"Hi there, Face here! Welcome to my music party!"
"Hey! This is Face's Music Party!"
"Come on in, let's get it started! What you wanna do?"
"Come check out the sound, It's the best in town"
"Like a music note, we come back around"
"Let's get funky now!"
"Come on in, let's get it started! What you wanna do?"
"Come check out the sound, It's the best in town"
"Like a music note, we come back around"
"Let's get funky now!"
— The opening five lines of the Thematic Theme Tune
Face's Music Party is a Nick Jr. animated series starring... well, Face, the mascot of Nick Jr. from 1994 to 2004.
Face is back, but this time around, they're not limited to channel bumpers. Instead, their airtime got upgraded to a full-blown dance party complete with nursery rhymes and songs from both Nick Jr. shows and award-winning artists.
The first season, consisting of thirteen episodes, premiered on June 3, 2022. The holiday special, "Face's SuperSnowtacular Holiday Special", premiered on December 1, 2022. A summertime special, "Face's Summertime Jam", premiered on June 30, 2023. The full series became available on Paramount+ on July 5th, 2023.
Full episodes can also be watched on the Nick Jr. app and the Nick Jr. US website
.note
Face's Music Party provides examples of:
- Adaptation Personality Change: Downplayed with Face. While they're definitely still prone to being giddy at times, they're much more laid back and relaxed than in the original bumpers.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Face looks considerably cuter compared to their appearance in the old bumpers. Their eyes are bigger and closer together, while their mouth moves more fluidly.
- Adaptational Gender Identity: Played with. In the original bumpers, Face was explicitly male and used "he/him" pronouns. Here, their gender is more ambiguous and they now use "they/them" pronouns.
- Ambiguous Gender: Although Face has a masculine voice, they don't have any definite masculine or feminine features due to only being a face. They have both male-presenting and female-presenting forms which they turn into, sometimes in the same episode. Word of God is that Face has no defined gender, and episode descriptions explicitly use "they/them" pronouns when referring to Face. Face's official character bio on the Nick Jr. website takes it one step further, and avoids using any third person pronouns for them.note
- Art Evolution: Instead of the scanimate-esque animation Face's bumpers were known for, the animation is a lot more fluid, with cleaner lines, reminiscent of indie cartoons.
- Art Shift: During "Pirates", the animation shifts to stop-motion paper cutouts in one scene, similar to South Park.
- Cameo Cluster: The episode "Mega Party" features cameo appearances from Dora the Explorer, Josh, Blue and their friends, the Bubble Guppies, and Baby Shark.
- Camera Abuse: In the opening of "Jungle", Face accidentally slams face-first into the camera while swinging on a vine.
- Christmas Episode: The aptly-titled "Face's SuperSnowtacular Holiday Special" has Face host a winter themed dance party at a ski resort while explaining the joys of the three main winter holidays in the U.S.: Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa.
- A Dog Named "Dog": A face named "Face".
- Excited Kids' Show Host: Face is still as enthusiastic as ever, although sometimes they can get carried away with their lessons.
- Kinder and Cleaner: Every pop song featured in the show that has cuss words are changed to fit the younger demographic.
- Quarter Hour Short: Each episode except for "Mega Party" and "Face's SuperSnowtacular Holiday Special" is broken up into two 15-minute segments.
- National Animal Stereotypes: In "Mega Party", Face transforms into a moose and puts on a stereotypical Canadian accent while doing so.
- Nursery Rhyme: Apart from the pop hits and Nick Jr. songs, remixes of popular nursery rhymes also play in each episode.
- Shout-Out: In "Confidence", the gold chain that Face wears at the beginning of the episode has the old Nick Jr. logo.
- Strictly Formula: Each episode always starts with a warm-up dance before shifting to whatever nursery rhyme or pop song is playing, before the party ends with Face giving their "goodbye face".
- Vague Age: Enforced. According to David Kleiler in an interview, Face has no defined age. He further elaborated by stating that Face is more like an older cousin of sorts to the show's preschool demographic, but how much older hasn't been stated.
- Verbal Tic: Face's trademark three-note trumpet sound ("Too too toot") makes a return in this series, and it always occurs at least once per episode.
- Wingding Eyes: In various episodes, the highlights in Face's eyes change shape from circles to stars and even music notes.
- Younger and Hipper: While Face was a goofy Excited Kids' Show Host in a similar vein to DJ Lance Rock in the original bumpers, this version of Face was written to act like an older cousin or sibling of sorts to the show's preschool demographic, making them act like they're in their teens or early twenties. It should also be noted that Chris Phillips, the original voice of Face, was in his early forties at the height of Face's popularity in the late 90s, while Cedric L. Williams was in his late twenties when Music Party premiered in 2022.
- "Until next time, this is my goodbye face! Too-too-toooot!!"
