Shoebox Zoo
"Believe."
Plot Summary
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.
Cast & Characters
Cast
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
Peter Mullan
Michael Scot
David McKay
William McTaggart
Bill Paterson
The Storyteller (voice)
Gordon Tootoosis
Nathaniel Stone
Natascha Girgis
Aurora Dexter
Tony Donaldson
Juan Roberto Montoya de Toledo
Yudii Mercredi
Kyle Stone
Paul Cœur
Bobby Campbell
Valerie Pearson
Dorothy Campbell
Kelsey Collins Keener
Becky Dexter
Where to watch free (US)
No free providers found in US.
Seasons (2)
Season 1
13 episodes
Aired: 2004
On her 11th birthday, Marnie McBride goes to a junk shop with her father to pick out a present. There, the mysterious shopkeeper eagerly gifts her a shoebox containing four animal figurines, all of whom have the ability to magically spring to life. Marnie now has to deal with the struggles of balancing her life between adventuring with the collectively named “Shoebox Zoo” animals on a quest to find an ancient book of magic, and her day-to-day life as a schoolgirl, on top of having to deal with the grief stemming from the loss of her recently deceased mother.
Season 2
13 episodes
Aired: 2005
Marnie, with the Shoebox Zoo animals in tow, travels from Edinburgh to her hometown of Denver. Now accompanied by her best friend Kyle, the quest for the Book of Forbidden Knowledge continues as the two friends must piece together several clues in order to find the true location of the book, all the while having to once again stop the evil plans of Toledo, who is seemingly back from the dead as a ghostly apparition. Will Marnie and Kyle be able to find the book and turn the Shoebox Zoo back to their human forms? Or will the nefarious shapeshifter prevail?
Production
BBC Scotland
Blueprint Entertainment
Alberta Filmworks