Cartoon Forum celebrates it’s 20th anniversary this year and our president, Jean Thoren, is there checking out all the great European animated productions making their debut. Since1988, Cartoon,with the sponsorship of MEDIA, has organized 18 editions of the Forum, which have generated investments in European animation totaling more than a billion euros. Thoren says this year’s event, currently taking place in the German city of Ludwigsburg, kicked off with a slate of diverse projects from veterans and newcomers alike.
Thoren says one of the standouts at the market is Xilam’s Mr Baby, which we recently wrote about here: www.animationmagazine.net/article/8859. This series of 50 four-minute episodes will be coming soon on France 3. It’s a Family sitcom about a 15-month-old baby who speaks with the sharpened mind of a 50-year-old misanthrope. Perched atop his highchair, he is the only one in the family with enough perspective to sort out the little dramas of everyone’s daily life.
Also drawing attention is the web series Plankton Invasion (www.planktoninvasion.com), a Belgium and French co-pro from Jan Goossen of Tinkertree, Teamto and Nexus factory’s Serge de Poucques. The team is developing a television series based on the online toon that offers a comedic look at the serious issue of global warming by presenting it from the point of view of plankton who want to sabotage human efforts to correct the problem in order to take over the world. Once the melting ice raises the sea level and covers the land, the world wil be one big ocean that they will rule.
Thoren adds that the Millimages project Mouk’s World Tour received a warm reception from the capacity crowd assembled at the event. Adapted from the best selling Le Tour du Monde de Mouk books, the show looks to be another hit by a studio that has ultimately produced 11 series out of the 14 they have pitched over the years at the forum. More info on the company and its properties can be found at www.millimages.com
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