Mipjunior 2017 preview magazine

SEPTEMBER 201 7

www.mipjunior.com The official MIPJunior magazine

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PREVIEW WORLD PREMIERE TV SCREENING

WORLD PREMIERE TV SCREENING

Mattel’s Thomas & Friends

Digital Television Russia & Signal Media’s Heroes Of Envell

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SEE PAGE 16

SEE PAGE 20

From

ROB MINKOFF, SHANE MORRIS, (The Lion King)

and

MIPJUNIOR KEYNOTE

MIPJUNIOR KEYNOTE

Netflix’s Andy Yeatman

Frederator Studios’ Fred Seibert

SEE PAGE 12

SEE PAGE 10

Also inside: • Preparing kids for social media • Content for sale • The MIPJunior Snack & Screen: Fresh Russian Animation Screenings • and more...

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Contents 10

News MIPJunior Keynotes: Frederator Studios’ Fred Seibert; and Netflix’s Andy Yeatman; Preparing kids for social media; Pingu; Beat Bugs; and more...

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Product News Multiplatform kids content on sale from around the world

World Premiere TV Screenings

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Mattel’s Thomas & Friends; Signal Media’s Heroes Of Envell

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Features Next-generation creativity.......................................................... 39 Pro-social content for kids.......................................................... 45 Where kids stories come from................................................... 50

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Also inside : 57 Tips & services junior

38 Conferences

PREVIEW The official MIPJunior preview magazine September 2017

Director of Publications Paul Zilk Director of Communication Mike Williams EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Editor in Chief Julian Newby Deputy Editor Debbie Lincoln Sub Editor Joanna Stephens Contributors Andy Fry, Juliana Koranteng, Gary Smith Editorial Management Boutique Editions Head of Graphic Studio Herve Traisnel Graphic Studio Manager Frederic Beauseigneur Graphic Designer Carole Peres PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT Publishing Director Martin Screpel Publishing Manager Amrane Lamiri Publishing Co-ordinators Yovana Filipovic, Emilie Lambert, Veronica Pirim Printer Riccobono Imprimeurs, Le Muy (France) MANAGEMENT & SALES TEAM Director of the Entertainment Division Jerome Delhaye Director of the Television Division Laurine Garaude MIPJunior Director Lucy Smith Director of Market Development Ted Baracos Programme Director Karine Bouteiller Director of the Buyers’ Department Benedicte Touchard Executive Producer, Conferences Bastien Gave TV Division Sales Director Geraud de Lacombe Head of Entertainment UK Paul Nickeas Director UK Sales – TV Division Matt Colgan Director UK Sales Music & TV Division Javier Lopez SVP Sales & Business Development Robert Marking VP Sales Louis Hillelson Sales Director Manual da Sousa Director of Visitors Sales North and Latin America Matthew Rosenstein Sales Manager Noah Buchwald Sales Manager Hugo della Motta Sales Director Sylvain Faureau Sales Director Aude Dionnet Sales Regional Director Nathalie Gastone Senior Sales Projects Director Fabienne Germond Sales Managers Paul Barbaro, Liliane Da Cruz, Nancy Denole, Samira Haddi, Cyril Szczerbakow, Hicran Lefort Head of Sales, Buyers Yi-Ping Gerard Sales Manager, Buyers Eve Gualbert-Galvis Sales Executive, Buyers Laetitia Rouis-Carrero Australia and New Zealand Representative Natalie Apostolou China Representatives Anke Redl, Tammy Zhao CIS Representatives Alexandra Modestova English Speaking Africa Representative Arnaud de Nanteuil Germany Representative Marc Wessel India Representative Anil Wanvari Israel Representative Guy Martinovsky Japan Representative Lily Ono Middle-East Representative Bassil Hajjar Spain Representative Maria Jose Vadillo South Asia Representative Adam Ham South Korea Representative Sunny Kim Taiwan Representative Irene Liu Reed MIDEM, a joint stock company (SAS), with a capital of €310.000, 662 003 557 R.C.S. NANTERRE, having offices located at 27-33 Quai Alphonse Le Gallo - 92100 BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT (FRANCE), VAT number FR91 662 003 557.

Contents © 2017, Reed MIDEM Market Publications. Publication registered 3rd quarter 2017. ISSN 2104-2187. Printed on PEFC Certified Paper

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MIPJunior Keynote

“The future is everything” FREDERATOR Studios is a US animation studio focusing primarily on artists who write their own shorts, series and movies. Founded in 1997 by former Hanna-Barbera president Fred Seibert, the company launched its first series, Oh Yeah! Cartoons, in 1998.

Last year, having produced thousands of shorts and series for other networks and its own numerous digital channels, Frederator merged with Canadian animation studio Rainmaker Entertainment and Ezrin Hirsh, Inc. — whose partners are Bob Ezrin and Michael Hirsh — to form Wow! Unlimited Media.

In his MIPJunior Keynote, delegates will hear how Seibert has applied his experience as a network executive — and a previous life in the music industry –to working in today’s multichannel industry.

“In the business that almost all of us have grown up in as producers, the system has been more or less the same for decades,” Seibert told the MIPJunior Preview. But today, where there “are a million channels available to the billions of people around the world”, he believes that controlling your own data is the key to success.

“And it’s one of the reasons that we started our own media channels 12 or 13 years ago now. We ran our first media channel on Apple iTunes and we did it because we wanted a direct relationship with the audience so that we literally could talk to the audience ourselves; and so that we could start to gather data based on information that was available to us from our own channels, in order to make our own choices.

“A couple of years ago we changed the demographics of our CartoonHangover YouTube channel from 70% men to 50-50% men and women, based on reaction to a short film we did called Bee And PuppyCat. And yet when we brought the Bee And PuppyCat around to networks and to movie studios they told us, you know, that young women aren’t interested in original animation. So in order to fund the original mini-series around Bee And PuppyCat we went to Kickstarter to raise the money. We raised almost a million dollars from almost 20,000 people.”

Seibert’s music-business experience also comes in handy when considering new ideas and how to get them off the ground.

Frederator’s Fred Seibert “A band with a computer in the rehearsal room can create a demo that sounds amazing, and that low cost of try-fail in the music business is what is going on now in the video business,” he said. “We can make 25 videos a week for the cost of less than one episode of a traditional cartoon. It’s the television equivalent of releasing a single to sell an album.”

However, Seibert believes that “no medium dies — except maybe Vaudeville”. And to prove it, his parent company Wow! Unlimited Media recently bought a linear-TV channel in Canada, in partnership with Bell Media.

“A lot of my young online friends think we’re crazy that we are launching a brand-new linear television channel into an on-demand, online market,” he said. “But we believe that

there is a lot of energy in linear television in addition to all of these new platforms that are coming up. We are players in all of those platforms, and we know that when we launch this linear channel using all of our traditional experience and all of our digital experience, we are going to be able to use that channel for partnerships across the world in countries that are looking for the future. We believe the future is everything, not something — it’s every medium, not just the new on-demand media that are out there.”

• Fred Seibert’s MIPJunior Keynote is on Saturday, October 14 at 17.00, in the Conference Room – Grand Theatre, of the JW Marriott

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News

Netflix sets out its plans to target the younger viewers AS A MIPJUNIOR keynoter, Andy Yeatman, Netflix’s director, global kids content, will be best-placed to disclose the streaming-TV titan’s strategy to outrun rivals in the battle currently taking place in the international kids’ content arena.

Yeatman — who recently joined the Kids Buyers Advisory Board for MIPTV and MIPCOM — promises Netflix’s Andy Yeatman to unveil Netflix’s ambitions to hike the number of original local-language children’s shows on the platform, which reaches 100 million-plus customers worldwide.

And with rumours that iPhone maker Apple, social-media giant Facebook and The Walt Disney Company are digging into their war chests to invest billions in original content — including family entertainment — Netflix is not holding back.

“We plan to produce and acquire more

localised original kids content and offer them globally with subtitles or dubbed where required,” Yeatman said, adding that Netflix is likely to commission more original productions than acquire licensed content.

With a background that includes overseeing acquisition for Netflix North America and digital distribution at The Walt Disney Studios, Yeatman is armed and ready to fight Netflix’s corner on the kids-entertainment battlefield.

He is focusing on two-to-12-year-old viewers, a generation that does not recognise the traditional concept of live linear TV and takes on-demand access for granted.

Various media reports indicate an estimated 50% of Netflix’s registered customers watch kids content regularly, including the parents of pre-schoolers.

Session focuses on online safety positive behaviour like creaCYBERBULLYING, online tivity, friendliness and kindharassment, fake news and fake ness — all of which are deepfriends is what teenagers face rooted in our brand values”. after leaving childhood and the One initiative Cartoon gentle world of kids programNetwork has introduced to ming. They are plunged into a encourage responsible use world where social media is king, of online communication is but not always the fairest ruler.

CN Vlog, a competition ofAnd this online universe can befering fans across its Central come a nightmare. So how can and Eastern European marthe kids programming induskets the chance to become try effectively prepare kids for a Cartoon Network vlogger. the challenges of adolescence?

Turner’s Lesley Bailey It also runs an EMEA-wide Experts share their views on this anti-bullying initiative CN Buddy Network, subject in the MIPJunior session Preparing “which is all about friendliness and kindness Kids For Social Media Teenhood. and celebrating difference”, Bailey said.

One of the panelists is Lesley Bailey, viceShe added that she is constantly “mindful of president, channel marketing & brand the company’s tone of voice and how we commanagement, kids, at Turner EMEA. For municate — it has to be in a kid-focused way.

Turner’s Cartoon Network, Bailey said the It’s also important that we recognise where company has “approached the online conwe’re not experts. We always look to partner nected world as an opportunity to encourage

Among the shows that have resonated with families is the award-winning Trollhunters, the animation series co-produced by DreamWorks Animation and created by Oscar-nominated director Guillermo del Toro. Other recent Netflix hits include The Worst Witch, the 2016 live-action fantasy series co-funded with UK public broadcaster the BBC and its German counterpart ZDF. Among more recent fare are animation series Kibaoh Klashers; CGI-animated show Treehouse Detectives, a Netflix Original, from Saban Brands and South Korea-based Sunwoo Animation; The Lego Group’s Lego Elves; plus Super Monsters from film producer Avi Arad and 41 Entertainment.

Netflix’s future commitment to young spectators should provide food for thought to established global rivals like Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Disney Channel, plus the domestic streaming kids-content platforms that have emerged in various countries.

Does Yeatman think kids binge-watch shows the way adults do? “If kids had their way, they would binge-watch but their parents are unlikely to allow that to happen,” he said.

• Andy Yeatman’s MIPJunior Keynote is on Sunday, October 15 at 16.45 in the Conference Room – Grand Theatre in the JW Marriott with experts where that’s the case, such as with Childline and the other child protection organisations with whom we’ve partnered on CN Buddy Network across the region.”

At the session, Bailey said she hopes she and other panelists “can share how social media and other online platforms shouldn’t be daunting but can be viewed as an opportunity to connect with kids and their families”.

Meanwhile elsewhere at MIPCOM there are celebrations to be had: “I’m looking forward to celebrating Cartoon Network’s 25th Anniversary and hope to see a full house for our special panel session with Rob Sorcher and Michael Ouweleen.”

• Cartoon Network: 25 Years Of Drawing On Creativity with Rob Sorcher and Michael Ouweleen is on Saturday, October 14 at 11.45 in the Conference Room – Grand Theatre, in the JW Marriott • Preparing Kids For Social Media Teenhood is on Sunday, October 15 at 11.00 in the Conference Room – Grand Theatre, in the JW Marriott.

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News Pingu moves to the big city

Beat Bugs sing The Beatles

NHK is launching a new series of Pingu, the much-loved Swissborn children’s character that first came to our screens back in 1986.

The new series is a co-production with N H K , N H K Enter pr ises , r ig ht s - ow ner Mattel and Japanese animation studio Polygon Pictures.

Two 26 x 7 mins series are planned, following Pingu who with his family has moved from a village to a big city of ice. Pingu helps his postman father on his rounds, meeting and helping neighbours in their professions.

The original series, written by Silvio Mazzola, was directed and animated by Otmar Gutman, using clay animation. “When we started remaking Pingu, the team and I set the rule as not to change the basic image and tone,” said Keisuke Tsuchihashi, senior producer NHK’s Global Content Development Division.

