Pixelatl is an association dedicated to promote the creation of Mexican multimedia narrative and content. Its objective is to enhance Mexican productions and to expand their audience within Mexico and abroad. One of Pixelatl’s core projects is Ideatoon, a contest, bootcamp, and summit that seeks out ideas for animated series and movies. The goal is to encourage the creation and development of properties that can potentially become international hits. Ideatoon is opened to all Latin American studios, production companies, animators, artists, directors, scriptwriters, and producers that are willing to participate. The winners receive mentoring from industry experts and financing to produce a pilot, which can help the studio find co-productions in the international markets. In 2017, three hundred ideas for series or movies were sent to participate. A panel selected the best 31 projects based on their potential for international commercial success. They went on to the next step in the competition, which was a bootcamp with a panel of advisors and mentors who reviewed each project in detail, gave feedback to the creators, and selected the best twelve for the next phase.
The panel of advisors that participated in reviewing and selecting the best properties:
Additionally, the bootcamp program also included: •
Joan Lofts Excecutive producer, IP’s Peppa Pig, Humf among others
• Alison Warner VP of Co-productions and acquisitions in Technicolor
• Hernán La Greca Senior Director of Creative Services in Cartoon Network LA Heather Kenyon Senior VP of Development & Productions in Citizen Skull Phill Moloy Director of Creative Development in Mattel Rita Street Development Consultant and Excecutive Producer Animated Series / Radar Cartoon.
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An eight-hour Storytelling Seminar taught by Ben Frahm, scriptwriter teacher at Syracuse University and at Ithaca College, and scriptdoctor in Dreamworks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon A creative workshop given by Joan Lofts, executive producer of Pepa Pig among other properties and Alison Warner, Vice President of co-productions and acquisitions in Technicolor. A Q&A session about international intellectual property laws, with Jim Charme, a specialist lawyer. Five master classes about Character psychology, The pipeline of a TVseries, The International Market, The design of characters, and the Merchandising of the IP, given by international personalities like: Spencer Rothbell (Head of Story, Clarence), Stephan DeStefano: (Character designer & storyboard artist), and Laurie Hutzler (Consultant on narratives and development of characters with credits in BBC, Chanel4, Aardman, Pixar University, Disney and Dreamworks among others).
So here are the twelve selected projects of Ideatoon 2017, in the hope that you may want to co-produce, partner, or just take a look at what is being developed in Latin America.
CREATED BY: ANDRÉ FORNI TV SERIES / 2D CUTOUT COMEDY, ACTION PRESCHOOL 26X11 MIN
The Munkins are fascinating creatures that live in a magic world that was once divided by islands. One day a magic whirlpool changes their lives forever.
Somewhere only reachable by imagination, there is a magic and colorful world full of amazing creatures called Munkins. They are peculiar beings of different species, shapes, sizes and colors, deeply connected to the nature. Living separately on different islands, they were brought together after a magical whirlpool happened and shifted all the islands, creating a unique and singular big land mass. The Munkins find themselves in a brand new world and their lives would change forever.
CREATED BY: GABRIEL VILLAVICENCIO TV SERIES / 3D ANIMATION EDUCATION TARGET: PRESCHOOL 52X7 MIN
With colours and magic, five monsters will bring joy to a paper world.
Color Monsters is an animated series that brings quality content with values to little ones in a funny, simple and friendly way. With their magic, our friends must bring color the planet Papyrus which is made of paper, but this won’t be easy, they will face challenges as a team, strengthening the bonds of friendship between them.
CREATED BY: LUISPA SALMÓN TV SERIES / 2D CUTOUT TRADITIONAL ANIMATION COMEDY, ACTION TARGET: 4 - 6 YEARS OLD 52X11 MIN
All kinds of animals compete against each other to prove their strenght and intelligence wearing custom-made robot suits.
The story follows a young and adorable cat named Kit and his two best friends: Pek, a chubby greyhound, and Zu, a female fox. Together they hope to enter the most competitive martial arts tournament on earth, no other animal team is more disadvantage than this one, especially since a Persian cat like Kit has never been classified to be part of the tournament in the past.
Getting along is not always easy, Kit is very messy, Zu is crazy competitive, and Pek is a neat freak. Although they often get on each other’s nerves, they all enjoy each other’s company and have lots of fun together. We’ll witness how Kit and his friends learn about life, and compete in the most challenging sport ever, while learning about the virtues of patience, dedication and friendship.
CREATED BY: CINEMA FANTASMA TV SERIES / STOP MOTION COMEDY TARGET: 6 -9 YEARS OLD 24X7 MIN
A seven minute Stop Motion comedy series about the everyday adventures of various cats living inside an endearing old lady’s home.
What would happen if you get the boldest bunch of inquisitive cats inside the most lovable, organized old lady’s home? Disaster of course! Each of our furry characters will get involved in fantastic adventures by playing and teasing with the computer and furniture inside this lady’s home.
Driven by curiosity, they will push the limits of every single object in the house. They will break, wet, burn, and explode everything they touch. They will time travel, go to the moon and to the ocean’s depths, but in the end our clever little friends will find a way to get everything back to normal.
CREATED BY: B. ÁLVAREZ M., LAURA VILLA & FERNANDO CAMPOS. TV SERIES / VIDEO ON DEMAND 3D WITH TOON SHADE SCI-FI, COMEDY ADVENTURE TARGET: 6 -8 YEARS OLD 26 X11 MIN
Nina receives a mysterious lunchbox at her 8th B-Day unleashing the secrets of an abandoned sidereal research complex.
