Spiffy Pictures has appointed two key partners for its hit animated PBS KIDS series Nature Cat. HiHat Media will handle brand licensing in the U.S., while 9 Story Media Group tackles international distribution and consumer products rights internationally outside the US. Both partners will be developing comprehensive consumer product platforms for the educational outdoors themed series.
“We are excited to work with HiHat and 9 Story to extend Nature Cat’s mission into a range of consumer products that will spark curiosity and inspire children to connect with the world around them,” states Scott Scornavacco, Vice President, Business Affairs for Spiffy Pictures. “We are looking forward to seeing the show’s action-packed adventures, discovery moments and humor come to life in fun, kid-friendly products.”
Created by Spiffy Pictures and co-produced by WTTW Chicago, Nature Cat airs twice daily on PBS stations nationwide and is already posting strong ratings since its November 2015 premiere special. The series features the voices of Saturday Night Live veterans Taran Killam, Kate McKinnon, Bobby Moynihan, Chris Parnell and Kenan Thompson, as well as actress Kate Micucci. Each episode comprising two 11-minute adventures sends Nature Cat on an action-packed adventure in the great outdoors, accompanied by his animal friends, encouraging kids to get out and play.
Brain Zoo Studios, this year celebrating its 20th anniversary, has released the first teaser for its animated film Nora. The original CG project is a comedic sci-fi action-adventure set in a “retro future” where the life force of civilization has been taken away and without it, all is lost.
The project is headed by industry veteran Mo Davoudian and Farzad Varahramyan, who are blending experience in film, VR and gaming to create a film that will easily translate to multiple media experiences.
“Nora is the reason Brain Zoo Studios exists today. Working with a small group of very diligent and talented artists, we successfully brought Nora to fruition. We used a variety of technologies to push the creative envelope from traditional rendering to virtual reality and real-time engines. But at its core, the story is about the relationships, personalities and sacrifices that we can all relate to. I’m extremely proud to share Nora with the world!” said Mo Davoudian.
“This film has been on a 22 year journey for Mo and me, since we dreamed up its earliest incarnation back in college. At the heart of the story is an odd couple, their crazy sense of what’s funny, and the unconditional loyalty and friendship that somehow gets them through the craziest adventures,” said Farzad Varahramyan.
9 Story Media Group has partnered with Netflix and Scholastic to produce a new version of the Emmy Award-winning 1990s animated children’s series The Magic School Bus — set to launch worldwide in Fall 2017 as a Netflix Original Series.
“The original Magic School Bus series was one of the first series that I produced, 20 years ago,” said Vince Commisso, President & CEO of 9 Story Media Group. “I have a deep connection to the brand and a profound respect for its vision. We are so excited to work with Scholastic and Netflix and remake this wildly popular series for a whole new generation of kids.”
The original show debuted on PBS in 1994 and was based on the best-selling book series of the same name from Scholastic by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen. TheMagic School Bus taught kids science through the adventures of the inspiring teacher Ms. Frizzle, her inquisitive class and the enchanted bus that took kids everywhere from outer space to inside the human body.
Amazon has placed an order for four 13-episode seasons of new Amazon Original Kids Series Thunderbirds Are Go. The first season of this modern reinvention of the 50-year-old property will debut on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S. later this year, and will subsequently rollout on Prime Video in the UK, Germany and Austria through a deal with ITV Studios Global Entertainment.
Thunderbirds Are Go centers on a family of famous heroes. The five Tracy brothers and Lady Penelope (voiced by Rosamund Pike), a.k.a. the team behind International Rescue, will in each action-packed adventure take to their high tech vehicles to scour the depths of the oceans or the highest reaches of space to perform impossible rescues around the globe.