But to use traditional stop-motion while maintaining the quality that viewers expect today means a big budget. “We thought of making it in 2D, but that would mean a very different look compared to the original,” Tsuchihashi said. “So our team came up with the idea of re-making Pingu in 3D using CG technology. This way we could maintain the quality, touch, feel and movement of clay animation and stop-motion.”

MIPJunior sponsor Beyond Distribution introduces Beat Bugs to the international marketplace in Cannes this year.

Targeting boys and girls aged four to seven, the series follows the five bugs who get up to crazy adventures while never leaving their back yard.

Beat Bugs features the songs of The Beatles performed by artists including Sia, Pink, Eddie Vedder and The Lumineers.

“I’ve always thought The Beatles’ music is full of incredible melodies and so much imagination.

As soon as I would hear Getting Better, or Yellow Submarine, or even Eleanor Rigby, I’d immediately think about the world we could create,” series creator Josh Wakely told the MIPJunior Preview. “For instance, All You Need Is Love — the idea that love and empathy are essential in overcoming challenges in life, is sort of what we built our show around.”

The series is produced by Wakely’s company Grace, in association with Beyond Entertainment, Atomic Cartoons and Australia’s Seven Network. The series first launched on Netflix in August 2016.

“I think Netflix appreciated the universal appeal of The Beatles’ music, and the value of bringing such iconic music to a new

Keisuke Tsuchihashi: “With 3G we could maintain the original quality, touch, feel and movement of clay” It was director Naomi Iwata who decided that Pingu should move to the city. “We adults normally don’t like work, we feel it’s dull to work. But Pingu can change any dull work into a funny and interesting thing to do. So let’s set Pingu the challenge to try out lots of different jobs,” Iwata said.

“Because it is a city, we can add buildings, colour and a really dynamic environment,” Tsuchihashi said.

• The new series of Pingu is launched at a MIPJunior Breakfast & Screen event at 08.30 on Sunday, October 15 in the Renoir Conference Room in the JW Marriot.

Looking for content for China FOR THE past four and a half years China’s WeKids has been active seeking out completed kids programmes from producers and distributors around the world, for broadcast in China.

“These programmes have been localised, promoted and distributed into the Chinese market and I believe the characters from those programmes have

become part of our children’s daily lives in China,” WeKids’ Sean Chu said.

The company is sponsoring the MIPJunior Networking Lunch on Saturday, October 14, where Chu said he hopes to make further content partnerships.

“During the event we want to let people know that WeKids is moving rapidly from pure acquisition of international kids

Josh Wakely with the Beat Bugs generation,” Wakely said. “The creative freedom Netflix allowed in making the show was invaluable.”

“Digital is leading the way in children’s programming,” Beyond Distribution general manager Michael Murphy said. “With Beat Bugs we are joining a host of top shows that have previously aired on Netflix which have also rated very well for broadcasters. Now children have the opportunity to watch these shows at any time they choose.” He added: “Achieving stand-out [at MIPJunior] among the plethora of new shows at this market was key. Beat Bugs is a great animated series for Beyond and we wanted to ensure full exposure.”

properties to the development and production of original content for distribution in Greater China and across the globe,” he said. “WeKids is searching for partners who are looking to get involved in international co-productions of original content that will have strong international appeal.”

• The MIPJunior Networking Lunch is on Saturday, October 14 at 12.30 in the Majestic hotel

preview magazine I September 2017 I www.mipjunior.com

WeKids’ Sean Chu

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World Premiere TV Screening

Photo: Xxxx credit

The new-look Thomas & Friends from Mattel

Thomas is talking to you!

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CTOBER 14, and not before, is when MIPCOM delegates will learn of big changes to one of pre-school TV’s best-loved series: Thomas & Friends.

Thomas’s owner, Mattel, has never shied away from change, and has re-booted the series many times since it first hit our screens back in 1984.

Who can forget the announcement that Ringo Starr was to narrate the series when it first appeared? But after six years of the former Beatle’s comforting, laconic Liverpudlian lilt, equally bold moves followed — with US comedian George Carlin, US actors Alec Baldwin and Michael Brandon, former 007 Pierce Brosnan and most recently, British actor and singer Mark Moraghan, all lending their unique voices to the Reverend Wilbert

Awdry’s timeless stories.

And while James Bond- or Dr Who-type secrecy surrounds most of the changes to Thomas & Friends that will be unveiled during the World Premiere TV Screening at this year’s MIPJunior, we can tell you whose voice you will be hearing once the new series starts: it will be that of Thomas himself.

Yes, like Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood in House Of Cards, Thomas will be breaking the fourth wall and employing the theatrical technique of direct-address.

“In the past we have had Thomas do what we call ‘life lessons’ where he kind of spoke to our audience, and this was working really well for us,” series producer Micaela Winter said. “So in the new series we’ve got Thomas talking directly to the audience, so he introduces the theme of each episode and it’s a bit

like he’s taking the viewers on the adventure with him. As he’s discovering new things he’s explaining what’s going on to the audience as well. That’s a huge difference from previous series where we had a storyteller telling the story — it was a bit like a parent reading a book to a child — whereas now, Thomas is interacting with the audience directly. You see Thomas breaking the wall at the beginning of the story as he introduces it, and you see him as a character within the story. So it’s like he’s telling you about the adventures he’s been on.”

For Ian McCue, director of creative content at Mattel Creations, the new-look Thomas & Friends will address the changing habits of the young audience. “In the current landscape, the way children are viewing content is very different so we want to make it

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World Premiere TV Screening more relevant and relatable to our young audience,” he said. “We know that they watch so much content on mummy’s and daddy’s computers, iPhones, and iPads, and they can switch very quickly if they’re not engaged. So, while retaining the classic world of Thomas & Friends, we really wanted to beef up the energy and pace of the show, add more humour and really put it up there so it stands alongside a lot of today’s kids programming.”

“To have Thomas come up on their TV screens and actually interact with them, we think is going to be a wonderful exciting moment for them,” Winter added. “It’s going to be so much more engaging than that parent thing of plodding along reading a story.”

And while other as-yet-unannounced changes are likely to bring further new storytelling devices to the show, McCue assures us that the core purpose of Thomas the Tank Engine will always be the same.

“I think children love steam locomotives, railway engines, they love trains and vehicles — and they love stories. And that’s where the show originally started. With the Reverend Awdry, it was always about storytelling. And while people like Ringo Starr come and go, it’s really about maintaining those classic stories of the railway and that’s something that we’re not losing; it’s still going to be stories about Thomas and the railway. But we have to change with the times, because otherwise we’re sort of stuck in this loop of railway track that goes round and round and round; we have to come off that track and explore other avenues.”

This latest Thomas & Friends re-boot came after much research, which involved meeting with children and their parents. “One of the lovely bits that came out of the research was from a little boy, who said that ‘Thomas is a train but he doesn’t go anywhere’. And that felt kind of really on the nose, because he does sort of just

go around [the island of] Sodor,” McCue said.

“Yet in 1946 the Rev Awdry talked about ‘the little engine who wanted to see the world’, and of course he’s never seen the world, so this is really one of the big changes we’re making. We’re going to take him around the world so he can be the vehicle that will open the eyes of our young audience — who will be learning and asking questions of their parents, like ‘Where is China and where is India and why is that happening?’

We really feel we can use Thomas to educate the audience.”

So, expect new locations, new characters, gender inclusivity and much more as the 81-year-old Thomas is set to face the most radical re-boot since series 13, when he switched from live-action to CGI. • Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures! is the MIPJunior World Premiere TV Screening, on October 14 at 18.00 in the Conference Room of the JW Marriot

The Thomas & Friends re-boot will see Thomas travel the world preview magazine I September 2017 I www.mipjunior.com

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World Premiere TV Screening

They can be heroes

The Heroes Of Envell: Art, Phil, Vik and Kira

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Heroes Of Envell is the Sunday MIPJunior World Premiere TV Screening, produced

by Russia’s Signal Media for Digital Television Russia. Signal Media’s Mikhail Kovalchuk and Digital Television Russia’s Tatiana Tsyvareva, spoke to the MIPJunior Preview ahead of the screening THE GAME-world action-adventure Heroes Of Envell is introduced to the international marketplace at MIPJunior. The series, from Digital Television Russia, distributed by Signal Media and created by Anton Lanshakov and Evgeny Golovin, follows four promising junior-high school pupils — Art, Phil, Vik and Kira — who find a laptop loaded with a mysterious videogame. The computer turns out to be a portal into a game world that has been taken over by Mogarth, a four-handed evil genius who is planning to take over Earth.

“A long time ago we got an idea of creating an animated world for boys that would attract both junior and junior-high schoolers,” Tatiana Tsyvareva, producer at Digital Television Russia, said.

“We are constantly researching viewers’ demands and keeping a close eye on who produces what. It was obvious that there was a demand for animated series for boys. At this age they always play games imaging themselves as superheroes. Therefore the idea of Heroes Of Envell is based on a parallel worlds conception.”

And while research showed demand from male viewers, Tsyvareva said it is has been created for a mixed audience. “Girls will definitely be interested in the show,” she said. “Both as girl-gamers, and because one of the main heroes is a girl. It’s for romantic girls as well. The main heroes are handsome modern teens with the same problems and interests that all school-age viewers can relate to.”

The idea of combining real and computer worlds came from producer Golovin and director Lanshakov. “We thoroughly worked on images and personalities of the main characters so that viewers could find themselves in them,“ Tsyvareva said. “Here we have a meticulous wiseacre, a cheerful mischief, a guy with an insecurity complex and a daring girl. Everything is like normal life but there’s also incredible magic.”

Inside the virtual world the four kids take on the powers needed to fight the evil Mogarth. “But is it worth playing this mysterious game? Who is its creator? Who else knows about the game’s parallel world and

should they tell adults about it?,” Tsyvareva said. “Particularly given that they have other issues besides the game: friendship-related problems, first-love stories, classes, tests and curious parents.”

And there are life messages behind all the adventures: “For me, this is a grow-up type of story,” Tsyvareva said. “Yeah, it’s that kind of age where you still want to have childish fun but at the same time you want to be cool and adult. You do something an adult would have done — something stupid — then you find out that now you are in charge of what has happened. It’s that thing they always told you about — responsibility.

Our message is: ‘It’s okay to make mistakes, to live a life you want. You just have to be ready to face the consequences.”

There will be opportunities for viewers to enter this world too. “We want our audience not just to be able to watch but also interact with their beloved characters. That’s why we develop our brands in all directions — mobile and online games, VR and licensed production. Already this year there will appear an eponymous mobile game for smartphones and tablets, inspired by the Heroes Of Envell series. We are also holding negotiations with potential licensees to produce toys based on the fantastic world of the series.”

Signal Media manages three kids channels and is the only pay-TV channel in Russia that produces original animation content. “We have an extremely popular kids SVOD platform, we are producing games for smartphones and tablets, VR applications with our kids’ brands, and licensing and merchandising,” Signal Media CEO Mikhail Kovalchuk said. “So, of course, local audiences are a priority for us. However, when producing new brands, we think about the global audience and try to create stories and characters that will stay familiar to the local audience while remaining relevant to the international audience. We have invested a lot of time in localising not only Heroes Of Envell, but all our animation.

We are changing scripts for each language, trying to find the right voices and changing graphics to suit the target market.”

According to production forecasts, the first season of 13 episodes will be complete by the end of this year, and the second season towards the end of 2018, Kovalchuk said.

“We’re expecting pre-sales with the networks following the World Premiere TV Screening. We’ll have time to discuss opportunities with the networks attending MIPJunior and hopefully find something new for their schedules for 2018 and 2019.”

• The World Premiere TV Screening: New Creative Territories To Watch! – Heroes Of Envell is on Sunday, October 15 at 17.30 in the Conference Room – Grand Theatre, at the JW Marriott

preview magazine I September 2017 I www.mipjunior.com

SPOTLIGHT ON RUSSIAN ANIMATION NEW AND innovative animation from Russia will be presented during the Russian Animation Showcase at MIPJunior. Key players including Riki Group, Wizart and Animaccord will showcase new projects, alongside content from promising young producers.

The showcase will be followed by a networking lunch on the rooftop of the JW Marriott, where international professionals will meet key decision makers, producers and sellers of Russian kids content.

