Stillwater is a preschool show developed for Apple TV+ by Rob Hoegee (Teen Titans, Niko and the Sword of Light, and Abby Hatcher) based on the Zen Shorts book series by Jon J. Muth. It came out December 4, 2020, and is produced in part by Scholastic.
Karl, Addy, and Michael deal with typical kid challenges. They have Stillwater, a wise panda, as their next-door neighbor. Through his example, Stillwater gives them a deeper understanding of their feelings as well as tools that help them face their own challenges.
The voice cast includes James Sie as Stillwater, Eva Binder as Addy, Tucker Chandler as Michael, and Judah Mackey as Karl.
The show ran for 30 episodes from December 4, 2020 to May 19, 2023. It would seem like this was it for the show, but surprisingly, a fourth season is slated to come out on August 1, 2025.
Tropes associated with the show:
- All-CGI Cartoon: The show is primarily animated in CGI.
- Alliterative Title: "New Neighbors" fits the bill.
- Animated Adaptation: The show is an adaptation of the 2005 children's picture book Zen Shorts.
- Art Shift: The stories that Stillwater tells in each episode are presented in 2D animation.
- The Baby of the Bunch: Karl is the youngest of the cast, with Koo being the youngest of the recurring cast.
- Beach Episode: "Sandcastles" has the kids and Stillwater build sandcastles on the beach.
- Beary Friendly: Unsurprisingly, Stillwater is this given how he's a giant panda bear that's also friendly.
- Birthday Episode: It's subverted in "The Unexpected Gift". The kids think that it's Stillwater's birthday given how he mentions preparing for something important. He's actually preparing to celebrate his new flowers being in bloom.
- Black Best Friend: Addy's best friend is a black girl named Maya.
- Box-and-Stick Trap: In "Ghost Story", Karl shows Addy a ghost trap that he made. It's a candy trail that leads to a box held up by a stick.
- A Boy, a Girl, and a Baby Family: Michael, Addy, and Karl are siblings. Michael is the boy, Addy is the girl, and Karl is technically the baby because he's younger than both of them, although he's older than a baby.
- Braving the Blizzard: Stillwater's story from "The Way Home" has a young pig girl named Min walking up the mountain during a heavy snowstorm so she can get the dragon to leave.
- Camping Episode: Stillwater takes the kids out for a camping trip in "Campout", though Michael isn't too interested.
- Canon Foreigner: Michael, Addy, and Karl's friends are created for the show.
- Casting Gag: James Sie is known for being the alternate voice of Monkey from Kung Fu Panda. Here, he voices Stillwater, who is a panda.
- Character Title: Stillwater is the main character of the show and the title of the show.
- Children Are Innocent: This is very specifically pronounced in Karl given how he's the youngest and most naive of the trio. This also applies to Koo when she shows up.
- Companion Cube: Karl has a stuffed cow toy that he carries sometimes.
- The Conscience:
- Stillwater acts this way to the kids, where he helps steer them on the right path to make morally sound decisions.
- "Finders Keepers" shows a more literal example of this with Stillwater's 2D story. In Japan, a fox named Kazuko tries getting home before a storm hits, but her conscience tells her to warn people about what's coming. She says how they'll know anyway based on the clouds in the sky. She then changes her tune and tells everyone after her friend Mako took the time to tell her about a leaky pipe in her house.
- Cool Big Bro : While a bit strict sometimes, Michael is a friendly and supportive older brother to Addy and Karl.
- Cool Big Sis: Addy is pretty friendly towards Karl, and shows more outward support towards his endeavors.
- Cool Uncle: Stillwater is very friendly and supportive towards his niece Koo.
- Covered in Mud: In "Stuck in the Rain", Karl gets covered in mud when jumping in mud puddles.
- Downer Ending: While it's not the case for any episode, which have some kind of happy ending, some of Stillwater's stories are like this. The story he tells in "Celebration Song" focuses on two friends named Ami and Rio that live next door to each other. When Rio's tree falls because of natural disasters, Ami thinks that she should cut down her tree so that her friend wouldn't be sad. Unfortunately, this also makes Rio sad since she can't admire the beauty of her friend's tree anymore for them both. They're very saddened by this.
- Edutainment Show: Besides basic morals, the show also educates viewers on Chinese culture.
- Embarrassing Hobby: In "Book Club", Addy's friends have a book club where they bring in all sorts of books that they see as mature. When everyone notices how Addy has a book on knights and other brave heroes made more for younger kids, she tries to pass it off and say that it's her younger brother Michael's book. Through encouragement from Stillwater, she comes to see that she shouldn't be afraid to admit that she likes the book, and shouldn't worry too much about it others like it.
- Expy: Rob Hoegee compares Stillwater to Fred Rogers in how he's very patient and understanding towards others.
- Extra-Long Episode: "Ghost Story", "The Way Home", and "One Drop Makes An Ocean" are all 23 minutes long.
- Five-Token Band: When it comes to Addy and her friend group, she's a white girl, Maya is a black girl, and both Asha and Lexi are Asian.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: Episodes will usually be about Stillwater helping the kids. "The Trip" flips this around as the kids help Stillwater get ready for his trip.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: While the show normally averts this in episodes with just Michael, Addy, and Karl, it's played straight when Koo is involved.