The show is produced by ITV Studios and Pukeko Pictures in collaboration with Weta Workshop, and is made with a combination of CG and live-action model sets. Thunderbirds Are Go is exec produced by Estelle Hughes (Driver Dan’s Story Train), Giles Ridge (Pocoyo), Richard Taylor (The Lord of the Rings) and Andrew Smith (District 9); written by Rob Hoegee (Generator Rex, Teen Titans), and directed by David Scott (LEGO Star Wars) and Theo Baynton (The Wotwots). It is distributed internationally by ITV Studios Global Entertainment.
Read more about the show in our story in the June 2015 issue of Animation Magazine (Issue #250).
Netflix, Grace: A Storytelling Company, Thunderbird and Beyond Screen Production announce that original kids series Beat Bugs will arrive on the streaming platform this summer. Created, directed, written and produced by Josh Wakely, Beat Bugs has secured worldwide rights from Sony/ATV Music Publishing to record covers of the Beatles song catalog for the production. The studios note that Netflix users in Australia will also get to enjoy the series on demand following its premiere on Seven Network.
Beat Bugs incorporates songs from the Lennon/McCartney “Northern Songs” catalog as it shares the uplifting stories of five funny, adventurous and mischief-prone bug buddies (Jay, Kumi, Crick, Buzz and Walter) as they explore the universe of an overgrown suburban backyard. Acclaimed musicians recording for the show include Eddie Vedder, P!nk, James Bay, Sia, The Shins, Of Monsters and Men, Chris Cornell, Regina Spektor, James Corden and Birdy.
This is the first project from Wakely’s Grace banner, which he co-owns with Beat Bugs exec producer Trevor Roy. The series is co-produced by Thunderbird and Beyond Screen Production. Thunderbird-owned Atomic Cartoons is providing the animation. Beyond Distribution represents the series worldwide.
The FMX 2016 conference has come up with its core theme for this year: Blending Realities. In line with this, FMX will be creating space to analyze, discuss and try out other people’s realities in art, technology and business. The 2016 conference, taking place April 26-29 in Stuttgart, Germany, will encourage people from across animation, vfx, games and transmedia to come together and use each other’s experiences to help with outside-the-box thinking.
The growing fields of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality and their potential to blend realities will be explored in a number of presentations, workshops and collaborative Forum programs. FMX 2016 will also take a hard look at Realtime Storytelling, Disruptive Technologies, Sound Design, Hack Art, Directing for VR, Business Leaders, Investors/Tech Start-Ups, Stop-Motion, Layout & Set, Tools of Tomorrow and Cameras & Pipelines.
In specific programming news, FMX has confirmed that director Mark Osborne and stop-motion creative director James Caliri will be attending to discuss the artful blend of CG and stop-motion in their film, The Little Prince. Ottawa Int’l Animation Festival director Chris Robinson will talk about his artistic evolution during the “Animation Wild & Strange” track. And creative director Stuart Aiken from Axis Animation will provide insights on the epic cinematics of Halo 5.
Interesting news for fans of iconic videogame star Sonic the Hedgehog: Sega president & CEO Hajime Satomi has confirmed in an interview with The Worldfolio that “Sega Sammy Group is currently planning with Sony Pictures to create a live-action and animation hybrid Sonic the Hedgehog movie scheduled for release in 2018.”
Sonic, who first appeared in the 1991 Sega Genesis game, is no stranger to screen time. His first animated TV series, The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and the more dramatic Sonic the Hedgehog (both produced by DIC) bowed in 1993. He has since appeared in Sonic Underground, Sonic X and most recently Sonic Boom for Cartoon Network and Gulli, in addition to the two-episode OVA known as Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie.
Blogs in the gamersphere are already eyeing the project warily due to its live-action status. But if this is the same project reported back in 2014, it has some potential due to the names attached. Hollywood Reporter stated in June of 2014 that the hybrid Sonic movie would be produced by Neal Moritz (22 Jump Street, Furious 7) with a script by Upright Citizens Brigade alums Evan Susser and Van Robichaux.