The Showcase is presented by the Russian Export Center (REC), which is also organising a national pavilion of Russian content and animation at MIPCOM. It will host a range of leading industry players with projects in various genres for kids audiences.

• The Russian Animation Showcase is on Sunday, October 15 at 12.00 in the Conference Room – Grand Theatre at the JW Marriott, followed by networking lunch from 12.40

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Product News Here we highlight international multiplatform content for kids and young people on sale at MIPJunior and onwards during the week at MIPCOM IMIRA ENTERTAINMENT TWO TITLES are prioritised at MIPCOM by

Spain’s Imira Entertainment. Zelly Go — (104 x 90 secs) is a non-dialogue series with four hungry characters who try every way to break into a giant capsule of tempting jellies. Lucky Fred 2 — (52 x 12 mins), following the successful first series, features 13-year-old Fred and his shape-shifting robot Friday.

BRANDS & RIGHTS 360 MADRID -based Brands & Rights 360

Zelly Go (Imira Entertainment)

AB INTERNATIONAL SEASONS two and three of Miraculous

Ladybug, featuring superheroes Ladybug and Chat Noir, are showcased by France’s AB International in Cannes. The company also brings the second season of Seven And Me (52 x 26 mins/3D), in which the descendant of Snow White lives with seven dwarves who unexpectedly turned up and became her friends and devoted guardians. The challenge for Snow is keeping them secret from her school friends and neighbours.

Miraculous Ladybug (AB International)

THE JIM HENSON COMPANY DOT. (52 x 11 mins) is a new series for

four- to seven-year-olds following tech enthusiast Dot, who loves to explore the world with her dog, friends and any tool or tech that can enhance their day.

Produced by Industrial Brothers in association with The Jim Henson Company and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Dot. airs in North America on Sprout and on Canada’s CBC. Internationally, Dot. has recently travelled to Piwi+ in France, Canal Panda in Portugal, SVT in Sweden, Jim Jam for the MENA and Benelux territories; and Israel Education Television.

Dot. (The Jim Henson Company)

holds various international rights for its catalogue that includes: Tobot (102 x 22 mins), targeting boys six to nine; pre-school shows Julio Bunny (52 x 11 mins) and Robocar Poli (52 x 11 mins); comedy Atchoo (52 x 11 mins), aimed at six- to nine-year-olds; and Colombian live-action teen/tween series Chica Vampire (120 x 45 mins).

SLAP HAPPY CARTOONS CANADA’s Slap Happy Cartoons is

currently in production on Netflix Original animation The Hollow (10 x 22 mins). Teens Adam, Kai, and Mira wake in an underground bunker and try to understand where they are and what connection they have to each other as they emerge into a bizarre and dangerous world. They encounter strange towns, mythical beasts and other odd characters as they try to find their way back home. The worldwide Netflix premiere is set for early 2018.

The Hollow (Slap Happy Cartoons)

Tobot (Brands & Rights 360)

CAKE ENTERTAINMENT THE DRAWINGS by young Pablo come to

life when he uses magic crayons. He is a smart and artistic boy who is on the autism spectrum. The series, called Pablo and voiced by autistic talent, is a celebration of thinking differently.

Produced by Paper Owl Films, the 52 x 11-minute series blending animation and live action, is set to air on CBeebies and RTEjr. There are six games and a slate of short films also available. A second season has been commissioned and London-based executive producer Cake handles distribution.

Pablo (Cake Entertainment)

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Artwork © 2017 9 Story Media Group. Licensed by 9 Story Media Group. MagicMall Animation Production Co. Ltd. Luo Bao Bei and all related titles, logos and characters are trademarks of MagicMall Animation Production Co. Ltd. All rights reserved.

Visit us at MIPCOM · Stand R7.K28

Visit us at MIPCOM · Stand R7.K28

24

Product News DANDELOOO THE MIPCOM catalogue for Paris-based

TEAMTO SWEET-talking 11-year-old Angelo is a

WINSING GG BOND - Agent G, brought to Cannes

Ernest And Celestine (Dandelooo)

Angelo Rules (TeamTO)

GG Bond - Agent G (Winsing)

animation studio Dandelooo includes: Ernest And Celestine (26 x 13 mins), a 3D series that has been pre-sold in over 40 countries, about a bear — a street musician and clown — who lives with a mischievous mouse; book-to-screen series Stinky Dog (52 x 13 mins); shorts series The Tiniest Man In The World; adult animation Lastman (26 x 13 mins); pre-school series Kiwi (26 x 5 mins, with 52 episodes in production); 2D animation Mily Miss Questions (78 x 7 mins); half-hour special Pigtail And Mr Sleeplessness; and the second season of The Treehouse Stories (23 x 7 mins), in production for Canal+.

genius with a knack for getting out of trouble — and the star of CGI series Angelo Rules (52 x 11 mins). The fourth season of the series is set to air on Cartoon Network (EMEA, APAC), France 4, TeleTOON+ and Super RTL next year. The total number of episodes available is 234. Angelo Rules is a TeamTO/Cake co-production with TeleTOON+ in collaboration with France Televisions and Super RTL.

GO-N INTERNATIONAL GO-N PRODUCTIONS’ is launching Tib & Tumtum (52 x 13 mins) in Cannes. It is produced

by Go-N with the participation of TF1 in France and in co-production with KiKA and HR for ARD in Germany. Aimed at kids from five to eight, it tells the story of the friendship between a boy and a dinosaur. Tib is different from other children in his prehistoric village as he has a birthmark on his face and the kids in the clan are always making fun of him. But Tib has something that the other kids do not — his best friend is a T-Rex.

Tib & Tumtum (Go-N International)

by China’s Winsing, follows Mr Mihoo who persuades GG Bond to take part in a special mission. GG Bond becomes an agent with Iron Fist, his pet and mission partner. Iron Fist carries the secret of the stone of eternal energy.

The universe would lose balance without the stone and together they must fight to save the world.

SIXTEEN SOUTH FRANKIE And Doris are misfits. Doris is

adopted and doesn’t look like anyone in her family and Frankie is told that he looks just like his father — a man he has never met. Frankie And Doris (52 x 11 mins) is being developed for television by Belfast, Northern Ireland’s Sixteen South.

Frankie And Doris (Sixteen South) preview magazine I September 2017 I www.mipjunior.com

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MIPJUNIOR 2017

BIG

ON SHORTS

Don’t miss a new showcase dedicated to creative shorts that appeal to audiences far and wide.

All are welcome.

Sunday, October 15 10:15 - 10:45 AM JW Marriott Cannes Grand Theatre

SEE BIG.

Anaana’s Tent

The Art Show

Beat Bugs

Cracké

13 X 22 minutes Production Taqqut Productions

52 x 11 minutes Production Canada/Australia Coproduction Atomic Cartoons (Bugs 1) (Canada) BB Productions (Canada) 11:11 Creations Pty (Australia)

42 x 5 minutes Production WestWind Pictures

52 X 1 minute Production Squeeze

26

Product News 9 STORY MEDIA GROUP SET IN Ireland in the early 1900s,

Angela’s Christmas (1 x 30 mins) is a funny and poignant story about the power of family and the desire of a child to ensure everyone is loved at Christmas.The holiday special is based on a book by Frank McCourt.

CYBER GROUP STUDIOS DISTRIBUTION CYBER Group Studios brings new episodes of Pirates (52 x 11 mins) to Cannes, a

series produced for France Televisions. Pirates is set in quiet Dull-On-Sea, a town turned upside down by the arrival of a family of Pirates. The Paris-based company also brings: Zack Jinks (52 x 11 mins), based on a comic strip; MNJ (104 x 11 mins), based on a computer game; and Tom Sawyer (26 x 22 mins), a new version of the classic Mark Twain story.

Angela’s Christmas (9 Story Media Group)

INK GROUP ZOOMBA , a baby elephant born with

zebra stripes, lives in the valley of Zafari. His friends include an eccentric monkey; a giraffe with peacock feathers; a lion with pink flamingo feathers; and a wise monkey with penguin colours. Brought to Cannes by pan-European branding specialist Ink Group, distribution is handled by NBCUniversal DreamWorks.

Pirates (Cyber Group Studios)

PORTFOLIO ENTERTAINMENT CANADIAN producer and distributor

ZDF ENTERPRISES SCHOOL Of Roars (52 x 7 mins) aims to

Bubu & The Little Owls (Portfolio Entertainment)

School Of Roars (ZDF Enterprises)

Portfolio Entertainment is in Cannes with: Bubu And The Little Owls (26 x 11 mins/13 x 30 mins), a pre-school series in which nature trips involve inventions, songs and games; Cyberchase (20 x 30 mins), a goodversus-evil battle in which kids use the power of mathematics; the third STEM-focused season of The Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That! (80 x 30 mins/160 x 15 mins/4 x 60 mins); and the second season of pre-school series Do You Know?(50 x 15 mins).

Zafari (Ink Group)

help children prepare for school by exploring the experiences of young monsters. Other titles on the German distributor’s kids slate include: teen liveaction series Wolfblood (62 x 26 mins); Lassie (26 x 22 mins), a new animation featuring the classic character with his owner, 10-year-old Zoe, set in a National Park; Dance Academy (65 x 26 mins/1 x 97 mins), about 15-year-old Tara who leaves the Australian outback to attend dance school; live-action Mister Twister (24 x 26 mins/1 x 75 mins); and animation series Lexi And Lottie (26 x 24 mins) and Scream Street (52 x 11 mins).

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Product News DHX MEDIA SCHEDULED to premiere on Nickelodeon

in the US and Family Channel in Canada, Massive Monster Mayhem (22 x 30 mins) is brought to Cannes by DHX Media. The sci-fi action game show features real kids competing in Intergalactic Battle Alliance challenges to become Earth’s champion and compete against Master Mayhem’s league of monsters, combining realtime CGI and pre-visualisation technology. DHX Media holds global distribution rights, and consumer licensing is managed by DHX Brands.

FRANCETV DISTRIBUTION A NEW 3D season of pre-school show

Little Brown Bear (52 x 7 mins) features stories of first discoveries and significant feelings for youngsters, and introduces new characters including Little Brown Bear’s cousin Big Red Bear. The series, produced by Bayard, is brought to Cannes by francetv Distribution.

MK PRODUCTION SWITZERLAND’s MK Production has

completed the first six-minute HD episodes of animation series Alpine Story. Set in beautiful foothill valleys, it features the brave and bold Rooster Coco, his dedicated and thoughtful friend, Roggy, wise and loving wolf Aunt Piffy and clever eagle Mr. Adler. The pals work together to fight evil and help their neighbours. More than 100 episodes are planned and dubbing so far includes French, English and Russian.

Little Brown Bear (francetv Distribution)

THE POKEMON COMPANY INTERNATIONAL POKEMON The Movie: I Choose You

Massive Monster Mayhem (DHX Media)

MEDIA I.M. LONDON -based Media I.M. brings the

second season of Sunny Bunnies to Cannes, which launched on its YouTube channel in January. The Sunny Bunnies are five beaming balls that can appear anywhere there is a source of light, and in each episode have adventures in a different location, including a circus, sports stadium and park. A new character — the Big Grey Wolf — has come from the moon on a mission to kidnap the bunnies. The show’s creator, Belarus’ Digital Light Studio and Media I.M. plan to launch a range of merchandise after a recent deal with US M&L specialist Evolution.

Sunny Bunnies (Media I.M.)

features 10-year-old Ash Ketchum and friend and partner Pikachu who catch a rare glimpse of the legendary Pokemon Ho-Oh in flight and make plans to seek it out together. Trainers Verity and Sorrel join Ash on his journey in which he catches an abandoned Charmander, raises a Pokemon from Caterpie to Butterfree and then releases it, and meets the mysterious mythical Pokemon Marshadow. When they near their goal, the arrogant Cross stands in their way. Can Ash and Pikachu defeat this powerful trainer?

Pokemon The Movie: I Choose You (The Pokemon Company International)

Alpine Story (MK Production)

TECHNICOLOR PARIS -based Technicolor brings

Chamelia (52 x 11 mins) to Cannes, a series aimed at four- to seven-year-olds starring six-year-old chameleon, Chamelia Pickle, that celebrates the joys of being unique. While most chameleons change colour to match their surroundings, Chamelia changes colour to match her feelings and embraces life with a flare and style of her own. Chamelia’s adventures involve challenges in familiar childhood situations in school, the playground, at the park and at home.

