Film stars Temuera Morrison and Rhys Darby are working on a new locally made animated TV show.
Kiwi animation company Mukpuddy is producing The Barefoot Bandits, a colourful family adventure series that follows the exploits of Kiwi kids on a small island.
Morrison will play the father of one of the boys and Darby a "deluded" mayor of a small island off the New Zealand coast.
Lord of the Rings and Indiana Jones actor John Rhys-Davies will make a cameo appearance in the 10-episode series.
Mukpuddy co-founder and co-director Ryan Cooper said he was happy The Barefoot Bandits was a totally homegrown production.
"We managed to keep all the animators and storyboarders in New Zealand, which is nice," Cooper told NZME. News Service.
With Mukpuddy co-founders Tim Evans and Alex Leighton, Cooper previously made a one-off animated Christmas special, Missing Christmas.
Cooper said the trio wanted to develop the adventures of the characters from that special.
He said The Barefoot Bandits would have "real adventure" with danger and mystery, elements he said were often missing in other contemporary cartoons.
He said the series followed "three kids who are addicted to adventure and discoveries and mysteries".
The Mukpuddy trio had channelled their own childhood adventures and dreams into making the series.
"There's a lot of us in this cartoon. The three of us are '80s kids, so the show's very much us as children, going on the adventures we always wanted to go on."
Morrison, of Once Were Warriors and Star Wars fame, was in the one-off Christmas special and Mukpuddy reprised his role for the new series.
"He's the dad of one of the main kids Tane, Tane Te Pania. He plays Jack Te Pania.
He's kind of like this really solid, manly role model for the kids who really encourages the kids to get out there and have adventures.
"Temuera Morrison seemed like the perfect voice for that sort of a character. He's super fun to work with."
Cooper said Flight of the Conchords star Rhys Darby was a friend of the Mukpuddy team.
"He's ridiculously funny. We knew whatever we'd written on paper would only get better once he hopped into the voice booth and ran with it and made up stuff that wasn't there."
Darby plays "a very delusional mayor" of Ngaro Island, where the show is set.
The cast also included local actors Josh Thomson and Teuila Blakely.
"While we don't have the biggest budget in the world, they're all willing to jump on something that's uniquely Kiwi but super funny and lots of adventure."
Cooper said Rhys-Davies, who lived in New Zealand much of the time, was "too much fun" to work with and Mukpuddy knew they had to have him voice a "salty old sea captain".
"We have some other big names lined up that we can't announce just yet," Cooper added. "But everyone seems so keen to get involved in something that hasn't been done in New Zealand before."
He said the "family adventure comedy" was a fairly novel addition to the Kiwi TV line-up.
"It should be something nice and new that people haven't seen before."
It was expected TV2 would screen the series early next year. Cooper said the show was quirky and had "universal" themes so the show could conceivably be screened on foreign networks too.
Netflix was another possible outlet after the TV2 screening.
- NZME
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