When Nina, a brilliant but chaotic inventor turns eight, a little shy robot knocks the door bringing a mysterious present for her. Eager to find out its’ origin, she and her over confident brother Agro, get into an abandoned alien research complex, causing some puzzling incidents into Crater Town.
CREATED BY: DIEGO & SEBASTIÁN RAMÍREZ TV SERIES / 2D DIGITAL COMEDY TARGET: 6 -8 YEARS OLD 52X11 MIN
Clara and Maggie somehow managed to get the busiest place in the world even messier!
The “Endless Market” is the biggest commercial spot in the world. There you can find anything you could possibly look for, even things you didn’t know you needed to have. And that is a pretty usual thing being the Endless Market, completely magical and gigantic. well, it really doesn’t have a size since it’s like the cosmos - constantly expanding.
Everyday, thousands of visitors walk, roll, float or even dive into its hallways. Trolls, dwarves, mermaids, fairies and even monkeys with purses. We don´t judge, they all come looking for something, but in a place like this, there are always going to be problems. And those problems will get even nastier when we meet Clara, the bravest girl, craving adventure, and Maggie, the emotional magical girl…. with a special talent for blowing things up.
CREATED BY: FEDERICO GUTIÉRREZ TV SERIES / 2D DIGITAL COMEDY, ADVENTURE TARGET: 9 - 11 YEARS OLD 13 X11 MIN
Bululú is a magical place where extinct animal species and cultures live in harmony.
An western scientist ends up in BululĂş by mistake. The series tells his story in this fantasy land as he reconnects with his love for life through the individuals and animals that live there.
CREATED BY: MARCO MOLINA & KARINA CISNEROS TV SERIES / 2D DIGITAL COMEDY, ADVENTURE TARGET: 9 - 11YEARS OLD 20 X11 MIN
Elie is a cheerful unicorn who enrolled at the witchcraft academy to learn more about her abilities. Now she must face, along with her new friends Hally and Sophie, the crazy challenges of school.
Elie is a determined, sometimes to the point of stubbornness, cheerful unicorn, living in a horse community. Without anyone like her around, she decides to go to the Witchcraft Academy to learn how to control her powers. As part of their training, they must solve simple missions helping the communities nearby, applying what they’ve learned at school.
She is teamed for these assignments with Hally, a crafty, good-hearted girl who is capable of giving temporary abilities through stickers; and Sophie, a smart girl who uses nature to make herself stronger. Together, they will have to combine their talents to solve the missions presented and their everyday problems. This will lead the team into exciting adventures.
CREATED BY: ALE TUCKAR, ANA GABY PÉREZ, HILCE LARSEN & HEIS GONZÁLEZ TV SERIES / 2D DIGITAL ANIMATION COMEDY, ADVENTURE TARGET: 6 -9 YEARS OLD 26 X11 MIN
Meet Alec Miles, a 13-year old aspiring detective who wants to become the world’s greatest investigator. The only challenge is... all of his clients are ghosts!
Ever since he was a small child, Alec Miles has been able to see and communicate with ghosts. To him, they’re a regular part of his life even though none of his friends or family can see them. Now, 13 years old he realices that ghosts need as much help as the living people do. Alec sets up “The Sundown Agency for Ghostly Cases” with his loyal ghostdog, Apollo, by his side. However, in order to maintain his agency, he needs to solve all kinds of challenging and crazy cases while facing the everyday situations of a teenage boy.
CREATED BY: SOCIEDAD FANTASMA TV SERIES / 2D DIGITAL FANTASY, SCI-FI COMEDY TARGET: 8 - 12 YEARS OLD 52 X11 MIN
After making a transdimentional jump to a land where broken appliances go to turn into powerful objects, Sonny must absorb and master their powers in order to restore peace to Betaworld.
Glitch Sandwich tells the epic tale of Sonny Lemonhead, a normal dude from our regular world, who suffered a transidimentional accident while selling ice cream sandwiches and traveled to Betaworld. Now he has to prove his heroism and find the lost Glitches to restore peace to this alternate reality, aided by his two loyal weirdo friends: Luna the Glitch Huntress and A-B the rebel Gamebot.
CREATED BY: SANT ARELLANO FEATURE FILM 90 MIN 2D DIGITAL FAMILY, HORROR, COMEDY TARGET: 6 -9 YEARS OLD
A foster home run by a young couple is being haunted by mischievous entities, and the only one that can see them is their reluctant house cat.
The story is told from the point of view of a nameless cat who resides in a foster home run by a young couple. Wrangling four kids, the couple has almost no time for the cat, which he resents. One day, a ten-year-old girl named Dalia arrives at the house determined to lead a stay free of trouble. Only visible for him and invisible to everybody else, the cat sees a little imp-like creature riding on top
of Dalia’s head. Sneaking around, the imp finds an old relic hidden away in a forgotten room, which allows him to open up a portal to let other imps into the human world. The imps then set a plan in motion to take over the house and its’ inhabitants and the only one that can do something about it is the cat. The cat, in turn, must decide what a home means to him before he can fight the invaders off.
CREATED BY: EDINO FERREYRA & KAREN ACOSTA FEATURE FILM 70 MIN 3D DIGITAL COMEDY TARGET: 5 - 8 YEARS OLD
A kid turns his parents and the entire city into babies.
A naughty crazy-haired boy does the mischief of his life by turning every single adult in the city into babies. Alongside his little sister, this kiddo watches their parents go through youth all over again until they become babies. As the city is overrun by baby tears and innocent accidents, and after several tantrums and snots, each family member empathizes with each other in the end. Then, and only then, they turn everything back to normal, between technical babbling and a few‌ dirty wipes.
With the participation of excecutives from