Barney & Friends (reboot)

Barney & Friends is an American children's television series created by Karen Barnes. It has been described as both a revival and reboot of the original TV series of the same name that ran from 1992 to 2010. The series premiered on November 1, 2022, on PBS Kids.

Premise
Similar its predecessor, the series features the title character Barney, a purple anthropomorphic tyrannosaurus rex who conveys educational messages through songs and small dance routines with a friendly, huggable and optimistic attitude along with his dino friends - Baby Bop, BJ, & Riff.

Dinosaurs
The surviving voice actors reprise their roles from the original series, though the child & adult roles from the original series have been recast.


 * Barney (voiced by Dean Wendt, costume by Carey Stinson)
 * Baby Bop (voiced by Julie Johnson)
 * BJ (voiced by Patty Wirtz)
 * Riff (voiced by Michaela Dietz)

Children

 * Solage Ortiz as Mary
 * Pierce Gagnon as Tony
 * Diana Show as Anna
 * Sunny Suljic as Earl
 * Royalty Brown as Sam

Guests

 * Stella the Storyteller (Phyllis Cicero)
 * Mother Goose (Jennifer White)
 * Old King Cole (Tom Hiddleton)
 * Mr. Tenagain (Tom Cruise)
 * Professor Tinkerputt (Gene Hackman)
 * Rainbow Beard the Pirate (Stephen White)
 * Min (Pia Hamilton)
 * Tosha (Hope Cervantes)
 * Michael (Brian Eppes)
 * Kathy (Lauren King)
 * Jason (Kurt Dykhuizen)
 * Luci (Leah Montes)
 * Tina (Jessica Zucha)
 * Derek (Ricky Carter)
 * Shawn (John David Bennett II)
 * Julie (Susannah Williams)
 * Amy (Becky Swonke)
 * Jason (Salim Grant)
 * Adam (Alexander Jhin)
 * Jeffery (Jeffery Lowe)

Puppets

 * Scooter (Todd Duffey)
 * Miss Etta Kette (Brice Armstrong)
 * Twinken (James LeBrech)

Differences from the Original series
Even though the series still has the same premise from the original, there are some differences:


 * Baby Bop's mouth FINALLY moves
 * Barney, Baby Bop, BJ, & Riff's eyes move from side to side, open & close in terms of blinking, similar to the Disney mascots' new animatronic faces.
 * When the kids are leaving, we actually get to see Barney turn back into a doll.

Production
In 2015, a revival was announced to premiere in 2017 but was delayed into an undated launch until it got one on November 1st, 2022

Reception
The new series was well-receieved by critics everywhere in the United States. It is described as a "fresher & re-modernization of one of those classic kids shows", giving it a 10/10!

Trivia

 * This series marks as the first to:
 * Bring back Barney & Friends to PBS Kids.
 * Recast adults & children from the original series
 * Have new mechanisms for the eyes and mouth