Chamelia (Technicolor)

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TELE LEO MERRY ADVENTURES 26×5' METRONOM FILMS

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MAGIC FIVE (WORKING TITLE) 130×6' CTC NETWORK/ CTB FILM COMPANY

CHARLOTTE AND FROGSON Number of episodes — to be announced, 7' MASTER FILM

THE KITTEN FROM LIZYUKOV STREET (WORKING TITLE) Information to be announced WIZART

32

Product News ATTRACTION DISTRIBUTION CANADA’s Attraction brings a number of live-action series to Cannes, including: new series Casper And Emma (20 x 13 mins), for three- to five-year-olds; Soccer Girls (11 x 21 mins), for 10- to 12-year-olds; Jenny (20 x 13 mins), for eight- to 12-year-olds; Santa’s Little Secrets (24 x 5 mins), for three- to seven-year-olds; and Gamer, an eightepisode web series featuring a fearless female e-gamer, for the over-16s.

NHK ENTERPRISES JAPANGLE (4 x 20 mins/4K) is targeted

at children worldwide and features two puppet characters, a professor and his assistant from an unknown country, who are learning about Japan. Each episode looks at a common topic, including public restrooms, manga and sushi, presenting them from four angles — design, history, technique and spirit. The series is designed to help children discover fresh perspectives on Japan, and is brought to MIPCOM by NHK Enterprises.

GAUMONT TELEVISION TARGETED to upper-aged pre-school

children, Trulli Tales (52 x 11 mins/13 x 1 min), from Gaumont, is set in the kingdom of Trulliland, where the ancient arts of magic and cooking blend. Four talented Wizard Chefs are learning 52 words of wisdom from the magical Trulli Grandma who lives in an ancestral Magic Cookbook. Also 13 one-minute shorts help kids to understand how simple ingredients such as ginger, onions, basil and mint can produce distinctive results.

Casper & Emma (Attraction Distribution) Trulli Tales (Gaumont Television)

CALM ISLAND CALM Island, based in Los Angeles and

Seoul, is unveiling the first episodes of its new CGI-animated pre-school series, Badanamu Cadets (52 x 11 mins) in Cannes. Currently in production with season one set for delivery in January 2018, the series features six heroes-intraining who must combat the dark plans of the troublemaking Grumbles.

The Badanamu characters first appeared in shorts on YouTube and Alibaba.

Badanamu Cadets (Calm Island)

PLANETA JUNIOR PAN-EUROPEAN producer and distributor

Jetpack Distribution are: The Sisters, aimed at six- to 11-year-olds, a comedy about the daily life of two sisters aged seven and 13, with distinct personalities; Kitty Is Not a Cat!, aimed at six- to 10-year-olds, about a young girl and a household of cats; Kazoops!, for three- to seven-year-olds, about a spirited boy of six with a vivid imagination, a loyal pet pig and a best friend called Jimmy Jones; and Justin Time Go!, which features the daily trials of Justin and his imaginary shapeshifting sidekick Squidgy.

Planeta Junior brings a large slate of programming to Cannes, including: Bubble Bip (52 x 7 mins), about the protagonist of an action video game who decides to escape to the outside world; Pio Rocks! – The Series (52 x 11 mins), following Pio at Highnote High, a music school; Magiki (52 x 11 mins), about young Billie, who uses her magic key to open the toy box and enter the enchanted world of Magiki with the help of her best friend Truman; and Mutant Busters, an animated comedy set in a post-apocalyptic world created by the horrendous levels of contamination on earth. New series Gormiti features four boys who are tasked to call on the mighty Gormiti to save their world from the invasion of the evil Darkans.

The Sisters (Jetpack Distribution)

Bubble Bip (Planeta Junior)

Japangle (NHK Enterprises)

JETPACK DISTRIBUTION ON THE MIPCOM slate from the UK’s

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Product News STEAMWORKS STUDIO CHINESE stop-motion animation

specialist Steamworks Studio brings pre-school series Mini Town (52 x 5 mins) to MIPCOM. In Mini Town there is a bakery, flower shop, supermarket and park where three girl baby bears live happily with their family. They learn new things everyday, from doing chores to getting along well with friends and helping neighbours.

MIAM ! ANIMATION PARIS -based Miam ! Animation brings

three new pre-school series to MIPCOM. Yeti Tales (75 x 7.30 mins/20 x 2 mins /1 x 26 mins) is a puppet show that focuses on Yetily, a giant plush toy that comes to life when a bookshop is closed in order to tell stories to two little mice. The first season premiered on France 5 and has been acquired by Yoopa (Canada), TV5 Monde and Tiny Pop (UK), and the second season premieres in December. Little Malabar (26 x 4 mins/2D/3D) is about curious Little Malabar who interacts with planets and stars. It premieres on France 5 in early 2018. No-No (52 x 7 mins/1 x 26 mins/3D) is about a character who has a lot of ideas, but doesn’t know how to make them happen.

COSMOS-MAYA INDIAN animation studio Cosmos-Maya

brings a new slapstick, non-dialogue comedy to Cannes. Tik Tak Tail tells the story of the unending attempts of a tiger (Tak) to catch a rabbit (Tik), and how the rabbit always outruns the tiger with his speed and ingenuity. And then there is the twist in the tale — or tail.

Tik is not only battling with Tak but also with his Tail, which has two roving eyes and a hungry mouth of its own.

Tak and Tail are part of the same body, but they are two different minds.

Created by Cosmos-Maya, Tik Tak Tail is a co-production between CosmosMaya and Turner India.

Mini Town (Steamworks Studio)

ALL3MEDIA INTERNATIONAL THE UK’s all3media international

showcases the new fourth season of series Matilda And The Ramsay Bunch at MIPCOM. Airing in the UK on CBBC later this year, the new 4 x 15 mins series is produced by Studio Ramsay (Humble Pie Productions). The series features chef Gordon Ramsay’s daughter Matilda as the family spend their summer holidays in Los Angeles where her dad works for most of his year. Matilda packs each episode with recipes for amazing food, fun and a fascinating insight into life with a celebrity dad, as well as her family’s personal guide to all that Los Angeles has to offer.

Matilda And The Ramsay Bunch (all3media international)

Tik Tak Tail (Cosmos-Maya)

Yeti Tales (Miam ! Animation)

IGMAR RUSSIA’s Igmar is presenting new

animated series Liola And Minka in Cannes. The stop-motion animation series about the funny adventures of a little brother and sister is based on short autobiographical stories by Mikhail Zoshchenko. The series targets pre-school and primary-school-age kids, five- to nine-years-old.

Liola And Minka (Igmar)

NEWEN DISTRIBUTION DUTCH tween format The First Years is

brought to Cannes by France’s Newen Distribution. Produced by Tuvalu Media, the scripted reality series is about the first year of secondary school, featuring recognisable and poignant stories about the fun, the challenges and the problems of first graders. The series is targeted at young schoolchildren. The company also highlights the first season of its animated series Junior (39 x 5 mins) and the fifth season of Loopdidoo, which now has 260 episodes available.

The First Years (Newen Distribution)

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Product News ANIMACCORD MOSCOW- and Florida-based

Animaccord returns to MIPCOM with its brand Masha And The Bear, the animation about a three-year-old girl and her retired circus-star friend.

Masha lives in an old train station in the forest, she is an energetic girl who can’t seem to keep herself out of trouble. Bear is a warm, fatherly figure that does his best to guide his friend and keep her from harm, often ending up the unintended victim of her misadventures.

DI-O-MATIC THE LATEST family Christmas special

from Canadian animation producer DiO-Matic is under the spotlight at MIPCOM. Li’l Santa (1 x 24 mins), based on a Belgian comic strip, features a sprightly, pint-sized environmentalist with boundless energy, a sprinkle of magic and a big heart. He has a big job but he has a team of elves, penguins, postal workers — and a friendly yeti — to help him turn the world’s trash into toys for all the children of the world.

STUDIO 100 MEDIA/M4E KEY PROPERTIES at MIPCOM for Studio

100/m4e include: Arthur & The Minimoys (26 x 26 mins/CGI), which follows the ingenious 10-year-old as he travels through a passage that enables him to become a Minimoy — invisible to the human eye; 26 new episodes of Tip The Mouse (78 x 7 mins/CGI), based on a children’s book series by Andrea Dami; and the third 26 x 23 mins season of Mia And Me — bringing the total episodes to 78 — featuring adventures with elves and unicorns in the fantastic world of Centopia. The fourth season is in development, as well as a feature film.

Masha And The Bear (Animaccord)

ZHEJIANG VERSATILE MEDIA AXEL: Adventures Of The Spacekids (1

x 85 mins) is a comic adventure animation, brought to MIPCOM by China’s Zhejiang Versatile Media. The once-beautiful and lush Planet Keplar is now dry and near death after its KarLalo plant was exploited by Earthers to extinction. The Kar-Lalo plant was known throughout the galaxy as a source for super energy. Axel leads his friends into danger and they battle evil Earthers, giant spaceships and destructive Robots, as they journey down the depths of a volcano to retrieve the last Kar-Lalo seed and try to save the Planet.

Axel: Adventures Of The Spacekids (Zhejiang Versatile Media)

Li’l Santa (Di-O-Matic)

NPO SALES AT MIPCOM NPO Sales presents the

animation film Free As A Bird (1 x 25 mins). It is a story about being free and having courage and dreams. It features a 10-year-old boy, Imad, who lives in a war zone. When he finds a bird with a broken wing, he brings it home and carefully nurses it back to health. The Dutch distributor also brings Tex (1 x 25 mins), a film about a cartoon family who have just moved to the real world.

Tex is a typical animation character, Evie is a real girl. When Tex falls for her, it seems to be an impossible match.

Free As A Bird (NPO Sales)

Arthur & The Minimoys (Studio 100/m4e)

FZ ENTERTAINMENT HEADING the slate for China’s FZ

Entertainment is pre-school series Bang Bang Submarine (52 x 12 mins/3D/ HD). The stories focus on five friends with different personalities and skills who travel the world in their submarine to rescue endangered creatures and ease ecological crises. The series is due at the beginning of 2018.

Bang Bang Submarine (FZ Entertainment)

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Product News JB PRODUCTIONS FUMBLES began three years ago as a

live-theatre educational musical show and workshops, then developed into a TV show. It will launch its first publishing and L&M products in 2018.

In Fumbleland, if a child makes a spelling mistake, mischievous creatures called Fumbles appear. For example: if a child writes nosebook instead of notebook the notebook will turn into a nose book and begin to sneeze.

BEYOND DISTRIBUTION BEAT Bugs (52 x 11 mins/26 x 30 mins)

MIPCOM is Tee And Mo (50 x 7 mins), a pre-school series for the UK’s CBeebies. Following its digital debut as a suite of games and four songs, the series features a fun-loving three-yearold monkey, Tee, and super-mum Mo, as they navigate the ups and downs of their daily life.

is launched in Cannes by Beyond Distribution. This is the first children’s animated show to feature songs made famous by the Beatles, performed by leading artists. Jay, Kumi, Crick, Buzz and Walter are best friends who have a knack for getting themselves into mischief as they explore and learn about life in their overgrown backyard.

Tee And Mo (Zodiak Kids)

Beat Bugs (Beyond Distribution)

LAGARDERE STUDIOS DISTRIBUTION LAGARDERE Studios Distribution is launching two youth series in Cannes.

Fumbles (JB Productions)

MONDO TV ITALY’s Mondo TV brings a range of

shows to MIPCOM. The second series of Robot Trains (52 x 11 mins), a coproduction by Mondo and Korea’s CJ E&M, introduces Rail Watch, featuring the trusted robot train guardians of Rail World. Other titles include: Invention Story (104 x 11 mins), which offers learning and fun through the adventures of a creative fox; YooHoo & Friends (52 x 11 mins), which features a team that helps and supports endangered animals; and two further seasons of live-action show Heidi.

Robot Trains (Mondo TV)

ZODIAK KIDS HEADING the slate for Zodiak Kids at

Edutainment show Top Of The Tops is a series of shorts for nine- to 12-year-olds.

Subjects include sports, fashion, DIY, recipes, magic, animals, history and science.

