Tayo the Little Bus

Tayo the Little Bus (Hangul: 꼬마버스 타요; RR: Kkoma-beoseu Tayo) is a South Korean computer-animated television series created by Iconix Entertainment and Educational Broadcasting System of Seoul.^[1] The show was produced with the help of Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon's administration.^[2] It began airing in South Korea on EBS in 2010, and an English-dubbed version of the series began airing on Disney Junior (Asia) in 2012, with Disney Junior (Australia and New Zealand) following in 2013. In the United States and Canada, Hulu is the exclusive distributor of the series.^[3]

The series is available in Korean, English, Spanish, Turkish and Russian on the production company's Tayo YouTube channel.^[4]

Season 1

1. A Day in the Life of Tayo
2. Tayo gets lost
3. Tayo's First Drive
4. Good Friends
5. Afraid of the Dark
6. Thanks, Cito!
7. Let's All Get Along
8. I Want New Tires
9. Our New Friend, Gani
10. Hana and Gani
11. I Want to Go on a Picnic!
12. Let's Be Friends
13. Nuri is a Superstar
14. Rogi's Hiccups
15. Hana's Day Out
16. The Best Heavy Equipment
17. Joey, the Magician
18. Frank and Alice Are Awesome!
19. Lani's Misunderstanding
20. Make Up, Frank and Alice
21. Tayo's Space Adventure
22. Speeding is Dangerous
23. Lani's Day Off
24. My Job's the Hardest
25. Gani is Sick
26. Tayo is the Best

Characters

Main characters

The series features four main characters.

• Tayo (Bus 120, blue) is a playful and sometimes mischievous. He is the third oldest of the four.
• Rogi (Bus 1000, green) is his brother and best friend, although the two often get into fights with each other. Funny and mischievous himself, Rogi also has an interest in detective work, as can be seen in "Rogi the Detective!" and "Prank Call Madness". Both friends resemble a Hyundai Super Aero City.
• Lani (Bus 02, yellow) is youngest of the four. She is cheerful and kind. Possessing little tolerance for arguments, she often acts as a mediator between Tayo and Rogi.
• Gani (Bus 1339, red), who is hardworking, warm-hearted, and shy. He is the oldest of the four.

Supporting characters

• Hana is a kind mechanic, who takes care of the little buses and works in the bus depot repair shop.
• Citu (who's original name was Cito), a red double-decker tour bus, serves as a father-figure for Tayo, Rogi, Lani, and Gani. He often reprimands Tayo and Rogi for getting too rough. However in "Cito's Secret" it is revealed that he had a boisterous past himself. An old mentor of his, Bubba, appeared in this episode.

Frequent supporting characters

• Nuri is a calm and professional female taxi who first met Tayo in the episode "A Day in the Life of Tayo". She is very nice to Tayo and his friends, often visiting them at the bus depot.
• Rookie is a police officer who sometimes goofs up with his job because he is new to it.
• Pat is an experienced police car who is always serious when working. Rookie is Pat's police officer.
• Speedy is a red car who likes to go really fast, and is modelled on a Porsche Targa 4S.
• Shine is an overproud yellow car who likes to show off, repeatedly leading to his own embarrassment. Shine is modelled after the Mercedes SLK R171 coupe.
• Heart is Hana's pink helper car but in the past green is her color in the episode "The New Friend, Heart" in the Season 4.

