Team Umizoomi is a computer-animated Edutainment Show, with a focus on teaching beginning math concepts to preschool children. The main characters — Milli, Geo, and Bot — are three miniature heroes who live in a statue in Umi City. They help (real) children with their dilemmas, all of which require solving various counting, addition, and geometric challenges to do so. The viewer is addressed as their "UmiFriend" and incorporated into their adventures.
As superheroes, each team member has their own unique powers: Geo can create any object by assembling the appropriate geometric shapes from his belt, Milli has prehensile ponytails and can project patterns, and Bot is a multipurpose Do-Anything Robot. They typically travel around town in their orange self-driving UmiCar.
The show premiered on Nickelodeon in 2010 and aired it's final episode in 2015.
Tropes:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Half of the characters and props are made in CGI. Some of these characters blend in pretty well, some stick out like a sore thumb.
- Animesque: Team Umizoomi is influenced by Korean culture.
- Astral Finale: "Umi Space Heroes" involves Team Umizoomi going to space to repair the moon after the TroubleMakers have destroyed it by sending Trouble Bubbles.
- Beach Episode: The first involving rescuing a Blue Mermaid. The second involving returning a shark car to its owner.
- Bicolor Cows, Solid Color Bulls: All the cows in "The Milk Out" are black-and-white, with the added twist of the black patches being shaped like diamonds, hearts, moons, or stars. "The Kitty Rescue" has a blue bull, a brown bull, and a red bull.
- Black Bead Eyes: Milli, Geo and Bot have these.
- Breather Episode: "Robo-Tools", "The Sunshine Fairy", and "Little Panda Joe" are the breather episodes of Season 4, which introduced the TroubleMakers into this season.
- At this point, any Season 4 episode that doesn't have an antagonist is a breather episode.
- Brought Down to Normal: Subverted. The Shape Bandit only took Geo's shape belt, but not his powers.
- Captain Colorbeard: Squarebeard The Pirate.
- Cartoon Cheese: DoorMouse's usual lunch is a wheel of cheese.
- "CHEESY!"
- Catchphrase:
- Milli: "Pattern Power!" and "Milli Measure!"
- Geo: "Super Shapes!"
- Bot: Lots, including "Yoinks-A-Doinks!","Great Gigabytes!", and "Jumping JPEGs!"
- The villians have catchprases as well:
- "Bup-Be-Ah-Bah-Bah-Bah!" (Squiddy).
- "Ha Ha Ha Ha!" (Zilch).
- "Toodely-Doo" (Shape Bandit).
- "Trouble you later!" and "Trouble-Dee, Trouble-Dee, Trouble Ray!" (The Troublemakers)
- Cats Are Mean: Downplayed. The Shape Bandit is very clever and tricky, but not mean.
- Chromatic Arrangement: Milli (Pink/Red), Geo (Blue), and Bot (Green).
- City of Adventure: Umi City has its fair share of adventure with a Shape Bandit, a pair of TroubleMakers, a bunch of races, and, of course, the Team saving the day with math powers.
- Compressed Hair: With her helmet on, Milli's ponytails are quite thin and ribbon-like (see Magic Hair for justification). With her helmet off, they are full and luscious without any signs of helmet hair.
- Continuity Nod: In "The Great Umi Car Rescue", Milli mentions Umi Car winning the Umi City Race.
- Dance Party Ending: Every episode closes with the team dancing the Umi Shake dance along with its song. Since Season 2, every character who helped them in the episode dances with them.
- A Day In The Lime Light: Milli is focused on in the episode "Milli Saves The Day".
- Defeat Equals Friendship: Somewhat. It's usually whenever the team faces a villain.
- Averted with the Troublemakers.
- Determinator: "Milli to the Rescue" reveals that Milli would go through anything to help her friends Geo and Bot whenever they're in danger; there's even an entire musical number about it.
- Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: Any episode that has a race.
