Sometimes a Great Notion Just Nods Off

A quaint curiosity shop called Notions, Oddities, Doodads & Delights of Yesterday, filled with eye-catching toys and objects that come to life, is the setting for the new PBS children’s series “Noddy,” launching Sunday.

“Nod Off” might be a more appropriate title, however. It’s unaccountably pedestrian--even amateurish--in execution; all the imagination seems to have gone into the set.

The show revolves around live actors--the store’s owner, an old sea captain named Noah (Sean McCann); his eccentric sister Agatha (Jayne Eastwood); and the kids who stay at the shop after school: 10-year-old Kate (Katie Boland), her little brother Truman (Max Morrow) and their pal D.J. (Kyle Kassardjian), a science whiz.

It’s a welcome use of a multi-generational cast--undone not only by unconvincing performances but also by a lack of any noticeable warmth between the adult and child actors.

The toys exist to comment on the action, bursting too often into cloying song to underscore messages of responsibility and friendship.

Within each episode are puppet animation shorts featuring a wooden toy named Noddy, whose adventures are related to the day’s lesson. These vignettes, part of a preexisting BBC series, have been given newly recorded dialogue in ho-hum voice-overs, and Noddy’s is particularly grating: sappy, hyper-exclamatory and adenoidal.

* “Noddy” premieres Sunday at 7:30 a.m. on KCET-TV Channel 28.