Bejuba! Entertainment (Wishfart; Ruff-Ruff, Tweet and Dave) has picked up the first two series from crowd-funded animation prodco Pencilish Studios on two original series for kids six and up: Bjorn the Last Unicorn and Juju Brain. Both series have pilot episodes and are seeking broadcast and production partners. The team-up was announced by Tatiana Kober, President of Bejuba!
Based in Nashville, Pencilish was launched in 2020 by CEO Tom Bancroft and Co-Founder Ash Greyson. Bancroft is a 35 year animation veteran, best known for animating Simba in The Lion King (1994), Pocahontas in Pocahontas and creating Mushu the dragon in Mulan (1998) for Disney Animation. The company operates under a unique model, raising investment through crowd funding to develop properties, produce their pilot episodes and launch them on YouTube.
Bjorn the Last Unicorn sees the titular hero return to society after hiding away for centuries. He is lured by the belief that the internet has turned the world into a wonderful, kind place, based on the social media clips he happened upon. Bjorn sets out to become an influencer with the goal of spreading happiness and positivity to the world. The series revels in Bjorn’s innocent charm and his positive outlook, always seeing the good, even when some aren’t so positive around him.
Watch the pilot for Bjorn the Last Unicorn here.
JuJu Brain is a slice-of-life series focusing on JuJu Magoo, a
10-year-old girl on a mission to reach that impossible middle school goal of being both different and accepted. She discovers a challenge to that pursuit: she has OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). Through the love of her family, best friend and a new level of understanding, she’s going to take on the world one epic guitar solo at a time!
Watch the full pilot for Juju Brain here.
“I’m excited about these two series and the clever steps Pencilish has taken to develop and move these projects along. Their crowd funded investor base is also a research arm and they have gleaned valuable creative feedback from their work. They’ve also produced their pilot episode as shorts which they launched on YouTube.” says Kober. “We’re excited to take these series to the market.”
Bancroft adds, “I’m thrilled to partner with Bejuba! Entertainment and Tatiana. Our properties are backed by almost 5,000 passionate investors and thousands of fans online! We can’t wait to get the stories of Bjorn the Last Unicorn and JuJu Brain into the world to bring some much needed fun and edification back to screens and lives!’
