Co-pro partners Cartoon Saloon, Dog Ears and Penguin Random House and international distributor Superights have secured a new overseas nest for preschool toon Puffin Rock, just nominated for the Int’l Emmy Kids Awards. The sweet adventures of Oona and her little puffling brother Baba have launched on digital media network Tencent, getting nearly 55 million streams in six weeks, as part of a multi-license deal with China Nebula Group which includes TV, digital, merchandising and toy rights. The English language versions of both seasons will roll out in November.
Hoho Entertainment has inked a deal with Chinese media company WOW DADI TECHNOLOGY to launch Cloudbabies in mainland China. The two-tier agreement sees DADI acquire distribution and merchandising rights to season 1, and commit to investing in the production of a second 52-episode season to be co-produced under the new UK-China co-pro treaty, soon to be ratified by the the Chinese Gov’t. Seeds for the partnership were planted following Hoho co-founder and joint MD Helen Howells’ invitation to speak at iABC during the CICAF animation fest in Hangzhou as part of a UK trade mission.
Larkshead Media announced ahead of the market two extensive collaboration deals, with UK-based producer I’m Hungry Studios and Luxembourg’s Fabrique d’Images. The first project on deck is I’m Hungry’s highly original 3D series Aniball Island (52 x 11 min., Ages 4-6). Larkshead took on development, distribution, investment, strategy and L&M for the property, and has a show bible and trailer available for potential distribution and L&M partners at MIPCOM. Aniball Island is a fast-paced and music-infused concept centered on a group of cheerful, energetic spheroid critters who bounce, spin and dance their way through explorations of their colorful world. The first projects with Fabrique d’Images will be announced soon. These two new deals follow Larkshead’s recent alignment with Blue Zoo’s Numberblocks (UK licensing) and the continued growth of May the Thoughts Be with You, just launched at BLE.
Monster Ent. continues to see a warm global reception to its cartoon celebration of preschoolers’ curiosity, The Day Henry Met… The show has recently been picked up by Italy’s pubcaster RAI for Free TV in Italian-speaking territories, and European SVODs Azoomee (UK), TFOUMAX (France) and Galapagos (Poland). Henry will also get its own YouTube channel, overseen by Little Dot. Nickelodeon International has renewed for seasons 1 and 2, and committed to seasons 3 and 4. The ratings’ hit is also coming to print in a new picture book series soon to launch from O’Brien’s Press in Ireland and the UK.
Nickelodeon Asia has acquired exclusive Pay TV and non-exclusive VOD rights to three slapstick, dialog-free animated short formats, which will begin airing in Singapore on its linear channel at the end of October, with select episodes available on the Nickelodeon Play app starting December. These are the 3D clumsy ostrich-dad comedy Cracké (52 x 1′) from Squeeze Studio Animation; absurd and irreverent smackdown Monster in a Box (26 x 1′) from Eggplant TV and Teletoon (Canada) and aquarium escape caper OUTOPUS (52 x 2′) from Rocket Cartoons (Costa Rica), the latter both 2D titles distributed by Monster Entertainment. Nick also announced a greenlight for its first animated shorts series from Asia, Sharkdog, from the network’s 2015 Global Animated Shorts Program.
Syahrizan Mansor, VP, Nickelodeon Asia, VIMN, said: “Content consumption is now across various screens and we find that short form content with playful stories and laugh-out loud moments is a sweet spot that does well across all our platforms. These three quirky shorts fit the bill and complement our current programming slate, which will appeal to kids in Southeast Asia.”
One Animation‘s award-winning 3D HD action-adventure series Insectibles (Ages 6-9) — co-produced by KiKA, Discovery Kids and ZDFE — continues its breakneck international rollout with new broadcast pickups across the globe. Having become the No. 1 rated show in Germany on KiKA, Insectibles has hit screens via Canal+, Teletoon (France), Pop, (UK and Italy), SVT (Sweden), SIC (Portugal), Lightbox (New Zealand), Discovery Kids (LatAm, Middle East and Asia), and across the majority of Amazon Prime Video SVOD territories. This month, the adventure will take off with multiple airline partners for in-flight entertainment to 40 destinations worldwide.
