As international companies gear up for the MIP-TV market in France next month, we are getting bombarded with news about about global franchises. Here are today’s latest TV toon newsmakers:
UK broadcaster Channel 5 has picked up the broadcast rights for the Nick Jr. preschool series Bubble Guppies. The series, which currently airs on Nick Jr. in the UK and Ireland, will air on Channel 5′s Milkshake! programming block this spring. Created by Jonny Belt and Robert Scull, the musical CG preschool show is set in an underwater world that incorporates math, literacy, the arts, science and socio-emotional development.
The newly rebranded Gaumont Animation (formerly Alphanim) has finalized a deal with game and app provider BulkyPix for its new CD-animated series Calimero (104 x 11’). Set to launch in conjunction with the television series, BulkyPix will be producing a free-to-play Calimero app for both iOS and Android devices. Created in 1963 by Nino Pagot, Toni Pagot and Ignazio Colnaghi, Calimero follows the adventures of a hapless, little black chicken who wears a half egg-shell on his head.
41 Entertainment’s new CG-animated series Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures has found a new home on RTVE/Clan TV and Canal Panda in Spain. The new CG-animated TV series (26 x 22’) is slated to begin broadcast in summer 2013 on Canal Panda and January 2014 on Clan. Written by Tom Ruegger (Animaniacs, Tiny Toon Adventures), Paul Rugg (Animaniacs, Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness) and Ken Pontac (Happy Tree Friends, Slugterra), this new take on the popular Namco Bandai game hero is produced by Avi Arad.