The Avatars (52 x 4 mins) is a live-action series in which three music-loving teenagers dream of becoming world-famous rock stars. Unfortunately, despite their talent, the boys are repeatedly rejected by record label executives who keep telling them that they are too young. Everything changes when JP’s sister suggests they create a virtual band.

GLOBAL SCREEN ZENITH (7 x 25 mins), a

series from The Netherlands brought to Cannes by Germany’s Global Screen, features siblings Fay (14) and Boris (10) who discover their parents have been replaced by robots that look exactly like them.

When Fay and Boris find a way to control the robots they realise they can make their new parents do whatever they want.

Zenith (Global Screen) preview magazine I September 2017 I www.mipjunior.com

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Product News RAINBOW ITALY’s Rainbow returns to Cannes

with three new series. 44 Cats (52 x 13 mins) is a pre-school comedy that follows musical kittens in a band. The second season of Regal Academy features Rose Cinderella, who returns to the school for fairytale characters and encounters a mysterious new student, a new teammate and the Snow Queen who is hoping to trap them all in Snow Globes. In the third series of the pre-teen live-action series Maggie & Bianca Fashion Friends, the pals leave Italy to live in America, where they face difficult choices.

ENTERTAINMENT ONE (EONE) ON THE kids roster from Canada’s

eOne are: Three Little Ninjas Delivery Service (52 x 11 mins), a new slapstick comedy; PJ Masks (season, 52 x 11 mins/season 2, 52 x 11 mins), a pre-school superhero animation; and Cupcake & Dinosaur: General Services (52 x 11 mins), which follows the exploits of an unlikely duo — a tiny cupcake with big brains and a Napoleon complex and his dinosaur younger brother as they strive to succeed in business.

FEDERATION KIDS & FAMILY SQUISH (52 x 11 mins) is a comedy

aimed at six- to 11-year-olds featuring an amoeba looking to survive the cutthroat world of single-cell organisms — and school. Produced by Cottonwood Media and distributed by sister company Federation Kids & Family, the first episode will be at MIPJunior. Broadcasters include Gulli (France, Russia, Africa) and Teletoon (Canada). The company is also prioritising Find Me In Paris (26 x 30 mins), which features Lena Grisky, a time-traveling ballet dancer from 1905 Russia coping with adolescence in 2015 Paris.

JAM MEDIA IRISH producer, distributor and

licensing company Jam Media brings the first episodes of preschool series Becca’s Bunch (52 x 11 mins) to Cannes. The series features a bird with a can-do attitude and her friends in Wagtail Woods, and mixes live action, puppetry, 2D and CGI. Nickelodeon has exclusive broadcast rights in the US and pay-TV rights for the rest of the world, while the series has also pre-sold to ABC Australia.

44 Cats (Rainbow)

Squish (Federation Kids & Family)

XILAM ANIMATION FRENCH producer Xilam is highlighting Mr

Magoo (78 x 7 mins) in Cannes, a new 2D version of the classic kids animation.

Everybody loves Mr Magoo, however he can cause disasters without his glasses. His neighbours have adjusted to his ways, except for one — a megalomaniac hamster whose goal is to have his genius recognised, but somehow Magoo always interferes. Produced by Xilam, the series has been commissioned by France Televisions. Additional broadcasting partners include Cartoon Network Asia and Discovery Italy’s K2.

Mr Magoo (Xilam Animation)

NOTTINGHAM FOREST SUPER Wings (52 x 11 mins), produced by Gil Hoon Jung FunnyFlux Entertainment, is a top priority in Cannes for Spanish

distributor Nottingham Forest. The pre-school series is about a jet that travels the world delivering packages to children. In a recent development a Super Wings room has been inaugurated at the Hotel del Juguete (Toy Hotel) in Alicante.

preview magazine I September 2017 I www.mipjunior.com

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2017 CONFERENCE & EVENTS PROGRAMME MIPJUNIOR WORLD PREMIERE TV SCREENINGS

CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Saturday 14 October 18.00-18.50

Saturday 14 October 17.00-17.30

Sunday 15 October 17.40-18.30

Sunday 15 October 16.45-17.15

NEW CREATIVE TERRITORIES TO WATCH!

‘THOMAS & FRIENDS™: BIG WORLD! BIG ADVENTURES!’ Presented by Mattel Creations

KEYNOTE: FRED SEIBERT PRESIDENT/CEO, FREDERATOR NETWORKS

‘HEROES OF ENVELL’

Presented by DTR and Signal Media

SATURDAY 14 OCTOBER 8.30-9.00 - CONFERENCE ROOM 2, RENOIR

BREAKFAST & SCREEN FEATURING PINGU A New Anime Series from NHK Group

9.15-9.45 - CONFERENCE ROOM 2, RENOIR

PRODUCING FOR AN INTERNATIONAL AUDIENCE 10.00-10.30 - CONFERENCE ROOM 1, GRAND THEATRE

BINGE WATCHING SESSION: KIDS SUCCESS ACROSS THE GLOBE In partnership with Eurodata TV Worldwide

SUNDAY 15 OCTOBER 8.30-9.30 - CONFERENCE ROOM 2, RENOIR

HOW TO MIP IT: NEW VISITORS WORKSHOP

9.30-10.30 - MATCHMAKING ROOM 10.00-10.30 CONFERENCE ROOM 2, RENOIR

CONTENT STRATEGY: A FIRESIDE CHAT WITH NINA HAHN AND LAYLA LEWIS, NICKELODEON

By Registration

BUYERS & COMMISSIONERS MATCHMAKING

By Registration

10.15-10.45 - CONFERENCE ROOM 1, GRAND THEATRE

CANADA BIG ON SHORTS

By Canada Media Fund and Telefilm Canada

10.45-11.30 - CONFERENCE ROOM 1, GRAND THEATRE

VIEW FROM THE TOP: WORLD SCREEN KIDS TRENDSETTER AWARDS In Partnership with World Screen

11.00-11.45 - CONFERENCE ROOM 1, GRAND THEATRE

11.15-11.45 - CONFERENCE ROOM 2, RENOIR

WHAT THEY WATCH IS WHAT THEY PLAY: INTERACTIVITY IN STORYTELLING

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Photo: Xxxx credit

Next-Generation Creativity

Jam Media’s Becca’s Bunch

Where’s the K next big idea coming from?

Creativity in kids’ TV has never been more necessary — or more challenging. Content creators and distributors specialising in this most demanding of genres are having to be more creative, imaginative and inventive than ever to catch and hold young audiences. Juliana Korenteng reports

IDS’ TV used to be consigned to Saturday- and Sunday-morning slots on terrestrial TV or dedicated cable-and-satellite channels. In 2017, content can be accessed any time, anywhere and, effectively, anyhow, watched by pre-school and pre-teen audiences who understand the digital-media space better than most of the TV companies targeting them.

However, that has not discouraged the resourceful global industry from creating and delivering inspired content that appeals to young digital natives. “It’s been about the way in which viewing habits have changed and the number of platforms that have developed and become relevant to kids,” says Mike Watts, CEO at Novel Entertainment, the UK production hub famous for the Horrid Henry animation series. “With the growth of platforms like Netflix and YouTube, kids don’t think of channels anymore.

They know where to find their favourite shows and characters, no matter the platform.”

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Next-Generation Creativity

Zodiak Kids’ Jean-Philippe Randisi

Jam Media’s John Rice

Novel Entertainment’s Mike Watts

“Kids don’t think of channels anymore. They know where to find their favourite shows and characters, no matter the platform”

screens vying for kids’ attention, TV is fighting back with quality digital content,” he says. “Look at some of the YouTube channels like AwesomenessTV. Instead of just taking TV shows and putting them online, it produced them with digital in mind. They helped the industry realise you can produce content on a reduced budget, without compromising on quality.”

is president of global consumer products, worldwide content sales and marketing at entertainment group Genius Brands International, which is partly owned by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Canada- and US-based Wow! Unlimited Media’s CEO Michael Hirsh adds: “The rapid growth of YouTube has been a ‘Wow!’ moment for me.” Wow! subsidiary Frederator Studios produced Castlevania, a children’s fantasy animation based on a video game, and Netflix has ordered its first two seasons.

Hirsh says Frederator’s extensive presence on YouTube helped showcase its content to the wider TV and streaming platforms. Frederator Networks owns and operates YouTube channels boasting almost 200,000 subscrib-

Mike Watts YouTube, the Google-owned video-sharing website once known for quirky content of the cats-on-skateboards variety, is regularly cited as a major influence on the way in which kids’ audiovisual entertainment has developed. In June, the platform reported that it now has 1.5 billion monthly active users, with those logging in spending an average of more than an hour a day watching content. Shortly after, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki told the media there is more room for growth to match the time viewers spend watching conventional TV. But YouTube’s growing reach has made it popular with children, and content creators see it as a genuine alternative for engaging with that audience segment.

In an industry where even the old-fashioned big screen — the cinema — can dominate kids’ attention with hit franchises such as Pixar Animation Studios’ Cars, TV producers need to be astute about how they use affordable digital resources such as YouTube, says Rick Glankler, executive vice-president and general manager of FremantleMedia Kids & Family Entertainment. “With all the

Stone Newman is an advocate for digitalonly platforms as viable revenue sources.

“People forget that the start for Mattel’s fashion-doll franchise Monster High in 2010 included a YouTube channel — and it’s now a billion-dollar multimedia business, including TV,” says Newman, who

Frederator Studios’ Castlevania

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Next-Generation Creativity

Xilam Animation’s Morgann Favennec

ITV Studios Global Entertainment’s Stephen Green

ers in Canada, and four million international subscribers in total, with an average 22 million views a month. Meanwhile, the dedicated Channel Frederator Network multichannel network records 347 million views in Canada and 15 billion views worldwide.

There have been some visionary individual pre-school shows, including the award-winning Pocoyo co-produced by Spain’s Zinkia Entertainment, says Morgann Favennec, Paris-based Xilam Animation’s executive vice-president of development and global sales. But, she adds, the broadcast platforms alone would not have had the airtime to offer services such as Israel-based Twist Animation’s TuTiTu, an online series dedicated to 3D animation shows for toddlers.

The multilingual series, in which toys come to life, is also available on YouTube. It is packed with carefully crafted songs and animated stories that encourage learning for pre-schoolers. TuTiTu is already recording almost 3.4 billion views on YouTube alone, up from one billion in 2014.

The proliferation of digital platforms has equally broadened the options available to producers of evergreen kids’ animation hits, such as Mr Magoo (originally created in 1949), Oggy And The Cockroaches (1998) and the nine-year-old A Kind Of Magic, which Xilam is bringing to Cannes. “The explosion of digital offerings for the very young, including the YouTube Kids app, has been very impressive,” Favennec says.

Such developments are shaping the way producers create for young viewers, adds Claude Schmit, CEO of German kids’ TV

Dragons, airing on Super RTL network Super RTL, which airs animation titles including the Lego-themed Nexo Knights — Die Ritter Der Zukunft and Dragons – Auf Zu Neuen Ufern. “There definitely is a noticeable influence,” he says.

“During the production process, producers nowadays start developing apps and other digital content, even before they start shooting a new show. It has also become very important to make sure the storytelling works on different platforms and supports digital marketing and merchandising strategies.”

Describing a show as “interactive” used to be a marketing ploy — the only interactive element was very often the accompanying promotional app or social-media page.

Super RTL’s Claude Schmit

Today, interactivity requires the audience to engage fully with the content, including how the story develops, in a seamlessly fun way, says Jean-Philippe Randisi, CEO of Zodiak Kids, which produced live-action comedy drama Secret Life Of Boys for the UK’s CBBC and Australia’s ABC. With the third season on its way, the award-winning series is a combination of linear episodes and interactive versions, with the latter allowing viewers to choose not only how a plot evolves, but also how the different characters respond to the changes in the plot.

Secret Life Of Boys also features digital-only segments, which are available in between seasons to keep the buzz going among its fans. “The interactive tech that enables us

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Next-Generation Creativity to do this now was not affordable before,” Randisi says. “But, in some ways, this is how stories have always been told — the listener asks the storyteller for more details.

It’s only now technology is catching up that we’re able to do in an affordable way.”

