Trivia / PJ Masks

• Adored by the Network: The fact it's the only Disney Junior show so far that's gone so far to be renewed for a sixth season should tell you this. For the record, most Disney shows stop at three. This is however largely due to the series being acquired programming, originally made for other channels such as France 5 and Rai Yoyo, and thus not under distribution and ownership by Disney–ABC Domestic Television, but rather the series' creators.
• Cash-Cow Franchise:
  • Despite being second fiddle to their more popular rivals, the show has gotten everything, from toys, to backpacks and costumes, and even a couple live shows in 2017 and 2019. Heck, there is even a themed land in Leolandia over in Italy, a marine-themed travelling exhibit based on the series will be travelling across Merlin Entertainments' various Sea Life aquariums worldwide, and an attraction, PJ Masks Adventure Zone, in Hasbro's in-house theme park, Hasbro City, in Mexico.
  • The book series also falls into this trope, such as selling merchandise of a comic spin-off of the series, a coloring wall, and library book collections.
  • At one point in time, North American merchandise sales for PJ Masks surpassed those of both the Disney Princess franchise and Frozen.
  • The show also has a video game based on the television series named PJ Masks: Heroes of the Night, which was released on October 29, 2021 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and Stadia. Next-gen versions for Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 were released in 2022. It also got another console game in March of 2024 based on the show's Power Heroes season called PJ Masks Power Heroes: Mighty Alliance, and it was released on almost all of the same systems (minus the Stadia for obvious reasons).
• Cross-Dressing Voices:
  • In episodes starting with Season 2 and onwards in the French dub, the lead PJ Catboy is voiced by female actress, Circé Lethem. The same goes for Armadylan and Howler who are voiced by Déborah Rouach and Sophie Pyronnet respectively.
  • This trope is taken to the extreme in the Japanese dub, with almost all of the main and recurring male characters being voiced by females. Justified, as they are only young children.
    • Averted with Percival, who is still voiced by a male.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: Ivan/Ice Cub, the polar bear themed hero that debutes in season 6, is wheelchair bound during the day and has to rely on his upper body strength to move when in his superhero identity. His voice actor, Nylan Parthipan, has been diagnosed with muscular dystrophy since age 2.
• Dueling Works:
  • With Miraculous Ladybug. Both are CGI cartoons about young superheroes, and both have superficial similarities (including both having male cat-themed superheroes - very early promotional work for the Miraculous Ladybug dub listed her partner in crime-fighting as Cat Boy ala PJ Masks) PJ Masks is clearly aiming for a younger audience with Disney Junior, while Miraculous aired on Nickelodeon's main network and Nicktoons towards older tweens and young teens before moving to Netflix and Disney Channel.
  • Adding to the irony, Disney Channel later picked up Miraculous Ladybug in the States, which is very unusual for a foreign cartoon.
  • It also competes with another CGI animated series that also airs on Nickelodeon, PAW Patrol. But unlike Miraculous, PAW still remains on Nick because it's extremely loved, PJ is just as popular as its toy sales are on par with PAW, to the point where the franchise grosses more money than the Disney Princess line. Also adding to the irony, PJ shares some of the same Canadian voice actors as PAW and vice versa, with the Season 6 premier "Heroes Everywhere"^note With this season, being retooled and rebranded as Power Heroes having a somewhat similar premise to the first Mighty Pups special and Romeo gaining the same super powers in the same episode as Harold Humdinger, and this season adds new three members ^note Ivan/Ice Cub, Bastet, and Lilyfay into their team, similar to how the pups gain new members in specific seasons ^note Or in the case of Liberty, and the Junior Patrollers, a theatrical feature film, or in the case of Rubble's family, a spin-off series. in their franchise, and the Power Heroes episodes having a similar structure to PAW Patrol, and starting with the Power Heroes season in France, the show moved from France 5, to TFOU, which airs BOTH Miraculous, and PAW. Further adding to the irony.^note This isn't the first time PJ Masks airs on the same local foreign network which broadcast content for kids as it's competitors happened, in Mexico, Canal 5 broadcast PJ Masks, PAW Patrol, and Miraculous Ladybug.
  • With the Spider-Man preschool series, Spidey and His Amazing Friends, sporting a similar premise of a superhero trio stopping baddies and learning life lessons. There's easily an overlap with these shows airing on the same network.
• Edited for Syndication: Some reruns on the British network Tiny Pop trim the theme song considerably.
• Kids' Meal Toy: Burger King has released a set of 8 books based on the Power Heroes season in their King Jr. Meal, in areas like Lebanon, Latin America, Vietnam, Finland, and other countries outside the USA, making it the very first Disney Junior show to get ANY fast food promotions, as previous ones were from Nick Jr..
• No Export for You: The TV-series itself is very successful and has been sold to many countries, but good luck finding the original picture books that inspired the show anywhere outside of France / The French speaking part of Belgium (or in a language other than French). Not even the French speaking part of Canada has the books!
