogi's Special Guest
- The Leader of the Playground!
- Cito's Secret
- Lani the Princess Wannabe
- Tayo the Grown-up
- Tiny Tayo
- Tayo's Space Adventure Part 1
- Tayo's Space Adventure Part 2
- It's Hard to Behave
- Gani's Present
- Air, the Brave Helicopter
- Prank Call Madness
- A Frightful Night
- Nana's Invitation
- Tayo's First Snow Day
- Hana's Special Day
Season 3
- The New Friend, Heart
- We Are A Family
- Rogi the Sweeper
- I Know It All
- A School Day
- Cheer Up Frank
- A Weekend With Citu
- Tayo's Promise
- Gani The Super Star
- Toto and Bongbong
- Laugh, Pat
- We Are The Best With Each Other
- Cooku & Champ's Trip To The City
- I Can't Sleep
- I Want To Be Your Friend
- City Heroes, Tayo & Duri
- We Are The Heavy-Duty Circus
- The Best Mechanic
- I Want A Puppy
- Ask Me Anything
- Poco's Flower
- Tayo's Christmas
- Tayo's Earth Defense Plan 1
- Tayo's Earth Defense Plan 2
- Somebody Help Us
- The Little Buses Sports Day
Main characters
The series features four main characters.
Supporting characters
Frequent supporting characters
Recurring supporting characters
Guest characters
Reception
At a Vietnamese seminar for addressing the struggles of the Vietnamese animation industry, Korean animators named Tayo the Little Bus as a series that has been "dominating" the Korean market. These animators also noted that the series is popular in China, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Cultural impact
In 2014, the Seoul Metropolitan Government commissioned buses designed as the characters Tayo, Gani, Rogi, and Lani, to run around the Gwanghwamun Square area of the city. This was done as part of an initiative to teach children how to use the bus. The initiative was a massive success, drawing crowds of over 40,000 in a single day. People from all across the country came to see the buses. Although the buses were originally set to run from March 26 until Public Transport Day at the end of April, their popularity led to an extension until Children's Day on May 5. The number of buses was also expanded from the original four to 100. In wake of this success, the local governments of other cities in South Korea have considered adopting the campaign. Although officials for the city of Seoul initially opposed this, on copyright grounds, they consented in April to letting other cities use the characters for non-commercial purposes.
Jaeyeon Woo of The Wall Street Journal's blog Korea Real Time, speculated in an April 2014 article that the success of this initiative led both of Gyeonggi Province's gubernatorial candidates, Kim Sang-gon and Nam Kyung-pil, to adopt public transportation issues as a key part of their campaign platforms. Seoul-mayor Park Won-soon, who began the initiative, has been criticized by some of his political rivals, who feel that he took credit for the series, even though the series was begun by his predecessor's administration.
On October 16, 2014, a South Korean group called the Teen Astronauts, launched a space balloon designed as the character Tayo from the Space Science Park in Korea's National Science Museum.