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Work It Out Wombats! is a PBS Kids series produced by (W)GBH Boston and Pipeline Studios, who also animated fellow PBS series Elinor Wonders Why and Alma's Way.

The series centers on a trio of wombat siblings — Malik, Zadie, and Zeke, who live with their grandmother Super in a treehouse apartment complex. Each day throws a new challenge their way, and things don't always go as planned. But with creativity and cooperativeness on their side, they always triumph.

The series is designed to teach computational thinking skills to young audiences, such as using the design process, sequencing, and debugging. It premiered on February 6, 2023.

The show's website and theme song are available here, and you can read a press release here. A podcast based on the series premiered in January 2024.


Work It Out Wombats! contains examples of:

  • Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Quique and his son Sammy are snakes who wear hats and nothing else.
  • Aerith and Bob: While Malik, Zadie, and Zeke are normal names, their grandmother is named Super (because she's the Superintendent of the Treeborhood), which is an adjective rather than a proper noun in real life.
  • Affectionate Gesture to the Head:
    • In "The Mighty Zeke," Mr. E headpats Zeke after he bumps into him a second time.
    • In "Game Changer," Malik headpats Zeke after calling him the best official umbrella helper ever.
  • Affectionate Gesture to the Nose: In "Helper For the Day," Mr. E taps Zeke's nose while praising him for a job well done.
  • Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: For starters, our main characters are blue, orange, and purple wombats.
  • Appointment Television: In "Summerweenie Halloweenie," Mr. E is annoyed when the wombats come to his house, since he was in the middle of watching The Bakey Bakey Show and they were about to do the big strudel reveal.
  • Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?:
    • In "Make It Snow," the kids need something flat on the bottom of their life-sized snow globe. Suddenly, they get wet when Louisa is drying off her inflatable pool. This makes Malik get an idea, and say "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
    • This exchange in "Bake It Til You Make It":
    Louisa: Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
    Zeke: We play Sticker Monster?
  • Art Shift: Often when Zadie imagines things, her thoughts are shown in the style of arts-and-crafts with cardboard, puffballs, and popsicle sticks.
  • The Baby of the Bunch: Zeke is the youngest of the wombats.
  • Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Our marsupial heroes don't wear any shoes.
  • Be the Ball: The 3 Marsupial Kids seem to like curling up, and rolling around like cute furry balls.
  • The Big Race: "Racecar Wombats" centers on the first ever Treeborhood Derby. The wombats want to participate, but their racecar can't fit through the doorway. Eventually, they do make it to the race on time, and everyone wins.
  • Big "NO!": At the end of "Sparklepants," Mr. E preforms this when a large shipment of Sparkle Oven Mitts are delivered.
  • Big "WHY?!": In "Campout Confusion," Zadie, forlorn over the ruined campout and burnt zucchini, shouts "WHY?"
  • Binocular Shot: In "Bake It Til You Make It," Zeke does this while looking for the perfect dirt for his mud pie. He doesn't use actual binoculars, but he cups his hands around his eyes.
  • Blinded by the Light: In "Sparklepants," when Zadie shines her flashlight on the sparklepants, Mr. E shouts that "Those infernal sparkling pants are blinding me!" This inspires Zadie to use the sparklepants and flashlights to make a landing pad for Ellie.
  • Blown Across the Room: In "Junior Supers," Zadie tries to use a fan to clean up the mess, but it ends up blowing the trash (and Malik) across the room.
  • Book Ends: "Junior Supers" started with the wombats' bedroom being messy. Using what they learned in the Starlight Room, they break things down to clean their bedroom at the end of the episode.
  • Bragging Theme Tune: Doubles with Expository Theme Tune. The theme song explains how the Wombat siblings like to solve problems and always help others, which is also the basic plot of the series.
  • Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: In "Zadie's Shell Shuffle," Zadie thinks that Mr. E will be mad, sad, and mad-sad about what happened to his garden.
  • Buffy Speak: In "A Super Recipe," Malik says that sweetness, crunchiness, and yellow coloration are what make cornbread "cornbready."
  • Camping Episode: "Campout Confusion" centers on the wombats going camping with the crab kids, but things don't go well because Zadie didn't make a plan.
