Aardman International announced at MIPCOM in Cannes that it is making its first foray into the pre-school market with a new stop-motion animated series titled Timmy. The 52×10 show has already been pre-sold to CBeebies in the U.K., and Aardman is looking to secure additional worldwide pre-sales at the market. Timmy is now in pre-production and should be ready to air in 2009.
Featuring character designs based on sketches by Academy Award-winning Wallace & Gromit creator Nick Park, Timmy is a spin-off of Aardman’s hit children’s series Shaun the Sheep, which is a spin-off of the Oscar-winning Wallace & Gromit short A Close Shave. Shaun the Sheep has television sales and licensing agreements in more than 150 territories, and has won several prestigious accolades, including the Cristal Award for Best TV Production at the Annecy Animated Film Festival earlier this year.
Aardman’s Jackie Cockle is creative producer and supervising director, and Miles Bullough is exec producer on Timmy. Formerly of Hot Animation, Cockle joined Aardman earlier this year to spearhead the company’s expansion into pre-school programming. Her credits in children’s programming include Bob the Builder, Rocky and the Dodos, Oakie Doke, Noddy and The Wind in the Willows. She was also an animator on Cinderella and Chorlton and the Wheelies.
‘Pre-schoolers around the world will be able to identify with Timmy as he learns universal lessons about himself, his friends and the world around him,’ Says Cockle. ‘Timmy’s world is set over the hill and down the lane from Shaun’s Farm and is a bright, colorful, stylized world with its own unique look sitting alongside Shaun’s world.’
Employing various animal noises in the place of dialogue, Timmy revolves around an adorable, little lamb who is three in sheep years. Each episode will follow a day in his life in Nursery as he learns something about himself and all his friends’an assortment of bright young animals, including barnyard staples, domestic pets and wild critters.
