Lassie (2014 TV series)

Last updated

Lassie
Zoe-Parker-and-Lassie-poster.png
Also known asThe New Adventures of Lassie
Genre Animation
Created by Eric Knight (character)
Developed byJill Brett
Directed byJean-Christophe Roger (season 1)
Dominique Monféry (season 2)
Voices ofMirabelle Kirkland
Kaycie Chase
Maxime Jarquin
Matthew Géczy
Sharon Mann
Composers Guy Michelmore (season 1)
Laurent Aknin (season 2)
Country of origin
  • Germany
  • France
  • United States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes52
Production
Executive producers
  • Clément Calvet (S1)
  • Jérémie Fajner (S1)
  • Eric Ellenbogen
  • Doug Schwalbe
  • Nicole Keeb
  • Arne Lohmann (S2)
Producers
  • Clément Calvet (S2)
  • Jérémie Fajner (S2)
Running time22–23 minutes
Production company
Original release
Network TF1 (France)
ZDF and KIKA (Germany)
Paramount+ (United States)
Release2014 (2014) 
2020 (2020)

Lassie (also known as The New Adventures of Lassie) is an animated television series produced by Superprod with the participation of Classic Media. It is a hand-drawn 2D animated update of the classic character by Eric Knight. [1] In the United States, the show was released on Paramount Global's streaming service, Paramount+

Contents

Characters

Zoe and Lassie with their family and friends. Zoe-Parker-family-and-friends.png
Zoe and Lassie with their family and friends.

Main characters

The title character of the show, Lassie is a brown and white collie who lives in the Grand Mountain National Park with her owners, the Parker family. Fearless and brave, Lassie will never hesitate to put her life on the line for her family, friends and even random people she may or may not have met before.

For the majority of the episode durations, Lassie will only communicate through her body language and barks, which are only understood by those who know her well. However, she can "talk" to her animal friends from the Red Barn.

Owner of Lassie and daughter of Sarah and Graham. Having inherited her parents' love of nature, Zoe cares a great deal about life in the Park and goes out of her way to protect it, sometimes without thinking and ultimately putting her life at risk. Zoe often takes care of baby animals whenever they need her help. She is normally the one to call Lassie in the day old style, whether there is an emergency or not.

Head of the Grand Mountain National park Ranger Department, Graham, like the rest of his family, is a passionate nature lover and will do anything in his power as Chief Ranger to prevent anyone from damaging the serenity of the Park. Like his wife, Park veterinarian Dr. Sarah Parker, Graham will often worry about the safety of his daughter Zoe before reassuring himself that Zoe is a smart kid who has forgotten more about exploring the beauty of the Park than any tourist has ever learned and as long as she has Lassie by her side, she can never come to any harm.

He once owned a dog that was similar in breed and personality to Lassie, named Shadow, when he was a boy. Sadly, when Graham was eight years old, Shadow was bitten by a snake as he tried to save Graham. Graham, who didn't fully understand at the time, thought he was responsible for the death of his dog and ultimately, even the death of his grandfather, who got sick and died a short while after Shadow, and thus distanced himself from the cabin owned by his grandfather. He later discovered, thanks to Lassie, Zoe and Harvey, that this was not the case and that his grandfather's sickness and death was purely down to something else, more than likely old age. Graham revealed that, whilst he never actually visited the property since the Shadow incident up until the point that he returned to face his fears, he was still keeping up the mortgage on the property and land, meaning the Parker family still owned the property, which ultimately prevented Robert Humphrey from selling it to developers looking to build a leisure hotel.

As the National Park's resident veterinarian, Sarah takes pride in her work, caring for any animal that may need her medical knowledge. Like her husband and daughter, Sarah is quick to express outrage whenever someone or something is threatening the tranquillity of the Park.

Zoe's best friend. A skilled navigator, like his late father, Jason Smith, Harvey always has a route planned out. He will often follow Zoe and Lassie in their adventures, even if the situation may seem dangerous.

Mother of Harvey Smith and supposedly a member of staff at the National Park's visitor centre. As Harvey is all she has to remember her husband by, Beth is often concerned whenever Harvey could be in danger. Luckily, she knows that, wherever there's danger, Lassie won't be far.