  • Casting Gag: Downplayed. This isn't the first time Ian Ho voiced a wombat. note 
  • Cheerful Child: All three of our child wombat heroes are happy and playful, but Zadie probably stands out in terms of sheer energy.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • In "Zadie's Shell Shuffle," JunJun sings a song about the colors of Mr. E's shell garden. When Zadie accidentally messes up the shell garden, she uses JunJun's song to figure out the pattern the shells should be in.
    • In "Zoom In Zadie," Zeke mentions that Super helped him learn to draw a square when he was having trouble learning. Later, Super and Malik attend the class and Super help Mr. E make a perfect square.
  • Close-Knit Community: The Treeborhood has a grand total of 25 residents, so this means that each of them are naturally close with one another. The Treeborhood is probably the only neighborhood in all of fiction in which you are allowed to spill sand into someone's house.
  • Companion Cube: The theme song shows that Zeke has a stuffed animal named Snout, who he "like[s] to explore" with.
  • Cool Old Lady: The wombats' grandmother Super acts both as a parent and a leader of the Treeborhood.
  • Comically Missing the Point: In "Zoom In Zadie," Zadie tries to get people to come to the square-painting class with pictures on the Treeborhood newsletter. First, JunJun and Louisa interpret Zadie's photo as an advertisement for a face-painting class. Then, Duffy, Leiko, and Amado think that Zadie's next photo is meant to advertise a jack-in-the-box class.
  • Constantly Curious: Since Zeke is so young, he asks lots of questions that drive the episode's plots.
  • Creative Closing Credits: The closing credits has Malik, Zadie, Zeke, and Super, along with other characters, in still poses, reacting to the names of the creative staff of the show. Notable moments have Malik taking notes on his phone or their grandmother Super watching the credits with a proud smile on her face.
  • The Cuckoolander Was Right: In "Helper For the Day," Zeke's categorizations of items seem confusing at first, but they make sense once people come to buy them. For example, milk and sponges don't usually go together, but Amado buys them because a sponge is useful for cleaning up spilled milk.
  • The Cutie: Zeke is just so sweet, innocent, and lovable, and Snout helps accentuate this.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Sammy is usually a relaxed person, but he slips into sarcasm multiple times throughout "Special Delivery." By the time Malik gets to Sammy's house, all the ice cream melted. Sammy sarcastically asks if it's an invisible flavor.
  • "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The theme song is sung by Malik, Zadie, and Zeke.
  • Drama Queen: Mr. E is a Drama King. In "Helper For the Day," Mr. E gets overdramatic when he finds out that Duffy was unhappy with her purchase. He thinks that it'll ruin his reputation and starts crying.
  • Edutainment Show: This show teaches children about computational thinking.
  • Eat the Camera: "Sparklepants" ends with the camera zooming in on Mr. E's mouth as he shouts a Big "NO!".
  • Episode Title Card: Each episode has a title card accompanied by a small piece of animation.
  • "Everybody Laughs" Ending:
    • At the end of "Crab Quakes," everyone gets scared by another scary sound. The sound was actually just a cactus popping a ball, and when everyone finds out, they laugh as the episode fades to black.
    • "Zeke's Collection Selection" ends with everyone laughing.
  • Everything's Better with Sparkles: In "Sparklepants," the titular Sparklepants are popular enough to make normally pantsless characters want to wear them. There are even Sparkle Oven Mitts.
  • Failed a Spot Check: In "Snout Wash Day," Malik has to wash Snout. The second step on the instructions for how to wash Snout was to put soap into the tub, but because Malik spilled the soap onto the instructions, he didn't put soap into the tub, which is why Snout is still dirty after being washed.
  • Family Business: Mr. E inherited the Everything Emporium from his ancestors, whom all have their portraits along the wall of the store. It's implied that the family legacy puts a lot of pressure on Mr. E to be perfect, to the point where he fears that an unhappy customer will be a stain on his reputation.
  • Fantasy Helmet Enforcement: Characters tend to wear helmets while doing activities such as rollerskating or jumping on a pogo stick.
