The 'Bubble Guppies' YouTube Channel Has Rebranded To Dora & Friends

 

In conjunction with the announcement of the new Dora short Dora and the Fantastical Creatures, Paramount, Nickelodeon, or whoever has officially rebranded the Bubble Guppies YouTube channel in favor of the Dora the Explorer franchise, labeling it Dora & Friends.

With the rebrand of the channel came its channel trailer, which is over a minute longer than the Fantastical Creatures trailer, and gives the best look yet at the series, as it contributes all of the footage, with the original series and its spinoffs Go Diego Go! and Dora and Friends: Into the City all entirely absent. Some of it, namely the part where the title appears even seems to come from the intro sequence. Along with wrangling clouds, washing hands and faces and carrying cakes, the trailer showcases very familiar scenarios we've come to know from the series. And that includes its characters. The Grumpy Old Troll, Tico the Squirrel, Isa the Iguana and Benny the Bull are all shown off in the new style for the first time, absent from the Fantastical Creatures short. The description promises you can watch new videos featuring Dora, Boots, Swiper, and more every week. Learning Spanish, singing, and amazing adventures with full episodes, original YouTube series, and long-form compilations are promised.

Even with the premiere of the reboot at least six months away, Paramount and Nickelodeon are going all in. Dora the Explorer-related content had been on the Bubble Guppies channel for at least a few years, but with the series having ended quietly in June, it is clear they're ready to turn attentions to someone else in the Nick Jr. family ready to be active again. Many of its higher-performing Bubble Guppies videos, in the millions to dozens of millions, remain public. Nickelodeon has previously rebranded the America's Most Musical Family channel to Nick Music, the Henry Danger channel became one for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Nickelodeon Animation Studio channel became Nickelodeon Cartoon Universe, which rebranded again last month as Nicktoons, and there's a case that NickRewind's lifetime as The '90s Are All That, The Splat, and NickSplat fall into this too.

The cast of the new Dora series is led by Diana Zermeño as Dora and Asher Spence as Boots, with Marc Weiner back as Swiper and franchise co-creator Chris Gifford back as the Big Red Chicken. Weiner's role as the Map is now done by Anairis Quiñones, and The Fiesta Trio is now split between her and Danny Burstein. She's the armadillo and he's the frog and marmoset, as well as the Grumpy Old Troll. Maria Canals-Barrera will voice Abuela, Katarina Sky will voice Backpack, Donovan Monzon-Sanders is Tico the Squirrel; Tandi Fomukong is Isa the Iguana and Quintún Muñoz is Benny the Bull. While the cast for the series was revealed in the press release, the crew mentioned was specifically for Dora and the Fantastical Creatures and while it has executive info and source material creator credits, series crew is still unclear. 

Dora is set to premiere in spring 2024 on Paramount+, making the YouTube channel a way for those who don't subscribe to the streamer a chance to see clips in front of the paywall.

Cast Source: PR Newswire