A new set of posters released by Disney-Pixar for upcoming sequel Finding Dory (out June 17) issued a spot-the-star challenge via Twitter on Tuesday. The four posters featuring a shy Dory in different lush underwater scenes were Tweeted out by Ellen DeGeneres, who reprises her role as Dory for this outing, and major theater chains Cinemark, AMC and Regal with the hashtag #HaveYouSeenHer.
Directed by Andrew Stanton and Angus MacLane, Finding Dory sends the friendly but forgetful blue tang fish on an incredible oceanic journey to find her long lost loved ones, encountering colorful creatures and learning about the true meaning of family along the way. DeGeneres stars alongside Katlin Olson, Ty Burrell, Diane Keaton, Ed O’Neill, Albert Brooks, Eugene Levy, Idris Elba, Michael Sheen, Dominic West and Hayden Rolence as Nemo.
The fourth season of Disney Junior’s Peabody and NAACP Image Award-winning preschool series Doc McStuffins will once again welcome a host of celebrity voices to Doc’s backyard playhouse. In addition to previously announced guest star Christopher Bridges (a.k.a. Ludacris), roles will be voiced by Anthony Anderson (black-ish), Molly Ringwald (Sixteen Candles), Ellen Pompeo (Grey’s Anatomy), Gabourey Sidibe (Empire) and Vanessa Williams (The Good Wife).
In the new season, debuting this summer, Doc and her toy friends will be magically transported to a make-believe town, made up entirely of toys, where Doc serves as chief resident of the Toy Hospital. The series regularly stars Laya DeLeon Hayes as Doc, Loretta Devine, Lara Jill Miller, Robbie Rist, Jess Harnell, Andre Robinson, Kimberly Brooks and Gary Anthony Williams.
Doc McStuffins is created and exec produced by Humanitas Prize and Emmy Award winner Chris Nee and directed by Emmy winner Norton Virgien. The CG series is produced by Dublin’s Brown Bag Films in association with Disney Channel. The Hollywood Health & Society division of the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center serves as health and medical consultant.
The 2016 Kidscreen Awards took place Tuesday evening in Miami during this week’s Kidscreen Summit, with DreamWorks Animation and Sesame Workshop coming away as the major winners this year. The awards were hosted by comedian Allana Harkin and sponsored by the Canada Media Fund.
PRESCHOOL Puffin Rock won Best New Series and Best Animated Series
(Cartoon Saloon/Dog Ears/Penguin Children’s Books/Netflix) Sesame Street won Best Non-Animated or Mixed Series
(Sesame Workshop) Sesame Street: The Cookie Thief won Best On-Off, Special or TV Movie
(Sesame Workshop)
KIDS All Hail King Julien – Best New Series and Best Animated Series
(DreamWorks Animation Television/Netflix)
TWEENS/TEENS Dragons: Race to the Edge – Best New Series and Best Animation Series
(DreamWorks Animation Television/Netflix) Pirate’s Passage – Best One-Off, Special or TV Movie
(Mahon Pictures)
CREATIVE TALENT All Hail King Julien – Best Animation
(DreamWorks Animation Television/Netflix) Sesame Street: The Cookie Thief – Best Acting, Best Writing, Best Directing, Best Voice Talent, Best Design
(Sesame Workshop)
Axis — a group of creative companies based in the UK — has announced it is extending its reach in the entertainment industry. The company is already an animation content producer for the gaming industry, and will now be expanding into long format TV series and film production.
One of the projects is a collaboration between Axis and co-producers Balloon Entertainment and Kindle Entertainment for E4 (UK) and Netflix (worldwide): Kiss Me First. The six-part thriller combines live-action and animated sequences of a virtual world. The series is being adapted from the best-selling novel by Lottie Moggach by Skins creator Bryan Elsley and is set for delivery in July 2017.
Axis’ sister studio Flaunt has just created a long format division, which will specialize in producing animated series, specials and theatrical features. Three productions are already in the lineup, prompting the studio to hire on additional staff at its Glasgow and Bristol facilities.