- "Umi Grand Prix" has the worst. The Shape Bandit, Dump Truck, Squiddy, and the TroubleMakers were probably better-off focusing on the race and only the race.
- Disney Acid Sequence: Almost any song in this show will have certain elements of this that relate to the song.
- Distressed Dudes:
- Geo and Bot in "Milli Saves The Day".
- Bot in "Crazy Skates".
- DoorMouse in DoorMouse in Space
- The Incredible Presto in both "The Incredible Presto" and "Presto's Magic House"
- Do-Anything Robot: Bot.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The theme song is performed by the three main characters.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: In "The Big Boat Race", the tones used for "Milli Measure" and "Pattern Power" are switched.
- Throughout most of Season 1, UmiCar was an inanimate car, compared to him being sentient in later seasons.
- Ears as Hair: Subverted. Milli is a non-animal girl, but what appear to be ponytails coming out of her helmet are actually tape measures.
- Edutainment Show: Teaches various math concepts to viewers.
- Evolving Credits:
- In Season 1, the opening starts with Milli, Geo, and Bot poking out of the grass, jumping over some shoes, and then getting into UmiCar and driving towards the viewers. The Season 2, 3, and 4 opening removes the grass scene and replaces it with a new one that consists of Bot, Milli, and Geo popping into the screen with the middle and latter without their helmets, then Milli and Geo put on their helmets and the team jumps.
- In the former opening, UmiCar is inanimate. In the latter opening, he becomes sentient.
- Extendable Arms: Bot can stretch his arms and legs to long lengths. In fact, two of his catchphrases are "Arms, extendo!" and "Legs, extendo!"
- Fantasy Helmet Enforcement: The titular characters always put on their seat-belts whenever they go inside Umi Car or any land vehicle. The seat-belts disappear at some points of time.
- The Team also puts on life-jackets when they go on anything floating in water.
- Milli and Geo wear helmets all the time, because you never know when you could go into a dangerous situation with Cool Helmets.
- Fictional Currency: The Umi Dollars/Umi Cents.
- Fisher King: Averted. Even when the King of Numbers is trapped in Zilch's tower, Numberland is still a bright and number-y kingdom.
- Fisher Kingdom: In "Movie Madness", whatever movie Team Umizoomi and/or a TroubleMaker enters, they end up dressed appropriately for the movie. (i.e. In the spy movie, Team Umizoomi is wearing spycatsuits, while Little Trouble is dressed entirely in white.)
- Four-Fingered Hands:
- Milli and Geo have these. Ironic for Mighty Math Heroes. Geo does grow a 5th one on one occasion, however.
- DoorMouse has the 5 proper fingers.
- Free-Range Children: Asides from Bot taking care of them, Milli and Geo play this straight.
- Ditto to the children in Umi City.
- Freudian Excuse: Almost every bad guy Team Umizoomi has ever encounter has one.
- Squiddy captured the Blue Mermaid because he was afraid of the dark.
- Zilch hated numbers because he never learned to count.
- The Shape Bandit stole shapes just to build a house.
- Grog stole Sunny's Sunshine Power because he didn't like his dark swamp.
- Friendly Rival: Dump Truck to UmiCar.
- Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: DoorMouse.
- Girlish Pigtails: Milli has two red-colored pigtails sticking out of her helmet.
- Hammerspace:
- In one episode, Geo pulls out a banana from behind his back to show what the Ice Lasers could do to the team if they weren't careful.
- Similarly, Bot's various compartments always has whatever item the story needs.
- "I Am" Song: The first song, Mighty Math Powers
, has the team introducing themselves and their powers. - Improbable Age: In "Job Well Done", Milli was able to get a job at a sandwich stand and Geo was able to become the newspaper boy.
- Milli and Geo sit in the front of UmiCar at 6 and/or 5! Probably justified as UmiCar drives itself and avoids dangers appropriately.
- Interspecies Friendship: Milli and Geo are friendly to Bot and DoorMouse. See Robot Buddy.
