New York-based Silver Lining Prods. and Canada’s Mainframe Entertainment just announced that they’ll be co-producing a new animated preschool series based on Small and Friends, a book series by Scottish author Debi Gliori. Published in the U.S. by Orchard Books, the books have sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide.
Each half hour of the 26-part series will feature two 11-minute stories. Patrick Granleese, who previously worked with Silver Lining on Rosemary Wells’s Timothy Goes to School and the current Nick Jr. hit, Max & Ruby, is handling writing duties. Flash pre-production and production animation services for a one-minute promo is being provided by Canadian-based animation studio Pork and Beans Prods.
“Silver Lining is delighted to be working with Debi Gliori to adapt her brilliant books," says Diane Manson, Silver Lining producer. "She is a writer of enormous range with a fabulous sense of humor. Her Scottish woodland setting is at once exotic and familiar, and her characters could charm the birds out of the trees." “
“The Mr. Bear books have proven to be tremendously popular with young children, and we are looking forward to the same level of success for the animated series,” says Rick Mischel, Mainframe’s CEO. “This is also Mainframe’s first venture into Flash Animation, a technology we are excited about because of its flexibility and efficiency.
Small and Friends follows the gentle adventures of different animal families such as the Rabbit-Bunns, the Bears, the Hoot-Toowits, the Buzzes and the Grizzle Bears, all living together in the Forest of Caledon.
