Octonauts: Above & Beyond Review – Better in Every Way

🐙 This review is part of the The Best Nature Shows for Kids – explore the three shows that turn kids into little scientists.

When the first trailer for Octonauts: Above and Beyond appeared on our Netflix home screen in late 2021, we braced for the classic reboot experience. You know the one. Same characters, worse writing, updated animation that trades charm for technical gloss, a new character nobody asked for inserted for demographic reasons, and the quiet hollowing-out of everything that made the original work. We have been through this before with children’s television. We prepared ourselves.

The opening shot of Above and Beyond is a dense rainforest canopy, rendered in full 3D-CGI, with light filtering through layers of leaves and a humidity haze you can almost feel. The Octonauts logo appears over it. Our son, who was three at the time and had watched two full BBC series cycles by then, sat up slightly straighter. The familiar theme played. Barnacles appeared, same voice, same quiet authority, slightly rounder model. Then a pangolin with wide, uncertain eyes rolled itself into a defensive ball because the mission had gone slightly off-plan, and we both knew immediately that this reboot was going to be different in the right ways.

Three seasons later, Above and Beyond is not just a continuation. It is the best version of Octonauts that has ever existed. That takes some explaining.

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Kwazii & Gup B Adventure Pack (opens in a new tab)

Kwazii and the GUP-B in one pack — the natural complement to the GUP-A for Above and Beyond fans who want to expand the fleet.

The show works for two audiences simultaneously: families starting fresh with no prior Octonauts knowledge, and families like ours who have been through the BBC run and want to see where things go. For the first group, the characters are clearly established in the opening episodes and the premise is self-explanatory within three minutes. For the second group, seeing Barnacles in proper three-dimensional space for the first time is something of a revelation. The flat 2D animation of the original had a specific charm — it was clean, warm, visually consistent — but Above and Beyond reveals, in contrast, that the original was always operating with one hand tied behind its back.

What Changed and Why It Works

The animation upgrade is the most visible change and the most immediately striking. The original BBC series used flat 2D animation that was bright and readable but had real constraints — creatures had minimal texture, environments were schematic rather than immersive, the underwater lighting was essentially implied. Above and Beyond’s 3D-CGI gives the world genuine depth. Underwater caustics ripple correctly. Forest environments have layered texture. The desert heat shimmer is present in background frames even when it has nothing to do with the plot. The Octopod itself, that beloved pumpkin-orange base, now casts shadows and reflects ambient light in a way that makes it feel like a real structure rather than a design element.

More important than the visual upgrade, though, is the scope change. The crew now ventures above the waterline. The original was called Octonauts and was, appropriately, about the ocean. Above and Beyond retains the ocean but extends the remit to beaches, rivers, rainforests, deserts, mountains, and Arctic tundra. This is not a gimmick. It doubles the educational curriculum. The same Creature Report format that taught our son about anglerfish and pistol shrimp now teaches him about pangolins, desert tortoises, arctic foxes, and salamanders. The core mechanism — rescue the animal, learn about the animal, sing about the animal — remains unchanged. The world it applies to has simply expanded to most of the planet.

Then there is Paani. A new crew member joining an established group is always a risk. The temptation is to make the newcomer exceptional in ways that strain plausibility, or to use their introduction as a device for exposition that everyone would rather skip. Paani the pangolin is neither of these things. Paani is a competent, enthusiastic crew member who gets anxious when plans change unexpectedly. That is essentially the entire characterisation, and it is entirely sufficient. When a mission pivots mid-operation — which Octonauts missions do with reliable regularity — Paani freezes. Needs a moment. Looks for the new plan before being able to proceed. Other crew members notice this, give space for it, and help build a path forward. It is handled with a lightness that avoids preachiness while being completely clear in its message: some people process change slowly, that is valid, and a good team accommodates it.

The comparison table is useful but slightly misleading in one direction: it implies the original series is a lesser thing. It is not. The two series complement each other. If your children have watched the BBC run, Above and Beyond builds on it. If they start with Above and Beyond, they will almost certainly go back to the original when they discover it exists. They are different expressions of the same very good idea, and both reward watching.

Land Animals: The Unexpected Upgrade

The ocean is extraordinary and the BBC series spent four seasons demonstrating that in granular, persuasive detail. But there are limits to how much time a child’s curiosity can spend underwater before it starts to ask questions about what is happening in the forest, or the desert, or on the ice. Above and Beyond answers those questions with the same rigour it applied to marine biology.

The pangolin episode is the obvious entry point given the new character, but the creature facts are what linger. Pangolins are the only mammals covered in scales. The scales are made of keratin, the same material as human fingernails. When threatened, a pangolin curls into a ball so tight that the scales interlock and protect every vulnerable surface. They have no teeth; they grind insects against their muscular stomach walls. They are critically endangered, heavily targeted by poaching for both their scales and their meat, and they are among the most trafficked mammals on Earth. The show presents the biology with full child-appropriate accuracy and the conservation context with appropriate gravity. Our son now knows what poaching is and why it is a problem. He did not know before.

