***This article originally appeared in the Sept./Oct. ’20 issue of Animation Magazine (No. 303)***
This month at the online Cartoon Forum event, Cyber Group Studios will be presenting its new take on the popular ’90s franchise Monster in My Pocket. Studio co-founder and CEO Pierre Sissmann gave us the early buzz on this great-looking new show:
- The new 52 x 11′ series is a reboot of the franchise first introduced as a toy by Matchbox in 1990 and targets kids 6-10.
- Co-produced by MEG (Morrison Entertainment Group), this contemporary CG-animated take on the show centers on a team of 12-year olds (Dash, Zandra and Cole), whose lives are turned upside down when they find themselves in charge of wrangling the most ferocious and mischievous monsters imaginable. The good news is that the monsters are so small they can fit inside their pockets!
- The kids have to fight alongside these pocket monsters to help save the world from an ancient evil force. However, they also have to confront something scarier than all the supernatural creatures — middle school!
- Pierre Sissmann tells us, “The show has excellent entertainment value definitely for a boys/girls audience. It’s an action-comedy show based on a very famous property with not only great storytelling but also state-of-the art CGI animation and special effects. The series has a huge global potential because you can create endless adventures in creating endless armies of good and bad monsters.”
- How is it different from the previous animated versions? The concept has been revisited to create a pure action-comedy show and set in today’s high-tech environment.
- In the new series, the kids will deal with a hyperactive werewolf with questionable hygiene, break curfew with a rebellious vampire and play videogames with the Algonquin Wendigo.
- According to Sissmann, Cartoon Forum is a great showcase for new projects as people from all over the world attend the event, and you can meet with buyers and executives from networks, cablers, streaming platforms and find possible co-production partners for your projects. Over the years, Cyber Group Studios has pitched many shows, and most of them have been produced.
- The animation will be produced in France and the ballpark budget is 8 million euros ($9.5 million USD).
- Cool trivia: In 1992, ABC aired an animated special based on the property, produced by Hanna-Barbera and directed by Don Lusk with a script by Glenn Leopold. In this project, Vampire (voiced by Rob Paulsen) became the leader of the villains, and Invisible Man (Paxton Whitehead) was in charge of the heroes. Monsters included Swamp Beast (Frank Welker), Wolf-Man (Stuart Robinson), Big Ed (also Welker), Mummy (Marvin Kaplan) and Medusa (B.J. Ward).
- Projected delivery date for the show is 2022.
For more info, visit www.cybergoupstudios.com
