If you want to know just how internationally-oriented the animation business has become, consider Noggin’s soon-to-debut series Connie The Cow. The series is produced by a Spanish animation house, distributed by a Canadian company and will air on Ameican TV. Connie is the sort of co-production once the sole province of the indie film biz.
Created and directed by Josep Viciana and produced by Neptuno Films of Spain, the 34-episode series is targeted at pre-schoolers. Though it’s debuting on Noggin next month (Sept. 8 at 1:00 p.m.), the series already airs in many countries around the world including Canada, the U.K., France, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Spain, Australia, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.
Each episode of Connie features three, seven-minute stories and two interactive games designed by educators to help preschoolers discover interesting facts about nature and the world of animals and plants. The games incorporate a science curriculum that develops visual discrimination skills. Visual discrimination is based on the scientific process of inquiry and helps increase children’s ability to focus on detail, and name and describe things being observed.
