The Teletubbies are back in a brand new reboot from Netflix, but not everyone was charmed by the first look at the revived children’s show.
Netflix released a trailer for their revival on Tuesday, revealing the return of Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po and introducing new narrator Tituss Burgess.
Although the reboot looks mostly unchanged in design, some fans were left enraged by one major difference.
Coming soon: The Teletubbies are back in an all-new Netflix reboot, but not everyone was charmed by the first look at the revived kids’ show
While the original British show, which took place between 1997 and 2001, was shot on a real outdoor set in England, the reboot of the American team relies more on CGI.
The original sun-baby was also given a CGI makeover, and some fans aren’t happy with the iconic new image that greets viewers at the start of each episode.
“I can never be behind what they did with Sun. Just go back to that,” one reviewer wrote on Twitter, alongside a photo of the original baby Sun.
‘Of all the things to change for Netflix’s American dub, why the Sun Baby, and for that matter, why do it in the laziest, most inconsistent way possible? It’s never been broken, so why try to fix it? agreed another.
New Faces: Although the reboot looks mostly unchanged in design, some fans were left enraged by one major difference: the new sun-baby look
Original: The original sun-baby has had a facelift, and some fans aren’t happy with the new image that greets viewers at the start of each episode (pictured, the original sun-baby)
‘They couldn’t even make it yellow? The other versions did it very well.
“Honestly, the baby sun really bothers me. They could have made the baby’s head yellow to look like a sun like the other versions. Here it looks like a giant baby head floating in the sky, it’s just weird.”
‘Okay, even ignoring the fact that they’re rebooting the TELETUBBIES for some unholy reason, why isn’t the Baby Sun… a sun…?
Raging: ‘I could never be behind what they did with Sun. Get back to this,” wrote one reviewer
New Faces: Two Children Appear in New Reboot Trailer as Sun-Baby
Jess Smith, from Chatham, Kent, was selected to be the original giggling baby sun when she was just nine months old.
Speaking to the BBC on how she landed the role, the former child star explained: ‘I was being weighed in hospital. My mom took me and it was just around the same time that the producer of the old show came over and wanted the hospital to get in touch with them if they saw any smiling babies.
“It was just a case of sitting in front of a mirror and a camera and my dad playing with toys and race cars and that kind of thing to try to make me laugh on camera.”
In 2014 Jess – who has not pursued an acting career – revealed that she only revealed her secret during a game with her university friends – where they all had to say something about themselves that no one else would guess.
Reboot: The original Teletubbies are pictured in Teletubby Land in 1997. At the time, the show was filmed on an actual outdoor set in England, with the Netflix reboot appearing to roll out much higher levels of computer-generated footage.
She then took to Facebook to confirm it was her – and photos show she still has the same cheeky face.
Jess joked: ‘I thought I might as well tell them I’m going to spend the next three years with them. My mother is really happy.
Additionally, the child star welcomed her first baby in 2021.
Teletubbies 26 new episodes will hit screens on November 14 and are the second revival of the iconic British show, which first aired between 1997 and 2001. It was revived in 2015 and disappeared from screens again in 2018.
Child star: Jess Smith, from Chatham, Kent, was selected to be the original laughing baby sun when she was just nine months old – pictured aged 19
The show’s creator, Anne Wood, was worth $170 million in 2000, with Netflix’s revival of her biggest hit expected to swell her coffers even further.
The Teletubbies reboot is helmed by original series co-creator and writer Andrew Davenport who works alongside fellow writer Catherine Williams. The first season will consist of 26 12-minute episodes.
The show will bring back a team that worked on the series that aired from 2015 to 2018 on Nick Jr. in the US, which includes – Jeremiah Krage, Nick Kellington, Rebecca Hyland and Rachelle Beinart – to once again take on the roles of Tinky Winky, Dipsy, La-La and Po,
They are back! Teletubbies 26 new episodes will hit screens on November 14 and are the second revival of the iconic British show