  • Feud Episode: Malik and Zadie keep fighting throughout "Me Time." First they argue over a peach, and then their activities interfere with one another.
  • Filthy Fun: At the end of "Game Changer," the kids find a game that they all enjoy: playing in mud.
  • Foil: The Fishman family serve as foils to the crab family. Both are nuclear families with triplets. However, the crabs are farmers who live on land, while the Fishmans are entrepreneurs who live in water. Carly, Cece, and Clyde are all 5, while Frannie, Flip, and Finn are newborn babies. The crabs are quite shy, while the Fishmans seem to be more open, even inviting everyone to their baby shower. Finally, while the crab triplets act exactly alike, the fish triplets all have individual traits; Flip is big-eyed and quiet, Finn is the prankster, and Frannie likes leaping out of the water.
  • Four-Fingered Hands: If a character has hands, they'll have four digits on each hand.
  • Furry Reminder:
    • The wombats like curling up and rolling around, just like real wombats.
    • In "Game Changer," JunJun and his family are shown going to the birdbaths. Also, Duffy carries Louisa in a pouch, much like a real kangaroo.
  • Genki Girl: Zadie loves zooming from place to place and forming hundreds of ideas at once.
  • "Getting Ready for Bed" Plot: "Snout and About" shows the wombats doing all of the steps in their bedtime routine. The twist being that they aren't actually getting ready for bed, but following these steps because Zeke lost his favorite stuffed toy, Snout, and they think that following the steps will help them to find it. They're right, and at the end of the episode, Snout and Zadie fall asleep anyway.
  • Good Parents: Quique is an excellent father to Sammy. He raised his son to be mellow and thoughtful, much like he is. Made even more impressive when you realize that he's a single father.
  • Go-to-Sleep Ending:
    • "Junior Supers" ends with the wombats fast asleep.
    • In "Snout and About", the Wombats get so tired from redoing their bedtime routine to find Snout that they fall asleep. Malik wakes up when Super brings in a fresh batch of pancakes for them, and he and Super eat them all as Zadie and Zeke sleep.
  • Gratuitous Foreign Language: JunJun speaks Tagalog. In his song in "Zadie's Shell Shuffle," he sings the line "Gandang kulay."Translation 
  • Gratuitous Spanish: The Wombats' goodnight song in "Snout and About" includes the line "Buenas noches, Mars." Quique also uses Spanish words from time to time.
  • Group Hug: Malik, Zadie, and Zeke share a group hug at the end of the "Collaboration" music video.
  • HA HA HA—No: In "Sparklepants," this is Mr. E's reaction when Zadie and JunJun ask him to order Sparklepants.
  • Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Ellie is a moose who wears a sweatshirt, but no pants.
  • Halloween Episode: "Summerweenie Halloweenie" features the characters celebrating Halloween during summer.
  • Happily Adopted: Louisa is adopted by two kangaroo mothers.
  • Here We Go Again!: In "Sparklepants," just when Mr. E got rid of the Sparklepants, he accidentally orders a large shipment of Sparkle Oven Mitts at the end of the episode.
  • Hiroshima as a Unit of Measure: In "Measure for Measure," the wombats need to measure Ellie's head to determine how big her new hat needs to be. They first use apples, then jellybeans to measure her head before they use a ribbon.
  • Holding Hands: In "Crab Quakes," while they're hiding in Super's couch, Kit asks Kat to hold his claw.
  • Hurt Foot Hop: In "Junior Supers," after she stubs her toe on a bowling ball, Super hops up and down.
  • I Call It "Vera": Leiko's guitar is named Penelope.
  • I Got a Rock: The kids do get some food in "Summerweenie Halloweenie," but they also get stickers and desk supplies while trick-or-treating. Justified in that no one in the Treeborhood really has that candy, and the wombats are still happy for what they received.
  • Illness Blanket: In "Special Delivery," Sammy has a cold and is shown being wrapped in a blanket.
  • Improbable Age: In "Cafe Chaos," Kaya briefly hires Zeke and Louisa as waiters, even though the both of them are only four years old. Justified, because there was no one else to do the job.
