Amazing Animals series five

Amazing Animals is a series that was produced by Dorling Kindersley and ran on Disney Channel from 1996-1999, for four series. This fifth series is produced for 2026, to celebrate 30 years since the show was first produced. It is also partly being made so that both Amazing Animals and the other flagship show of Dorling Kindersley, Eyewitness, will both have five series in total.

The series will again focus on the activities of Henry, a CGI lizard who is animated to match the style of the older shows. Also, to ensure the series feels connected, the cartoons, opening sequence and much of the music will remain the same in the new series. The new series would have Henry and the narrator voiced by their original actors (Eric Meyers and Tom Clarke-Hill, respectively).

One potential hurdle that needs to be crossed is that one of the main producers of the show and source of all the stock footage used, Partridge Films, has since closed. It may be that most, or all, of the stock footage is still in storage with Wildscreen.

Swamp Animals
Title card animal: Black stork

Plot: Henry goes out to try camping in the wilderness, but takes a wrong turn and ends up stuck in a swamp! As he tries to find his way around and get over his distaste of the swamp (which he thinks are icky and smelly), he meets many amazing wetland animals - these include alligators, amphibians, hoofed mammals like buffalo and sitatunga antelope, wetland birds, dragonflies and small carnivores such as mink. By the end of the episode Henry makes his way out of the swamp and decides to head back home.

Golden Gecko Awards:


 * Bronze - Shoebill
 * Silver - Water buffalo
 * Gold - Bullfrog

Alien Animals
Title card animal: Cane toad

Plot: Henry is watching a late-night horror film about aliens, but is shocked to find that there really are alien animals. But rather than coming from other planets, they have been moved around the world by people. Many are bad news, like cane toads and foxes in Australia, but some have been moved to help the environment (giant tortoises on Mauritius) or to save them from extinction (the kakapo). By the end of the episode, Henry invites the alien animals to stay in his house, so they have somewhere to stay where they won't damage the environment.

Golden Gecko Awards:


 * Bronze - Chinese water deer
 * Silver - Island fox
 * Gold - Aldabra giant tortoise

Animal Tricksters
Title card animal: Sinaloan milk snake

Plot: Henry is trying to prank the narrator but they keep failing to work. He decides to take some advice from amazing animal tricksters, that use mimicry and camouflage to trick their prey, predators or rivals. Some animals will fake alarm calls, imitate their prey to attract it closer or cross-dress to gets close to a potential mate. By the end of the episode, Henry succeeds in giving the narrator a surprise but is so jubilant that he ends up accidentally springing another of his pranks and ends up covered in paint.

Golden Gecko Awards:


 * Bronze - Margay
 * Silver - Chacma baboon
 * Gold - Mimic octopus

Grassland Animals
Title card animal: Violet-winged grasshopper

Plot: Henry is attempting to maintain his lawn but is increasingly frustrated by the visits of grassland animals. Throughout the episode, he encounters plains hunters such as cheetahs and lions, grazing animals, smaller burrowing mammals, long-legged grassland birds like bustards, grasshoppers, termites and insect-eaters like anteaters. By the end of the episode, Henry has come to like the grassland animals so much that he takes down his garden fence and allows them to come and go as they please.

Golden Gecko Awards:


 * Bronze - Barn owl
 * Silver - Grasshopper
 * Gold - Saiga antelope

Animal Teeth
Title card animal: Red-bellied piranha

Plot: While Henry is playing, he accidentally breaks his grandfather's false teeth and has to quickly make a new set. To get some ideas, he looks at the teeth of animals and how they function - from flesh-tearing teeth of predators and the grinding teeth of herbivorous animals to the gnawing teeth of rodents, tusks for defence and combat and venomous fangs. By the end of the episode, Henry unveils his new set of false teeth to the narrator - they are a composite set with teeth based on the best bits of the animals he has met over the show.

Golden Gecko Awards:


 * Bronze - Sand tiger shark
 * Silver - Agouti
 * Gold - Tasmanian devil

Island Animals
Title card animal: Ring-tailed lemur

Plot: Henry is out on his little boat before he washes up on a deserted island full of strange animals. He meets some of these strange creatures, from the lemur and Tasmanian devil to flightless birds, island giants such as Komodo dragons and giant tortoises and ancient survivors like the tuatara and solenodon. As Henry learns how vulnerable island animals can be to new species they cannot cope with, he decides to leave them as they might not be able to handle his mainland way of living.

