PRODUCT NEWS
Searching for youth BETA Film's new children's brand Wunderbox includes more than 70 hours of new programming for pre-schoolers to teens. In Tiger Team (90 mins) friends search for the elixir of eternal youth in the Chinese jungle; and Chi Rho (26 x 22 mins) is an animation that takes children back to biblical days. In post-production now is the animated series Trenk, The Little Knight (13 x 22 mins), and Wild Soccer Bunch (13 x 22 mins).
Tiger Team (Beta Film)
Learning away from home
Good wins over bad
ASK LARA (26 x 11 mins), a series aimed at nine- to 13-year-olds, is brought to MIPCOM by Barcelona-based animation studio Tomavistas. Lara — a 12-year-old whose emotions range from enthusiasm to anxiety — and her friends from around the world, live with host families, and study together at a language school.
TOP-INSIGHT International is at MIPCOM to showcase new 52-episode half an hour HD animation The Mon’s (52 x 30 mins). Set in a world where monsters roam the earth, The Mon’s tells the heroic tale of how the good guys, using wit, magic and Kung-fu, always come out of life-threatening situations and successfully tame the monsters.
Little Prince in space THE LITTLE Prince, the popular Saint Exupery story, has been brought to the small screen in a new CGI series brought to MIPCOM by PGS Entertainment. The series (52 x 30 mins) features the eponymous hero who leaves his asteroid after a visit from the snake who has caused chaos throughout the galaxy. The Little Prince brings equilibrium back to the planets, and has to find his way home. PGS Entertainment is handling worldwide TV distribution, excluding Asia (Sony Pictures) and the SAARC region (DQ Entertainment).
Virtual scrapbooks
Young linguists
SKYWRITER Media and Entertainment Group has chosen MIPCOM to launch two new children’s animated properties. Vivi (52 x 11 mins/104 x 5 mins) follows a girl full of imagination who fills her scrapbook with adventures. An online component allows kids and their families to create their own scrapbooks of their real or imagined treasures. In Camp Lakebottom (26 x 11 mins) is about the most horrible and scary summer camp in the world.
A NEW television series designed to teach English to pre-school children from around the world is brought to MIPCOM by Octapixx Worldwide. The series, iKnow (26 x 30 mins), uses stories full of colours, letters and sounds, complete with original songs and music, teaching children to verbalise language while focusing on animal names, and learning the basics of science and the environment.
Mousey dread DHX MEDIA is launching Rastamouse (52 x 11 mins) to the international market at MIPCOM. Rastamouse, together with Scratchy and Zoomer, make up the Easy Crew — a crime-fighting, mystery-solving, special agent, reggae band. EMI Music Publishing is investing in the show with a reggae inspired soundtrack, which will be produced by The Rastamouse Company and UK composer Andrew Kingslow. The series is currently in production for CBeebies in the UK.
Lazy cat gets busy
Vivi (Skywriter Media and Entertainment Group)
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THE FIRST episodes of the second series of The Garfield Show — starring the lazy, selfish, orange tabby cat — are brought to MIPCOM by Mediatoon. Dargaud Media is producing 52 new episodes, with the participation of France 3. Delivery is due in early 2011. Also, 52 shorts of 40 seconds will be available for multi-platform and mobile content, and a supporting website translated into eight languages.
Rastamouse (DHX Media)