  • Intergenerational Friendship: Mr. E has one with Zeke, though he won't admit it. Mr. E seems to like Zeke more than the other wombats, hugging him in "Summerweenie Halloweenie," headpatting him in "The Mighty Zeke," giving him free candy in "Measure for Measure," and letting him be his helper in "Helper For the Day." In "Zeke's Collection Selection," one of Zeke's special memories is the two of them playing hopscotch together.
  • Interspecies Friendship: The wombats each have best friends of a different species. Malik's best friend is Sammy the snake, Zadie's best friend is JunJun the eagle, and Zeke's best friend is Louisa the tarsier. Also, Mr. E, an iguana, is close friends with Ellie, a moose; though on Mr. E's end, the feelings extend past friendship.
  • Instantly Proven Wrong: In "Zoom In Zadie," Mr. E thinks that no one will show up to help him. Cue Super and Malik arriving to help him.
  • Iris Out:
    • "Helper For the Day" ends with an iris out on Zeke's face.
    • "Game Changer," ends with an iris out on Malik and his muddy umbrella.
  • It Was with You All Along: In "The Mighty Zeke," Zeke is scared of riding a bike without training wheels. Malik and Zadie try to help him be brave by designing a superhero costume for him. While riding his bike without training wheels, Zeke loses Snout. When he goes to save the toy, his superhero costume falls off piece by piece. As it turns out, his costume didn't make him brave - it was in him the whole time.
  • Just Here for the Free Snacks: Malik only agreed to go camping in "Campout Confusion" because of marshmallows. When it turns out that there's no marshmallows, Malik isn't too happy at the prospect of having to roast zucchinis.
  • Kangaroo Pouch Ride: Played with. In "Game Changer," Duffy , a kangaroo, is carrying Louisa in a pouch, but the pouch is more like a baby seat and it's not in her body.
  • Literal-Minded: Zeke thinks that a baby shower is like a shower where you wash with soap.
  • Lost Toy Grievance: In "Snout and About," Zeke is in tears after losing Snout. Luckily, his siblings are there to help find the toy.
  • Loud Gulp: In "Brother Day," Zeke gulps loudly when Malik tries to take him zip lining.
  • Make a Wish: In "Special Delivery," while delivering ice cream, Malik knocks on a lucky knothole to make a wish.
  • Manchild: Mr. E is a grown adult who doesn't know how to paint a square, as revealed in "Zoom In Zadie." Also, he throws a child-like tantrum when he is unable to make a perfect one the first few times he attempts to draw one, complete with Tantrum Throwing and Inelegant Blubbering.
  • Matryoshka Object: In "Junior Supers," Super uses a nesting doll to show how big jobs can be broken up into smaller jobs.
  • "Metaphor" Is My Middle Name: In "Game Changer," Zadie boasts that her middle name is "Game Ideas."
  • Moniker As Enticement: In "Game Changer," Malik convinces Zeke to collect umbrellas with him by telling him that he'll be an Official Helper.
  • Musical Chores: "The Clean Up Song" features the wombats singing about cleaning their room.
  • Mystery Episode: "Crab Quakes" revolves around the wombats solving the mystery of the scary sound. They even put on detective outfits.
  • No Antagonist: While there are some conflicts between characters, no one is truly evil, not even good ol' Mr. E, who can be a bit of a grouch from time to time, but don't let it get the best of you.
  • Non-Mammalian Hair: Despite being a crustacean, Kit has a mustache. Several members of the Fishman family also have hair.
  • Note to Self: In "Zoom In Zadie," Quique makes mental notes to start face-painting and jack-in-the-box classes.
  • Object Ceiling Cling: In "A Super Recipe," the cookbook, covered in honey, gets stuck to the ceiling, so now the wombats can't reference it for the cornbread recipe.
  • Oblivious to Love: Ellie is unaware of Mr. E's 'friendship crush' on her.
  • Odd Name Out: Malik's name doesn't start with a 'Z,' unlike Zadie and Zeke. On the flip side, Zadie's name does not rhyme with Malik and Zeke.
  • Off Like a Shot: The characters tend to assume this pose before they dart off somewhere.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Zadie has this reaction when she messes up Mr. E's shell garden in "Zadie's Shell Shuffle."
