Shoebox Zoo
Shoebox Zoo is an urban fantasy TV series made in a collaboration between BBC Scotland and various Canadian television companies. It is mostly live-action, but with CGI used for the animal figurines. The show centers on the story of a young girl named Marnie McBride, who is given a shoebox containing four toy animals by a mysterious old man at a junk shop, as a gift for her 11th birthday. These magical toys have the power to come alive on Marnie’s command, and they’re on a quest to find an ancient book that once belonged to a great and powerful wizard.
Overview
Shoebox Zoo is an urban fantasy TV series made in a collaboration between BBC Scotland and various Canadian television companies. It is mostly live-action, but with CGI used for the animal figurines. The show centers on the story of a young girl named Marnie McBride, who is given a shoebox containing four toy animals by a mysterious old man at a junk shop, as a gift for her 11th birthday. These magical toys have the power to come alive on Marnie’s command, and they’re on a quest to find an ancient book that once belonged to a great and powerful wizard.
Noreen Halpern
Creator / EP
Ashley Irving-Scott
Producer
Episodes
1. The Magic Is Awakened
On her 11th birthday, still grieving over her recently deceased mother and uncomfortable with being moved from Colorado to Scotland, Marnie discovers that she is able to make a group of four old toy animals come alive.
2. Friend or Foe?
It's Marnie's first day of school at her new home in Scotland. She has an encounter with a bully but makes a new friend in Laura. Back home, she receives a package from America containing a necklace that belonged to her mother. She also discovers that her shoebox animal friends were once human, and that only a lost book can return them to their original form.
3. Echoes of the Past
When a mysterious problem causes school to be cancelled for the day, Marnie and Laura visit the nearby St. Giles’ Cathedral in order to find clues about the shoebox animals, as John Roberts said he saw a depiction of them on a stained glass window there.
Cast & Crew
Vivien Endicott Douglas
Marnie McBride
Simon Callow
Wolfgang the Wolf (voice) / Hunter the Horse (voice)
Rik Mayall
Edwin the Eagle (voice)
Alan Cumming
Bruno the Bear (voice)
Siobhan Redmond
Ailsa the Adder (voice)
Jason Connery
Ross McBride