Recurring supporting characters

• Toto is a yellow tow truck who is really responsible with his job.
• Air is a red helicopter who is part of the rescue team.
• Bongbong is a very chipper light blue baby minibus, modelled on the classic VW minibus. First appearance in "Tayo and Bong Bong".
• Carry is a vehicle transporter akin to a mother or baby-sitter for Bongbong and three other cars.
• Champ is a turquoise countryside land rover.
• Cooku is a white and blue countryside bus.
• Toni is a little truck who obeys traffic laws and likes to teach other cars about traffic laws. In the episode "I Want New Tires", he was so busy teaching other cars about traffic laws that he got late delivering Tayo's new tires to the garage.
• Alice is an ambulance who works in a hospital who likes to work with Frank when there is a fire.
• Frank is a fire truck who works with Alice when there is a fire. He is serious about his job.
• Big is a big container truck who delivers goods to the airport to be sent overseas.
• Billy is a bulldozer who works at the construction site with Poco, Chris, and Max.
• Poco is an excavator who works at the construction site with Billy, Chris, and Max.
• Chris is a cement truck who works at the construction site with Billy, Poco, and Max.
• Max is a dump truck who works at the construction site with Billy, Poco, and Chris.
• Met is a subway train who knows about everything - in "Rogi's Hiccups" he showed this by helping Rogi to stop hiccupping.
• Nana is a bus living on the countryside with Cooku, Champ and Nana, She first appeared in the episode "Nana Visits the City".
• Wondie is an old blue bus who was scrapped a year before the first season.
• Ractor is a red tractor who lives in the countryside with Cooku, Champ and Nana.
• Rubby is a cleaning car. She first appears in "A New Playground".

Guest characters

• Joey is a magician who appears in the episode "Joey the Magician".
• Fire Ball is a superhero who appears in the episode "Nuri Is a Superstar". He is also disguised as the Car Thief.
• Princess Ray is the princess of Planet Clover and is always being chased by Bully. She appeared in the episodes "Tayo's Space Adventure", "Tayo's Space Adventure Part 1, "Tayo's Space Adventure Part 2", "Tayo's Earth Defense Plan 1" and "Tayo;s Earth Defense Plan 2".
• Bully is a space pirate and a main antagonist who appeared in the episodes "Tayo's Space Adventure", "Tayo's Space Adventure Part 1, "Tayo's Space Adventure Part 2", "Tayo's Earth Defense Plan 1" and "Tayo's Earth Defense Plan 2". He also has a son called "Woolly" and some henchmen.
• Reo is a superstar car who has many fans. He first appeared in "Gani the Superstar."
• Emy is a painter that paints flowers on the bus route list. He is the main scribbler painter, but in the end he painted on the buildings. He appeared in the episode "The Perfect Duo, Rookie and Pat".

Reception

At a Vietnamese seminar for addressing the struggles of the Vietnamese animation industry, Korean animators named Tayo the Little Bus as a series that has been "dominating" the Korean market. These animators also noted that the series is popular in China, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.^[5]

Cultural impact

Route 9401 bus that received Gani wrap

In 2014, the Seoul Metropolitan Government commissioned buses designed as the characters Tayo, Gani, Rogi, and Lani, to run around the Gwanghwamun Square area of the city. This was done as part of an initiative to teach children how to use the bus. The initiative was a massive success, drawing crowds of over 40,000 in a single day. People from all across the country came to see the buses. Although the buses were originally set to run from March 26 until Public Transport Day at the end of April, their popularity led to an extension until Children's Day on May 5. The number of buses was also expanded from the original four to 100. In wake of this success, the local governments of other cities in South Korea have considered adopting the campaign.^[6] Although officials for the city of Seoul initially opposed this, on copyright grounds,^[7] they consented in April to letting other cities use the characters for non-commercial purposes.^[2]

Jaeyeon Woo of The Wall Street Journal's blog Korea Real Time, speculated in an April 2014 article that the success of this initiative led both of Gyeonggi Province's gubernatorial candidates, Kim Sang-gon and Nam Kyung-pil, to adopt public transportation issues as a key part of their campaign platforms. Seoul-mayor Park Won-soon, who began the initiative, has been criticized by some of his political rivals, who feel that he took credit for the series, even though the series was began by his predecessor's administration.^[2]

On October 16, 2014, a South Korean group called the Teen Astronauts, launched a space balloon designed as the character Tayo from the Space Science Park in Korea's National Science Museum.^[8]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tayo the Little Bus.