Having just picked up the worldwide rights earlier this month, Gravitas Ventures is gearing up for the release of Annecy premiere feature Canvas. Written and directed by Ryan Guiterman, the animated horror flick will roll out On Demand on August 9.
In this midnight thriller, a demon known as ‘The Painter’ comes to Earth with a gruesome mission — to create new spawn from chaos and murder. FBI agent George Rohan finds himself tasked with covering up The Painter’s multiplying murders, meanwhile a dogged investigative journalist, Reila Martin, works to unveil George’s growing web of lies.
The voice cast features Russell Peck as The Painter, Steve Key as George Rohan, Isabel Ellison as Reila Martin, Marama Corlett, Sam Encarnación and Ell Peck; Ellison also produces with Betsy Shuller. The film has also screened at Strasbourg, Lighthouse, The Art of Brooklyn Festival, and won Best VFX at Macabre Faire 2021.
A new trailer for the third season of the hit online game spinoff DOTA: Dragon’s Blood has dropped ahead of the August 11 premiere on Netflix. Produced in collaboration with VALVE, the epic fantasy centers on a conflicted yet courageous Dragon Knight who must use the power of the dragon within to stop a deadly demon.
The time has come for brave warriors to conquer an indomitable foe. But can the ultimate sacrifice bring lasting peace — to all possible worlds?
DOTA: Dragon’s Blood voice stars Yuri Lowenthal as Davion, Lara Pulver as Princess Mirana, Josh Keaton as Bram, Tony Todd as Slyrak the Ember Eldwurm, Troy Baker as Invoker, Kari Wahlgren as Luna, Alix Wilton Regan as Selemene, Freya Tingley as Fymryn, Stephanie Jacobsen as Drysi, Anson Mount as Kaden, and JB Blanc.
Ashley Edward Miller (X-Men: First Class, Thor, Black Sails) serves as series showrunner and executive producer. Renowned Studio MIR (The Legend of Korra, Voltron: Legendary Defender) is responsible for animation, with Ryu Ki Hyun serving as co-executive producer.
WildBrain is extending its longstanding partnership with HarperCollins Productions to include exclusive linear broadcast distribution rights, on a worldwide basis, for the Emmy-winning animated series Carmen Sandiego. WildBrain has been appointed to distribute Seasons 1-4 (33 x 30’ total) of the hit series, which was originally produced for Netflix by HarperCollins Prod. and WildBrain’s animation studio in Vancouver.
WildBrain has already secured deals for all four seasons with Disney for its linear broadcast channels in Japan and France.
The series, which launched in 2019, follows the adventures of Carmen Sandiego — a master thief who uses her skills for good — as she pulls off a string of international capers, while also giving fans a look at Sandiego’s backstory and why she became a thief. Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin) stars as Carmen, with Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things) as Player, Carmen’s chief accomplice and friend.
These new rights build on WildBrain’s relationship with the brand across its 360-degree offering of production, distribution and licensing. WildBrain also distributes all four seasons of the classic 1990s animated
series, Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? (40 x 30’), its licensing agency WildBrain CPLG represents the brand globally.
Studio 100 Media has closed a multibrand deal with global media company SPI International for digital exploitation of several 2D animation classic series from its extensive catalog.
The contract will give SPI non-exclusive worldwide AVOD and SVOD rights (with the exception of a few territories per program) on SPI platforms such as FilmBox+, FilmBox on Demand, Film1, ToonzBox and ToonzStream. The shows Maya the Bee, Heidi, Pinocchio and Alice in Wonderland will be available on-demand in various language versions, including English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.
Emmy Award-winning French animation producter/distributer company Dandelooo has signed a deal with Grupo Globo in Brazil for Season 1 & 2 of the preschool series Petit and Ella Oscar & Hoo. Both will be available on Globo’s children’s OTT platform Giga Gloob and Pay TV channel Gloobinho.
Petit (S1: 26 x 7’; S2: 13 x 7’) follows the adventures of a sweet, fun, brave, creative, sensitive, thoughtful, intense and innocent child who has a unique point of view of the world around him, as every boy and girl does! Based on the book Petit el monstruo by Isol, the 2D series targeted at kids 4-7, produced by Pájaro (Chile) in co-production with Pakapaka, Nonstop (Argentina) and Señal Colombia. Nominated for the 8th International Emmy Kids Awards, Season 3 (26 x 7’) is currently in production.
Ella, Oscar & Hoo (52 x 11’), produced by French animation company Normaal and Piwi+, Canal+’s preschool channel, is based on the picture books by Théo de Marcousin & Michael Dudok De Wit. A smart, bubbly girl, a bouncy little boy and a very young cloud: here are Ella, Oscar & Hoo! Together they will chase dinosaurs, explore mysterious woods, or be Santa’s devoted assistants… Every day is a new adventure, an opportunity to learn together about courage, honesty and childhood friendship!
Preschool animation hit Everything’s Rosie, produced and distributed by U.K.-based V&S Entertainment, has been picked up by award-winning digital content agency and media network Little Dot Studios, which has had great success with the show on its YouTube channel
WIZZ and has now taken over management of the official Everything’s Rosie YouTube channels in both English and Latin American Spanish.
After being a staple of the CBeebies schedule for nearly 10 years, the wholesome and educational series has also been successfully placed on state broadcaster CCTV in China, and there are deals in the pipeline with digital platforms which will ensure the show is seen by in excess of 120
million preschoolers in the territory. In addition to the 170 territories where Everything’s Rosie already has a footprint, V&S recently secured contracts in Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Eastern Europe and the U.S.
The Pinkfong Company‘s brand-new 3D-animated sing-along series Bebefinn is off to a great start, reaching notable milestones across streaming and social platforms in its first several months of release. Highlights include:
- Bebefinn’s official YouTube channel surpassed 1 million subscribers within 100 days of release, achieving the Gold Creator Award by YouTube.
- Since its release in April 2022, Bebefinn has garnered 484M minutes (920 yrs.) watched on its own YouTube channel within 100 days of opening, which makes it Pinkfong’s fastest-growing YouTube channel in watch-time.
- In the same period, Bebefinn videos have surpassed more than 185M views. The U.S. is one of the top markets that have brought the most views to the series.
- The average monthly growth rate of the subscribers on Bebefinn’s YouTube channel hit 92%, nearly doubling its mark every month.
- Bebefinn has also connected with fans across social media platforms, bringing kids-friendly content in short-form videos. Bebefinn’s official TikTok account has amassed 500K subscribers, making it the most popular Pinkfong account on the platform. Content with #bebefinn hashtags has surpassed 37.6M total views on TikTok.
OTT/FAST channel service OTTera has partnered with Slovakia-based ducktv to power and distribute the children’s early learning channel to the FAST market, starting with media giant Xiaomi. OTTera will power, support and provide advertising for ducktv in its further linear launches, making the free, ad-supported FAST channel available for distribution on additional platforms worldwide, excluding North America.
ducktv’s educational programming reaches babies and toddlers and features animated and live-action content and mini-cartoon series. Their flagship show, Ducky Adventures, stars the brand hero, a charming character named Ducky. Ducky’s stories are created with the support of child psychologists and teach toddlers how to handle their emotions and help in conflict resolution while developing their thinking and observational skills.