Flaunt produced the Amazon Studios pilot for Bureau of Magic’s Lost in Oz, which has been green lit for an Amazon Prime Video series. Flaunt will provide design development and art direction services, lead by Stephen Donnelly. The studio recently took on two Monster High animated feature titles for Mattel, which will be out on DVD and Blu-ray in 2016 and 2017. These are directed by Donnelly and Olly Reid for Flaunt and Avgousta Zoureldi.
To accommodate new projects, Flaunt has created a new story department, added new staff for art direction, animation, layout and production management; and the Axis group as a whole has increased its file server and render farm infrastructure by over 100%.
Licensing Works! has signed with the Estate of Antoine de Saint-Exupery and French rights company NDA to represent North American rights to classic storybook brand The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince). New licenses secured by Licensing Works will include rights to the 2018 75th Anniversary Celebration logo.
Saint-Exupery’s 1943 novella The Little Prince is one of the most successful books of all time, with over 200 million copies sold worldwide. The book is available in over 288 official translations, making it the most translated book in the world besides the Bible. It has inspired stage productions, an animated short, over 300 licensed books, video games, Japanese anime, theme park attractions and five movies, including the recent film from Mark Osborne.
Licensing Works! will be seeking out partners for classic rights for apparel and accessories, toys, games, publishing, stationery, gift, consumables, domestics and home decor, and all other relevant categories.
Late last year, Adobe announced that it had renamed Flash Professional as Animate CC. Now, the software giant has launched an update which ranks as one of the tool’s biggest releases ever, tacking on more than a few new features.
The Animate February ‘16 release introduces direct integration with Creative Cloud Libraries, Adobe Stock and Typekit and additional features and enhancements, which include:
Creative Cloud Libraries
Adobe Stock integration for high-quality images, illustrations, and graphics
TypeKit support for HTML5 Canvas document type
New vector art brushes
Improvements to pencil and art brushes
Brush Library panel
Tagged Swatches
Custom templates for HTML5 Canvas documents
OAM publishing support for AS3, WebGL, and HTML5 Canvas documents
Publish text as outlines in HTML5 Canvas documents
Projector support
Stage scaling
Rotate your stage
Import SVG files
Enhanced drawing object bounding box
Video export to multiple resolutions
Contents scale proportionately to stage size
Enhanced Onion Skinning
HTML5 Canvas improvements
Adobe has also issued updates for its no-code website design tool Muse CC — more information is available here.
DreamWorks Animation and France’s Lagardere Active TV have inked a deal for free-to-air and basic pay-TV rights for the latter’s kids and family channels to broadcast the studio’s series, including Dragons: Race to the Edge, The Adventures of Puss in Boots, All Hail King Julien, Turbo FAST, The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show and Dawn of the Croods. The agreement kicks off with the September 2016 launch of DWA’s first original series, Dinotrux, on Gulli.
FremantleMedia Kids & Family has appointed Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Content Group as the home entertainment partner for FMK’s programming portfolio (including Danger Mouse, Tree Fu Tom and Kate & Mim-Mim) across a number of key territories, managing all DVD and DTO releases.
Non-profit G-dcast will launch new animated web series Shaboom! on April 6. The 10 x 11 series is geared toward teaching kids ages 4-7 “everyday Jewish values” using comedy, magic and music, as well as vocabulary in both English and Hebrew. Shaboom! follows the “magical sparks” Gabi and Rafael who work to fix the world, with focuses on specific themes in each episode. Executive producer Sarah Lefton is at Kidscreen this week.
One Animation has closed broadcast deals for the long-form edition of its family series Oddbods (60 x 7) with Boomerang (EMEA and Latin America), Disney Channel (Asia), Canal+ Family and Teletoon+ (France and Africa), ITV’s CITV (UK) and Boing (Italy).
Sesame Workshop announces that The Furchester Hotel has been re-commissioned by CBeebies for a new 50 x 11 season, plus a double length Christmas special. Checking in at the preschooler-friendly hotel to play and learn with Phoebe Furchester-Fuzz and family will be Sesame Street friends Big Bird, Count Von Count and the Martians. New episodes will enter production at MediaCityUK in May.
