(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.
[1] The series was filmed during six months up to late 2013, using a 2250 square metre studio,[2] "about the size of a football field" containing the fictional town of Hoopla.
[4] 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).
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.
"[5] As the set was in a remote area of China the Australians would be "a long way from home, we finished work late, the conditions were not great and they would not have people they could chat to.