Media News - the multimedia rundown

Bing joins Pudsey to support BBC Children in Need

Acamar Films, producer of the multi-award-winning TV show Bing, along with Dublin-based studio Brown Bag Films, is joining forces with BBC corporate charity Children in Need to inspire youngsters with this year’s fundraising efforts.

Donning their very own spotty ‘Pudsey’ ears, Bing and his friends will feature alongside the popular BBC Children in Need mascot across a range of fundraising activities, exclusive merchandise and more - giving preschoolers lots of imaginative ways to participate and help kids across the UK.

The campaign will drive fundraising ahead of the BBC Children in Need Appeal night in November and will include highlights from the early years fundraising campaign.

Adapted for TV from the original books by Ted Dewan, Bing is broadcast in 130 territories worldwide - and Acamar Films is now partnering with WarnerMedia Kids & Family to bring the show to the US. Bing joins its upcoming preschool programming block Cartoonito, which launches this autumn.

Xilam Animation’s new series land on global platforms

Academy Award-nominated French animation studio Xilam Animation’s new series Chip ‘n’ Dale: Park Life and Oggy Oggy have launched worldwide on Disney+ and Netflix respectively. The launches mark the first time a pair of original series created and produced entirely in France will head to these global platforms.

The Chip ‘n’ Dale series follows two tiny troublemakers, Chip and Dale, trying to live the good life in a city park while having giant-sized, sky-high adventures. In their perpetual pursuit of acorns, these ultimate underdogs are joined by Pluto, Butch and other Disney characters as they face down bullies great and small.

Oggy Oggy is a CGI preschool spin-off to Xilam’s Oggy and the Cockroaches franchise. The series sees young Oggy freed from the ceaseless tyranny of the cockroaches. Curious and daring, Oggy Oggy is always eager to live new experiences and if he can help a friend along the way: the more the merrier! Xilam will support the series with an extensive consumer products programme, which is set to roll-out from Q4 2022.

Blue Zoo & Plug-In Media join forces to open regional hub in Brighton

BAFTA-winning animation studios Blue Zoo and Plug-In Media have combined to form a new venture. The collaboration kicks off with greenlight for two major preschool series and other projects in the pipeline.

London-based Blue Zoo recently won the Daytime Emmy for best animated pre-school show for The Adventures of Paddington and is currently working on seven productions remotely. Having doubled its staff in the last year, Blue Zoo will continue its expansion onto the south coast with a regional hub in the East Sussex town of Brighton.

Brighton-based Plug-In Media has long-established expertise in creating multi-platform content across broadcast, interactive, and YouTube, as well as being the creator of BAFTA-winning orig-inal IP, Tee and Mo.

The two studios first worked together in 2010 and this new collaboration brings together nearly 40 years of combined experience to continue to produce animation, as well as new content. The studios have won a commission for a 52-episode 2D preschool action-comedy series for a major public broadcaster, creating new jobs and widening the animation talent pool in the south of England.

Moominvalley to feature in exhibition

Gutsy Animations’ Emmy Award-nominated Moominvalley series will be featured as part of a new ‘Moomin Animations - Thrills and Cuddles’ exhibition at the National Children’s Museum in Washington DC, running from 3 September until 9 January.

The upcoming exhibition, on loan from the world’s only Moomin Museum located in Tampere (Finland), marks the first time that ‘Moomin Animations - Thrills and Cuddles’ has travelled internationally. The exhibition highlights the rich history of Moomin animations, which are based on the Moomin books and comic strips created by the Finnish artist and author Tove Jansson.

During the exhibition, visitors will have a chance to explore how the Moomin stories have evolved from the first Moomin film to premiere on TV (a German marionette animation film in 1959), to Gutsy Animations’ 3D animated series Moominvalley, which has been sold to more than 50 countries. The exhibition is brought to the US by the Embassy of Finland in Washington D.C.