BrainPOP Blog

What makes BrainPOP's educational animation work? Go behind the scenes—from script to screen—and see how every creative choice supports learning.

Making a BrainPOP movie is like a relay race: the the learning design team unpacks a topic and its goals, the editorial team writes the script, and the animation team (and voice actors!) bring it to life. And, undergirding it all, is the foundation of learning science that makes learning from animated movies stick.

Every BrainPOP movie starts with student curiosity—in the form of a letter, from a student, asking a burning question. But did you know that selecting which letters BrainPOP answers starts with a question, too?

BrainPOP movies start with a letter, from a student, to Tim and Moby—or Cassie and Moby, or Rita and Moby, or whoever is with Moby that day. They ask big, complex questions, like “How come I can’t ever get to the end of the rainbow?” or “Why do germs make me sick?” or “What are taxes? Why do we have them?”, and are signed by a kid or class. Ever wonder why every BrainPOP movie starts with a letter?

From Star Wars Day and AAPI Heritage Month to World Bee Day and the anniversary of the New York Public Library, we’ve curated weekly movie recommendations to accompany your May lesson planning.

So what's actually happening when a student watches a BrainPOP movie? Here's a look under the hood at four pillars that make our movies work.

Meet the first four releases in BrainPOP’s newest movie collection: Folktales, Adventure Stories, Realistic Fiction, and Historical Fiction. Arriving just in time for National Reading Month and International Children’s Book Day, these movies are essential tools all year round. Whether you use them as a genre-study bell-ringer, a book hook, a writing warmup, or a social studies intro, your students will walk away making deep, lasting connections to the text.

Big moments raise big questions. In classrooms, those questions may sound simple at first, but they often reflect something deeper. Students are trying to understand the world they're growing up in, and sometimes that world is changing fast. Since its founding in 1999, BrainPOP has stood alongside educators in these moments, providing clarity when confusion is high and steady guidance when the ground feels like it's moving.

In the faculty lounge, the conversation usually centers on one thing: AI fluency. We talk about how kids are using these tools, how “AI-fluent” they seem to be, and how we can possibly keep up with their proficiency. But there’s a massive gap between operating a chatbot and actually understanding what’s happening under the hood. At BrainPOP, we believe that before students use AI, they should understand AI.

Resources to support educators as they bring Black history in their classroom during Black History Month–and all year long.

In 2025, we added 21 new movies across BrainPOP 3-8 and BrainPOP Jr. Moby, Tim, Annie, and friends solved mysteries in the woods using celestial mechanics, turned indoor cycling into decimal bootcamp, and proved that even corpse flowers make perfect sense once you understand adaptation. Read on below for what’s new, what’s updated, and what's coming next.

BrainPOP joins Code.org’s Hour of AI to help classrooms worldwide take their first steps into learning, creating, and thinking critically about AI.

Learn how one teacher uses BrainPOP Jr. and KWL charts to build whole-class background knowledge and spark hands-on learning about the Sun.

AI isn't going anywhere. Our responsibility as educators is to prepare this generation to approach AI safely, critically, and ethically.

Learn how BrainPOP follows the Science of Reading to help learners build knowledge for strategic comprehension.

Learn how BrainPOP strives to create diverse, engaging, and meaningful learning experiences.

As we roll into spring, we’re excited to unveil the newest topics from BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr.

Concept mapping can be used in the classroom in so many unique ways. We made it easier for you by listing some ideas you can start today.

We asked our trusted Certified BrainPOP Educators (CBEs) to try out new strategies in their classroom and they're reporting back!

Simple technology solutions can be a powerful ally in creating a more inclusive, accessible, and engaging learning environment.