Lu & the Bally Bunch

Lu & the Bally Bunch
Genre	Children's television series Comedy Preschool Musical
Created by	Nicky Phelan
Developed by	Sarah Lonsdale Jennie Stacey
Written by	Nicky Phelan
Directed by	Nicky Phelan
Voices of	Freya Mclaughlin Joy Tú Clarke Alice Helenport Kolby McDonald Marcus Power Leo Tobin Aileen Mythen
Music by	Darren Hendley
Opening theme	"Lu & the Bally Bunch Theme Song" (music by Darren Hendley)
Ending theme	"Lu & the Bally Bunch Theme Song" (instrumental)
Composer	Darren Hendley
Country of origin	Canada United States Ireland
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	76 25 (shorts)
Production
Executive producers	Vince Commisso Cathal Gaffney Darragh O'Connell Nicky Phelan Angela C. Santomero Jennie Stacey
Producer	Alicia Moore
Animators	Leah Alcantara Leila Foong Rees Geraghty Kelsey Hawkinson Ben Thomas Daniel Varela
Editors	John Cruise Kieran Gallagher Fiona Hamilton Fred O'Connor
Running time	7 minutes 22 minutes ("Bug Noillg") 58 seconds (shorts)
Production companies	9 Story Media Group Brown Bag Films Bhean Productions Limited [1]
Original release
Network	CBC Kids CBC Gem (Canada) [2] HBO Max Cartoonito (United Kingdom, United States, Africa and Netherlands) CBeebies (United Kingdom) [3] RTÉjr (Ireland)
Release	March 17 (2023-03-17) – September 4, 2023 (2023-09-04)

Lu & the Bally Bunch is an animated children's series created, written and directed by Nicky Phelan. ^[4] The series aired in 2023, on March 17 in New Zealand on TVNZ and on April 1 in the United Kingdom and Ireland on Cartoonito. ^[5]

Premise

The series follows the life of Lu, a 3-year-old Irish ladybird who had just started pre-school with her new friends Biba, Gus, Declan, Elodie, Barnaby, and her teacher Shella. The series was inspired by the creator, Nicky Phelan, helping at his mom's preschool.

Series overview

Season	Episodes		Originally released
			First released	Last released	Network
Pilot	2		2017 (2017)	2021 (2021)	Cartoonito (USA)
1	76		17 March 2023 (2023-03-17)	4 September 2023 (2023-09-04)	CBC Gem
Shorts	25		Unknown	TBA

Voice cast

• Ladybird Lu (voiced by Freya Mclaughlin) ^[6] is a ladybird who is newly in preschool and lives in a strawberry house with her parents.
• Biba Butterfly (voiced by Joy Tú Clarke) is a monarch butterfly who is Lu's best friend. She lives inside a carrot apartment with her parents and younger brother Bo.
• Elodie Worm (voiced by Alice Helenport) is a bilingual earthworm who speaks both French and English (as shown in "Mon Ami Celeri"), and one of Lu's friends. She lives inside an apple in a tree with her mother, although her father is implied to be her mother's boyfriend. She also has a cousin named Etienne, and graduates from Shell School near the end of the series.
• Gus Greenfly (voiced by Kolby McDonald) is a serious greenfly who is one of Lu's friends. He likes following rules and is implied to be autistic, though this is not explicitly confirmed. He lives in a lily pad houseboat with his single mother, his grandparents and older sister Grace.
• Declan Ground Beetle (voiced by Marcus Power) is a blue ground beetle who is Shell School's "class clown". He is one of Lu's new friends and lives in a teapot restaurant called the Teapot Cafe, which his dad, Darren, owns, alongside his two older brothers Dermot and Dara. He is also the only character out of the main six characters implied to have no mother, and she is not mentioned or seen onscreen in any episodes where his father and/or brothers appear.
• Barnaby Bumblebee (voiced by Leo Tobin) is a bumblebee who likes giving hugs, and one of Lu's friends. Like Biba, he also lives in a carrot apartment with his two mothers and younger twin siblings Aidan and Lola.
• Shella (voiced by Aileen Mythen) is a snail who is Lu's teacher at Shell School, which is inside her shell.

References

1. Alfano, Alexa (October 2, 2024). "Two New Preschool Series for Cartoon Network". Worldscreen. Retrieved February 26, 2025.
2. "About the Show". CBC . Retrieved February 26, 2025.
3. "CBeebies unveil raft of new and returning children's programmes to kick off 2024". BBC. January 11, 2024. Retrieved February 26, 2025.
4. Milligan, Mercedes (October 2, 2024). "9 Story Launches Two New Animated Pre-K Series on Cartoonito". Animation Magazine . Retrieved February 26, 2025.
5. Bharanidharan, Sadhana (September 27, 2023). "CBeebies picks up Lu & the Bally Bunch". Kidscreen . Retrieved February 26, 2025.
6. "Freya On Song: In 'Lu & the bally bunch'". The Echo. October 17, 2023. Retrieved February 26, 2025.

External links

• Lu & the Bally Bunch at IMDb
• Lu & the Bally Bunch at BBC Online