MANILA, Philippines - What do you get when you put a boy and a short-haired gibbon together? You get the off-the-wall animated comedy Pok & Mok! Follow the lives of Mok, an eight-year-old boy, whose mind goes a mile-a-minute, and his pet gibbon Pok in a never-ending series of goofy adventures where they discover the wild side of going green.
Keeping the cheeky duo in check is Mom Penelope and Dad Ernest, who never fail to put out the fires of their misadventures. Each 30-minute episode features three stories, each with its own lesson to be learned. Wonder why Pok shouldn’t jump down the drain to see where the water flows? Or why Mok should stop spraying pesticides on plants to make them grow faster? Find out as it airs weekdays at 5:30 p.m., starting today on Discovery Kids. It encores the following weekday at 2:30 p.m.
Forget about dull, old-fashioned cartoons that try to get kids to save the planet. Discovery Kids brings viewers a fast-paced, slightly chaotic but thoroughly entertaining animated series that teaches kids and parents alike, just how and why banishing certain bad habits can help keep the environment clean, green and healthy. Pok & Mok! depicts the daily life of Mok and his hyperactive, furry, humanlike sidekick, Pok in their hilarious discovery of sustainable development. Though parents are a nag and can be overbearing at times, their witty comebacks usually guide Pok and Mok to pick up good habits that promote environmentally-friendly living. Though the mischievous pair has good intentions, like creating a present for Penelope’s birthday from scratch as Ernest advises them to, it can sometimes end in unexpected results, often leading viewers to laugh out loud or sometimes even cringe.
Other lessons from the show include the importance of saving electricity, the effects of plastic which takes 400 years to break down, water-saving measures that will benefit the family, recipes for homemade cleaning products and how putting the trash away instead of littering can save dolphins and sea turtles.
Stylistically, the comic series mixes a variety of graphic design techniques — interiors were built in scale-models and outdoors are featured in a photomontage technique where characters are integrated in 2D animation. A mixture of sitcom, manga and cartoon served as inspiration for the characters’ design that makes them unique and adds to their comical personalities.