The desert tortoise episode covers water storage biology in detail that surprised me. A desert tortoise can store water in its bladder for months, reabsorbing it as needed during periods without rainfall. They can survive a year without drinking. Their body temperature regulation is achieved through behaviour rather than physiology — burrowing at midday, emerging at dawn and dusk. The episode turned our son into a brief but intense desert tortoise advocate who spent a week explaining to anyone within range that tortoises are underrated.

The arctic fox changes colour with the seasons — white in winter for camouflage against snow, brown-grey in summer for camouflage against tundra vegetation. The mechanism is a photoperiod response: the changing day length triggers hormonal changes that shift pigment production. Our son knows the word photoperiod, which I will admit I needed to check for the correct spelling when he used it in a sentence.

The salamander episodes introduced amphibian biology in the most accessible way I have seen it presented for young children. Salamanders breathe through their skin. This means their skin must stay moist at all times — they are highly sensitive to environmental dryness and pollution. Our son now considers salamanders to be fragile in a way that requires his protection, which has translated into genuine concern about garden chemicals and nearby streams. The show created an environmentalist. He is four.

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Octonauts 8 Character Figure Set (opens in a new tab)

All eight crew members in one set — perfect for imaginative Above and Beyond play across land and sea.

Paani and the Anxiety Arc

The decision to give a new character an anxiety trait is one that could have gone badly in multiple directions. There is a version of Paani that reads as a mascot for a therapeutic messaging campaign, spending every episode demonstrating a coping strategy in a way that feels more like a worksheet than a story. There is another version that makes the anxiety a source of comedy, which would have been both unfunny and counterproductive. Above and Beyond finds neither of these versions. What it finds is a character.

Paani is anxious in the specific, recognisable way that some people are anxious: not in a general existential way, but in response to unpredictability. Solid plans, clearly communicated, are fine. Plans that change at the last moment because an animal has unexpectedly moved, or a habitat is different from the briefing, or Kwazii has improvised something again — these produce a moment of visible difficulty. The show does not dramatise this with strings and close-ups. It shows it plainly, lets other crew members respond with matter-of-fact accommodation, and moves on. Paani almost always finds a way through. The resolution is never “the anxiety went away” — it is “the anxiety was present and Paani proceeded anyway, with support.”

For families with anxious children, this representation is quietly valuable. Our son has a friend who experiences considerable anxiety around new situations, and after a few episodes of Above and Beyond, our son began explaining Paani’s approach to him with the authority of a child who has observed the strategy in practice and found it reliable. The show did that. It gave a four-year-old a vocabulary and a framework for something that previously had no name.

For families without anxious children, Paani is simply an endearing character whose caution provides useful counterpoint to Kwazii’s habitual recklessness. The dynamic between them — Kwazii leaping in, Paani wanting to review the plan first — is funny and warm and periodically educational about the merits of both approaches.

For Families Who Loved the Original

If your children know the original BBC series well enough to have opinions about GUP configurations and quote Shellington’s scientific tangents, Above and Beyond will feel like a homecoming that has been tastefully renovated. The core crew is present and recognisably themselves. Barnacles still leads with the quiet authority of a polar bear who has seen everything and is not going to panic about any of it. Kwazii is still the first one into the water and occasionally the first one into trouble. Peso still approaches every new creature with a combination of concern and professional competence that is essentially the show’s emotional centre.

The upgrade does not replace what came before. The BBC series had a visual warmth that is genuinely its own — the flat 2D animation, the consistent colour palette, the character designs that read perfectly at small screen sizes. Above and Beyond is more ambitious but not categorically superior; it is a different expression of the same love for the material. We stream both. They coexist without contradiction. When our son finishes a run of Above and Beyond episodes and returns to the original BBC series, he does not think of it as downgrading. He thinks of it as visiting an old friend who lives in a slightly different house.

The Creature Reports remain the shared constant. Same format, same mechanism, same genuine biology, same songs our son can recite on demand. Whatever else changes across the two series, the Creature Report is the unbreakable continuity. It is still the best sixty seconds of educational television currently available.

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National Geographic Kids: Encyclopedia of Animals (opens in a new tab)

Above and Beyond expands to land animals — this is the companion book that lets kids go deeper on every creature they meet.

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FAQ

Is Octonauts Above and Beyond a reboot or continuation?

It is both. The same characters and world continue, but with significantly upgraded 3D animation, expanded scope beyond the ocean, and new characters. You can start here without the original, but watching both is better.

Do I need to watch the original Octonauts first?

No. Above and Beyond works as a standalone series. The characters are the same but the show does not require knowledge of the original BBC series.

What age is Octonauts Above and Beyond for?

The sweet spot is 4 to 8. The storytelling is slightly more complex than the original, and the land animal content opens up a broader curriculum. Younger kids who loved the original will transition naturally.

Is Paani from Octonauts Above and Beyond based on anxiety?

Yes. Paani the pangolin experiences anxiety when situations do not go to plan. The show handles this with care and normalises the feeling without over-dramatising it — a thoughtful addition for anxious kids.

How many seasons of Octonauts Above and Beyond are there?

As of 2024 there are three seasons on Netflix, with the crew exploring habitats from coral reefs to Arctic tundra to rainforests.