    • Malik when he accidentally spills soap on the instructions in "Snout Wash Day."
    • "Campout Confusion": Mr. E is lifting the tent with his forklift, then flips out when he realizes that there are people inside it.
    • "Sparklepants": Mr. E when he realizes that he's ordered 200 pairs of Sparkle Pants.
  • Overcrank: In "Sparklepants," Mr. E dropping the disco ball is shown in slow motion.
  • Pun: In "Bake It Til You Make It," Kat commends the mud pies for being "dirt cheap."
  • Puni Plush: The show uses a curved art style to create a friendly and welcoming atmosphere.
  • Rain, Rain, Go Away: At the beginning of "Game Changer," Zadie is despondent because it's raining outside, meaning she can't play.
  • Raised by Grandparents: The wombat kids are raised by their grandmother. The executives behind the show have confirmed that Season 2, if greenlit, will explain the reasoning for this.
  • Repeat to Confirm: In "Sparklepants," Zadie and JunJun do this with scissors and tape while assembling a disco ball at the Creation Station.
  • Rube Goldberg Machine: The theme song ends with the characters creating a Rube Goldberg machine to unveil the show's logo.
  • Rule of Three: "Bake It Til You Make It": According to Louisa, in order for a mud pie to be perfect, it must be round like a wheel, it must not fall apart into tiny pieces, and it must stick together.
  • Running Gag:
    • "The Mighty Zeke": Mr. E dropping his books and other mishaps.
    • "Hopping Helpers": Malik blowing a horn and scaring people.
    • "Zadie and the Really Big, Really Loud Noisy Thing": Zadie's loud music startling everyone.
    • "Sparklepants": Mr. E's nicknames for the Sparklepants, such as Glittering Trousers, Sprinkle Slacks, and Preposterous Pantaloons.
    • "Bake It Til You Make It": Kat and Kit making a giant stack of flowerpots.
  • Sacred Hospitality: In "Crab Quakes," Super proves herself to be a warm and welcoming host, letting the crabs stay in her house and encouraging them to make themselves at home. She doesn't even mind that the crabs poured a bunch of sand into the house.
  • Scary Shadow Fakeout: In the music video "What's Going On?" the wombats are scared by a monstrous-looking shadow in their room. As it turns out, the shadow belonged to a pencil jar.
  • Ship Tease:
    • In "Cafe Chaos," Mr. E invites Ellie, a 'special friend,' for a special luncheon. They have a good time together, and Ellie thanks Mr. E for inviting her. Mr. E shyly admits that he had a great time too, and he leaves with a huge smile on his face.
    • In "Sparklepants," Mr. E gladly orders a pair for Sparklepants for Ellie, even though the Sparklepants annoyed him at first.
  • Shout-Out:
    • The episode title of "Measure for Measure" a reference to the William Shakespeare play, Measure for Measure.
    • The sliding bike stop Zadie does in "The Mighty Zeke" is a reference to AKIRA.
    • "Summerweenie Halloweenie": The concept of a Halloween in summer is a reference to the Gravity Falls episode "Summerween." In fact, the wombats even carve out jack-o-melons, exactly like in Gravity Falls.
  • Shy Shelled Animal: Kat and Kit, as well as their children, are all highly timid crabs.
  • Sick Episode: In "Special Delivery," Sammy is sick in bed with a cold, so Malik wants to deliver ice cream to him.
  • Sickness Equals Redness: Sammy is shown having a red nose when he's sick in "Special Delivery," as are Kit and Kat in "Talent Turmoil."
  • Slice of Life: Features cute animals doing cute things and solving everyday problems within their community.
  • Squish the Cheeks: In "Zoom In Zadie," Zeke does this to Snout while Zadie takes their picture.
  • Sticky Situation: In "A Super Recipe," the kids are making cornbread. The first ingredient in making cornbread is honey. The wombats all stick their hands into the honey jar, but they mess up the cookbook and get stuck to it because of how sloppily they ate the honey.
  • Suddenly Shouting: In "Zadie's Shell Shuffle," Zadie wants to JunJun to sing a song about her, but in doing so, he gives away her hiding places, and she gets mad at him for this. JunJun's response:
    JunJun: You wanted me to sing about you, so I did. But okay. I'LL NEVER SING FOR YOU EVER AGAIN!!
