Corus Entertainment’s Nelvana and Sesame Workshop announced that the first season of award-winning animated series Esme & Roy has been picked up by Discovery Kids in Latin America. Nominated for three Daytime Emmys, including Outstanding Preschool Children’s Animated Series, the 52 x 11′ series created by TV veterans Dustin Ferrer and Amy Steinberg follows the best Monstersitters in Monsterdale as they use creative games and mindfulness strategies to solve little monster’s big problems. Esme & Roy premiered on Treehouse (Canada) and HBO (U.S.) in August 2018 and has since aired on KiKA (Germany), Disney Junior Southeast Asia (covering 15 territories), NRK (Norway), SVT (Sweden), YLE (Finland), Minimini (Poland), HOP (Israel), and DKids (Middle East, North Africa). Nelvana holds international distribution rights outside of the U.S. Season 2 is now in production.
Turkey’s leading kids’ entertainment company Fauna has sent its animated YouTube series Giligilis to Israel, where the cute little birds took flight on LuliTV (part of Hop! Media Group) on March 15. Aimed at toddlers, the 32 x 2’30” series stars colorful, funny birds who teach music and rhythm through the Orff approach, which engages children in music learning with singing, dancing, acting and the use of percussion instruments. Fauna’s preschool series Kukuli has aired in over 20 countries, and the studio recently inked a co-production deal with Toonz for new show Briko, set to debut in September.
Genius Brands International is bringing lots of colorful eco action to China, with flagship animated preschool series Rainbow Rangers launching on CCTV‘s kids’ channel (reaching an audience of more than 1.2 billion via multiple platforms) and on leading streaming service iQiyi, exclusively to its 100 million VIP subscribers. On the latter, the show has consistently ranked alongside Peppa Pig among the top foreign-produced animated series in the country. The show has already aired on Nickelodeon and NOGGIN (Latin America) and Cartoonito (Italy), having premiered on Nick Jr. U.S. in 2018. Short-form content is also available on the Genius Brands Network, which reaches 100M+ U.S. households. The rescue-based series follows the adventures of seven girls who are Earth’s first responders, protecting people, animals, resources and the natural beauty of our world.
Riki has appointed Edutainment Licensing as its distribution partner for 3D preschool series Tina & Tony, covering the U.K., Australia and New Zealand as well as worldwide for school and library digital platforms. The 52 x 5′ show follows the adventures of baby hippo Tony and baby elephant Tina, two best friends who love playing games together. They live in Cookie village with their good friends Foxy, Rabbit, Bear, Piggy and Clever Mouse – a cozy world reflecting the magic of playtime, where kids make their own rules and their favorite toys come alive! In each episode, the animal friends invent a new game following their imaginations and find themselves in situations similar to those of real-life preschoolers.
Konami Cross Media NY has partnered with Ameba TV to bring all three seasons of Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL to the kids’ streaming service. The deal grants Ameba TV 146 half-hour episodes following the adventures of aspiring duelist Yuma and the mysterious, amnesiac visitor from another universe, Astral. Episodes will be available in English worldwide, excluding Asia.
