Peppa the pig
Taking place in a world where almost all characters are animals, Peppa Pig revolves around the titular character and her family and friends. Each episode is approximately five minutes long. Each of her friends is a different species of animal. Peppa's friends are her age, and Peppa's younger brother George's friends are his age. Episodes tend to feature everyday activities such as attending playgroup, going swimming, visits with their grandparents, cousins, and friends, going to the playground or riding their bikes.
The characters wear clothes, live in houses, and drive cars, but still display some characteristics of the animals on which they are based. Peppa and her family enjoy jumping in muddy puddles and snort like pigs during conversations in which they are speaking English. The other animals make their respective noises when they talk, with some exhibiting other characteristics, such as the Rabbit family's squeaking sounds and enjoyment of carrots. The Rabbit and Mole families are the exceptions to the rule of human-like habitation, as they live in a burrow in a hill, though it has windows and is furnished in the same way as the other houses. The characters blush when embarrassed, and their mouths express other emotions such as sadness, happiness, irritation, bewilderment, and confusion. Although the main characters—mostly mammals—are anthropomorphic, other animal characters are not, such as Tiddles the tortoise, Polly Parrot, and the ducks. The narrator of the series, John Sparkes, reinforces the action and humour, saying things like "Oh, dear" when something unfortunate happens (such as when George starts crying) or "Look out!" when a character is doing something unsafe (such as Peppa riding her bicycle without looking where she is going). Each episode ends with visible characters falling over laughing.
In the United Kingdom, the first series of 52 five-minute episodes began on Channel 5 on 31 May 2004. The second series of 52 episodes began on Channel 5 on 4 September 2006, with Cecily Bloom replacing Lily Snowden-Fine as Peppa, among other cast changes. The third series started telecasting on Channel 5's preschool-targeted block Milkshake! on 4 May 2009 with Harley Bird replacing Cecily Bloom and Lily Snowden-Fine as Peppa.
In the United States, the series first aired as part of Cartoon Network's Tickle-U preschool programming block from 22 August 2005 to 2007. For these airings, the show was redubbed with American actors. However, there were no other official releases of this dub, and every US airing since 2008 uses the original British soundtrack. In 2008, Peppa Pig moved to Channel 5's sister channel Noggin in the US. It was aired as part of Noggin Presents, a series of interstitial shorts aired in between full shows. Since February 2011, the series airs as a half-hour show on the Nick Jr. US channel, and on the separate Nick Jr. block on Nickelodeon as of November 2013. The Show aired on ABC Kids in Australia, Treehouse TV in Canada, Top Channel in Albania, etc. For each episode, 5 segments are put together (though for the special containing "Golden Boots" and the episode containing "Around the World", only 3 segments are used) to make the run time 25 minutes. As of June 2021, there were 9 seasons (and 1 standalone special) of Peppa Pig in the US.
Peppa Pig is animated using CelAction.