Crossover Events Age Down

In the character and entertainment world, crossover events pairing two different universes have long been regular occurrences in sectors such as comic books, superhero movies, and tween and adult sitcoms and dramas. This technique has historically been rare in the preschool and younger elementary-grade landscape, but that has changed in a big way in the last year or so, as a growing list of on-screen crossovers appealing to this audience have been announced. These initiatives raise awareness for the two properties and potentially expand their respective fan bases, as well as adding new creative possibilities, both on-screen and for licensed products. Some also boast spillover appeal to nostalgic adults.

Such ventures can involve two properties from the same licensor, which makes the collaboration easier. But it is not a prerequisite, as these recent examples show: 

• Last week, Moonbug and Sanrio announced a new initiative pairing CoComelon’s characters, including JJ, with Hello Kitty and her friends, currently starring in the YouTube series Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures. The multi-year partnership will start with a co-branded content series to debut in 2026, distributed by Moonbug, with consumer products also planned. 

• The announcement of the Season 3 renewal of Donkey Hodie included the news that one of the 15 episodes, set to debut in August of this year, will be a half-hour special featuring a visit from Daniel Tiger and Dad Tiger from Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, reimagined as puppets in the style of Donkey Hodie. Both shows are from Fred Rogers Productions, and both Daniel and Donkey are descendents of characters in the original Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Simon & Schuster, the master publisher for both properties, will release the 8×8 storybook Donkey Hodie Meets Daniel Tiger on August 26, coinciding with the episode.

• Rubble & Crew, a spin-off of Paw Patrol, hosted a visit from its predecessor series in a crossover episode as part of its season 2, which debuted on March 10, 2025. Paw Patrol’s characters are firefighters and other first responders, while Rubble & Crew’s stars work in construction. In the episode, “The Crew & Rocky Build a Bear Island,” Rocky of Paw Patrol visits Rubble and his family and helps save the day after a character’s home is accidentally ruined. 

• Also in March of this year, Sesame Workshop paired with Toys and Colors for new content featuring Ellie and Maddy from the Toys and Colors YouTube channel along with Grover, Abby Cadabby, Elmo, and other Muppets from Sesame Street. The videos dropped on the Sesame Street YouTube channel on March 20 and on the Toys and Colors channel a week later. In addition to its own YouTube presence, one of the most watched in the world, Toys and Colors has a spin-off franchise, Kaleidoscope City, on pocket.watch, which also represents the brand for licensing and was behind this collaboration.

• Last fall, WildBrain and Cloudco announced that they were jointly developing a 44-minute retro-style animated special starring the former’s Strawberry Shortcake and the latter’s Care Bears, two of the world’s most popular properties of the 1980s. The companies brought the tentatively titled special, The Care Berry Switch, where Strawberry ends up among the Care Bears in Care-A-Lot while Cheer Bear mingles with The Berries in Strawberryland, to MIPCOM in October 2024. No release date has been announced, but the special has already inspired a licensing and collaboration program for nostalgic fans, with the first products launching in December 2024. Initial partners included Samii Ryan, Sweet Peas, Dolls Kill, PSD, Cakeworthy, Isaac Morris, Centric, MJC, Silver Buffalo, Concept 1, High Intencity, Culture Fly, and FYE. During the peak of their popularity, Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake were both licensed by the company that launched them, American Greetings’ Those Characters from Cleveland.

• Last summer, Ms. Rachel teamed with Sesame Workshop to debut a series of three sing-alongs featuring her and characters from Sesame Street. The first video was a get-ready-for-school production with Elmo, while the subsequent stories starred Abby and Cookie Monster. The initial episode has inspired a board book, Get Ready for School!, set for release on September 30, 2025, from Random House Children’s Books (which is the primary publishing licensee for both properties). 

• Moonbug paired with Sesame Workshop in early 2024 for a series of new videos featuring the Sesame Street characters along with Blippi and Meekah. The three episodes in the series were Blippi and Meekah’s Birthday Surprise for Elmo, Blippi and Elmo’s Big ABC Dig, and Blippi and Meekah’s ROARing Dino Day (featuring Big Bird). The episodes were released in February, June, and September 2024, respectively, simultaneously on the Blippi and Sesame Street YouTube channels. 

• An early example in July 2023 featured Ms. Rachel and Blippi (along with co-star Meekah) crossing over into episodes of each other’s YouTube series. The episodes were filmed at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, with Ms. Rachel showing her visitors around the big city on Blippi and Blippi and Meekah taking about transportation while singing vehicle-related songs on Ms. Rachel. 

Note that several of the players mentioned are all-in on the crossover strategy, being involved in more than one initiative with other companies listed. Some of these same licensors have also been involved in product collaborations with each other that are not connected to new content—the more common model—as was the case with a product-centered collaboration between Care Bears and Hello Kitty last year that was focused on merchandise for nostalgic young adults.