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Hoopla Doopla! (stylised all lower case; Chinese: 奇妙小镇) is a joint Australian-Chinese live-action non-verbal children's TV series, which was first broadcast from February 2014. It was created by Melinda Wearne and Ron Saunders using cast and production teams from both countries. It was co-directed by Mark Barnard and Liang Tong. The series was filmed during six months up to late 2013, using a 2250 square metre studio, "about the size of a football field" containing the fictional town of Hoopla. Producers were Wearne (of The Content Agency) and Saunders (Beyond Screen Production) for Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and Zhao Qian for China Central Television (CCTV).

The studio was located outside the Chinese city of Zhuozhou – two hours south-west of capital Beijing. Post-production occurred in Australia. Hoopla Doopla! targets children from the age of three to seven. Its on-screen cast of six characters are Jango (Daniel Gorski), Mimi (Kate Wright), Zap (Simon Wright), Bop (Xie Ning), Squidgie (Liu Wanting) and Ziggy (Zhang Haoran). They are augmented by an off-screen Narrator (Zindzi Okenyo). It began broadcast by ABC from 10 February 2014 and by CCTV from mid-February, for 52 episodes of 12 minutes each.

Premise[]

Hoopla Doopla! details the daily lives of six residents of Hoopla. Jango is a street sweeper and clown; Ziggy is a magician who owns a shop; Bop, a mechanic and strongman, tries to fix broken devices; Squidgie, a contortionist, grows various plants in a garden; Mimi cooks for the townsfolk while juggling and Zap is an acrobat who delivers packages to the residents. Typically one or more person has a problem, which is tackled with assistance from the others. All matters are resolved without any dialogue – communication is through non-verbal cues including acrobatics, facial expressions and body language. Explanations for the audience are provided by the unseen Narrator.

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