ZAG has greenlit another series to join Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir under its “Zag Heroez” banner. The company is collaborating with 1492 Pictures, master toy partner Playmates and French producer Method Animation on an as yet untitled 52 x 11 live-action/CG animation hybrid series commissioned by France Televisions. A broadcast debut is expected in Spring 2018 to be followed by a toy and licensing program in the Fall.
Squeeze in Quebec has expanded international distribution for Cracked, with Nickelodeon picking up the show for Australia and New Zealand (debut date March 1). The 52-episode, 3D animated series stars an anxious ostrich dad and his eight beloved eggs. Cracked is produced in collaboration with Teletoon, the Canada Media Fund, the Quebec Refundable Tax Credit for Film and Television Production, the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit, CAVCO and the Bell Fund. A mobile game and animated comic-book are also planned for the property.
Daniel Gerson, a long-time story and script writer for Disney and Pixar feature films who co-wrote the 2015 Oscar winner Big Hero 6, has died at age 49 after being diagnosed with brain cancer. According to an obituary placed with The New York Times, Gerson died peacefully on February 6 at his home in Los Angeles.
Gerson was born in New York and grew up with a love of the performing arts, tap dancing and drumming throughout his childhood and starring in musical theater productions at his high school and later at Cornell University. He went on to get his MFA from NYU film school and decided to pursue writing. His big break came when he became staff writer for the NBC sitcom Something So Right.
Gerson soon made the shift from TV to animated features, co-writing the screenplay for another Oscar winner: Pixar’s Monsters, Inc., as well as the later prequel, Monsters University. His screenwriting and story credits also include Chicken Little, the holiday TV special Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice and short film Tangled Ever After. Ever the performer, Gerson also at times provided voices for the films — he can be heard as the Desk Sergeant in Big Hero 6 and as Needleman and Smitty in Monsters, Inc.
Per The New York Times: Daniel expressed a unique zest for life, its big and little moments, and brought that spirit to all of his loved ones. His sense of humor was exceptional. Beyond his creative talents, what distinguished Daniel was a profound commitment to honesty, fairness and concern for the less fortunate. He was a fiercely loyal, loving and caring human being. The humanity, humor, and compassion that he brought to his writing, he brought to his family and friends in equal measure.
Daniel Gerson is survived by his wife of 20 years, Beau Stacom; his two children; his parents; and by his sister Jessica and her children. Donations in his memory may be made to Dr. Linda Liau at UCLA’s Brain Tumor Center.
Montreal, Quebec is getting a boost to its growing reputation as an animation production hub as Cinesite has opened a new, state-of-the-art animation studio in the city. The company plans to put nine feature films into production over the next five years. The announcement was made today by Cinesite Group CEO Antony Hunt and the Premiere of Quebec, Philippe Couillard, at the new 54,000 square foot facility in downtown. The studio will have room to employ 500 permanent staff by 2020.
Investissement Quebec on behalf of the Government of Quebec is advancing a loan of $2.4 million to support creation of the infrastructure needed for feature animation production. An additional loan guarantee of $19.6 million towards an overall budget of at least $90 million is being advanced to Cinesite to help finance each of the first three films. Sim more films are planned to follow, which will see the facility running at full capacity within five years. “This initiative will help focus attention on what is needed to get Montréal animating; I expect we will all be busy,” said Peter Nagle, Chairman of the Cinesite board.
The feature animation arm of Cinesite, Comic Animations, is teaming up with SPA Studios and Atresmedia Cine to co-produce the holiday season film Klaus at the new facility. Written and directed by Sergio Pablos (Despicable Me, The Hunchback of Notre Dame) and produced by Jinko Gotoh (The Little Prince, Finding Nemo), the project is a treaty co-production with Spain.
