MUMBAI: Playhouse Disney, the preschoolers block on Disney Channel has launched the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, a learning-focused series for tiny tots. The show is named after Disney’s favorite mascot.

The show will be aired on Saturdays and Sundays at 8:30 am.

The series has been created by producer Bobs Gannaway, producer and director of the Emmy Award-winning Disney's Mickey Mouse Works. The series later evolved into Disney's House of Mouse, that featured not just Mickey, but virtually all of the Disney animated characters.

Although the character designs are referential to 1940s drawings, the show has 3D computer animation, a logical next step for the characters that have evolved, along with film technology, from black and white, to color and now to digitally rendered 3D.

In order to ensure that each episode is entertaining and comprehensible to this core audience, Disney Channel writers and researchers visited preschools where they read story books based on the shows to students to see if they enjoyed it, if they understood the concepts and were engaged enough to participate.

"The shows that have worked best with young kids are interactive ones, where the audience feels they're playing along as opposed to just sitting back and watching. It's always been Mickey's way to connect one-to-one with kids, making him the perfect choice to further develop a close relationship with kids in a preschool learning environment," said Walt Disney Television International (India) director programming and production Nachiket Pantvaidya.

"The show helps to broaden the definition of math skills to include not just counting, but learning shapes, patterns, colors and fractions. Early math skills are key to preschoolers' development because if it is embedded right from the beginning, kids will embrace the subject. The wonderful thing is that kids of this age love to count and master skills. They don't see it as a chore or a lesson, they're really proud of being able tell you what's bigger and what's smaller, what's near and what's far. It's not work to them, it's really fun," he added.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse will help define the series' educational goals and have an age-appropriate curriculum with the help of the Sensational Six: Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Daisy and Donald.