  • Sugar Bowl: The Treeborhood is a bright and happy place where everyone is nice to each other most of the time. They're not perfect and they do get into arguments occasionally, but they're always resolved by the end of the episode. The worst things that can happen are losing a favorite toy or ice cream melting.
  • Terrible Artist: Everyone in Mr. E's family has been known to draw a perfect square. But ever since childhood, Mr. E struggled with drawing the simplest of shapes.
  • Theme Tune Roll Call: In the theme song, the characters sing about themselves.
    Zadie: Hey, I'm Zadie, bring on the problems, try some different things 'til we solve them.
    Malik: I'm Malik, we'll work it out, just wait. We make some plans, then we build and create.
    Zeke: I'm Zeke, here's Snout, we like to explore.
    All: Let's go do it! One, two, three, four!
  • Three Shorts: Each episode includes two 11-minute stories, accompanied by a 90-second music video.
  • Title Drop: Once an Episode, usually in the B-segment, someone will go "We need to Work it Out, Wombats", or "Let's Work it Out, Wombats!"
  • Title Theme Tune: The theme song goes "Work it out, work it out, work it out wombats!"
  • Tooth Fairy: Mentioned in "Sparklepants." Zadie and JunJun create a pillow for Cece to put his tooth under for the tooth fairy.
  • Treetop Town: The characters live in a treehouse apartment complex known as a "Treeborhood."
  • Tsundere: Mr. E, the iguana owner of the Everything Emporium, is easily irritated, but secretly cares for the Wombats.
  • Two Guys and a Girl: Malik and Zeke are boys, and Zadie is a girl.
  • Two Lines, No Waiting: The main plot of "Game Changer" is Zadie trying to play with the crabs, and the subplot is Malik and Zeke collecting umbrellas.
  • Understatement:
    • In "Crab Quakes," Super says that there's not much on her to-do list, then reveals a fairly lengthy list of things she has to do.
    • In "Zoom In Zadie," Quique says that Mr. E is struggling just a little bit painting squares. He says this while Mr. E is throwing tantrums.
  • The Un-Smile: While Mr. E is capable of a legitimate smile, his attempts to smile for the camera in "Zoom In Zadie" make it look like he's in pain.
  • Verbal Backspace:
    • In "Gift For a Fish," Ellie asks to dance with Mr. E. He excitedly shouts "That is a thumbs up affirmative!" After realizing what he just said and that it might reveal his feelings for Ellie, he says "Uh, I-I mean, sure!"
    • Two in "Racecar Wombats":
      • Ellie suggests that the wombats squeeze with her and Mr. E in their racecar, but Zadie turns down the offer. Mr. E says 'whew,' relieved that he would get to be alone with Ellie, then backtracks and says "Uh, I mean, we'll see you soon."
      • When the wombats finally make it to the race, Mr. E snarks that "It's about time." Ellie shoots him a look, so he backtracks and says "Uh, rather, you came at the very perfect time!"
    • "Zadie and the Really Big, Really Loud Noisy Thing": When Zadie finds her Big, Loud, Noisy Thing, Super says she thought Zadie had thrown it away, then backpedals and says she thought it had been lost.
  • Visible Odor: There is a visibly green stink coming from Snout in "Snout Wash Day."
  • Water Hose Rodeo: In "Bake It Til You Make It," Kat rides on a hose like this while Zeke and Louisa try to gather up water for their mud pie.
  • Weird Currency: In "Bake It Til You Make It," Zeke and Louisa sell their mudpies for six stickers so they can play "sticker monster" together.
  • Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The exact location of the Treeborhood is never stated.
  • World of Funny Animals: The series is filled with Funny Animals, including "wombats, snakes, moose, kangaroos, iguanas, fish, tarsiers, and eagles."
  • You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Duffy's reaction when she finds out that Mr. E is in a square-painting class in "Zoom In Zadie."

 
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Mr. E cries when he finds out that Duffy was unhappy with her purchase, considering his reputation to be ruined

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