Characters and stories are essential to making learning to read fun, which is why we built a magical world around our fun, energetic characters at Duolingo ABC!

The Duolingo ABC team is excited to share that we have brought our beloved characters Duo and FoFo to life like kids have never seen them before… as puppets! Families can  tune into 2 engaging music videos featuring these puppets on our brand new YouTube channel. (Keep an eye on the channel for future videos!)

This was uncharted territory for Duolingo. We have yet to see any of our ABC characters in 3D (not to mention singing, dancing, and rowing a boat). We are thrilled to give kids a chance to connect with these characters in a new way.

We collaborated with Spiffy Pictures, producers of hit kids TV shows Donkey Hodie and Nature Cat. They helped us reimagine our delightful  characters and world in a tactile, colorful, and equally delightful three-dimensional way.

Starting with the actual puppets, which were constructed to have welcoming and emotive eyes, be small enough to move and dance, and were made out of an adorable fuzzy material that looks great on camera. The Spiffy team was also able to recreate our illustration style in physical sets and props.

Spiffy additionally helped us capture the silly, sweet and slightly weird spirit of Duolingo ABC through hilarious and catchy songs. Excellent songwriters wrote layered and funny lyrics, and set them to catchy tunes—we think these songs are instant classics!

And, maybe most exciting, we gave our characters voices and personalities! We worked with skillful puppeteers to bring Duo and FoFo to life—their seamless maneuvering makes the characters feel alive, and their improvisational skills allow Duo and FoFo to interact, sing, and dance. This will be the first time our young learners will hear our iconic mascot Duo speak—and he isn’t just reminding you to do a lesson!

We have had the best time working on these videos, and we are so excited to share them with our learners! We hope these videos will inspire kids to learn with us.

Download Duolingo ABC on iOS, Android or Amazon to start learning for free today!