Ouraine (TV series)

Ouraine is a Kuboian animated television series based on the book series of the same name by Ruth Tucker. The show ran for two series from 1995 to 1998, with the first airing on Bumper's Block and the second airing on Tiny Vision.

Premise
The show centres around Ouraine, an upbeat and funky nine year-old girl who lives with her parents and younger sister Juliet in a vibrant urban village. With her friends and family, she has many adventures that typically involve her using her imagination to come up with solutions to problems.

Format
Each twenty three-minute episode is divided between two different stories. In between the two stories is either a music video for a song featured in the show, or a short clip in which Ouraine learns about making music. The second story also typically ends with a dance sequence (usually to the song featured in the episode's interlude segment) before the credits play.

In the second series, the two stories are occasionally interconnected with each other.

Cast and characters
Other characters on the show were played by Lilian Pond and Jack Carole.
 * Emily Merletta as Ouraine, a cheerful and imaginative nine year-old.
 * Denise Chevrolet as Juliet, Ouraine's six year-old sister. She is not as outgoing as her sister, instead showing a more soft-spoken side, showing a lot of passion for people and things she cares for deeply but often being reluctant to try new things.
 * Millie Tucker as Ouraine's mother. She is generally shown to be lazy and finding excuses to get out of doing work, but will up her game when the time calls for it.
 * Darren Marion as Ouraine's father, who occasionally gets annoyed at his partner's laziness but is otherwise well-meaning and caring.

Production
Ouraine entered production around mid-1993. Creator Ruth Tucker was initially sceptical about making the series over fears it would be "commercialised" and ruin the charm of the original book series. She stated in an interview "Kuboian children's programmes were often very dark and dramatic. I didn't want the show to be incredibly depressing and serious, I wanted it to stand out." To help the show stand out from the other Bumper's Block original programmes, she decided to use a 'two shorts' format and incorporate music into the show's theme.

Chloe Wallace composed the show's hip-hop and dance-pop-orientated soundtrack, which included several rap songs performed by Emily Merletta. Wallace listened to American hip hop groups such as N.W.A, Run-DMC and Salt-N-Pepa for influence, as well as the "Pingu Dance" by David Hasselhoff from the Swiss stop-motion series Pingu. When a pilot episode for the show was produced in 1994, it featured Ouraine skipping down a street with the instrumental version of N.W.A's 1989 single "Express Yourself" playing in the background. Wallace wanted to sample a hip-hop song for the show's soundtrack, but was advised not to by Tucker, who was worried about clearing the samples and getting attacked by the hip-hop community for "kiddie-fying" songs from their favourite rappers.

Ouraine was one of the first Kuboian animated series to depict characters living in an urban setting in contrast to a rural or fantasty setting. It was also one of the first animated series to use digital ink.

Specials
The show had two specials; The Christmas Hit, which premiered on 24th December 1996, and Ouraine's Special Gift, which premiered on 11th March 1997.

Broadcast
After the show came to an end, reruns continued to air on KT until 2007. The show also aired on Nick Jr. Kuboia from 1996 until 2004.

In the United Kingdom
Ouraine had its UK premiere on CBBC in September 1995, airing in its original Kuboian format, though reruns typically only showed one story per timeslot. The show moved to CBeebies in February 2002, and continued to air on the channel until it was pulled from its schedule in early 2005. It also aired on Nickelodeon for a short period in the late 1990s.

Reruns of Ouraine were also shown on Nick Jr. from 1999 to 2001, and Tiny Pop from 2004 to 2007.

Other international airings
Ouraine also saw airings in several countries worldwide. The show also aired on ABC in Australia, CBC in Canada, Super RTL and Junior in Germany and Nederland 3 in the Netherlands. In the United States, Ouraine aired on The Disney Channel as part of its Playhouse Disney programming block from 1997 to 2001.

In some international versions, only one story is shown under a ten or fifteen minute timeslot.

Home media
Ouraine was released on VHS by Vision Video, though distribution in the United Kingdom was handled by BBC Video. These typically featured two episodes (four stories) apiece with their respective interlude segments.

A series of DVD volumes followed in 2002, which each typically had three episodes (six stories) each, as well as some bonus features.

Reception
The BBC praised the show, citing "Whilst most Kuboian cartoons try too hard to be a fantasy-soap opera, Ouraine is a nice change of pace", though acknowledged that some parents might find the music annoying. Kuboian magazine Open Eagle also praised Ouraine for its characters, music and humour.

In 1996, the show won a KEMPA award for "Best Pre-School Animation".

Toys
A moderate amount of merchandise based off Ouraine was released in the mid and late 1990s. This included posters, clothing, and an inflatable playset featuring Ouraine and Juliet.

Books
An Ouraine annual series was published from 1996 to 2001, typically in October of each year. Each book featured puzzles (such as word searches and crosswords), colouring pages, trivia and a short story featuring the characters from the show. The annuals also included interviews with the show's cast and writers, as well as a section titled "Ouraine's Picks", in which Ouraine talks about her favourite newly-released songs.

Ouraine and the Music Maker
Ouraine and the Music Maker was released for Windows computers in 1997. It allows the user to create their own hip hop and dance instrumentals. The software contains a multitude of different instruments, a variety of samples of backup singers proclaiming a variety of different words and phases, and the ability to change the key and tempo of recordings. It also comes with eight pre-made tracks that can be copied and edited freely.

Spin-offs
After Ouraine ended its run, the show's writer Hollis Davies created two shows with similar premises; Olly in 2002 and Melanie in 2005. Ouraine and some of the other characters make cameo appearances in both shows. Davies considers the three shows part of the "Heatherwood" trilogy, with its name deriving from the setting's name in Olly.