Season 2 of ‘Wonder pets: in the city’ Hits Apple TV
I typically don’t cover TV news on Curb Cuts, but I’ll make an exception today.
Marcus Mendes reported this week for 9to5 Mac the Apple TV children’s program, Wonder Pets: In the City, dropped its 13-episode second season on the platform. The series debuted in 2024, with adventures following a band of humble classroom pets by day, who, by night, transform into heroic, opera-singing superheroes who “answer calls from animals in need all over the world” in their Batmobile-esque “Jetcar.”
Fortuitously, I wrote about Wonder Pets: In the City last March. I published a story which featured a brief interview with Emmy-winning author, illustrator, and director Jennifer Oxley, who developed the show alongside Nickelodeon Animation. Wonder Pets, she told me, is targeted at preschoolers but is “adorable” to any one of any age.
Adorability aside, the show features characters coping with disability in some way.
“Ultimately, we’ve got these three pets who have very different personalities and they’re different types of animals—yet they’re best friends and they come together as one,” Oxley said of her protagonists. “They can work together and find a way to bring all of their strengths to save the day. I’m hoping audience will feel that sort of love and heart and joy of helping others. I’m hoping that will be a takeaway message for them.”
Moreover, Oxley described working with Apple, notably children’s programming boss Tara Sorensen, as “a fun challenge and collaboration” because, as you’d expect, the company has its own sensibilities that absolutely translate to its streaming service.
I know it’s not an either/or scenario, yet for all the acclaim Apple TV receives from critics and audiences alike, the streamer’s embrace of disability inclusion is criminally underrated. I love Severance as much as the next person, but there is so much good disability-centric content on Apple TV that gets barely any buzz. Like its work in advancing disability inclusion on the software side, Apple deserves far greater roses for their efforts—especially from reviewers and journalists who critique the company.
