Maya & Miguel

Maya & Miguel
Genre	Adventure Animated comedy Children's Educational Sitcom
Created by	Deborah Forte
Voices of	Candi Milo Nika Futterman Carlos Alazraqui Elizabeth Peña Carlos Ponce Lupe Ontiveros Lucy Liu
Composer(s)	David Ricard[1]
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English Spanish
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	65 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	22 minutes
Production company(s)	Scholastic Studios
Release
Original network	PBS (PBS Kids)
Original release	October 11, 2004[2] – October 10, 2007
Chronology
Related shows	WordGirl
External links
Website

Maya & Miguel is an American children's television educational animated series produced by Scholastic Studios with animation by Starburst Animation Studios (Kim Possible) and Yeson Animation Studios (The Fairly OddParents). It formerly aired on PBS as part of the PBS Kids and PBS Kids Go! lineups. The show ran from October 11, 2004 to October 10, 2007, and had a total of five seasons and 65 episodes.^[2][3] Centering on the lives of preteen Hispanic twins named Maya and Miguel Santos and their friends, the program is aimed at promoting multiculturalism and education in general. It is geared to the 5-9 age range. Part of the dialogue in each episode in the English version is in Spanish but only individual words or phrases which are explained in English.

The TV show is close captioned by the National Captioning Institute when seen on PBS Kids in the USA like Sesame Street, Dragon Tales, and Clifford the Big Red Dog.

Synopsis

The show presents culture and language learning as fun, relevant and rewarding for all children, with a special emphasis on the Latino population. The show chronicles the adventures, and sometimes misadventures, of fraternal twins Maya and Miguel Santos and features their family, friends and a diverse neighborhood. This show centers on Maya's well-intentioned meddling in her family and friends' lives, ultimately creating new quandaries to fix. Their mother is from Mexico, and their father is from Puerto Rico. The underlying message is the importance of doing good for the family and community, and the philosophy that shared happiness is greater than personal gain. The show presents a positive, culturally rich portrayal of Latino family, language and cultures. In some markets, each episode ends with Maya announcing, "Here's what some of our friends are up to," introducing clips of children engaging and interacting in ways consistent with the show's themes. Maya concludes episodes by exhorting viewers to "visit your local library like 'Maya & Miguel'".

Characters

The show centers on 11 main characters. Other characters are included, such as family, but the show mainly revolves around these characters:

• Maya Santos (voiced by Candi Milo): Maya is a sweet, gentle, and energetic girl of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent. She always manages to include her twin brother and friends into her crazy adventures. Whenever Maya comes up with an idea, she always says "¡Éso es!" (That's it!) and her hair bobbles light up; as shown in "The Bet" they will continue to glow until she says "¡Éso es!". She can sometimes be very stubborn, ignorant, and naive, and tends to get involved in other people's business. Although her ideas often don't go the way she plans them, they always accomplish their original objective in the end. Maya's heart is always in the right place.
• Miguel Santos (voiced by Nika Futterman): Maya's older twin. Miguel is slightly more practical and sensible than his sister, and enjoys playing soccer and video games. Every time Maya gets an idea, he gets a bad feeling about it. He knows Maya means well, but he thinks she gets more involved in other people's problems than need be. He keeps track of Maya's ideas that have gone wrong, which annoys Maya. However, he would sometimes admit that an idea of hers is the best idea yet. He has a crush on a girl named Kylie, who apparently feels the same way.
• Theo McEwen (voiced by Jerod Mixon): Miguel's best friend and soccer buddy. He is African-American. Theo loves sports as much as Miguel does. Theo often gets straight A's in his classes, arguably making him the most intelligent of the kids. Theo is often the voice of reason among his friends.
• Maggie Lee (voiced by Lucy Liu): Maya's Chinese-American friend. She is very dramatic, fashionable, and talented. She rarely disagrees with Maya's ideas.
• Chrissy Lum (voiced by Beth Payne): Maya's Dominican-American friend, and describes herself as Afro-Dominican. She is very sensitive and level-headed, though sometimes she can also be gullible. Chrissy tends to point out the flaws in Maya's plans, similar to Miguel. She also loves animals.
• Andy Arlington (voiced by Jeannie Elias): Miguel's other friend. He is an English-American boy who was born with only one arm. Often seen in the background with Miguel and Theo, he likes to play soccer, basketball, and baseball. Andy moved to Maya and Miguel's neighborhood from Wisconsin.
• Tito Chávez (voiced by Candi Milo): Maya and Miguel's cousin who moved to the U.S.A. from Mexico with his parents. He lives in the same apartment complex. He admires his cousin Miguel; in the episode "I've Got to Be 'Mi-Guel'" he is shown pretending to act as if he is Miguel (which makes Miguel rather pleased, but eventually annoyed at one point). He loves to play soccer like the twins.
• Abuela Elena (voiced by Lupe Ontiveros): Maya and Miguel's grandmother.
• Paco (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui): A bilingual parrot who is the twins' pet, originally owned by their abuela. Most commonly heard saying "Pretty Bird" and "What about Paco, what about Paco?". He often gets loose, causing much trouble and confusion. Paco also often reacts to figures of speech (mostly ones about birds), thinking they are real.
• Rosa Santos (voiced by Elizabeth Peña): Santiago's wife and Maya and Miguel's mother who was originally from Mexico.
• Santiago Santos (voiced by Carlos Ponce): Rosa's husband and Maya and Miguel's father who was originally from Puerto Rico.

Episodes

Home releases

There have been only 3 Maya & Miguel DVD and VHS releases. There are no plans for releasing the complete seasons on DVD, although all 65 episodes of the series are available on iTunes.

References

External links

• Official website
• Maya & Miguel at TV.com
• Maya & Miguel on IMDb