Comic Animations is also teaming up with Dublin-based River Productions to begin development on an animated movie inspired by the international stage show Riverdance. The film will features the Grammy-award winning music from the show, composed by Bill Whelan.
Cinesite, which was founded in London, already has a vfx and animation studio in Montreal which opened in 2014. The studio has been working since then with 3QU Media to develop its feature animation pipeline around a four-film slate — the first film, Charming, is due out this year.
Shout! Factory and multimedia kids and family entertainment company AG have entered a strategic distribution partnership for CG-animated action-comedy series Miraculous Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir to home audiences in the U.S. and Canada.
The multi-year deal gives Shout! exclusive U.S. rights for DVD and Blu-ray and select digital rights in Canada for all 26 episodes. A strategic rollout is planned for this year through Shout! Factory Kids.
Zag Heroez Miraculous Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir is a co-production of ZAG, Method Animation, Disney Channel EMEA, Toei Animation, SamG Animation, SK Broadband, PGS HK Limited and AB International Distribution. The show follows the adventures of charismatic 13-year-old Marinette, who magically transforms into the superhero Ladybug to save the day using her super powers, mysterious lucky charms and the unique power of “creation.” Accompanied by her magical pet Tikki, Marinette must balance hero work with her everyday life — like her relationship with her crush, Aidan, who unknown to Marinette is her superhero sidekick, Cat Noir.
Miraculous currently airs on Nickelodeon (US), TF1 (France), ABC (Australia), EBS (Korea) and will soon debut on Disney Channel (EMEA, Latin America), Super! (Italy), Tele-Quebec, Gloob (Brazil), TVNZ (New Zealand), Proximus TV (Belgium), RTS (Switzerland) and LRT (Lithuania).
Next month, hundreds of animation professionals, students and artists from across the Caribbean region will come together in Jamaica for the two day KingstOOn conference and festival. An initiative of the Government of Jamaica in collaboration with the World Bank and the Caribbean Development Bank, the event will take place March 12 and 13 at the Edna Manley School for the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston.
“Animation and digital industries are one of the new and emerging fields through which Jamaica can reap tremendous benefits,” said the Hon. Julian Robinson, Minister of State in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining. “As global markets seek talent outside their borders, we must position ourselves and create the avenues through which our people can take advantage of the opportunities that this change brings. KingstOOn is one such preparatory mechanism geared towards exposing our talent and is a great platform on which to chart a course for the future.”
KingstOOn 2016 is built around the themes of Learn, Earn and Display, with the aim of guiding young people in the region toward an industry with great potential for development. The program will include a conference, competitions, a marketplace for content producers and buyers, and film festival. More information is available at www.kingstoonfest.com.
TV Licence fee enforcers are having a little fun with a common problem: viewers of live TV in the U.K. who will come up with any excuse not to pay their dues. To raise awareness for the need to pay your fees, a contest is being run on the TV License YouTube page to find a viewer favorite for the most ludicrous excuse of 2015, and students from five of the country’s leading animation school have entered cartoon versions for consideration.
Degree course students from universities in Derby, Middlesex, Ulster, Dundee and Bristol have worked their magic on some of the dubious explanations for non-payment that visiting officers and call center staffers have heard in the last year. More than 40 have been submitted this year, with prizes to be awarded to the People’s Choice (the film that receives the most ‘Likes’ on the TV Licensing YouTube channel from today through March 4) and Judges’ Award.
The judging panel includes BAFTA-winning animator Marc Crast of Studio AKA, Aardman senior Animator Jason Fletcher-Bartholomew and Red Bee Media executive creative director Charlie Mawer.
The animated excuses are now up at youtube.com/tvlicensing, so don’t miss such 2015 classics as “My cat is in labor so I don’t have time to talk to you,” and “I don’t have to pay as I’m the King of Scotland.” Apparently William II is alive, kicking, and watching The Great British Bake Off.
TV Licensing Excuses 2016 | I Steal My Neighbour’s Signal – University of the West of England
