Dwayne Hill voices the green-striped oddity who keeps Plywood Forest running, hammer in hand and song on standby, in this Anglo-American-Canadian stop-motion series that aired on Universal Kids between July 2019 and June 2021. Manchester studio Factory built 23 twenty-two-minute episodes, each crammed with Broadway-style numbers that let porcupines, possums and skunks belt out problems before Norm fixes them.
The forest community is a neurotic purple porcupine called Bob (David Berni), a cleanliness-obsessed pink rabbit Blanche (Stacey DePass), hyperactive raccoon Marco (Alexander Marsh) and salon-owning skunk Bixie (Bryn McAuley). They summon Norm when pizza ovens misfire, hairdos collapse or possums get stuck in trees; he arrives with a toolbox, a twinkle and a readiness to reprise the episode’s song while two nameless gophers chant “Magic”.
BAFTA and Kidscreen trophies sit on Factory’s shelf, and the series now streams on Stan, Globoplay and Yle TV2, dubbed into seven languages and sold to eighteen territories. The closing ritual never changes: the gophers shout “One More Time” and the cast reprise the hook, leaving the forest tidier and slightly more tuneful than they found it.
Production Details
Universal Kids / 1 Season / 46 Episodes / 2019 - Present
Created by: Alex Rockwell, Judy Rothman Rofé
Main Cast
Shayelin Martin as Betsy (voice)
Dwayne Hill as Norman Picklestripes (voice)
Judy Marshak as Mother Nature (voice)
Christian Martyn as Blake (voice)
Terry McGurrin as Drew / Travis (voice)
Stacey DePass as Blanche (voice)
David Berni as Bob (voice)
Taylor Abrahamse as Gopher #1 (voice)
Bryn McAuley as Bixie / Gopher #2 (voice)
Dan Petronijevic as Travis (voice)
Tajja Isen as Juniper (voice)
Alexander Marsh as Marco (voice)
