Time Warp Trio

Time Warp Trio is an animated television series based on the children's book series of the same name. Created by Jon Scieszka, the series was produced by WGBH, Boston in association with Soup2Nuts. The series aired from July 9, 2005, to July 15, 2006, on Discovery Kids' Saturday morning block on NBC.

Plot
For his tenth birthday, Joe receives a mysterious blue book (known only as "The Book") from his magician uncle, Joe the Magnificent. By reading the book, Joe and his friends, Sam and Fred, are - often accidentally - transported to various times and places throughout history, such as Ancient Egypt and the Old West. In the year 2105, the trio meets their own great-granddaughters, Jodie, Samantha, and Freddi.

After each time warp, the group must find and use The Book in order to return to the present day. Later in the series, Joe's evil uncle, Mad Jack, makes several attempts to capture the children and The Book with crafty tricks, such as stranding them in Antarctica (since The Book does not work there).

Main

 * Joseph "Joe" Arthur (voiced by Mark Rendall) is an up-and-coming magician and the present-day owner of The Book. He descends from India. His penchant for experimenting with The Book results in many of their adventures, and his talent for magical tricks helps them out of tough situations. At one point, Joe is awarded the title of Time Page, and he is said to eventually become a Warp Wizard. According to Freddi and Jodie, Joe will fight his uncle, Mad Jack, in a great battle that will determine the fate of time itself. He lives in Brooklyn with his archaeologist father, his mother, and little sister Anna.
 * Samuel "Sam" Kikin (voiced by Darren Frost) is a friend of Joe and Fred who solves problems using intelligence and historical knowledge. He is of Russian descent. Depicted as being a stereotypical nerd, he wears glasses and has multiple allergies. Sam is wary of time travel, being convinced of their imminent doom every time they open The Book. An amateur scientist and inventor, he is told by Freddi that he will invent something very important in the future.
 * Frederick "Fred" McGrew (voiced by Scott McCord) is a friend of Joe and Sam who wears a baseball cap and is a sports fan and known for being fun-loving, teasing, and headstrong, often to the point of idiocy. Fred is the most interested in using The Book for material gains, whether hunting for treasure or patenting future technology - yet in "Dude, Where's My Karma?", he uses it to save Joe from being erased from existence.
 * Jodie Arthur (voiced by Sarah Gadon until episode 15; voiced by Tajja Isen starting with episode 20) is Joe's great-granddaughter from the year 2105. She is an aspiring fashion designer who is known for being bossy, rude, condescending, and complaining a lot. Jodie is referred to as a "third-level warper" and demonstrates great mastery over The Book. She also dislikes cats as she is allergic to them.
 * Samantha Kikin (voiced by Laurie Elliott) is Sam's great-granddaughter from the year 2105. She, like Fred, is known for being teasing, funny, impulsive, and headstrong – the exact opposite of Sam (though like Sam, she can be sensitive at times). Samantha has a pet robot cat named Rivites and owns a time-traveling pocket watch that Sam had invented a long time ago.
 * Frederica "Freddi" McGrew (voiced by Sunday Muse) is Fred's great-granddaughter from the year 2105. She is very friendly and sweet-natured, but also shy, malleable, sensitive, and seems to be the exact opposite of Fred (though like Fred, she can be brave if the situation suits her).

Recurring

 * Anna Arthur (voiced by Annick Obonsawin) is Joe's annoying younger sister, who seems to have greater knowledge of The Book than her brother.
 * Joe the Magnificent (voiced by Tony Daniels) is Joe's uncle and namesake, a would-be magician who fails at live performances. He sent his nephew Joe The Book, which he didn't know how to use, and instead traverses time and space with an enchanted pocket watch. He believes in the Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny.
 * Mad Jack (voiced by Tony Daniels) is the evil brother of Joe the Magnificent and Lila Arthur. He is intent on stealing The Book so that he can be the sole ruler of eternity. He shadows the trio in many of their travels, once facing down with his nephew Joe. Mad Jack travels through time and space using a scepter with an hourglass on top.
 * Lila Arthur (voiced by Susan Roman) is Joe and Anna's mother. She knows how to use The Book, being the one to originally give it to her brother.
 * Ronald Arthur (voiced by Tom Arnold) is Joe and Anna's father. He is a world-famous archeologist.
 * Mike McGrew (voiced by Dan Petronijevic) is Fred's mean older brother who appears in "See You Later, Gladiator" and "Viking It and Liking It".

Historical characters

 * Blackbeard (voiced by Cal Dodd)
 * Israel Hands (voiced by Bill Colgate)
 * Genghis Khan (child, voiced by Daniel DeSanto)
 * Thutmose III
 * Tokugawa Ieyasu (voiced by Denis Akiyama)
 * Emperor Hadrian
 * Meriwether Lewis (voiced by Ted Atherton)
 * William Clark (voiced by Don Dickinson)
 * Sacagawea (voiced by Stephanie Morgenstern)
 * Erik the Red (voiced by Tony Daniels)
 * Leif Erikson (voiced by Robert Norman Smith)
 * Thomas Edison (voiced by Michael Therriault)
 * Emily Warren Roebling
 * Black Kettle
 * Napoleon Bonaparte (voiced by Paul Essiembre)
 * Sophie Blanchard (voiced by Stephanie Martin)
 * Nebuchadnezzar II (voiced by Juan Chioran)
 * Queen Amyitis
 * Queen Jinga (voiced by Alison Sealy Smith)
 * Plato
 * Li Shimin
 * Peter the Great
 * Alexander Kikin
 * Mary Shelley (voiced by Vickie Papavs)
 * Lord Byron
 * Leonardo da Vinci
 * Robert Falcon Scott (voiced by Michael Fletcher)
 * Amelia Earhart
 * Selim II
 * William Montagu
 * Agnes Randolph (voiced by Corrine Koslo)

Broadcast
Time Warp Trio aired on Discovery Kids and premiered in the United States on July 9, 2005. The final episode aired on July 15, 2006. It also aired as part of a three-hour Discovery Kids block on NBC until September 2, 2006. After the series ended, reruns aired on The Hub until June 27, 2011.

It also aired on TVOKids in Canada, CBBC in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Cartoon Network in Australia and New Zealand, and HBO Family & Cartoon Network in Southeast Asia. It also aired on Jetix (later Disney XD) in India. It was also dubbed into Hebrew under the title "מלכודת הזמן" and aired on Logi and Arutz HaYeladim, the series was also aired in South Korea on EBS under the name "시간 여행 삼총사" with Korean subtitles. It also aired in Portugal on RTP2 (formerly 2), where it was dubbed into Portuguese under the title "Trio no Tempo", it also aired in Italy on DeA Kids.

Although the show was produced by PBS station WGBH, Time Warp Trio was not broadcast on PBS in the United States. However, the show is distributed internationally through PBS International and airs on PBS Kids in Africa.

Comics

 * Nightmare on Joe's Street
 * The Seven Blunders of the World
 * Plaid to the Bone
 * Meet you at Waterloo ("Able Was I, Ere I Saw Elba")

Chapter books

 * You Can't, But Genghis Khan
 * Lewis and Clark...and Jodie, Freddi, and Samantha
 * Wushu Were Here