Shoebox Zoo is an urban fantasy TV series made in a collaboration between BBC Scotland and various Canadian television companies. It is mostly live-action, but with CGI used for the animal figurines. The show centers on the story of a young girl named Marnie McBride, who is given a shoebox containing four toy animals by a mysterious old man at a junk shop, as a gift for her 11th birthday. These magical toys have the power to come alive on Marnie’s command, and they’re on a quest to find an ancient book that once belonged to a great and powerful wizard.
13 Episodes • 2004
On her 11th birthday, Marnie McBride goes to a junk shop with her father to pick out a present. There, the mysterious shopkeeper eagerly gifts her a shoebox containing four animal figurines, all of whom have the ability to magically spring to life. Marnie now has to deal with the struggles of balancing her life between adventuring with the collectively named “Shoebox Zoo” animals on a quest to find an ancient book of magic, and her day-to-day life as a schoolgirl, on top of having to deal with the grief stemming from the loss of her recently deceased mother.
13 Episodes • 2005
Marnie, with the Shoebox Zoo animals in tow, travels from Edinburgh to her hometown of Denver. Now accompanied by her best friend Kyle, the quest for the Book of Forbidden Knowledge continues as the two friends must piece together several clues in order to find the true location of the book, all the while having to once again stop the evil plans of Toledo, who is seemingly back from the dead as a ghostly apparition. Will Marnie and Kyle be able to find the book and turn the Shoebox Zoo back to their human forms? Or will the nefarious shapeshifter prevail?
Marnie McBride
Wolfgang the Wolf (voice) / Hunter the Horse (voice)
Edwin the Eagle (voice)
Bruno the Bear (voice)
Ailsa the Adder (voice)
Ross McBride
Michael Scot
William McTaggart
The Storyteller (voice)
Nathaniel Stone
What people are saying
@sarahwatches
Just finished the finale! What an incredible adaptation of one of my favorite books. The attention to historical detail is amazing.
@mikefilmcritic
The character development in this show is unmatched. Every episode leaves me wanting more.
9/21/2004
11/27/2005
2
26
BBC One
Ended
Streaming information not available at this time.