Disney Channel and Disney XD are celebrating the magic of animation with a special presentation of Academy Award-winning and -nominated shorts from Disney and Pixar, just ahead of the 94th Oscars on Sunday. Hosted by daytime talk show host Tamron Hall, the special Life Is Shorts: Oscar 2022 will feature Bao, Burrow and Lou on Friday, March 25 (8:30 p.m. ET/PT on DC, 9 p.m. on XD), with repeats through the weekend. The special is produced by Localish.
- Burrow (2020 Academy Award Nominee) In Burrow, a young rabbit embarks on a journey to dig the burrow of her dreams, despite not having a clue what she’s doing. Rather than reveal to her neighbors her imperfections, she digs herself deeper and deeper into trouble. After hitting (bed)rock bottom, she learns there is no shame in asking for help.
- Bao (2018 Academy Award Winner) In Bao, an aging Chinese mom suffering from empty nest syndrome gets another chance at motherhood when one of her dumplings springs to life as a lively, giggly dumpling boy. Mom excitedly welcomes this new bundle of joy into her life, but Dumpling starts growing up fast, and Mom must come to the bittersweet revelation that nothing stays cute and small forever.
- Lou (2017 Academy Award Nominee) When a toy stealing bully ruins recess for a playground full of kids, only one thing stands in his way: the “Lost and Found” box. After a madcap chase through the schoolyard, the items in the box unite to teach the bully that giving back can be even more fulfilling than taking away.
Across the pond, one of this year’s Oscar-nominated animated shorts, Affairs of the Art by animator/director Joanna Quinn and writer/producer Les Mills will have its English-language U.K. television premiere on BBC Two Wales this Sunday, March 27 at 10:15 p.m. GMT. Continuing the series began in 1987’s Girls Night Out, the multi-award-winning short features Quinn’s signature hand-drawn animation and Mill’s raucous humor.
Affairs of the Art finds 59-year-old factory worker Beryl (voiced by Menna Trussler) reflecting on her life’s lack of accomplishments and what could have been. Obsessed with drawing from a young age, her dream was to go to art school, but pregnancy put an end to that. Throughout the film, Beryl also exposes the eccentric obsessions of her family members, from her sister Beverly’s (Quinn) fascination with pet taxidermy and body sculpture, to her son Colin’s (Brendan Charleson) fixation with railway signal systems and screw threads. All the while, Beryl’s continued passion to be creative sees her coax husband Ifor (Charleson) to participate as her personal nude model and muse. Mali Ann Rees also voice stars as Mum/Edie.
Indie animated feature The Breath of Life — written, produced and directed by Anna Gerasimova — has launched on the Reel Women’s Network streaming platform and Amazon Prime Video. Featuring art and animation by co-producer Arthur Herring, the film tells the story of a young girl, haunted by the secrets of her dead father and his discovery of an ancient powerful force that could create a new dawn in the world. Yearning to get answers, she dares to go on a reckless adventure with a stranger, an enemy to her nation, but enchanted by the same mystery.
The Breath of Life had its festival debut in April 2021 at the New York City Film Festival, and has competed in over 87 to date, garnering 52 awards.Gerasimova and Herring are already working on a second installment of the planned trilogy, Dark Matter. The Reel Women’s Network is dedicated to content by women and women-identified creators. Learn more about the film at breathoflifemovie.com.
Following broadcasting deals inked early 2022 with Chinese giant public channel CCTV, Parisian prodco GO-N Productions has seen two of its major programs launched across China: Kids’ comedy Zip Zip and global preschool hit Simon started airing on CCTV-14 (CCTV-Kids) in the second week of March 2022. The deal includes two seasons of Zip Zip (104 x 11′), broadcasting 10 episodes per day, and three seasons of Simon (156 x 5′), with six episodes per day.
Already present in the region, with programs broadcast on EBS (Korea), NHK (Japan), TVNZ (New Zealand), Disney (South East Asia, Japan and Korea), Netflix and more, this new partnership is part of GO-N’s plans to expand in the APAC region, especially at a time when the preschool IP Simon strengthens globally, supported by a soon to be released Season 4 (Summer 2022), which features a superhero twist that has already won over existing partners in Asia.
