Children’s and all family entertainment company Genius Products Inc. has picked up exclusive U.S. distribution rights to 16 animated properties from the home entertainment arm of BKN International A.G. The lineup, including an all-new feature film based on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, will be released on DVD in 2006 and 2007 by Genius, which recently handled the home video release of The Weinstein Co.’s animated feature, Hoodwinked.
BKN’s A Christmas Carol employs CG animation and an all-animal cast of characters to retell Dickens’ classic tale of how the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge learns to embrace the spirit of Christmas. The film is scheduled to get a limited U.S. theatrical release on the Screenvision platform by SD Ent. in November 2006, before its DVD debut on Nov. 22.
Genius has also acquired rights to BKN’s new feature and series Zorro: Generation Z. The property has a modern-day, motorcycle-riding college student with high-tech gadgets taking up the family mantle as the masked avenger of legend. Also included in the deal are the new CG features Jungle Book and Kong ‘ Return to the Jungle, and the new series Dork Hunters from Outer Space. In addition, Genius will handle the BKN catalog titles Kong ‘ The Animated Series, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Legend of the Dragon, Robin Hood, The Prince and the Pauper, The Three Musketeers, Gulliver’s Travels, Alice in Wonderland, Jack and the Beanstalk and The Nutcracker.