- Large Ham: There are people who had at least a few large ham moments.
- "Super Shaaaaaaaaapes, you-know-what-I'm-talking-about. Super, Duper Shapes!" (Cue Air Guitar)
- "Cheese! Come back, cheese! Coming through! CHEESY!"
- "YOINKS-A-DOINKS!"
- "BUP-BE-AH-BAH-BAH-BAH!"
- "TROUBLE RAY!"
- Lilliputians: Milli and Geo. Bot is a non-human version of this.
- Limited Wardrobe: Taken a few steps further, they even dive underwater with their clothes on (abet with faceplates and/or flippers). For spacesuit, they still have the faceplates, but their clothes turn white with few hints of color and gloves are added.
- A possible justification is that their clothes are waterproof Magic Pants.
- Magic Hair: Milli's hair can grow longer and measure!
- Magic Skirt: Played straight and literally with Milli's dress! No matter witch way Milli flips, turns or moves, Mill's dress is always in place. Her dress also changes colors.
- Magnetic Plot Device: Bot's Umi Alarm goes off whenever someone needs help.
- Meaningful Name:
- Milli is a Latin prefix for "Thousand", and is often used for measurements. It's also short for "millimeter" or "millisecond".
- Geo's powers related to geometry.
- Bot is short for "Robot".
- Medium Blending: The main characters are flash animated, but live actors also regularly appear and interact with the characters.
- Mouse World: Tend to be a subversion since the humans will often interact with the team.
- Mundane Utility:
- In one episode, Geo uses his shape powers to make snacks.
- Bot is a living version of this trope when not problem solving.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: DoorMouse can go from guarding doors in one episode to lowering bridges in another. He was also a shark catcher and a cowboy.
- Non-Indicative Name: Door Mouse at first averts this, guarding only doors. But then he starts guarding anything but doors, putting the name in question. He still does guard doors, but only in a few occasions.
- The Noseless: Milli and Geo are Type 1.
- No Song for the Wicked: Squiddy.
- Not Wearing Tights: Milli and Geo wear the basic dress/shirt and pants (respectively) and, along with Bot, use their own names.
- Odd Name Out: Think about it.
- "Milli" and "Geo" are math-related names. (millipede, millimeter, millisecond, geometry, geometric)
- Bonus points for being prefixes.
- "Bot" is the only non-math related name and non-prefix name.
- In another way, Milli's name has five letters instead of three (with Geo and Bot), further emphasizing her status as a leader.
- "Milli" and "Geo" are math-related names. (millipede, millimeter, millisecond, geometry, geometric)
- Our Fairies Are Different: Sunny the Sunshine Fairy
- Our Goblins Are Different:
- Zilch, if his appearance and ability were of any indication.
- Grog from "The Sunshine Fairy".
- Our Mermaids Are Different: The Blue Mermaid from "Legend of the Blue Mermaid."The Blue Mermaid: I love my home, I love my friends and all my friends love me.
- Pandaing to the Audience: "Little Panda Joe" features Little Joe, a baby panda that Millie, Geo and Bot help reunite with his parents at the Umi City Zoo.
- Parental Abandonment: Milli and Geo's parents are nowhere to be seen.
- Poke the Poodle: Most of the crimes the Troublemakers commit tend to be this, from breaking a skateboard to stealing lunch boxes. Their most heinous crime however, was splitting the moon into four pieces.
- Premiseville: Umi City. Take a wild guess.
- Remember the New Guy?:
- Bot immediately recognizes The TroubleMakers in the season four premiere "The Boy with the Dragon Skateboard", despite said premiere being the debut of the latter.
- Likewise, inverted. Any character/villain recently introduced in certain episodes/specials, if Team Umizoomi doesn't introduce themselves beforehand, will address Team Umizoomi by their actual name, even if it's never given it out to said character/villain.
