Mix up the Magic on Milkshake! Magical new preschool series, Mixmups sparkles onto Channel 5’s Milkshake!

Mixmups, the brand new animation for three to five-year olds, launches on Channel 5’s Milkshake! on the 4th of November.

The 52 x 10-minute series is inspired by all children’s love of “mixing” things together as a way of playing, exploring and discovering and aims to encourage individuality, imagination, friendship, and flexible thinking.

Commissioned by Channel 5’s Milkshake!, Mixmups is the brand’s first animated pre-school series featuring disabled lead characters and made by a team with lived experience of disability. The series was developed and produced by Manchester-based Mackinnon & Saunders (Pinocchio, Moon & Me) and created by Rebecca Atkinson, the founder of the viral #ToyLikeMe campaign which called for more diversity in children’s industries.

Mixmups centres around three friends, the Mixmups: neat and tidy Pockets, creative and inventive Giggle and boisterous and physical Spin, along with their lovable assistance pets, Roller Guinea and Yapette the guide dog, who all live in a wheelchair-accessible Helter-Skelter house in Mixington Valley.

Each episode sees the friends use their wooden spoon and magical mixing box to ‘Mix up the Magic’ of play and imagination and transport themselves on a host of comical adventures. Through their young, imaginative minds, they embrace a variety of ways to play, entertain each other and embark upon day-to-day problem-solving challenges with the help of the trunky-beaked Lucky Loover Bird.

Mixmups Creator, Rebecca Atkinson said: “In Mixmups I wanted to create a universally appealing show which would burst from screens like a seaside candy store of creativity, bright, tangible, sweet and funny, capturing the magic of play and the ability of pre-schoolers to disappear into their own imaginations, but with unprecedented attention to the lived experience of disabled children and families.”

Louise Bucknole, General Manager, Kids and Family, U.K. & Ireland, Paramount said: “We are so proud to have commissioned the wonderful Mixmups for Milkshake!. It’s a beautiful animation packed full of imagination and, what’s more, it’s a show accessible to every child. It’s been an incredible journey working alongside Rebecca and the team to bring this series to life and we’re so excited to introduce it to our Milkshake! audience.”

The series uses 2D and 3D animation and was directed by Andy Burns, written by Debbie MacDonald and Rebecca Atkinson and produced by Chris Bowden with consultation from play and educational expert, Karen Newell.

 Mixmups was developed and produced with support from the UK Government funded Young Audiences Content Fund (YACF), which is managed by the BFI and in collaboration with Raydar Media.

Catch Mixmups every Saturday and Sunday from 4th November at 8.15am on Channel 5’s Milkshake! and streaming on My5.