Storytime with Zoodles

Storytime with Zoodles is a children’s television series that premiered in 2025 on the Bentkey streaming platform. The show combines puppetry and animation to deliver interactive storytelling. It features the puppet character Zoodles, voiced by John Kennedy, and the animated inventor Inchy, voiced by Rickey Boyd. Created by Cory Basil, the series includes episodes based on books such as “I Love You, Little Truck” and “Nom Nom Shapes,” incorporating songs and audience participation elements.

Storytime with Zoodles Review (S1: E1-4)

Those who grew up flying twice as high as butterflies in the sky will appreciate Storytime with Zoodles the most. A bit of a misnomer, the fun and brightly colored Zoodles actually has little to do with the meat of the show, and truly only serves to open and close each program.

                   

At its core, Storytime with Zoodles, an original DailyWire+ program produced by Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boering, is a simple program. After Zoodles and his sidekick give a short, fun intro, a story with an age-appropriate lesson is narrated as the pages of its book are brought to life with some simple animation. The quality of the lessons, at least in these initial four episodes, varies pretty significantly, though, even at their simplest, they steer clear of the shallow pool of insipid, brain-blending trash in which programs like Bubble Guppies or Firebuds drown our children’s IQs while strobe lighting their dopamine to dust.

The initial two discuss topics like not being afraid when going from kindergarten to 1st grade—not exactly splitting the atom. However, episodes 3 and 4, which coincidentally also have a more polished feel and slightly upgraded animation than the previous two entires, introduce kids to Newton’s three laws of motion and Robert Frost’s ‘The Road Not Taken’. Each of these is worlds beyond the show’s target audience’s capability to fully appreciate or understand; however, rather than talking down to the children watching or simply distracting them with bright colors, the showrunners do an excellent job of simplifying the concepts in the hopes of nurturing future curiosity in the subject (Newton), and letting the artwork ease them into what is likely new emotional territory for most (Frost).

In either case, the attempt to lay the groundwork for advanced learning and conceptual growth is as refreshing as it is audacious (at least relative to most of today’s slop).

My Four-Year-Old

Having inadvertently and very pleasantly created my own focus group for children’s programming, I asked my 4-year-old, 9-year-old, and 11-year-old children (two boys and a girl) to watch with me so I could observe them and ask for some feedback. While Storytime with Zoodles would understandably not have been the oldest of the three’s first choice, he appreciated the content of the latter two episodes and had no difficulty focusing while they played. The 9-year-old also generally enjoyed them and even hopefully asked if there were more to view.

Now, the youngest of the trio loved all four episodes. When asked, he was indifferent to the puppets but thoroughly enjoyed the stories, relaying (in his limited 4-year-old parlance) the aspects of each he appreciated most. Interestingly enough, he too focused almost entirely on the more advanced topics, curious about how things “go up and move,” etc.

These programs are the spiritual children of the type that our kindergarten teachers used to roll into the classrooms the day after a bender (Letter People, et al.)—simply made, well-told, and designed to jog developing prefrontal cortexes into an early start.

As a far too rare occurrence, it’s always a joy to be able to recommend a children’s program as Worth it.

PARENTAL NOTES

None

• Age appropriate

WOKE REPORT

That’s the Point

• Bentkey exists to be the antidote to woke children’s programming.