time to go to the moon kids

When I was a child, like many, I had a fascination with the moon. I remember my Dad returning from a business trip with fluro painted rocks (obviously from his trip to the moon) that could glow in the dark. Mine was green and my brothers was, his favourite colour, orange. Together we would switch the lights off and pretend to be spaceman explorers discovering rocks on the moon. When I heard that an old school friend Craig Reeves had created a children's show about a man on the moon, obviously my inner child was very excited! 

His creation is so full of joy and imagination. Such a lovely little gift for the little rascals of our time. 

I asked Craig of Pickled Pepper Productions a few questions on their latest wonderful creation; Moon Man Dan.

For those who don't know - who and what is Moon Man Dan?

Dan is a Moon Man, the keeper of our Moon.  He lives in a ‘Luna-Caravan’ and has adventures with his Moon friends, The NoOms and the MoOnMoos.  At the end of the day, the Moon Clock chimes, and Dan readies The Moon for bed. He pulls the blanket that gives The Moon it’s shape, checks through his MoonMan Telescope that the Earth is happy and ready for bed, and when all is right, he turns on the big Moon light.

What's the inspiration behind the Moon Man Dan project?

Moon Man Dan was inspired by a younger me, having conceived the idea many years ago as a young boy looking up at the night sky. The notion of looking out at our Moon and projecting a character from an imagination spoke out to me. Personally, The Moon has been a place of wonder and mystery, echoed I am sure over the century’s by millions of stargazers to all who have stared up at the night sky.  Its simple and alien landscape is the perfect stage for our characters to engage with our young audience and bring the notion of a world beyond our own

How have children and adults responded to it?

Pickled Pepper Productions has had some fantastic and exciting feedback from both parents and children, it has simply been overwhelming to see and hear. During production of the concept and episode design, we presented Moon Man Dan to children of different age groups. This activity allowed us to understand where Moon Man Dan works or needed attention, since, the concept has seen many tweaks and alterations over the years to bring us to where we are today. Our research has ensured that sounds are stimulating, characters are engaging and that our concept achieves its goal of bringing The Moon and space to the attention of children through entertainment. We believe that this detail in our craft and development is key and why we have had such a great response to our work. 

What is next in store for Moon Man Dan?

Moon Man Dan, The Gravity Lever has been created with a personal budget and a team full of passion. We are children’s TV professionals with experience working on many award winning shows such as In The Night Garden, Peter Rabbit, Teletubbies, Shaun the Sheep, Octonauts and Abney & Teal to name but a few. With many of us having been made redundant from our long standing positions, The Moon Man Dan project has kept us together over the past three plus years and hopes to secure our continuing contribution to the children’s TV industry. We are currently collating our feedback in order to present to investors and commissioners from all walks of the children’s media world, both in the UK and internationally.

- I wish them all the best of luck! You can stay tuned with them on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.