- One example of this inversion is "Umi Cops!", where the Team is called upon by the Police General as The Umi Cops, despite only becoming cops recently.
- Ridiculously Human Robot: Bot is able to eat food, swim in the water and cry without being electrocuted (even when he says "Don't get my circuits wet"), and be friendly to people.
- Robot Buddy: Bot, if his name didn't clue you in, is a robot who is best friends with Milli and Geo.
- Roger Rabbit Effect: The animated characters often appear alongside and interact with live-action actors.
- Sentient Vehicle: UmiCar past the first half of season 1 is capable of speaking and moving around on its own.
- Shout-Out:
- The team's Yellow Submarine.
- In "Haircut Hijinx", Team Umizoomi has made references to Sonic The Hedgehog (in Geo's short hair segment), Sherlock Holmes, Anthony and Cleopatra, and Star Wars (in the photos segment).
- The Smurfette Principle: Milli is the only regular female in the team with a ratio of 1:3. But she is the leader of the team, making her prominent.
- Spell My Name with an S: "Milli" is sometimes spelled as "Millie".
- DoorMouse has his name spelled as "Door Mouse" and "Dormouse".
- Spy Catsuit: Subverted in "Movie Madness". The catsuits Milli, Geo, and Bot wear have a design that's no different from what they usually wear. It still carries the black part of the spy catsuit.
- Theme Music Power-Up:
- Season 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGO-vmK0DqE
- Season 2 (Lyrics will Vary): http://www.nickjr.com/kids-videos/team-umizoomi-kids-videos.html
- Season 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGO-vmK0DqE
- Theme Tune Roll Call: At the end of the theme song.Milli: Milli!Geo: Geo!Bot: Bot!Everyone: And you!
- Threatening Shark: Inverted with the episode Shark Car, including the character. Both follow the cutesy aesthetic of the show and the latter wouldn't even scare a fly.
- ¡Three Amigos!: Milli, Geo and Bot. This is an odd case. Both Milli and Geo are siblings.
- Three Plus Two: The show maily focuses on Milli, Geo, and Bot, but Umi Car sometimes jumps into the action.
- Tin-Can Robot: Bot.
- Unconventional Food Usage: In a licensed game, the villain causes "silly" things to happen around town, such as a window being made of cheese and a car's wheel being swapped with a pizza.
- Unmoving Plaid: Beautifully averted all together.
- Utility Belt: Geo has a shape belt that only carries you know what, but with his powers he can still make whatever a utility belt carries with the shapes he has.
- Vague Age: Milli is confirmed to be six and quite mature for her age. It's unknown about Bot or Geo.
- Geo could be the younger brother of Milli.
- Bot is most likely a young adult.
- And then there's Door Mouse.
- Villain Song:
- The Shape Bandit's theme song.
The Shape Bandit: "I'm a Shape Bandit. Please understand it. Shape Collecting is what I do."- The TroubleMakers' theme song:
The TroubleMakers: Trouble-Dee, Trouble-Dee, Trouble-Dee, Trouble-Dee, Trouble-Dee, Trouble-Dee, Trouble-Dee, Trouble-Dee, Trouble-Dee, Trouble-Dee, Trouble-Dee, Trouble-Dee, Double the trouble for you!- Come to think of it, pretty much every villain has one.
- Where The Hell Is Umi City?:
- Umi City might be in America, but with concepts like the Statue of Geometry and Umi Dollars, it's hard to tell.
- In "DoorMouse in Space", the rocket made by Geo leaves California, and later the two rocket ships head somewhere towards Florida or Georgia.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Milli is only 6, and Geo is no older than her. Yet they can handle responsibility, speak perfect English, and don't go into temper tantrums that often. They can also solve problems easily.
- Wrap-Up Song: Every episode ends with "The Umi Shake" song and dance. The lyrics were shortened and changed since Season 2, and every character who appeared in the episode joins as well.
- You Mean "Xmas": Valentine's Day is called "Just Because I Love You Day".