• Out of Order:
  • In the episode "Wacky Floats," the PJ Masks suddenly have their Robot Buddy PJ Robot, and it's revealed they all got new powers. However, neither is given a proper introduction until "PJ Robot" and "PJ Power Up" respectively, proving that those two episodes and "May the Best Power Win" are chronologically set before "Wacky Floats."
  • In a similar albeit less-direct approach, the episode "Take Romeo Off the Road" introduces the PJ Seeker, which was already featured in the short "PJ Racing" before the episode's premiere.
• Real-Life Relative: The Speedy Twins are voiced by Emma Ho and Ian Ho, who are twins in real life.
• Recursive Adaptation:
  • After the show became a hit, the book series underwent a soft reboot (starting with book 19, Les Pyjamasques et l'opération zéro) to incorporate certain elements introduced in the show. Most notably the book counterparts of the PJ Masks' (Les Pyjamasques) getting vehicles and daytime counterparts, Owlette's book counterpart (Bibou) getting more feminine eyes despite the continuing lack of eyelashes, book counterparts for Luna Girl and Night Ninja, and the PJ's new powers.
  • And in a more direct case of this trope, episodes of the tv-series have in turn been adapted back into picture books (though these are not considered part of the original book series).
• Sleeper Hit: The show wasn't expected to amount to much for Disney Junior, given their track record with acquired foreign series (where they would either only air them once a day or late at night, or take the show on and off the schedule at random), but ended up becoming their first acquired series to be successful.
• Short Run in Peru:
  • The Season 2 episodes "Easter Wolfies" to "Romeo's Action Toys" aired in India in November 2018 before airing in the United States.
  • The Season 5 episodes "The Power of Mystery Mountain," "Slow and Cunning" and "Riding Heroes Were Able To Help" aired in Russia in early July, weeks before debuting in the United States.
  • The Season 6 premiere "Heroes Everywhere" aired in the series' birth country of France on April 9th, just 10 days before premiering in the United States. All future episodes of the season would eventually follow suit, except that they would air almost two whole weeks before they air in the US.
  • On that note, the Season 6 episodes since “Heroes of Iceworld” aired on the Mexican feed of Disney Junior Latin America after they aired in France, and before they started to air in the United States, and some like “The Christmas Ninjalinos” even premiering first in Mexico even before they premiered in France, mainly due to the franchise being extremely popular, and well loved in Mexico, the final episodes of that season also aired in Mexico and Latin American countries on the larger Latin American feed of the channel way before they aired in France for the same reasons.
• The Other Darrin: Most of the voices get changed between seasons in both the Canadian English version and Latin American Spanish dub. This is most notable, because most of the main characters (including two of the three title characters) are voiced by kids.
• Unspecified Role Credit: The end credits list all the voice actors, but doesn't state which character they voiced.
• What Could Have Been:
  • There is concept art and a CGI render of the PJ Masks using designs based on Les Pyjamasques's original book designs, with the only difference being that Owlette has a feminine expression (complete with longer eyelashes) compared to Bibou's standard expression, despite both characters being female.
    • The same concept art of the masks with the book-esque versions of them also has Connor and Greg, who seem to be unchanged, but Amaya looks noticeably different.
  • There is concept art of a villain named Firefly, who had spiky pink hair and wore a black costume with bright aqua lines and wings on the back. This antagonist was left on the cutting room floor, so nothing else about this character has been revealed, not even the gender (though their lack of eyelashes would imply that they would've been a male character).
    • The character Motsuki is likely a repurposed version of the character, only that she's female rather than male.
  • Concept art for the existing Nighttime Villains shows various possibilities that could have gone through including:
    • Romeo's goggles having a USB port-esque nosepiece that could detach into individual lenses.
    • Luna Girl having either a prism or a wand as weapon instead of a magnet.
    • Night Ninja and/or the Ninjalinos having the most variety through examples such as red color schemes, visible mouths, and wearing hooded jackets.
  • Concept art for Season 2 shows there were plans to give the PJ Masks new vehicles, including motorcycles, boats, and flying cars, and even a Humongous Mecha (one of the combining kind by the looks of it).
  • PJ Robot also went through a lot of design changes, including an Iron Man-esque version with legs, a version that would move on a wheel, and a version with four arms.
  • Some of An Yu's concept art shows that it was a toss up between her final red and yellow clothes, an orange and yellow one and a white and yellow one. An orange and black suit was also designed.
  • Some of the Splat Monster's designs show him looking more like a rock golem rather than having actual sticky splat for his skin.
  • Octobella's early design shows her to be more humanlike than like a cecaelia, with the tentacles that would make up her bottom half originally being a skirt. She also wore a squid as a hat.
  • According to Christian De Vita, Cat Stripe King was originally intended to be called "Speedcat", but the name had been taken by another series.