Mondo’s MeteoHeroes

MeteoHeroes: Action, Entertainment and Awareness

Since its highly successful launch in Italy in 2020, the animated children’s show MeteoHeroes has made inroads into broadcast markets around the world and inspired a licensing campaign.

Its theme of protecting the planet, meanwhile, has made it an important contributor to initiatives aimed at raising awareness of environmental issues.

Award-winning hit TV show. Popular podcast. Educational inspiration. Video game. Licensed property. The popular environmentally themed animated kids’ show MeteoHeroes, coproduced by Mondo TV and the leading Italian weather forecasting centre Meteo Operations Italia (MOPI), has a lot to celebrate.

MeteoHeroes, which recently won a US Kids First! Film Festival Award for Best Environmental Short, focuses on issues related to ecology and respect for nature through the adventures of six superpowered kids, each from a different continent, who can control weather phenomena.

The series premiered in Italy on Earth Day in April 2020 and remains among the most successful Cartoonito programmes in the country. It has already inspired TV movies and podcasts. Much more broadcasting output and licensed product is planned.

The show is now expanding its international reach. The first series is available in over 140 countries and 20 languages and series two has already been confirmed by Canal Plus + Kids. Starting in April, the second season of MeteoHeroes (52 episodes x 13 ‘) will have its world premiere on Cartoonito Italy.

And North America is next. This follows the recently announced partnership with entertainment expert Kenn Viselman for the exclusive North American distribution and marketing of MeteoHeroes. On April 22, 2022 the MeteoHeroes make their broadcast debut on PBS with an Earth Day Special. A companion series, executive produced by Kenn Viselman, will premiere in late summer 2022.

Support for the TV show will also include the recently launched video game – MeteoHeroes – Saving Planet Earth – for Sony PlayStation, which will be managed by Kenn Viselman’s itsy bitsy Entertainment Company (TibECo) in partnership with the show’s co-producers Mondo TV S.p.A and leading weather forecasting centre Meteo Operations Italia (MOPI)

The development of this video game builds on the qualities that have made MeteoHeroes so original and appealing: an animated kids’ show that is exciting, colourful, and fun but that also teaches viewers about the need to protect our planet.

In fact, MeteoHeroes is the only cartoon in the world dedicated entirely to climate and environmental issues and this important theme is guiding a parallel approach, one that brings together entertainment with education.

Last year, for example, Mondo, MOPI and Italian environmentalist association Legambiente partnered to launch a special MeteoHeroes sticker album to raise awareness about the plight of the world’s bees. The album invited kids to join the six superheroes on a Save the Queen mission by building their very own MeteoHeroes sticker album. But this wasn’t just about illustrations. Each packet of stickers purchased brought funding for a home for one bee, bringing donations of muchneeded beehives to Italian beekeepers.

After the success of the first edition, the second album MeteoHeroes – Together We Are Stronger - published by IdeaLab and again based on a collaboration between Legambiente MOPI and Mondo TV, has arrived.

The collection, consisting of a 32-page album and 160 adhesive stickers (including some special holographic, multicoloured and shiny stickers), again aims to save bees from the risk of extinction. But that’s not all. The second edition of the album supports the recently launched MeteoHeroes Academy.

MeteoHeroes Academy is a fun and educational training programme aimed at promoting sustainable citizenship. It’s a place where children train to protect the environment; like the superhero stars of the show they can become the MeteoHeroes of tomorrow.

To become part of the exclusive Academy you need to show that you have the makings of real MeteoHero; there’s an ‘entrance test’ in the album, which asks young fans to complete six tasks that can benefit their world.

The Academy was launched on the popular MeteoHeroes podcast channel, where it became a six-part podcast in its own right, available from January this year on all major podcasting platforms.

The voices of the six MeteoHeroes guide listeners on six tasks they can carry out in order to join the MeteoHeroes Academy. Each episode stars two of the show’s characters talking about a task, after which a friendly scientist adds a brief explanation of how the kids are helping the environment.

This is not just a fun way to engage the show’s fans; it’s also being positioned as a handy tool for teachers. There’s even an academy mini site supporting teachers in Italian nursery and primary schools with teaching materials and information cards.

Luigi Latini is one of the show’s creators – and CEO of MOPI. As he puts it “Combining fun and fact through the adventures of the MeteoHeroes and the scientific input of MOPI meteorologists, the MeteoHeroes information cards will cover as many as 30 topics relating to the climate, the environment and nature. It’s a great way to support the curiosity of the young, give them a grounding in understanding environmental issues and educate our future citizens so that they can help the planet they will inherit.”

And that’s not all. This March, MeteoHeroes got together with the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano, the organization involved with the maintenance, preservation, and restoration of the Cathedral of Milan.

The partners developed free initiatives for schools that gave them an insight into the effects of pollution and climate change on the famous cathedral. Teachers and students are able to visit construction sites managed by the Veneranda Fabbrica to see how and why the Cathedral of Milan receives continuous care and restoration. The visits will help kids understand the impact that human activities have on the environment and offer advice on how to intervene.

There are more such initiatives planned. Already, however, the show’s role in raising environmental awareness has encouraged ANPE (the National Association of Italian Teachers) to support the MeteoHeroes project.

But of course, the success of this show is also down to action, adventure, fun, excellent graphics and writing, and six highly relatable young heroes. That’s why late spring will see the arrival of series two. The launch, scheduled for April, will be accompanied by a return of the first season, starting March 7, alongside 25 new ‘minisodes’.

Mondo is also developing a licensing campaign that builds on the growing success of the franchise. Among the first product launches planned for 2022 are a new book from Giunti, and MeteoHeroes ice cream from Sammontana.

But the big news for 2022 is the video game coproduced by Sony Interactive Entertainment Spain, Gammera Nest and Mondo TV Studios, now available for Playstation and PC. MeteoHeroes – Saving Planet Earth invites children of all ages to join the much-loved characters from the popular TV series in a fun action platform game. There will be enemies to escape from, fast-moving adventures and multiple locations on all the world’s continents, where players will have to find hidden items on the screen that will help them rid each city of pollution.

The game will be available in six languages: Italian, Spanish, English, French, German and Portuguese. It is expected to launch at retail stores in Italy in autumn 2022. Further launch dates and regions will be confirmed later this year. It was in Italy where the show first launched two years ago. It is today one of Cartoonito’s – and Mondo’s – biggest hits. But interest in the themes MeteoHeroes addresses is growing worldwide – and so is the reach of the show. Not just North America, but Latin America, the Caribbean and a number of other territories will join broadcasters in territories as varied as France, Singapore, Switzerland, Turkey, Poland and more during 2022.

More licensing output will follow. But, as a proven hit with a well-received educational message MeteoHeroes has even more to offer, as its Kids First! Award indicates. Luigi Latini says: “Being awarded by such a prestigious American film festival with a strong focus on the education of children is a demonstration of how current and in step with the times the MeteoHeroes are. The Kids First! jury perfectly understands our aim – to educate children while they have fun.”

This may be only the start. The Italian MeteoHeroes partnerships alongside well-known educational groups could inspire similar ideas in other regions and – who knows? – perhaps produce the next generation of heroes ready to save the planet.