Moonzy: 10 Billion View and Counting

10 BILLION VIEWS ON YOUTUBE!

Fifteen years ago, young author Sarra Anson knocked at the door of Melnitsa Animation Studio in St.Petersburg and suggested a story about a small alien who came to the Earth to make new friends. Together with producers Sergey Selyanov and Alexander Boyarksy, Sarra Anson and Darina Schmidt created the lovely pink fluffy character and named it Moonzy. Moonzy is a wonderful fuzzy creature from the Moon with four ears, four pupils and a mark on his tummy. He is very nice, sympathetic and slightly naive. Moonzy is incapable of cheating, bragging or being greedy. In spite of his unusual looks and behaviour, he makes a lot of friends among inhabitants of forest meadow because of his kind nature. Since 2006 Melnitsa Animation Studio has produced 521 episodes of the TV preschool show about Moonzy and his friends: mischievous caterpillar brothers Woopsie and Poopsie, smart grasshopper Skip, cute lady-bug Dottie, thoughtful bee Webee, ideal grandparents Annie Granny and General Stinger and talented and gentle darkfaced Mr. Webber. The episodes unfold in a very safe environment with nice insects, plants, berries, and flowers. The show helps kids of preschool age to understand the basic concepts of social relations in a very friendly and mild way. It teaches empathy and equity as Moonzy is absolutely different in appearance from all the local insects but everyone loves him. A lot of episodes are dedicated to teamwork and community spirit. The series hit the top TV ratings on kids TV channels not only in its home country in Russia but also in China, Poland and MENA. “We started the proactive internatIonalization of Moonzy recently with premieres in Poland on Puls Kids, in China on CCTV, the main state channel and in MENA on Spacetoon,” commented Sveta Barabanshchikova, Director for Business Development of Melnitsa Animation Studio. “Last year Kenn Viselman, multi-award-winning producer in the children’s entertainment world started to adapt Moonzy for the Americas under his itsy bitsy Entertainment banner. We are growing the international scope of Moonzy

and are open to new partnerships.” “Moonzy is simply filled with Love and Laughter and that is something the entire world is clamoring for right now,” commented Kenn Viselman. In 2021 Moonzy is celebrating its 15- year jubilee achieving 10 billion views on YouTube. Fifty percent of that viewership comes from outside of Russia. Recently Melnitsa has launched the new season of Moonzy in CGI format. The new episodes are based on scripts by US scriptwriter Paul Pimenta. New season welcomes a new character from the Moon - an adventurous, lively girl called Moona. In March 2021 Spielwarenmesse published the ratings by Richard Gottlieb, CEO of Global Toy about the most popular kids licensing brands from different countries and named Moonzy the most popular brand from Russia. In the domestic market Moonzy is present in almost all merchandising categories: toys, publishing, FMCG digital and live events. The current toy line comprises toys in the target audience 0-5 years old. Plush with sound and without sound, collectable toys, figurines, plastic play sets, building blocks, educational toys, art & crafts goods, wooden toys, puzzles, bath toys are featured under Moonzy’s brand name. Moonzy’s magazines are also very popular in Russia with more than 6 million sold to date All publishing materials are available for adaptation, and Egmont has around 600 different titles. Books are filled with tasks for preschoolers: counting exercises, how to describe and compare the pictures, guessing riddles and learning more about our planet. All exercises are age-specific and form a positive learning experience, giving the child the opportunity to express themselves. Moonzy is one of the most popular brands for pre-school audiences in Russia and it has won the trust of international partners such as Proctor and Gamble, Ferrero, Reckitt Benckiser, Chupa Chups. Recently Melnitsa signed a new licensing deal with Unilever, the leader in the FMCG sector, to drive popular preschool property Moonzy in Russia. The product range with characters from the new season will include kids’ hygiene products such as shampoo, toothpaste and bathing foam.

For more information about Moonzy, contact: svegab@ctb.ru