Shoebox Zoo poster

Shoebox Zoo

2004 to 2005 Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Drama, Action & Adventure 2 seasons

TMDB rating 7.7/10 Ended

Shoebox Zoo is an urban fantasy TV series made in a collaboration between BBC Scotland and various Canadian television companies. It is mostly live-action, but with CGI used for the animal figurines. The show centers on the story of a young girl named Marnie McBride, who is given a shoebox containing four toy animals by a mysterious old man at a junk shop, as a gift for her 11th birthday. These magical toys have the power to come alive on Marnie’s command, and they’re on a quest to find an ancient book that once belonged to a great and powerful wizard.

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Seasons2

  • On her 11th birthday, Marnie McBride goes to a junk shop with her father to pick out a present. There, the mysterious shopkeeper eagerly gifts her a shoebox containing four animal figurines, all of whom have the ability to magically spring to life. Marnie now has to deal with the struggles of balancing her life between adventuring with the collectively named “Shoebox Zoo” animals on a quest to find an ancient book of magic, and her day-to-day life as a schoolgirl, on top of having to deal with the grief stemming from the loss of her recently deceased mother.

    All episodes available

  • Marnie, with the Shoebox Zoo animals in tow, travels from Edinburgh to her hometown of Denver. Now accompanied by her best friend Kyle, the quest for the Book of Forbidden Knowledge continues as the two friends must piece together several clues in order to find the true location of the book, all the while having to once again stop the evil plans of Toledo, who is seemingly back from the dead as a ghostly apparition. Will Marnie and Kyle be able to find the book and turn the Shoebox Zoo back to their human forms? Or will the nefarious shapeshifter prevail?

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Cast and details

  • Vivien Endicott DouglasMarnie McBride
  • Simon CallowWolfgang the Wolf (voice) / Hunter the Horse (voice)
  • Rik MayallEdwin the Eagle (voice)
  • Alan CummingBruno the Bear (voice)
  • Siobhan RedmondAilsa the Adder (voice)
  • Jason ConneryRoss McBride
  • Peter MullanMichael Scot
  • David McKayWilliam McTaggart
  • Bill PatersonThe Storyteller (voice)
  • Tony DonaldsonJuan Roberto Montoya de Toledo
  • Gordon TootoosisNathaniel Stone
  • Natascha GirgisAurora Dexter
Created by
Brian Ward, Justin Molotnikov, Claire Mundell
Network
BBC One
First aired
Sep 21, 2004
Latest episode
Nov 27, 2005

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Release dates are original schedules and may differ from availability in your country. A release never marks anything as watched. Last checked Nov 3, 2026.Schedule data from TVmaze, CC BY-SA.