Grown-ups

The real story
behind the pig

For parents deciding whether this is for their kid, and for anyone in the business wondering what this actually is.

How it started

One line on Star Trek,
and that was that

Isabel recorded a voice-over line on Star Trek with her dad, who produces television for a living. She was in the booth for a few minutes. She has talked about it ever since.

What she wanted was to do it again. The honest answer to a six-year-old who wants to be a working voice actor is that there is no queue you can join — so the two of them took the other route. If you want a part, write the part. If you want a show, make the show.

The idea itself turned up on the Saturday walk to Starbucks, the one they do every week with Isabel's brother Henry. Henry's nickname is Ham Bone. Somewhere between the house and the coffee it turned into Ham Balonius — which sounded, immediately and to everybody, like a Roman.

The pig came next. Then Bim, because Isabel wanted the best friend to be a bug. Then Hallie, because she wanted a girl scientist who was smarter than everyone and nobody would listen to. Then a horse. Then a wolf to chase them. Then a time machine, because how else do you get to meet dinosaurs and pirates.

Every part of that list came from her.

Voice test

The first take that made everybody stop and look at each other.

Who is making it

Three people
and a lot of Saturdays

I

Creator & voice of Ham Balonius

Isabel

Six years old. Came up with the pig, named the friends, and has strong opinions about all of it. Voiced a line on Star Trek with her dad, decided that was the job, and has been asking for the next session ever since.

H

Voice of Bim

Henry

Isabel's brother. Nicknamed Ham Bone — which is, by a short and inevitable route, where the title came from. Plays a potato bug who communicates entirely in squeaks and one perfect “uh-oh”.

P

Creator & producer

Patrick

Isabel and Henry's dad, and a television producer by trade. Doing the parts a six-year-old cannot yet — and getting out of the way on the parts where she is better than he is.

For parents

What we promise
about your kid

The people making this show are raising the audience for it. Everything below is the standard we hold our own kids' screen time to.

Full privacy statement

Built for the “Made for Kids” rulesEvery episode will be published as Made for Kids on YouTube, which turns off comments and personalised advertising automatically.
This website collects nothingNo accounts, no sign-ups, no cookies, no analytics, no tracking pixels. Nothing is stored about anyone who visits — child or grown-up.
No chat, no uploads, no strangersThere is nowhere on this site for anyone to message a child, and nowhere for a child to post anything.
Outbound links live in the grown-ups' areaLinks that leave this site sit in the Grown-Ups section, so a kid exploring on their own stays here.
Nothing sensational, nothing scaryVincent is a bumbler, not a threat. Peril resolves inside the episode. No cliffhangers that leave a five-year-old worried at bedtime.

Press & partners

The short version

Logline

When a Roman pig, his oversized potato bug, a girl inventor born a thousand years too early and one very nervous horse fall through a time machine built to strand them, every century becomes a way home — and a wolf named Vincent is always one step behind.

Contact

hello@hambalonius.com

At a glance

Format: Animated comedy adventure — 11-minute episodes, with 2–3 minute shorts for social
Audience: Children 4–8, co-viewing with parents
Tone: Warm, funny, gently educational. Sliders and Lost in Space for the preschool set
Setting: Ancient Rome, and any century the machine picks
Cast: Ham Balonius, Bim, Hallie, TukTuk, Vincent, and Brain
Voices: Child leads — Isabel (Ham) and Henry (Bim)
Status: In development. Character design, voice tests and animation tests complete
Platform: YouTube Kids first, Made for Kids compliant