Blue Owl

Blue Owl (originally aired as Blue Owl Stories) is a Kuboian traditionally animated children's television series produced by 32B Entertainment. It aired on Vision Network's Saturday evening programming strand Bumper's Block, and forty episodes over three series were produced for the show. Series 1 had twelve episodes and premiered in early 1994, whilst series 2 had eleven episodes and premiered in early 1995 and series 3 had eight episodes and premiered in the autumn of 1995. Despite only having thirty one episodes, the show is fondly remembered and was repeated on Kuboian television for over a decade.

Premise
Taking place in Wild Woods, a fictional forest-like area, in the area's largest tree live Orson "Blue Owl" Twitter and his mother, who sleep during the day and wake up during the night. During the daytime, the animals who reside in Wild Woods regularly face problems and/or conflicts which they have trouble resolving. When night falls, however, Blue Owl and his mother Oakley wake up and help their friends when they most need it.

Production
The series began production in 1992. It was created by German-Dutch producer Melony Claes, who originally created the show centred around an owahockoot, though the character was changed to an owl in order for non-Kuboian audiences to understand him more. Originally, Orson was going to be brown akin to a real life owl, though it was decided to make him a different colour so he could stand out more - blue was chosen to give him a "cool and peaceful" feel.

When the show was originally aired on Bumper's Block, it was aired under the title Blue Owl Stories. However, when it was released on home media and started airing on Tiny Vision, it started to air as simply Blue Owl.

Music
Musician Sidney Plasket composed the show's soundtrack, which consists of mostly folk music. The opening and credits sequence both use the same instrumental piece.

Legacy
Open Eagle has praised Blue Owl in several of its articles, stating once in 2018 that "despite not being incredibly action-packed or unorthodox like The Incredible World of Riddles or Magma Eye, it still pleases audience with its entertaining cast of characters, vibrant animation style and simple yet appealing storylines". KantasyDream.net ranked the show as one of the best cartoons of the 1990s.

In recent years, Blue Owl's full name, Orson Twitter, has provoked comical responses in the media due to the character sharing his surname with a popular social media website which launched over a decade after the show ended production. In 2010, Melony Claes said that she regretted not trademarking the Twitter name.

International broadcasts
In the United Kingdom, the show aired on CBBC from 1995 to 2001. It later aired on CBeebies in reruns from 2002 to 2006 and Tiny Pop from 2007 to 2010.

In the United States, Blue Owl aired on Playhouse Disney from 1999 to 2002. The show also aired on Showcase in Canada from 1995 to 1996 and later on TVOKids from 1996 to 2003. It also aired on El TV Kadsre 1 in El Kadsre from 1995 to 2005, as well as ABC for Kids in Australia from 1995 to 2004, and TVNZ 2 in New Zealand from 1995 to 2006.

Blue Owl aired throughout Europe. It aired on France 3 in France, Super RTL in Germany, Nederland 3 in the Netherlands, TVE in Spain and SVT in Swedenm and Minimax and KidsCo in several other European countries.

In the Arab world, the show had a long run on Spacetoon, debuting on the channel in 2001 and continuing to air in regular reruns until 2013.

VHS releases
Blue Owl was released in the mid-1990s on seven VHS tapes, which each had four episodes. These were released by Vision Video in Kuboia and BBC Video in the United Kingdom.

DVD releases
Later, three DVDs which contained all episodes of each of the three series were released in Region 2.
 * Blue Owl: The Complete First Series - released October 2009
 * Blue Owl: The Complete Second Series - released April 2010
 * Blue Owl: The Complete Third Series - released October 2010

Books
From 1995 to 1997, a series of books titled Blue Owl Stories (using a different logo from the show's original broadcast title) were published throughout Europe, Canada, El Kadsreian Islands, and Australia. These featured either three or four stories based around the show's characters. A total of six books were produced.

Later, from 1998 until 2003, a series of annual books based on the show were published. As well as activities including wordsearches and trivia, each annual also featured two stories with pictures that readers could colour in.

Video games
Two PC games based on the show were released in the 1990s:
 * Blue Owl: Wild Woods Funfair was released in 1995, and features a large list of activities and mini-games that the player can take part in.
 * Blue Owl: Wild Woods Adventure was released in October 1997. Featuring 3D graphics, it is an action-adventure video game with some point-and-click elements. A port for the PlayStation was planned for a 1998 release but was ultimately cancelled.