PBS’ ‘Let’s Go Luna!’ takes kids on a globe-spanning tour

LOS ANGELES >> Carmen, Leo and Andy are globe-trotters to envy, jumping from Paris to Nairobi to New Orleans and beyond in the company of a tour guide who knows her way around: Luna the moon.

PBS’ animated series “Let’s Go Luna!” is a road trip aimed at giving viewers age 4 to 7 a glimpse of the world’s people and cultures beyond their own familiar corner.

The series, which debuts Wednesday (check local listings for times), will visit all seven continents and 19 cities. Antarctica is the stop for a special Christmas episode airing Dec. 10.

PBS joined with Emmy Awardwinner artist and writer Joe Murray (“Rocko’s Modern Life,” “Camp Lazlo”) to fill a social-studies need for its young audience, and the result is lively, fun and — don’t tell the kids — educational, since it’s public TV.

Carmen, a butterfly from Mexico, Australian wombat Leo and Andy, a frog from the United States, are buddies traveling with Circo Fabuloso, a performance troupe run by their parents. The group’s fourth wheel is Luna, whose nightshift duties makes her available for daytime adventures. As created by Murray and voiced by Judy Greer, Luna is a joyful — even madcap — companion.

In the first episode, her exuberant dancing unleashes minor chaos in Mexico City as she joins the children’s emergency search for a substitute band to entertain the president.

There are mariachis to meet, a tour of the city and a dash of hiccupcausing salsa flavoring the story, a taste of what’s to come as the series hopscotches around the world with clever, engaging animation.

Skeptics contended that young viewers would be at sea over the show’s concept, said Linda Simensky, vice president of children’s programming for PBS.

“We’ve been told a number of times that kids wouldn’t really understand global awareness,” with a perspective limited to their town