Oobi: Dasdasi
Iranian hand-puppet series adapted from the American show Oobi.
Oobi: Dasdasi is an Iranian children's television series adapted from the American program Oobi, created for IRIB TV2. Produced by Negar Estakhr and directed by Amir Soltan Ahmadi, it features bare-hand puppets and incorporates Iranian cultural elements. The show became one of IRIB's first children's series to air outside Iran, reaching markets in Southeast Asia and Japan.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Comedy; Puppetry
- Based on
- Oobi, Josh Selig
- Director
- Amir Soltan Ahmadi
- Composer
- Amirali Razaghi
- Country
- Iran
- Language
- Persian
- Seasons
- 2
- Episodes
- 78
Facts from the source article.
Plot
The series centers on a family of five: a boy, a girl, their parents, and their grandfather. The children are mischievous, impressionable, and prone to daydreaming, yet curious about topics ranging from science to everyday activities. Each eight-minute episode includes two or three intermissions featuring the Palms, a puppet duo, whose short adventures relate to the episode's theme. The Palms are occasionally joined by their friend Finger.
Production and broadcast
She noted that while the original hands had no coverings, the Iranian version designed clothes for the hands. Estakhr and director Amir Soltan Ahmadi hired veteran puppeteers from Kolah Ghermezi, one of Iran's longest-running puppet series. Male puppeteers with wide hands performed the father and grandfather puppets; female puppeteers with small hands performed the children and women. The cast held an impromptu photo shoot to develop their characters. Amirali Razaghi, a film score composer and former music teacher at Tehran University of Art, produced the music. The series was announced in January 2012 on IRIB's website. During filming, writers worked with a think tank of IRIB staff to ensure family-friendly humor. Production ran from 21 May to 20 September 2012. The first episode aired on 22 September, with new episodes premiering daily from Saturday to Thursday until 20 December. In July 2013, the series was screened at an Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union conference. NHK obtained distribution rights for Japan, and the series aired in Kuwait, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka. A second season was confirmed in a December 2012 interview, planned to introduce outdoor locations, animal characters portrayed as hand-shadow puppets, and storylines about kindergarten, gardening, and the water cycle.
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