Zoe and Harvey's snooty rival with brown hair. She sometimes throws herself into dangerous situations without thinking anything through.

Owner and manager of the Valley Hotel. He is sometimes a minor antagonist, as some of his schemes to drum up tourists can often result in him doing some unscrupulous things, such as telling the driver of an old steam locomotive that he had personally inspected every inch of track on the line he was planning to send a trainload of tourists down to make sure it was safe when, in fact, he hadn't.

Proprietor of the National Park's general store, 'The Happy Camper', Mrs. Lee may look like any ordinary old lady, but she is far from it, as a couple of poachers learnt when she demonstrated her skills as a rodeo champion by hogtying them whilst they tried to capture a bear cub. She is the owner of Biff the pug, who she often has take the Parker's morning paper to them.

Season 1

Season 1 aired 26 episodes from 2014 to 2015.

Season 1 [2]
EpisodeTitle
Episode 1Saving Zuli!
Episode 2Poachers In The Park!
Episode 3Gold Rush!
Episode 4Danger On The Mountain
Episode 5The Treasure Of Dan Montaigne
Episode 6Forest Fire!
Episode 7Spider Bite!
Episode 8Roundup!
Episode 9Night Of The Wolves
Episode 10Avalanche
Episode 11The Day Off
Episode 12The Tornado Hunters
Episode 13Where’s Lassie
Episode 14Who Knows Best
Episode 15Hide And Seek!
Episode 16Frances’ Garden
Episode 17The Iron Horse Of Grand Mountain
Episode 18The Demon Of Diamond Lake
Episode 19Thin Ice
Episode 20Trapped
Episode 21Momma Zoe
Episode 22Condors In The Valley
Episode 23Harvey’s Journey
Episode 24The Secrets Of The Parker Clan
Episode 25The Grand Mountain Adventure Challenge 1
Episode 26The Grand Mountain Adventure Challenge 2

Season 2

A season 2 with 26 episodes aired as of January 2020. [3]

Unlike the first season, it uses computer-animated characters in front of hand-drawn backgrounds. It was produced by a French studio called Superprod Animation. [4]

These episodes appear on CBS All Access, but are tagged as "Season 1." The copyright on them is 2016.

Season 2 [5]
EpisodeTitle
Episode 1Friends Forever Part 1
Episode 2Friends Forever Part 2
Episode 3The Great Scavenger Hunt
Episode 4Maiden Flight
Episode 5A Wild Encounter
Episode 6Trick Or Treat
Episode 7White Out
Episode 8Trespassing
Episode 9The Blueberry Pie Challenge
Episode 10Old Doc Dudley
Episode 11Inside The Dam
Episode 12The Precious Gift
Episode 13Picture Perfect
Episode 14The Star Attraction
Episode 15Mrs. Lee's Secret
Episode 16The Reunion
Episode 17The Epidemic
Episode 18A Rare Sighting
Episode 19Like Father, Like Daughter
Episode 20Déjà Vu
Episode 21Face Your Fear
Episode 22Wild Camping

Broadcast

In the United Kingdom, the show premiered on Pop UK TV on 6 June 2016. [6] In 2016, an official YouTube channel featuring episodes from the series was launched. [7]

In the United States, Lassie debuted on ViacomCBS's streaming service CBS All Access on January 17, 2020. [8] After the service was relaunched with a new name (Paramount+) in 2021, the show was carried over to the ParamountPlus.com site. [9]

References

  1. 1 2 Wolfe, Jennifer (June 2, 2015). "Year-End Earnings". Animation World Network . Retrieved September 10, 2018.
  2. "Lassie Season 1". YouTube. Retrieved August 9, 2016.
  3. "Lassie". YouTube. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  4. "SUPERPROD animation". www.superprodanimation.net. Retrieved July 3, 2020.
  5. "Lassie Season 2". YouTube. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  6. "The New Adventures of Lassie". Popfun.co.uk. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  7. "Lassie". YouTube . Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  8. Nellie Andreeva (January 12, 2020). "'Lassie', 'George of the Jungle' & 'Mr. Magoo' Animated Children's Series Picked Up By CBS All Access". Deadline Hollywood.
  9. "Paramount Plus – Lassie". Paramount+ .