Wots next for Weta Workshop

Weta Workshops new production the WotWots. Photo / Supplied

He's the man behind some of Hollywood's scariest critters and creatures. But Weta Workshop boss Richard Taylor's latest creations are cut from a different cloth entirely.

Cute and colourful, The WotWots are Earth's newest arrivals, eager and excited to learn about their new surroundings. The series marks the second venture into children's television for Taylor's Pukeko Pictures, following the global success of Jane and the Dragon, and sees him again collaborate with Jane's author Martin Baynton.

Aimed at pre-school children, the series has been Taylor's biggest challenge to date, but one that he is enormously proud and passionate about.

"It's incredibly inspiring and very, very challenging. Children are black and white. They like it or they don't and they're not subtle with their criticism.

"The WotWots is all about endorsing in young children that they are allowed to discover. They're allowed to be aliens."

Set in Wellington Zoo, with additional scenes filmed in Auckland Zoo and Melbourne Zoo, each episode sees the alien siblings - SpottyWot and DottyWot - discover a new species and learn about them. It will screen weekday mornings on TV2 from March 23 and will premiere in Australia, England and Europe later this year.

More than 36 people have spent two-and-a-half years working on the series, comprised of 10-minute episodes.

"Every single frame is individually animated," he explains. "Even for something that may seem so simple and small, it's a surprisingly complex task. Especially trying to get it to this level of finish."

It may only be intended for preschool viewers but Taylor was adamant the series should be as sophisticated and attractive to children as a feature film is for adults. Even if it was at odds with good business sense.

It's the same strategy Taylor employed when creating Jane and the Dragon - rumoured to have cost a staggering $16 million - which ultimately paid off. Though Taylor admits The WotWots wasn't nearly as costly as its predecessor.

His commitment to quality children's programming comes from a long-standing love of the genre and Taylor happily admits children's TV is his viewing of choice, in particular, Thunderbirds.

"My wife and I have been collecting children's television for probably 20 years now," he says enthusiastically. "We'd always hoped it would be part of our professional careers, we just never quite got around to pulling it off.

"It's surprisingly much more difficult to build a children's television production arm than it is to build an effects workshop."

Of course it helps that he has a few other "side" projects [The Hobbit, Avatar, Tin Tin], to keep things ticking over while he establishes the children's programming division.

"It's pretty frantic," he laughs. "But it's great."

The WotWots premieres on TV2, Monday March 23 at 8.50am