Golden Gecko Awards:


 * Bronze - Kodiak bear
 * Silver - Sifaka
 * Gold - Kiwi

Animal Recyclers
Title card animal: Striped hyena

Plot: Henry is doing his bit for the planet by sorting out his recycling and admonishes other animals for leaving behind food waste. But he soon finds that there is a whole cast of animals that make a living by clearing up the mess left behind by others, from vultures, hyenas and condors to earthworms, crabs and dung beetles. Henry tries to outdo them but cannot cope with things like bones and poop, so by the end of the episode he decides to stick with what he is doing and leave the natural waste disposal to the amazing animal recyclers.

Golden Gecko Awards:


 * Bronze - Hagfish
 * Silver - Burying beetle
 * Gold - Wolverine

Climbing Animals
Title card animal: Tokay gecko

Plot: Henry is climbing around on his walls and boasting of his prowess as a climber. Deciding that he is the best climbing animal of all, he sets out to challenge other competitors. Along the way, he meets animals with prehensile tails, animals that swing or scramble through the branches and even more unusual climbers like goats that can move on sheer cliffs and even the waterfall-climbing big-headed turtle. In the end, Henry challenges a spider monkey but falls out of the tree and hurts his foot, forcing him to leave the climbing to the amazing animals for now.

Golden Gecko Awards:


 * Bronze - Slender loris
 * Silver - Tree pangolin
 * Gold - Markhor

Animals and Plants
Title card animal: Green aracari

Plot: Henry has started keeping houseplants but is admonished by the narrator for scaring bees away from the flowers. He learns how many animals and plants interact with each other - some relationships are damaging (herbivorous animals and carnivorous plants) while others are helpful (seed dispersal and pollination). After learning how important animals are to helping plants survive, Henry lets the animals in through his windows to visit his houseplants and help them survive.

Golden Gecko Awards:


 * Bronze - Elephant and navel fruit
 * Silver - Fruit bat and fig
 * Gold - Ant and ant plant

Animal Song
Title card animal: Domestic canary

Plot: Henry is trying to write a song for the show; the narrator recommends to listen at other animals singing their own songs. As well as songbirds, Henry meets many weird and wonderful animal singers including frogs, insects, whales, gibbons, rhinos and even singing mice, and learns how they use song to attract a mate, hold onto a territory or strengthen social bonds. Finally, Henry comes up with a song and the episode ends on a musical number.

Golden Gecko Awards:


 * Bronze - Six o'clock cicada
 * Silver - Singing mouse
 * Gold - Nightingale

Weird Animals
Title card animal: Southern three-banded armadillo

Plot: Henry is trying to make the weirdest costume for a fancy-dress party but each time he adds a feature, he finds an animal has got there first. In the episode, he meets animals with strange features and learns how they help the animal to survive - from star-nosed moles, pangolins and horseshoe bats to the aye-aye, glass frog and bioluminescent animals. Finally, Henry decides to make a costume that combines all of the features of these strange animals and gets ready to set out for the party.

Golden Gecko Awards:


 * Bronze - Star-nosed mole
 * Silver - Aye-aye
 * Gold - Platypus

Animal Engineers
Title card animal: Asian elephant

Plot: Henry is building a birdhouse for his garden but finds that his garden is also being seemingly damaged by the work of ecosystem engineers. Henry learns about these animals, which alter the environment for their own purposes but unknowingly benefit other creatures, such as elephants, rabbits, parrotfish, woodpeckers and alligators. At first Henry tries to clear away what he sees as mess, but by the end of the episode he embraces it and engineers his garden to become a paradise for all kinds of animals.

Golden Gecko Awards:


 * Bronze - Beaver
 * Silver - Arctic fox
 * Gold - Parrotfish

Animal Comeback
Title card animal: Eurasian otter

Plot: Henry is opening a support group for his endangered animal friends but everyone he has invited leaves soon after; he finds out this is because many have made a comeback and are no longer endangered, such as the wolf, otter, wood duck, white rhino, alligator and beaver. Henry finds out how they have recovered either by themselves or with help from humans. At the end of the episode, Henry decides to change his support group and instead invites all his friends to a party to celebrate their comeback.

Golden Gecko Awards:


 * Bronze - White rhinoceros
 * Silver - Oryx
 * Gold - Echo parakeet