“This is how stories have always been told — the listener asks the storyteller for more details. It’s only now technology is catching up that we’re able to do in an affordable way” Jean-Philippe Randisi Interactivity also gives TV content a unique selling point at a time when competition for kids’ loyalty is tougher than ever, points out FremantleMedia’s Glankler. With Bitz

& Bob, an animated series on the UK’s CBeebies network for children aged six and under, TV takes interactive engagement to a variety of levels. Designed to inspire and educate youngsters about the way the world works, the series follows the fantasy adventures of a young girl, her brother and friends as they try to solve problems using the latest tech gadgets and creativity.

“In every episode, the lead character sees the world from her own dynamic point of view and we use the themes of STEAM [science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics] to teach the pre-school kids how to create and repair things in real life,” Glankler adds. “Then there are companion shows that can be transmitted online or on air, which give the kids a way to interact with the show and the world around them.”

UK-based Stephen Green, ITV Studios Global Entertainment’s (ITVS GE) execu-

tive vice-president of kids’ content and distribution, says the industry has been pleasantly surprised by the extent to which digital services have increased the sales, licensing and marketing options available to rightsowners. There are more opportunities for exploring how today’s kids want to be entertained. One avenue is computer coding and programming, which children are increasingly interested in doing both at home and at school.

Coding empowers its users to develop their own content and, with that in mind, ITVS GE is collaborating with digital-tech developers, such as London-based video-games firm Kuato Studios, to put interactivity at the core of some of its new titles. An example is multimedia and multiplatform Robozuna, which is specifically aimed at digitally nurtured kids. “We have a three-year launch plan for this adventure-based property that will see content spread across all platforms

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Next-Generation Creativity simultaneously, including traditional linear broadcast, VOD [Netflix], YouTube and apps and gaming,” Green says. “The content on each platform will complement the rest and create a seamless, 360-degree user experience for kids as they delve into the Robozuna world. We are ensuring that original content is available in some form wherever and however kids want to watch it.”

Such ubiquity will not be limited to digital spaces, argues Genius Brands’ Newman. In addition to its cross-platform presence, including YouTube and Instagram, one of the company’s key brands, SpacePOP, is available at theme parks and on airlines. Targeted at tween girls and launched exclusively on YouTube last year, SpacePOP is an animated musicand-fashion show following the adventures of a girl band and their mission to save lives in the galaxy. And the songs they perform are originals belonging to Xilam Animation’s Mr Magoo Genius Brands.

“Launching on YouTube meant SpacePOP and other Genius Brands conwe could build a purely digital platform tent will also be available on airlines, startfrom day one and take a full 360-degree ing with Southwest Airlines’ WiFi-equipped brand approach,” Newman adds. “We want flights in the US. As part of its international ubiquity for all our content, at all the touch expansion, Genius Brands has also joined points accessed by kids.” forces with Spain-based Luk Internacional to license its shows and merchandise in southern Europe.

“We want ubiquity for all Henrietta Hurford-Jones, BBC Worldwide’s our content, at all the touch director of children’s content, agrees that points accessed by kids” digital-content access must be universal Stone Newman for kids. However, the technology is crucial for running the business. As the UK public That is why SpacePOP is also available in broadcaster’s commercial arm, BBC Worldphysical environments. Following a deal wide continues to make long-form stories, with Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, with strong characters a priority. But it is one of the US’ major theme-park operators, digital technology that enables rights-ownvisitors to the parks can watch SpacePOP ers to learn which programmes are making content on video screens while waiting to go an impact, Hurford-Jones says. This played on rides and rollercoasters. Original Spacea role in deciding to re-commission Go POP music is played on the theme parks’ Jetters, the 11-minute 3D animation series radio stations. Children can go on stage and launched in 2015, she adds. participate in SpacePOP karaoke. And fans “A successful show needs to reach and encan use Genius Brands’ free mobile app, gage with audiences wherever they are, usVideoBomb, to create their own interactive ing each platform’s strengths as part of a music videos and share them with friends on coherent ecosystem,” Hurford-Jones adds. social media and YouTube.

“We like to develop some content specifi-

cally for digital platforms but, at the moment, this is part of how we market, promote and monetise a show.”

A challenge facing contentproviders internationally are the regulators that frown on kids’ entertainment relying too much on advertising. As a result, Wow!’s Hirsh argues, skills in windowing are more valuable than ever. “The number of rights are increasing and, when selling animation, you have to maximise value by selling all possible windows,” he says. “For that reason, in Canada, we built a key strategic partnership with Bell Media on their linear channel, on their OTT platform CraveTV, and on their mobile offering.”

Broadcasters need to understand alternative forms of monetisation, especially when they are competing against the new generation of advertising-free, subscription-funded streaming platforms, says John Rice, CEO of Ireland-based Jam Media, which has sealed major deals for its series Becca’s Bunch with Nickelodeon in the US. “If your service is not advertising-supported, there will be a need for skills in how to curate the content appropriately to make the kids come back for more and to make their parents feel happy about it,” he says.

This is why the multiplatform availability of kids’ shows or the desire to lock viewers into your brand should not be seen as encouraging binge viewing among the young. Xilam’s Favennec says the round-the-clock access to content has encouraged some producers to revisit serial storytelling, where the child only returns to watch a show in order to learn what happens next. “That’s great for the suspense and adventure stories that kids love,” she adds.

“I don’t think our roles as producers have changed,” says Novel Entertainment’s Watts.” I don’t think it changes the fact that we have to devise the best, most engaging programmes. We love the fact that our programmes can be found on a wide variety of platforms. But it doesn’t mean you’re driving kids into a binge mentality.”

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Pro-Social Content

Zafari, from Ink Group in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund and distributed by NBCUniversal

PRO-SOCIAL CONTENT

Learning to be nice Children’s programming is becoming increasingly proactive on social issues, as television squares up to the challenges of a fast-moving, multicultural world, not to mention the threat of fake news, cyber bullying and online grooming. Gary Smith reports

T

HE ISSUE of whether a children’s series should attempt or wish to place itself in a parental role is a heated one. So how do broadcasters and producers strike a balance between entertaining kids and helping to promote positive values? And how do you bring parents on board while doing so? One way, according to Independent Films’ managing director, Jani Guest, is to get kids to interview exemplary human beings.

“Last year, we launched an online kids’ channel called Kidspiration.tv,” she says. “It features young people interviewing some of the most inspiring people and minds in the world, from primatologist Jane Goodall and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Whales to famed education expert Sir Ken Robinson. Aimed at eight- to 12-year-olds, Kidspiration.tv is about introducing young viewers to concepts and roles through real people’s experiences, in order to engage, inform and inspire them outside of the standard celebrity/sportsman mould.”

But producing such insightful content is tough. “Our biggest challenge was finding kids who could keep focused for the whole interview. We interviewed 200 kids and 95% of

them couldn’t hold a conversation for more than five minutes,” Guest says.

Another challenge comes in the form of commerciality. “The truth is that projects like this don’t have much commercial weight and there’s no merchandising potential,” Guest adds. “But it was so worthwhile that we had to see it through.”

Kidspiration.tv has, however, been receiving highly positive reactions. “Getting traction on YouTube wasn’t easy, but our social media partner, Firmament, has done an amazing job, mainly through engaging parents and teachers,” Guest says. “So far, 42 people have been interviewed, with the child interviewer formulating their own set of 20 questions.

My personal favourites were Aardman cofounder Peter Lord and Sir Ken Robinson,

both of whom were exceedingly generous with their time, and Jane Goodall, who is utterly fearless. We’ve brought the project this far, and are now actively looking for broadcast partners.”

BAFTA-nominated Azoomee offers TV shows, games, audiobooks, an art studio and messaging in one safe app. The digital entertainment service was founded by husbandand-wife team Douglas and Estelle Lloyd to provide a safe place for primary school-aged children to watch, play and learn online.

“Teaching children a sense of social responsibility online is threaded throughout the app, as is demonstrated by Search It Up, a programme of short films, games and activities designed and created to show young users how to be independent, safe and responsible

“The truth is that projects like this don’t have much commercial weight and there’s no merchandising potential. But Kidspiration.tv was so worthwhile that we had to see it through” Jani Guest

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Pro-Social Content online,” says Douglas Lloyd. “Themes within the series include bullying online, protecting private information and transferring important offline values, such as kindness, patience and acceptance, online.”

Azoomee’s short-form content is aimed at certain contexts, Lloyd adds: “We see our offer as a reflection of the ways in which kids’ viewing habits have been changed by technology. Parents can be sure that their kids are being exposed to positive values. We’re also very proud of our chat service, which allows a child to chat with their family members but, if they want to chat with a friend, it has to be verified by both sets of parents. Ultimately, as a service provider, we want to ensure that the messages on Azoomee are smart, safe, kind and entertaining, so that we are about more than just screen time.”

Over at The Jim Henson Company, Halle Stanford, executive vice-president of children’s entertainment, says: “We are in the business of creating big friends for our audience and that we succeed in that is entirely down to the quality of our writers and puppeteers. If you add social-responsibility elements to a show, you have to be a bit sneaky, because kids just want to relax, but we want to challenge them. I think that’s one of the reasons why Harry Potter works so well, because it includes messaging about victimisation and prejudice. Kids want to learn, but they also want to be reassured, which is why shows like Bear In The Big Blue House, Splash And Bubbles and Dinosaur Train click with them.”

first brain-storming session for what became Fraggle Rock, Jim arrived and said, ‘Let’s create a show that’ll change the world…’,” Stanford says. “I absolutely believe that now more than ever we need that sort of attitude, as well as more social responsibility in kids’ shows. But it’s not just about bullying and how to cope with it — it’s also about showing kids the wonder in the world. I do think that, in the next year or so, we will start to see significantly more shows that feature social responsibility and also that bring parents into the process more.”

Xilam Animation’s Paprika

“It’s not just about bullying and how to cope with it — it’s also about showing kids the wonder in the world” Halle Stanford The Jim Henson Company has a long and illustrious track record in socially responsible children’s programming, which comes directly from the company founder. “At the

Douglas and Estelle Lloyd, founders of digital entertainment service Azoomee

Putting a positive shine on being in a wheelchair is the challenge that Xilam Animation’s Paprika tackles to great effect. The preschool series combines a poetic approach to life with a winning sense of fun and adventure — but it wasn’t easy, admits chairman and CEO Marc du Pontavice: “It always takes time to develop ideas, but it is undeniably harder to develop a show such as this, where one of the main characters is in a wheelchair. We worked on the concept and the look for over three years and, in that time, we changed the team several times. It was showrunner Jean Cayrol who found the winning formula. We are very proud that Paprika is funny and engaging and visually inventive, that we managed to create a genuinely good spirit between the characters and that it’s not a problem that Stan is wheelchair-bound.”

Paprika debuted on the Disney Channel in Europe and South America last May and will launch on France Televisions in November.

The Jim Henson Company’s Halle Stanford

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Pro-Social Content It is not, however, the first time that Xilam has been involved in a series featuring social responsibility. “In fact, most of what we produce includes some sort of social messaging,” du Pontavice says. “For example, Rolling With The Ronks!, which we produced for Disney, is about an alien who lands on Earth and decides to accelerate the evolution of the human race. And FloopaLoo, Where Are You? is set in a summer camp in a magical valley, where nature is much more than just background scenery — it’s a playground that kids should embrace and not be afraid of.”

According to Irina Nazarenko, joint managing director of Media I.M., Flying Animals is a show with strong messages of friendship, happiness, peace and love for both nature and other people. The series was developed by the St Petersburg-based animation studio DA, whose community activities include conducting animation-therapy sessions to teach children suffering from cancer how to create cartoons. The idea for Flying Animals was born out of this project. Last year, Media I.M. joined forces with UK-based charity Hope For Children, pledging to donate the distribution profits from Flying Animals to the charity’s Your Business, Their Lives initiative.

“Flying Animals is first and foremost entertainment, with humour at its heart,” Nazarenko adds. “However, most of the stories are about the world we live in, celebrating different cultures and resolving problems.

This fits well with the ‘helping is easy’ concept of the show and its not-for-profit nature. Any kids’ show can embrace social responsibility by contributing some of its profits to charity, but we feel it’s important for Flying Animals to also convey messages of kindness and love.

Animation studio DA did this with great skill by making the show fun and entertaining while staying true to its purpose.”

Media I.M. joint managing director Maria Ufland sees parents as crucial to any series with social ambitions: “If parents approve the content, kids will be allowed to see more of it.

