Monsta’s highly anticipated animated series Mechamato is set to launch on WarnerMedia’s Cartoon Network (Asia Pacific) on December 4 in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand, followed by South Korea Dec. 11 and Japan in March 2022. A sneak peek episode from the series will be aired especially for Cartoon Network subscribers on Nov. 6. At the recent Kre8tif! 2021 Virtual Conference hosted by MDEC, Monsta CCO Anas Abdul Aziz revealed the official poster, release dates and (joined by characters Amato and MechaBot) revealed the opening theme songs to the audience, produced in-house and recorded by singer Nil Cardoso in the U.S.
Mechamato follows the adventures of a young boy named Amato who inadvertently becomes the master of MechaBot, a robot with the power to mechanize any everyday object into high-tech devices. Together they can combine into the hero Mechamato in order to defeat and capture bad robots before they can cause more chaos in the city. Mechamato is now open for pre-sales, and several different rights such as VOD, OTT and Free TV are still available for broadcasters and content platforms. Jetpack Distribution is the series’ worldwide distributor outside of Asia Pacific territory.
Punk rock icon, poet and actor Henry Rollins has joined the cast of the sci-fi animation series NEW-GEN, currently in pre-production. Rollins will play the villains, Deadalus, joining previously announced voice stars including Lena Headey, Luke Wilson, Finn Wolfhard, Nick Wolfhard and Anya Cholatra. NEW-GEN is being produced by J.D. and Chris Matonti and Julia Coppola of A.P.N.G. Enterprises, based on the superhero comic book series distributed by Marvel Comics, and is planned as a multi-platform, multi-tech experience spanning AR and web-based experiences in addition to the animated series.
Rollins currently hosts a weekly radio show on L.A.’s NPR affiliate KCRW. In 2013, after previously anchoring shows for IFC and National Geographic, he joined the History Channel’s H2 network as host of the TV show 10 Things You Don’t Know About. In 2014, Rollins received the prestigious Ray Bradbury Creativity Award in recognition for his lifelong contribution to the arts, his passion for social activism, as well as his intense passion for the importance of maintaining books and libraries. His acting credits include the animated Masters of the Universe and the acclaimed series Sons of Anarchy. He is represented by CAA.
From DreamWorks Animation, Gabby’s Dollhouse is back with a brand new third season to entertain it’s loyal, paw-some fans, debuting on Netflix on October 19. Gabby and her feline friends will tackle creative thinking and imaginative problem-solving in seven all new exciting adventures: The friends will check-in at The Dollhouse Hotel, become medieval knights-in-training, visit the wild west, and even find a way for a plain old banana to turn a rainy day into a magical one!
From celebrated preschool creators and executive producers, Traci Paige Johnson (Blue’s Clues, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood) and Jennifer Twomey (Blue’s Clues, Team Umizoomi), Gabby’s Dollhouse is a mixed-media preschool series with a surprise inside! Follow Gabby (Laila Lockhart) as she unboxes a surprise before jumping into a fantastical animated world full of adorable cat characters that live inside her magical dollhouse. Every episode is filled with fun DIY crafts, science experiments, recipes and original music.
After winning over millions of fans around the world, on TV and on the web, Quebec-based studio Squeeze has announced a second season of Cracké, currently in production with Télé-Québec. Titled Cracké – Family Scramble, S2 focuses on Ed’s family situation: his eggs have hatched and he must now take care of eight energetic babies! With no experience as a father, but brimming with creativity, this lovable single-parent ostrich dad has a crazy habit of getting himself into silly, improbable and funny situations. Luckily, his paternal instincts and boundless ingenuity get him out of trouble every time, to the delight of his little ones.
PGS Entertainment is leading the international distribution. This fall, Cracké will hit the markets, and will be present at the Cannes International Program Market (MIPCOM) as well as at the MIPJr, which is dedicated to youth and family content. The series will be available in May 2022. Cracké is created by Patrick Beaulieu and Denis Doré. S2 directed by Squeeze veteran Jonathan Simard.
Crayola has launched a new season of its original, digital-first Scribble Scrubbie Pets series, produced by WildBrain Spark. The Crayola Kingdom channel is managed globally by WildBrain Spark across YouTube and YouTube Kids and is home to all Crayola kid-targeted content. Since the launch of Crayola Kingdom at the end of 2020, the channel has surpassed 13.2 million views with over 370,000 hours of time spent watching to date. The new season of 20 x 3′ animations and 20 x 1′ draw-along episodes launched on the Crayola Kingdom YouTube channel this month with new episodes released weekly.
