"Together, we're Justin Time!"note
Justin Time is a Canadian animated edutainment show aimed at the preschool crowd created by Brandon James Scott. It was produced by the Canadian animation studio Guru Studio, and was their very first original series. The show aired on Disney Junior in Canada (now Family Jr.), as well as PBS Kids Sprout, NBC, Qubo, and Netflix Kids in the US.The show focuses on a young boy named Justin, his Imaginary Friend Squidgy and their friend, a girl named Olive. In each episode Justin faces some type of problem or issue. Then Olive will take Justin and Squidgy on an adventure through different cultures, countries and time periods. The adventure somehow leads Justin to the solution to his problem. Then he and Squidgy return home to fix whatever triggered the adventure in the first place.
The show originally ran for 2 seasons and a total of 26 episodes between 2011 and 2014. In 2016 however, Netflix commissioned a new season of 13 additional episodes called Justin Time GO!. One of the major changes is the addition of a new character called Sammy, a new friend to Justin, who in Justin's imagination, acts as rival to him.
The series also has an official YouTube channel, with episode compilations on it.
Justin Time features examples of...
- All Animals Are Dogs: Most of the animals Justin encounters behave just like dogs. Being a kid, he probably doesn't know any better.
- Ambiguously Brown: Olive may be Asian, or part Asian. It's hard to tell with the animation and it's never elaborated upon.
- Anachronism Stew: The show does occasionally fall into this, in spite of its best efforts.
- Artifact Title: The show's name was from when it was originally going to have time travel.
- Designated Villain: Sammy has In-Universe examples whenever he shows up in Justin's imagined adventures. Though more ignorant or antagonistic than villainous, and more than once genuinely misunderstood, an aliased version of Sammy will show up and often be the crux example for the lesson to be learned. Occasionally, he represents the frustrations that Justin is having at the time, but alias-Sammy will always part with Justin on good terms in the end.
- Cheerful Child: Justin.
- The Faceless: Zigzagged in the first season. Justin's parents are mostly only seen waist up. But there are times where we see their faces (mostly his mom's face). Averted in season two and Go.
- Girlish Pigtails: Olive.
- Iconic Outfit: Justin wears shorts in all situations.
- Imaginary Friend: Squidgy. And Olive. It starts to fall into
Fridge Horror a little when you realize Justin has no friends that are real...at least that we've seen.- Though, in "Hoedown Hootenanny, he mentions he's going to go see some friends in the park. In Go!, he gains a consistently showcased new friend in Sammy.
- Keet: Squidgy. Sammy, too, in his best moments.
- Leitmotif: Each of the three main characters gets a short one in the opening credits.
- Luminescent Blush: In the episode "Marcello's Meatballs," Justin and Squidgy congratulate Olive for making a really tasty spaghetti dish and she visibly blushes, averting her gaze away from Justin. She then smiles at him and he smiles back.
- Master Actor: When he shows up, Sammy can play well with whatever role that Justin's adventures might take him. He's been an outlaw, an overconfident famous Skier, a Dastardly Whiplash in a bowler hat, a great Russian thief, and a misunderstood squire with his heart in the right place, to name a handful of examples.
- Magic Skirt: Olive turns this into an art form. The most notable example is when she did this in a hula skirt, despite being dragged across a beach.
- Midair Bobbing: Squidgy does this sometimes.
- Most Writers Are Adults: Justin is supposed to be 6 and 1/2 years old. And yet, when he goes on adventures with Olive, the two tend to act a good deal older than they're supposed to be, especially Olive.
- Mr. Imagination: Justin.
- Sammy as well.
- Ms. Exposition: Olive as she's often the one who provides information to Justin.
- Power Floats: Squidgy's Flight abilities manifest in this way. He is mostly seen floating.
- Pun-Based Title: A direct-to-DVD movie shares the same name, and a book in the Amber Brown series by Paula Danziger uses the same pun — It's Justin Time, Amber Brown.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Squidgy is able to understand almost any animal he, Justin, and Olive come across.
- Title Theme Tune: "Around the world / Together we're Justin Time!"
- Viewers Are Goldfish: Justin certainly seems to be. The lesson of the day is done at least twice in each episode: once at Justin's home and once during the adventure.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Squidgy has the ability to do this. He can shapeshift into anything from a large sail to a telescope, and back again.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Squidgy hates snakes, and is afraid of them.
- Youthful Freckles: Olive has these.
