Hoho Entertainment’s commercial arm, Hoho Rights, announced today that it has acquired the rights to the entire animation catalogue of Welsh broadcaster S4C. Hoho Entertainment is a production and rights management company based in London with a focus on children’s entertainment. Licenses currently held by Hoho include Cloudbabies, Puffin Rock, Aagh! It’s the Mr. Hell Show! and Wind in the Willows: Mole of Mole End.
Joint Managing Director of Hoho Helen Howells states:
“This is something of a personal passion for me. I worked at S4C and I’m therefore very familiar with many of these title and they are as fresh and relevant now as they ever were. Classics are evergreen. And the rise of VOD and other on-demand services presents a great opportunity to breathe new life into these much-loved tales and adaptations.”
This deal gives Hoho the rights to old favorites such as the stop-motion shows Hana’s Helpline and Gogs. This also includes programs like Sali Mali and a number of Emmy winning adaptation anthologies, such as Shakespeare – The Animated Tales, Animated Tales of the World, Animated Epics, and Animated World Faiths. While not famous in the States, many of these shows remain incredibly beautiful today. It’s not hard to see why Howells is passionate about bringing them to a wider audience. In addition, vocal talent featuring the likes of Sean Bean, Bill Nighy, and Derek Jacobi lend these shows an element of marketable prestige.
Many of these shows can currently be found streaming on YouTube thanks to enthusiasts, but a professional treatment and advertising push will no doubt bring them to a much wider audience.