Emmy-winning French animation production and distribution company Dandelooo announced deals with key partners in Asia and Latin America for several of its animated series. Deals for the adorable, award-winning 2D preschool TV special Shooom’s Odyssey signed with Chinese children’s entertainment company UYoung Media and South Korean pubcaster EBS Korea, who also acquired Mum Is Pouring Rain. Jar Dwellers SOS and the shorts series 1 Minute in a Museum have sold to Beijing Joy Culture Media Co. Ltd., a leading children’s animation and home entertainment company.
For LatAm and Spanish-speaking U.S., Sky Brazil’s Escuela+ has acquired Siesta Z and tweens series Simplex for its platforms available on Skyplay and DirectTV Play. For preschoolers, U.S. Hispanic broadcaster HITN, which offers Spanish language educational and cultural programming for their kids’ channel edye, has acquired Tainá and the Amazon’s Guardians, Cubs, Pigtail & Mr. Sleeplessness, Petit and Rita & Crocodile. Finally, Argentinian kids’ channel Pakapaka has also secured a deal for Pigtail & Mr. Sleeplessness, Hungry Bear Tales, Season 2 of The Treehouse Stories, Mum Is Pouring Rain, Cubs, Little Bear, Dounia and Tainá.
ZDF Enterprises (Germany) will arrive in Cannes, France under the brand new name ZDF Studios (as of April 1) and a suitcase packed full of exciting new titles for the international MIPTV content market. Fresh offerings include two charming animated children’s series:
Tilda Appleseed (26 x 7’) follows the titular hero, who happens to be a clever, very cultivated white church mouse. She lives in a tiny house at the foot of the church wall with her pet Snaily and close to her best friends, who include a gray mouse with a penchant for worrying, a hedgehog, a robin and lively squirrel twins. This award-winning series, produced by WunderWerk, has already successfully aired on MDR, SWR, KiKA and NRK amongst others. Season 2 is currently in production.
Pettson and Findus (52 x 13’ & 4 x 75’) is all about the adventures of Pettson, an old inventive farmer, and his loyal but impudent cat Findus. The inquisitive feline constantly wants to discover and experience new and exciting things. Their escapades often involve testing a new invention that leads to a messy but funny ending. Produced by TV-Loonland AG, Happy Life Animation AB / Edel Kids and B-Water Animation Studios. Based on the popular children’s book series by Sven Nordqvist.
Common Sense Media’s free, kidSAFE+ COPAA Seal certified Sensical has secured new licensing deals with leading content partners. The company also announced that the hand-picked Sensical 8 lineup for kids 8-10 is now available on The Roku Channel.
New animated content pickups from existing studio/distribution partners include Cyber Group Studios’ Gigantosaurus and WildBrain‘s Strawberry Shortcake’s Berry Bitty Adventures. New licenses include Edutainment‘s Super Geek Heroes and Little Smart Planet, Goes To Eleven Media‘s puppet series In a World Music Kids, Simple Alien Inc.‘s mixed-media FoodTeenies and The Wise Channel. Sensical has also added to its podcast library with the Molly of Denali and Pinkalicious & Peterriffic audio series from PRX.
More broadcast & streaming bytes:
- Genius Brands today launched its first Kartoon Channel! in APAC, available on Samsung TV Plus in Australia. Hong Kong-based agent Lighting International is working to further expand the channel internationally through FAST, AVOD, SVOD, mobile and more.
- Toei Animation has become the first major anime studio to launch a direct-to-consumer strategy in LatAm, with new Spanish-language, company-branded social media pages (FB, IG, TW) to engage with fans across Central/South America and the Caribbean.
- Foundry software developer has launched a series of video interviews highlighting VFX, CGI and animation tech career paths: Voices Behind the Tech. The first batch features leading women at Foundry across various disciplines.
- The Itsy Bitsy Entertainment Company has picked up all western hemisphere rights (plus Australia, Asia and parts of Europe) for Moonzy & Moona. The IP originated in Cyprus and some of its artists are based in Ukraine, but it is produced by Moscow-based Melnitsa and has been caught up in Russian content cutoffs. Series director Konstantin Bronzit is also one of the animators who signed an open letter condemning the Ukraine invasion and reportedly dubbed “enemies of the state” by Putin.