With Flying Animals, most of the publicity is directed at parents, who can then explain to their children how the show helps. ‘Kids helping kids’ is a powerful concept and one that parents are eager to embrace. Conveying information about social responsibility, and how exactly the show helps, is important, especially at the point of purchase. When it comes to merchandising, for example, parents are more likely to spend their money on toys that contribute to improving the lives of less fortunate children.”

Sir Ken Robinson on Kidspiration.tv

“Kids helping kids’ is a powerful concept and one that parents are eager to embrace. Parents are more likely to spend money on toys that contribute to improving the lives of less fortunate children” Maria Ufland

Media I.M.’s Flying Animals

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Pro-Social Content EVERYONE’S INVITED… CBEEBIES is the kids’ entertainment arm of UK public broadcaster the BBC. CBeebies’ international channel is programmed

by Henrietta Hurford-Jones, director of children’s at BBC Worldwide. “It’s not an exaggeration to say that everything we broadcast on CBeebies features some sort of positive social messaging, aimed at developing kids’ sense of empathy,” she says. “The way we see it is that, ultimately, social responsibility is about anyone around you except yourself. It’s about treating people with respect.”

Nickelodeon’s Nella The Princess Knight For Cathy Galeota, senior vice-president of pre-school production at Nickelodeon Group, the number-one goal is to tell a meaningful story with characters that kids care about. “From there, we absolutely believe in the value of weaving social, emotional curriculums into our storylines,” she says. “We put kids first in everything we do, and want Nickelodeon’s characters to serve as role models that help empower kids to remember they are important, valued and have the power to do good in the world. Our newest pre-school show, Nella The Princess Knight, features a heroine who embraces both the princess and the strong knight inside of her.

She can be both glamorous and brave — she doesn’t need to choose one over the other.

Nella also promotes self-confidence, inclusiveness and compassion for others. Shimmer And Shine teaches learning from one’s mistakes, never giving up and being resilient to achieve goals. And Dora is a classic benevolent character who is constantly thinking of others and giving back to her community.”

Parents are very aware of the messages that are being relayed to their kids, Galeota says.

“All the research we’ve done shows that parents want their kids to watch programmes that have positive messages layered within — they want to ensure that the time their kids spend consuming content is valuable.” Beyond The Backpack, Nick Jr’s kindergarten-readiness initiative in the US, provides parents and care-givers with tips, activities and resources

to support a solid foundation for pre-school children entering kindergarten.

If you really want to make an impact socially, why not base a show around the very thing that creates so many problems in our modern world? “Zafari celebrates difference and is based around a story that breaks the rules,” says Ink Group managing partner Claus Tomming. “The way we see it is that kids’ TV is dictated to by a set of rules that were made up by itself, but we prefer to capture kids’ attention through the originality and uniqueness of what we create. The rules say that kids want short-form content, but we believe this is a selffulfilling prophecy, in that if you only give them short form, of course their attention spans will shrink. We, however, cannot tell our stories that way, so we stick with 11-minute episodes.”

Zafari, which entered into a collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in July, is set for commercial launch at MIPCOM. “Everyone who has seen Zafari has been charmed and impressed so, when we approached the WWF, we were quietly confident that it would be seen as a good fit with their objectives — and indeed it was,” Tomming adds. “NBCUniversal is handling the distribution and it has already been picked by France Televisions, Lagardere, CBC and Spacetoon for the Middle East. We expect to announce more sales during MIPCOM.”

Hurford-Jones points to the recent Everyone’s Welcome campaign as typical of the sort of outreach initiative that CBeebies regularly mounts: “It’s a series of interviews with best friends taken from around the country, where the two kids are asked what is different about them.

What we see is a Chinese kid and a Caucasian kid, or a kid in a wheelchair and an able-bodied child.

But what they see as differentiating them is which one likes lettuce or tomato sauce, or which one has squirrels in their toilet... It is, in effect, proof of how differently kids experience the world and their utter lack of prejudice.”

This and other positive social messages are central to BBC animated properties Sarah And Duck, Go Jetters and Hey Duggee.

“Kids are natural explorers,” Hurford-Jones adds. “We believe that, by talking about the world, you help them understand it and you grow their empathy for others.”

Few ambitions can be more honourable than wanting your viewers to grow up into stronger, smarter, kinder and better people. This

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Pro-Social Content sums up the philosophy that drives Sesame Workshop and its productions. “We just completed a study in which 75% of the parents who responded said they think the world is not a nice place for kids,” says Steve Youngwood, Sesame Workshop’s chief operating officer. “We all know that being a good person is hugely important and, at Sesame Workshop, we believe that, if you can harness the power of good, everyone wins. But equally, we know that first you have to entertain if you want to teach, and we constantly try to reflect what’s going on in the world in our curriculum. For example, season 47 of Sesame Street was

about kindness, and season 48 looks at mutual respect, inclusiveness and tolerance.”

The classic show has been tweaked in other ways as well. It now runs for 30 minutes instead of 60. “We’re seeing kids consuming media in different ways and we had to react to that,” Youngwood says. “So now

we provide what we call a personal service for each kid.”

Sesame Workshop is set to premier animated series Esme & Roy on HBO next spring.

For now, however, its main priority is “evolving Sesame Street and its most popular segment Elmo’s World for the next 50 years”, Youngwood adds.

“At Sesame Workshop, we believe that, if you can harness the power of good, everyone wins. But equally, we know that first you have to entertain if you want to teach” Steve Youngwood

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Sesame Street’s Esme & Roy will premier next year on HBO

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Kids IP

Photo: Xxxx credit

Technicolor’s The Deep, based on a Tom Taylor graphic novel

In search of good stories While toys and games — and more recently videogames and apps — provide an endless source of stories and characters for kids content, content creators the world over still look to the printed word for inspiration. Andy Fry reports

I

N AN era when most children are regular mobile-phone users by the time they are five, it’s remarkable that books continue to be such a rich source of ideas for kids programming.

Ask animation executives why books are so resilient and they cite a couple of key reasons.

The first, says Terry Kalagian, vice-president of creative for animation at Gaumont, is that “so much of the background work of world building, deep character creation and rich

storytelling already exists. A lot of that predevelopment work gives you a strong springboard when you start series development.”

The second reason, says Steven Wendland, vice-president of animation and creative head at Technicolor, is that it provides a level of reassurance to all of the key decision-makers in the investment chain. “A book is a tangible thing, which itself had to go through a development battle and approvals process to get published,” he says. “This is, in itself, a stamp of approval.”

“A book is a tangible thing, which itself had to go through a development battle and approvals process to get published.

This is, in itself, a stamp of approval” Steven Wendland

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Kids IP

Mattel’s Barbie Dreamtopia Andrew Cole-Bulgin, joint CEO and head of film and TV at Komixx Entertainment, echoes the above sentiments. “Adapting books for TV is a tried-and-tested formula that has worked for decades and helps to manage the risk, as audiences are likely to be pre-sold on IP that they recognise,” he says. “Books are also an appealing prospect for producers, as they provide a huge amount of content to work with, and gives them the creative license to pick and choose what they identify as the most important element of the story.”

Cole-Bulgin says his company is “built on a foundation of sourcing unique IP from children’s books to develop into exciting animation for young people”. This includes one of Komixx’s most successful animations to date, Wanda And The Alien, which is based on the best-selling books from Sue Hendra and is now broadcast by Nickelodeon across 76 countries. Currently in development is Dog Loves Books, an animated series based on books by Louise Yates; and Stanley The Can-Do Hamster, based on books by the author and illustrator William Bee.

Calm Island’s Badanamu Cadets

While most execs agree with the above reasoning, there is less unanimity when it comes to the process of selecting one book over another for adaptation. Stone Newman,

president of global consumer products, worldwide content sales and marketing at Genius Brands International, says: “We’re adapting Anna Dewdney’s Llama Llama books as a pre-school animation series. The books provide us with rich, deep storytelling, but it was also a key consideration for us that they have sold 10 million copies and all been on the New York Times Best Sellers list.”

Others take a slightly softer line on book sales.

Cake Entertainment’s CEO and creative director Tom Van Waveren says his company became involved in Bottersnikes & Gumbles — a co-production between Cheeky Little Media, Mighty Nice and Cake — partly because of the passion of the creative team: “The book was originally published in Australia in the 1970s and it was the dream of the producers to bring it to screen because it had been one of their favourites as children. That kind of creative drive and understanding is so important when setting out on the lengthy adaptation road.”

That decision paid off, Van Waveren says, with the 52 x 11 mins show picked up by Netflix, CBBC and 7TWO in Australia.

Bottersnikes & Gumbles has also been reinvented as a game by the BBC and is the subject of a new publishing programme. “We’ve also announced RP2 Global as master toy partner, with new product launching in the UK in spring/summer 2018,” Van Waveren adds.

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Kids IP Echoing Van Waveren, Acamar Films’ CEO Mikael Shields says: “Our Bing series is based on an insightful range of books by author Ted Dewan. They were published in hardback by David Fickling Books, and are now published in a wide range of formats by HarperCollins Children’s Books. But we optioned the rights to Bing prior to publication, because we had come to believe so strongly in our vision to adapt the work for television.

We looked at over 600 ideas and considered a vast range of criteria. A great deal of all future success depends on the quality of the initial decision to acquire particular rights.”

Technicolor’s Wendland says: “None of the books we have optioned can be considered as having ‘major recognition’ — major authors perhaps, but the books weren’t blockbusters at all, so that’s not our primary concern.”

Wendland, whose animation slate includes Chamelia, the story of a chameleon who can’t help standing out and is based on books by Ethan Long, adds: “We look at three main priorities. First and foremost, we have to like the concept, which must be strong and repeatable. Secondly, the characters have to be interesting — they can be developed further, but we have to know that, at its heart, the books have characters that are appealing and unique. And last, we look at the designs.

It’s important for us that the designs have potential and can be fully developed.”

As an example of this last point, he cites The Deep, an animation series based on the graphic novel series created by Tom Taylor and distributed by DHX Media (season two is due).

“The Deep follows the adventures of the Nekton family, a team of underwater explorers,” Wendland says. “The [book] designs were brilliant, though they leant towards the graphic-novel market. They were darker and a bit monochromatic — exactly what you’d want to read in a graphic novel, so the development for TV was a colourful process.”

Wendland’s insights about design transference can actually be extended to cover the entire adaptation process. Genius Brands International’s Newman, for example, talks about the creative challenge of “satisfying the millions of fans who bought the original Llama Llama book series, while at the same time winning over new audiences”.

Gaumont’s Kalagian adds: “Adaptations don’t usually stay exactly the same, as books may have too many characters and are written to be read at your own leisure. In TV, you

Bing, a series based on books by author Ted Dewan

Bottersnikes & Gumbles, a co-production between Cheeky Little Media, Mighty Nice and Cake

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Kids IP have to get to key story beats more quickly, so we may not use all of the characters or storylines. But at the same time, you have to stay with the core DNA of the property. If the book is a huge action adventure, but you try to make it into a comedy, it’s less likely to be successful. You need to keep the DNA.” This year, Gaumont optioned the global rights to The Star Shards Chronicles by Neal Shusterman. “It’s an epic story about six ordinary kids conceived at the same instant that a star explodes light years away, causing them to receive extraordinary powers and afflictions,” Kalagian says. “It’s a YA [young adult] novel that we are developing as a series for a younger nine-to-14 audience.”

“If the book is a huge action adventure, but you try to make it into a comedy, it’s less likely to be successful.

You need to keep the DNA” Terry Kalagian

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Another company enjoying success with book adaptations is UK producer Lupus Films. The firm is especially well known for its feature films and holiday specials, examples being Ethel & Ernest, based on a graphic novel by Raymond Briggs; Little Wolf’s Book Of Badness, based on Ian Whybrow’s bestselling books; and We’re Going On A Bear Hunt, based on Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury’s book, which was a top-rating show for Channel 4 UK last year.

Lupus joint managing director Camilla Deakin says the resilience of books is partly down to the fact that “there is a similar narrative quality about a well-loved book and a wellloved animation special”. She adds: “People come back to them again and again, and they appeal across generations. I also think people are excited by the idea that a loved book may have a new life as an animation special.”

