Cartoon Network in the U.S. has picked up the animated series Atomic Betty from co-producers Atomic Cartoons, Breakthrough Animation Inc. and Tele-Images Kids. The broadcaster has entered into a five-year deal for the adventure/comedy for kids 8-12 and plans to add it to its fall line-up in September.
Created by Atomic Cartoons, Atomic Betty follows the adventures of a seemingly normal young girl who leads a secret life as a "Galactic Guardian and Defender of the Cosmos." Together with her sidekick, a green Martian named Sparky, Betty must defend the galaxy from the evil Maximus IQ.
The $9.1 million series went into pre-production in June of 2003 and Breakthrough Animation, the newly-established animation production, marketing and distribution division of Canadian producer Breakthrough Films & Television, has recently delivered the first of 26 half-hour episodes. The show is animated in Flash and has "a lot of roots derived from anime and early cartoons from the likes of UPA, UB Iwerks and Warner Bros," according to exec. producer Kevin Gillis, a managing partner of Breakthrough Animation. "It also makes use of multi-mattes like in the series 24, where you have different pieces of action happening on screen at the same time."
Cartoon Network U.S joins Cartoon Network U.K., Australia, Italy, South-East Asia, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe as an Atomic Betty licensee. Breakthrough has licensed the series to more than 40 territories worldwide, 30 of which plan to take it to air this fall. The show will also air on TELETOON in Canada, M6 in France, Teletoon in France and ABC in Australia.
Atomic Betty is a co-production of Toronto-based Breakthrough Animation Inc., Vancouver-based Atomic Cartoons, and France’s Tele-Images Kids with the participation of the Shaw Fund and the Canadian Television Fund. The series represents the first major original production for Breakthrough, which was formed in spring 2003 by Kevin Gillis, Ira Levy and Peter Williamson.
