City Island is a series of digital animated shorts aimed at elementary schoolers. It is created by Aaron Augenblick, and produced by Future Brain Media for PBS Kids.
The series centers on City Island, a place where anything and everything has a face. Our hero, Watt, is a talking lightbulb who learns about how the members of the community make the city run, whether it be through local organizations or government institutions. In addition to teaching young audiences how cities and communities operate, the series also touches on geography and economics.
Each short is three minutes long. The first 10 shorts premiered on December 26, 2022, with the remaining 10 shorts to follow on January 20, 2023. The theme song and soundtrack are composed by Tunde Adebimpe, the lead singer of TV on the Radio.
Not to be confused with the film City Island.
City Island contains examples of:
- Actor Allusion: James III's role as Link, a satellite, could be a nod to his role in Astronomy Club: The Sketch Show.
- A Dog Named "Dog": Watt's grandmother is a candle named Candle.
- Alliterative Name: Circus Beach has a Ferris wheel called Wanda Wheel.
- A Lizard Named "Liz": There is a marker named Mark.
- Animate Inanimate Object: All of the characters are talking objects.
- Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: In "Town Hall," Watt asks Windy if she's thinking what he's thinking. They agree that they should go to the town hall meeting.
- Bait-and-Switch: Circus Beach appears to be clean and beautiful at first, but once the doors open, the park is dirty and broken.
- Baseball Episode: "Sportsmanship" centers on Watt and co. playing softball and being hilariously awful at it.
- Cool Old Guy: In "Retirement Home," Watt thinks that the retirement home is boring, but finds that his grandparents like doing fun things such as read comic books, dance to music, and play games.
- Edutainment Show: The series teaches civics, economics, and geography.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: "The World" ends with everyone laughing while the kids play on a rocket ride.
- The Face of the Sun: Just like everything else, the sun has a face.
- Fictional Country: The characters live in an archipelago country called the United Islands.
- Fictional Video Game: Watt and Windy like playing a video game called Mega Muffin.
- Idea Bulb: Parodied. Watt himself lights up when he has an idea.
- Individualism vs. Collectivism: As a general rule, this series leans on the collectivist side. Every episode is about Watt learning about how it takes everyone to make a city function.
- It's All About Me: Watt seems to have a very bad habit of only thinking about himself.
- The Man in the Moon: There's a talking moon named Celeste.
- Man of the City: Mayor Sitwell is always looking out for the well-being of the city and everyone in it.
- Meaningful Name:
- Watt is a lightbulb. A 'watt' is a unit of power that lightbulbs use.
- Also "Sally" for a salt shaker and "Piper" for a pepper shaker.
- And also "Ringer" for a cell phone.
- New Year Has Come: "Celebration" is about the Island preparing to celebrate the new year.
- No-Dialogue Episode: "Celebration" has no dialogue until the end of the episode, when everyone shouts "Happy New Year!"
- "Rashomon"-Style: In "Point of View," Watt, Windy, and Lidia all see something strange, but they can't agree on what it is. They each tell their own version of what really happened. As it turns out, they were all wrong - it was just a UFO-themed car wash.
- "Sesame Street" Cred: There's Amy Schumer as Terra (the Earth), James Adomian as multiple characters, and more.
- Shout-Out:
- Terra says "I'm ready for my closeup."
- According
to his voice actor, Watt's dad's full name is Frank Lloyd Light. This is a pun on Frank Lloyd Wright, a famous architect.
- Sore Loser: Lidia is sour about losing the softball game in "Sportsmanship," but comes to realize that having fun is more important than winning.
- Species Surname: Windy's last name is Kite.
- Student Council President: "President Watt" is about Watt becoming the second-grade class president. At first, he wants to do everything by himself, but he finds that things get done faster if he shares the workload with others.
- "Take Your Child to Work Day" Plot: "Architect" is about Watt's dad taking him to his architect job.
- Truncated Theme Tune: The theme song for each short only uses the line "Yeah, we'll make it right, on City Island." The full theme song itself is buried deep within the website.
- Vocal Dissonance: Mark's voice is very deep for someone who's in the second grade.
- The World Is Just Awesome: "The World" talks about how wide and wonderful the world is.