Deakin says the rise of digital media has not fundamentally changed the way Lupus approaches its productions: “The screens people watch on may have changed, but I think they are still willing to watch a well-made

Any ideas how to make him smile again?

“I think people are excited by the idea that a loved book may have a new life as an animation special” Camilla Deakin long-form animation special. If there’s a difference, perhaps, it’s that we spend more time creating ancillary digital content to support shows.”

One interesting dimension to Lupus’ work is that it makes some shows based on non-pictorial books. Wilde Stories, for example, was a trilogy based on some of the best-loved tales of Oscar Wilde. And now the company is in development on an animated feature version of Michael Morpurgo’s acclaimed children’s novel Kensuke’s Kingdom. The book tells the story of a boy and his dog who are shipwrecked on a remote desert island, where they meet a mysterious old Japanese man who has been living on the island for decades.

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Kids IP There are challenges and rewards with such projects, Deakin adds: “With a picture book, you need to be careful about how you translate the existing design to screen. But with Kensuke’s Kingdom, we had a blank sheet of paper, so we were able to come up with an original, immersive, mixed-media look.”

One key consideration with the latter approach is how the author feels about the producer’s interpretation. “We ran everything past Michael [Morpurgo] and he loves it,” Deakin says. “He’s been very supportive of the direction and creative vision.”

The opinion of the author, or the author’s estate, is always a key consideration in bookto-animation adaptations. Colin Williams, creative director of producer Sixteen South, says his company has kept up a close dialogue with Alex T Smith on Claude, a popular book series about a beret-clad dog that is being adapted for Disney Junior EMEA. “The Claude books are, understandably, very close to Alex’s heart and he has been very instrumental in the development of the series,” Williams says. “His insights have been invaluable, as we have built the world around the books.”

Williams reckons the final 52 x 11 mins series will consist of a roughly 50:50 split between the content in the books and the content created to embellish Claude’s world. “I think the final series will age up compared to the books,” he adds. “We’ve really pushed the funny.”

Like his peers, Williams believes consumers are still in love with physical, tangible objects, which is why books remain relevant. But he acknowledges that there is also a growing role for other forms of media engagement. For example, Sixteen South is working on another book-based p r o p er t y c a l l e d Pinkalicious & Peterrific for WGBH. The television series will be pa r t of a multiplatform media experience that will include digital content from early 2018. preview maga-

Many of the above projects originate in the Anglo-American market, but APC Kids managing director Lionel Marty says the strength of books as inspiration for animation is also evident in mainland Europe: “In France, children’s book sales increased in 2016 compared to 2015. Overall in Europe, the [book] market remains dynamic and sales have been on the rise since 2015. New media has not led to a decrease in book consumption. So it is natural that books remain the foundation of animated series.”

An example on APC Kids’ slate is Fox & Hare (26 x 11 mins), produced by Submarine/ Walking the Dog/Doghouse. “This is based on 15 books by Sylvia Vanden Heede, richly illustrated by The Tjong-Khing and published by Lannoo,” Marty says. “The books have sold in 10 countries and the broadcasters on board are Ketnet, KRO, YLE, SVT, NRK, RUV, TVP, ERR and TVO.” Memories Of Nanette is another series from APC Kids, this time sourced from the comic book of the same name.

While books continue to play a pivotal role in animation development, the last decade has also seen a growing number of series based on toys and games (Hasbro’s My Little Pony; Mattel’s Barbie), films (Disney’s Tangled), classic TV series (Lupus’ The Pinky & Perky Show) and digital properties (Sony Pictures’ The Emoji Movie). In most cases, a similar rationale applies as with books — namely that existing IP provides in-built awareness. However, a key difference is that some of these other forms of source material do not come with such well-developed worlds.

A P C ’s M a r t y s a y s : “Animated

The Sisters (Jetpack Distribution)

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series derived from sources other than book IP generally require more development, as the stories and characters are usually less developed in their original forms. In addition, adapting games and toys into animation has other challenges. For instance, toys are often addressed to a specific gender, male or female, while a TV audience has to be more gender neutral. And games are usually addressed to an older demographic than TV series, which could be problematic when building a brand.”

“Animated series derived from sources other than book IP generally require more development, as the stories and characters are usually less developed in their original forms” Lionel Marty Gaumont’s Kalagian also believes it can be hard to adapt toys or games to linear storytelling because “you have to keep to the core value the property has for its fans. Super Mario Bros is a good example, in that the games were huge, but the TV adaption wasn’t.

Raving Rabbids from Ubisoft, on the other hand, translated well — it’s slapstick comedy at its best, with the rabbits getting dropped and squished, [replicating] the core themes of what happens in the game. The most well known example might be Pokemon, which started as a video game. Both that and the TV series were phenomenal successes.”

Cake represents the TV animation spin-offs of Rovio’s mobile game Angry Birds. Van Waveren says: “Angry Birds developed from a mobile game to animation shorts to long-form series. The fact that it was able to do so is because the creators had a clear idea of their characters from the start.”

Safer, in theory, is the idea of an animation series reboot, because it comes with stories, characters, scripts and designs. Here, however, there are different challenges, says Van Waveren, whose company is in the process of revamping the iconic

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Kids IP Japanese character Astro Boy: “You need to find the heart of such shows, but keep in mind that the audience has moved on. What was outrageous back then might be normal now. The key is to make your reboot relatable to today’s audience.”

Like Van Waveren, Jetpack Distribution CEO Dominic Gardiner has a multipronged approach to sourcing animation IP. On the subject of books, he is working with properties including The Wolf, The Sisters and Marsupilami.

“Kids still love reading and books are a fundamental part of their learning and development,” he says. “They are cheaper to produce than animated TV series and there are more in production each year. The best of these are proof of successful and engaging concepts.”

As for games, Gardiner says it is important to explore what they have to offer because “that’s where kids spend at least 30% of their leisure time”. He adds: “We need to be where our audiences are and develop brands across all platforms and windows. But game development, particularly high-end platform games, can take even longer than a TV show, so getting them in sync is sometimes challenging. Also, game development is highly

confidential, so it can be difficult to invite coproducers and third-party collaborators, as is common in TV animation.”

In the run up to MIPCOM, Jetpack is also working on two reboots: The Racoons: The New Adventures and Dennis & Gnasher Unleashed. The latter, produced by Beano Studios and Jellyfish in London, is a revamp of the UK’s much-loved comic character Dennis the Menace, which was last produced in 2012.

One interesting property launching at MIPJunior is Badanamu Cadets (52 x 11 mins), a CGI-animated educational preschool series from Calm Island. In a sense, this is an example of new and old media combining to create a multiplier effect, because Badanamu started as books before transferring to digital and then to TV. Calm Island CEO David Roberts says: “We have produced over 200 videos to date for Badanamu, which have received 2.5 billion views. And the Badanamu YouTube channel boasts more than 550,000 subscribers.”

The Badanamu cadets are a team of six dynamic, creative and intrepid heroes-in-training who must work together to protect the balance

of nature in the magical land of Badanamu from the scheming plots of the troublemaking Grumbles. Explaining the transition from digital to TV, Roberts says: “While Badanamu is very popular on YouTube, IQiyi, Tencent and other VOD partners, with short-form, the content is very simplistic, which makes it skew quite young. [For the TV series], it was vital that we created meaningful storylines for our characters to deliver an engaging experience for our audience.”

Calm Island spent two years developing Badanamu. During that time, various concepts were presented to broadcasters. “But although they liked the characters, the concepts still skewed too young,” Roberts says.

“It was only when we added protagonists that we aged-up the series and pre-sold it to Lagadere and Cartoon Network in Italy.”

Although a strong advocate of book-based properties, Komixx’s Cole-Bulgin also stresses the growing importance of digital as a source of TV ideas: “We spend a vast amount of time monitoring new IP resources, such as the self-publishing website Wattpad, which can be fertile ground for emerging writing talent, often with an established fan-base of engaged readers. Another benefit is, of course, that less recognisable IP from non-traditional sources is generally less expensive and has the potential to offer incredible financial returns — but naturally comes with greater risk than an established household name.”

In conclusion, many factors go into a successful adaptation. Acamar’s Shields sums it up like this: “You need a meaningful and relatable creative vision. Healthy respect for the original material and the needs of your audience in the new medium. An inspiring team and a strong open culture. Structured and creative thinking. Excellent partners of first choice. Working capital. Hard work.

Leadership. Grit. Luck.”

“You need a meaningful and relatable creative vision. An inspiring team.

Excellent partners.

Working capital. Hard work. Leadership. Grit.

Luck.”

APC’s Memories Of Nanette, sourced from a comic book

Mikael Shields

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Your MIPJunior Experience 14-15 OCTOBER 2017 JW MARRIOTT HOTEL, 50 boulevard de la Croisette, Cannes

Opening Times 14 October: 8.30-19.00 15 October: 8.30-19.00

Registration Hours 13 October: 16.00-19.30 14 October: 8.00-19.00 15 October: 8.30-19.00

We look forward to welcoming you in Cannes, but first here are some tips to prepare your Journey to MIPJunior

Prepare for MIPJunior in advance Visit MIPJunior website to organise your travel • Book your transportation & accommodation with our partners to get the best deals

Prepare your agenda and meetings ahead of time • Check out the programme of conferences and networking events • Log in to the Online Database and – Fill out your profile and personalise your agenda – Browse participants and attending companies – Send one-to-one messages to other delegates and organise business meetings – As a buyer, create your playlist ahead of the show for the Screenings Library

Your badge: your key to getting into MIPJunior • You received your badge by post Don’t forget to bring it with you • You have your e-ticket Log in to the Online Database to collect your badge at a self-service delivery point • You have your registration confirmation email Pick up your badge in the registration area, located at the lower level of the JW Marriott Your badge must be carried all times, and ready to be shown at entry points around the area. Your badge is strictly personal and non-transferable.

How to access the Screenings Library?

Screenings Library Access the unique Screenings Library of international kids programming.

The at-show Screenings Library will be available online after MIPJunior for catch up screenings.

Buyers & Sellers Log in to the Screenings Library with the login & password indicated on your badge.

As a buyer, you can review a list of the content you have screened during the event and as a seller you can receive the list of buyers who screened your content during the event. These lists are available at dedicated stations at the Registration Area.

They will be sent to your mail box (if you have filled it in in the contract) at the end of each day.

Important: At MIPCOM, these lists will be available by request at the Palais des Festivals (Help Desk – Palais 0). Buyers will carry on screening post MIPJunior and the online reports post show will be available on www.screenings.my-mip.com/.

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Your MIPJunior Experience Onsite meet decision makers and get an overview of the market trends Breakfast & Screen

Screen, Network, Pitch

featuring Pingu a New Anime Series

New Visitors Workshop

From

Saturday 14 October 8.30-9.00 Conference room 2, Renoir

Sunday 15 October 08.30-09.30 Conference room 2, Renoir

Snack & Screen

”Fresh Russian Animation Screening” Presented by Sunday 15 October 12.00-14.00 Conference room 1, Grand Theatre

MIPJunior Networking Lunch In Partnership with

MIPJunior World Premiere TV Screening: New Creative Territories to watch!

“Heroes of Envell“

2 DAYS OF SCREENINGS, CONFERENCES & NETWORKING EVENTS

Saturday 14 October 12.30-14.15 Majestic Hotel

MIPJunior World Premiere TV Screening

Presented by

Sunday 15 October 17.40-18.30 Doors open at 17.30 Conference room 1, Grand Theatre

“Thomas & FriendsTM: Big World! Big Adventures!”

Presented by

Saturday 14 October 18.00 -18.50 Conference room 1, Grand Theatre

and

MIPJunior Opening Party

MIPJunior Closing Party

Saturday 14 October From 19.00 Majestic Hotel Open to all MIPJunior Participants

In Partnership with By invitation Sunday 15 October 18.30-19.30 Carlton Hotel

In Partnership with

What can you find at MIPJunior?

Networking Lounge

Registration Area

Conference Rooms

Screenings Rooms

• Open to all participants • Meeting area, free coffee

Sponsored by

• Conference room 1, Grand Theatre • Conference room 2, Renoir • Matchmaking Lounge

• Open to buyers only

• Email Points • Screening Lists stations

See the programme p.38 and plan your journey

See you in Cannes!

For further information: www.mipjunior.com • Help desk: +33 (0)1 79 71 99 99

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