- Gender Flip: Koo is Stillwater's niece in the show, not his nephew like in the book.
- Gentle Giant: Stillwater is a panda who's very patient and understanding, and caring towards the kids.
- Girls With Mustaches: One of the sleepover activities that Addy does in "The Sleepover" is drawing mustaches on hers, Maya, Asha, and Lexi's faces.
- Good All Along: In "The Way Home", Stillwater tells the kids a story about villagers seemingly being terrified by a dragon that brings winter chaos. A piglet named Ming goes to face the dragon herself in the cave. However, she's then surprised to see that the dragon is actually quite benevolent. She was actually trying to get rid of the winter storms, and help bring spring to the village.
- Green Aesop: "One Drop Makes An Ocean" goes for a message all about the importance of helping the earth, and finding different ways to protect the environment.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Addy shows this in both "Celebration Song" and "Friends Forever". In the former, she's jealous of Maya getting a bigger part than her in the school play. In the latter, she's jealous of Maya and Asha hanging out without her.
- Halloween Episode: "Ghost Story" takes place on Halloween. Michael wants to go trick or treating with Addy and Karl, but Addy wants to go to Maya's party while Karl is scared of the ghosts that could show up.
- The High Queen: Stillwater's story in "The Unexpected Gift" presents the tortoise queen as this. Even though the frog woodsman gives her a fancy box with nothing in it, she still likes it since he made a gift from the heart.
- Invisible Parents: We don't see the kids' parents, but Karl does mention a mother figure in "The Haircut" while Michael mentions both mom and dad in "Ghost Story".
- Jerkass : This doesn't apply to any of the main characters, who are all pretty nice despite their flaws. However, one of the party guests in Stillwater's story from "The Unexpected Gift" is shown being condescending towards the frog woodsman for bringing an ordinary box. He doesn't actively pick on him, but he clearly enjoys putting him down.
- "Lesson of the Day" Speech: Given the show's target audience, it's not a surprise that morals are conveyed this way. A good example comes from "The Unexpected Gift", where Stillwater tells the kids how they can all celebrate each other's friendship even if it's not his birthday like they thought.
- Monochrome Casting: All the main kid characters are white. It's nustified, since they're siblings.
- Nice Guy: Stillwater is a nice, pleasant panda who does what he can to help others.
- No Antagonist: The show's gentle and introspective atmosphere means that there isn't really any kind of antagonist to deal with. The worst that can happen is a character acting like a jerk, but they learn their lesson.
- No-Dialogue Episode: Some of the YouTube shorts, such as "Butterflies" and "Kites", have little to no dialogue.
- No Name Given: Some of Stillwater's stories present characters that don't have names, such as the tortoise queen from "The Unexpected Gift".
- Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Stillwater's story from "The Way Home" portrays the mountain dragon this way. The villagers think that she's a monster that brings an eternal winter storm. She's actually a friendly dragon who's trying to clear the storm, and make the agriculture prosper.
- Odd Friendship: Cats and mice are generally depicted in media as not getting along with each other. However, Stillwater's stories in "Ghost Story" portray Mistress Mabel the cat and the mice family The Whiskelsons as being friends with each other.
- One-Word Title: Stillwater.
- Out of Focus: Some episodes have a segment where one or two of the siblings are absent.
- Performance Anxiety: "Stage Fright" deals with Leo getting stage fright when he has to present a project with Michael.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Addy wears pink, while Michael wears blue.
- Rain, Rain, Go Away: In "Stuck in the Rain", Michael is bummed out because the rain has canceled his baseball game.
- Scary Black Man: It's subverted in "The Way Home". The kids initially think that Mr. Morgan is a scary man given the rumors that they heard about him being scary. However, when they meet him, he's actually quite nice. He's just a bit lonely.
- School Play: "Celebration Song" has Addy and Maya taking part in a play for their school.
- Slumber Party "The Sleepover" has Addy throw a sleepover with her friends, and she accidentally makes new girl Lexi feel left out because of how she can't speak her mind.
- The Smurfette Principle: At the start of the show, Addy is the only girl in the main cast. It's later averted when she gets some female friends, along with Stillwater's niece Koo becoming a recurring character.
- Sweet Baker: Addy likes to bake, and she's often quite friendly.
- Switching P.O.V.: The episode "Ghost Story" follows this with Mistress Mabel and the Whiskelson family. Stillwater is telling the story of a cat and her mice friends, but from different perspectives. The first time he tells the story, which is to Addy, he highlights Mistress Mabel and the insecurities she feels over leaving the family. The second time he tells the story, which is to Michael, he highlights the insecurities the Whiskelsons have since they're not sure what to do without Mistress Mabel.
- Title, Please!: The episode titles aren't shown onscreen. They're instead shown in the closing credits.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Addy is shown to be good with racing and mechanics, but she also likes baking and wears a bright pinkish red shirt.
- Two Shorts: Each episode is composed of 2 eleven-minute segments.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Nobody questions the fact that a giant panda lives among them.
- Vibrant Orange: Karl often wears an orange shirt, and he's usually the most enthusiastic of the child characters in the show.
- Vocal Evolution: Tucker Chandler definitely went through puberty in season 4 given how Michael sounds more like a young teenager and less like an older kid.