Ben & Izzy

Overview

Ben & Izzy is a Jordanian three-dimensional, computer animated children's television series. It was produced by Jordan's rising educational and CGI animation company Rubicon. This series follows the adventures and developing friendship of two pre-teenaged boys known as Ben and Izzy, who are from the United States and Jordan respectively, as well as a desert genie known as Yasmine, who takes the form of a young girl closely resembling the age of the boys. Despite the fact the series was produced in Jordan, it was primarily released in English for international purposes before its official Arabic dub in 2008. The series was created primarily to entertain, but it was also created as an educative experience about certain aspects of Arab history, and how it affected Western culture, which is also the forming of the bond between the Western Ben and the Eastern/Arab Izzy. This in turn represents a comprehensible and possible union of Western and Eastern/Arab cultures, in spite of the current prejudice views of each culture in the other. There are currently 13 episodes created, although 26 were originally planned.