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Like many other top animation producers around the world, French animation powerhouse Cyber Group Studios is bringing a colorful slate of new projects in various stages of development to MIPCOM. The studio, founded in 2004 by a group of former Disney executives (Pierre Sissmann, Dominique Bourse, Billy “Frederic” Richard, Olivier Lelardoux and Cécilia Bossel), is best known for global hits including Gigantosaurus, Zou and Tales of Tatonka, and has big plans for the next few years, ranging from leaning into well-known franchises such as Final Fantasy to using real-time technology to produce.
‘We’re still on course with our studio’s original vision and aim to implement that by producing fun and engaging animated stories created by the best in class global talent leveraged by innovative technology.’
— Cyber Group Studios Chairman & CEO Dominique Bourse
“Our studio’s original vision was to inspire kids around the world with content that helps them become the best versions of themselves and to create a better, more sustainable world,” says Dominique Bourse, the studio’s CEO & Chairman. “Of course, we’re still on course with that vision and aim to implement that by producing fun and engaging animated stories created by the best in class global talent leveraged by innovative technology.”
Bourse maintains that the company’s years of experience working with entertainment business partners to develop and produce global content for young audiences make Cyber Group a unique presence in the market. “Some of our competitors are big international companies and most are coming of a very entrepreneurial background,” he notes. “But we are really a mix of both worlds and skills and that translates into the wide variety of our animated content as well.
Creating a Global Powerhouse
“You can trace the history of our global success with the launch of our first big preschool show Ozie Boo!, which premiered in 2006,” says Cyber Group’s COO Raphaelle Mathieu. “It began as a local success with a few European acquisitions. Then we had Zou in 2012, which began as a regional acquisition for Disney, and then went global. Then of course we had Gigantosaurus launching in 2019, which became a total international success with a fourth season on the way.”
Mathieu points out that while the studio specialized in preschool content in the earlier years, it soon expanded its focus to a slightly older audience with shows such as Zorro the Chronicles (2015), Taffy (2017) and Droners (2020), all of which explored different styles, visuals and genres. “We’re really expanding our target audience now with the projects that we have in development, which zero in on tween, teenage and young adult viewers. It’s really important for us to be able to provide our partners with content for various audiences. We’re also exploring many different types of story genres, from slapstick comedy to older-skewing action-adventure shows.”
Among the shows helping the studio build new franchises in coming years is Press Start!, a CG-animated comedy-adventure show based on the bestselling Scholastic book series by Thomas Flintham. The show, which is executive produced by Emmy-winning writer and showrunner Scott Kraft (PAW Patrol), is slated to stream on Peacock later this year. Also on tap is the upcoming animated adaptation of the popular PlayStation game, Final Fantasy IX, in partnership with Square Enix Co.
“All our projects have been fueled by all the research and development work we’ve been doing in CG animation,” says Mathieu. “This goes back to shows such as Tatonka, for example, in which we were able to create amazing detail for the wolves’ fur or what we were able to do in terms of the crowed scenes for Zorro the Chronicles. We have to be smart enough to create tools to generate beautiful CG images at a cost that would make sense. Along the same lines, we have developed and and fine-tuned our real-time animation pipeline in Rubelles in the north of France, and we’re now working on our big project Alex Player relying on this technology. We’ll reveal first images from this new show at MIPCOM this year.”
“I was a fan of the studio for many years before I joined the team,” says Karen K. Miller, President of Cyber Group Studios USA in Burbank. “I really appreciated what Cyber Group has done so well in terms of being agile in a market that is ever changing, both as a European company and as a global success in the sense that they engage with their content and partnership worldwide, and as a producer of best in class animation.”
Miller, an animation industry veteran who was SVP of content at NBC/Universal and VP of Acquisitions, Co-Productions & Global Content at Disney Channels worldwide prior to joining Cyber Group in 2021, notes, “I think what our studio has done so incredibly well is to be flexible and super smart about the way in which they develop content and the kind of projects they choose. Final Fantasy IX, for example, is one of those IPs that ticks a lot of those boxes and is what a lot of buyers are looking for. We’re also super excited about Press Start!, which is a terrific book-based show that’s in production for Peacock, and will launch in the spring of 2024.”
Among the other shows Miller is excited about is an animated adaptation of the How to Catch book series, penned by Alice Walstead and illustrated by Megan Joyce. “I believe the series has sold more than 16 million copies, and we are in development with Peacock on the animated adaptation,” she notes. “Another original comedy we have in the pipeline is Yum-Yum, which was introduced at Annecy this past June. It comes from the brilliant minds of Grilled Cheese Media, Dave Coulier and Bob Harper, and Rachel Ruderman (Disney’s Elena of Avalor).”
Another hot project is Erica & Trevor vs. Spooky Monsters, a fun show about a young boy and his older babysitter who investigating Z-movie monsters that have come to life in their town.
A Time to Take Chances
Of course, like many animation producers around the world, Cyber Group has been observing the massive shift in children’s viewing habits over the past few years and the ups and the changing fortunes of the streaming entities. “They have had to completely shift their business model because and re-examine how they do business to stay profitable,” notes Bourse. “But we are convinced that they’ll resume business again in 2025, because a streaming platform with no new programs is a dead platform. This means you have to reduce fixed costs and completely re-engineer your production process because you have to produce higher quality content for less. We were used to amortizing production costs across 26 half hours, but today, platforms will rarely buy 26 half hours — they do 12 at most. The solution lies in rethinking the way we produce and the processes and technologies we use.”
Bourse says he and his team at Cyber Group are very optimistic about the marketplace in 2025. “We’re seeing a narrowing of target groups, but also a broadening of content, which creates more space to produce,” explains the CEO. “It’s an opportunity for us to step back to lower costs, but also project the company ahead in order to take advantage of this opportunity. It’s not during the periods of fast growth where everyone is thriving that you can make a different. It’s during challenging periods like this when people are banging their heads on the wall when resilient companies think strategically and branch out in different areas carefully.”
For more information, visit cybergroupstudios.com.