Based on the popular Crayola Scribble Scrubbie Pets creative toy range, the series was developed to engage kids 5-8 through the unique elements of animation, real play and drawing. The content is focused on what kids love most about the toy line – bringing their imaginations to life through endless color and design transformations of washable toy pets. Using WildBrain Spark’s digital-first best practices, data and insights from the first season, the new content brings the most popular characters further into the spotlight, including Makena (the bird), Tuma (the elephant) and Scooter (the dog). S2 also hones in on the increasingly popular live-action arts and crafts elements.
ZDF Enterprises is including several animated series in its MIPCOM lineup:
- School of Roars (preschool; 104 episodes) features a cast of mini monsters who help prepare children for their first year of school life. Produced by Dot to Dot Productions and airing on CBBC, the series was a finalist at Cartoons on the Bay and nominated for Best Preschool Show Broadcast Awards.
- Scream Street (two seasons, 78 eps.) from Coolabi Prod., Factory and Nau Prod. is based on the series of books by Tommy Donbavand. On Scream Street, surfer-dude zombies, sarcastic vampires, martial arts mummies, glamorous witches and just plain-bad monsters put a whole new spin on community spirit.
- Zoom – The White Dolphin (104 x 12’). Zoom was originally the star of a French cult series from the ’70s. Now he is back, with his best friend Yann, as he undertakes exciting forays around a legendary island in the Pacific Ocean in new episodes produced by Media Valley and Marzipan Films.
- The Muscleteers (kids 6-9; CGI/3D; 45 x 11′) from Caligari Films is all about helping and being there for each other. Traditional values, such as solidarity and fairness, are transported into the modern world and it becomes obvious that they are not old-fashioned but timeless. All for one and one for all!
France TV Distribution is launching new programs at MIPCOM and MIPJunior next month, including animated offerings:
- Ana Pumpkin (52 x 5′), produced by Folimage / Les Armateurs, introduces us to the world of a little girl of five years old and her everyday adventures. With the help of her loving, confident family, Ana explores the world around her in her own way, full of joy and curiosity, even if she sometimes finds out that her way is not always the best. In any case, she never gives up and always follows up on her ideas, even the strangest ones! She and her inseparable companion, Buddy the dog, are always there for each other and share everything. As with all best friends forever, they have their squabbles and disagreements, but there is generally a great deal of understanding, laughter, affection, humor and love between them.
- Disco Dragon (52 x 13′), produced by Mondo TV, stars Disco and Betty, a hilarious musical duo who have decided their mission in life is to help every child find their Groove! Grooville is the home of Disco, a dragon who’s crazy about music, who can hear each child’s inner groove. When one of those little soundtracks goes off the rails, Disco gets edgy! It’s an alarm signal meaning a child needs help. On his missions, Disco can count on the help of his little neighbor, Betty, a music-mad hothead like him. The highly ingenious girl has an answer to every problem and sets the tempo. Betty’s high spirits and Disco Dragon’s awkwardness lead to some unlikely situations… and plenty of confusion! But a confusion that helps each child to work out how to find the harmony in their inner sounds. And that really is groovy!
Sales & Expansions:
- Prime Entertainment Group has closed a deal with German pubcaster SWR (Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate) for the Annecy Cristal-winning Folimage movie Vanille, a Caribbean Tale to air on children’s channel KiKA.
- The Media Pioneers has pre-sold Mironins (26 x 7′), a 2D series about the adventures of three paint drops who escape from a Joan Miro painting, to TF1 (France) for its kids’ channel Tfoumax. Broadcast partners already include RTVE’s Clan (Spain), TVC’s Super 3 (Catalonia) and VRT’s Ketnet (Flemish Belgium).
- Genius Brands has acquired several global kids’ hits for Kartoon Channel! Debuting this month: three My Little Pony Specials, Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom, Ricky Zoom and S1 of the PJ Masks music videos in addition to shorts from the series phenom, Peppa Pig. The company has also acquired the rights to a slate of content from Zodiak Kids, including Horrible Henry and Lilybuds.
- Pinguim Content announced a raft of sales to major LatAm broadcasters: Globoplay has picked up Fishtronaut S1-2 (52 x 11′ each) and Ping and Friends S1 (52 x 7′) and Gulli Brazil hooked Fishtronaut The studio is working on a neutral Spanish dub of Ping and Friends (Nov. ’21), is in development with The Boo Inn (52 x 11′) for Discovery Kids LatAm, and is racking up awards for its feature film Tarsilinha on the festival circuit.
- Omens Studios secured a raft of international deals for S2 of Leo the Wildlife Ranger (kids 3-6; 52 x 11′). Mediacorp (Singapore) has also commissioned an additional eight localised episodes for the region, set to air by March 2022. S2 has been picked up by Tencent (China), TV3 (Catalonia), MBC (MENA), Zoomoo (APAC & LatAm), Celestial Tiger (South Korea & Indonesia) and Amazon (NorAm).
- NENT Group will launch its Viaplay streaming service to the U.K., Canada, Germany, Austria and Switzerland by the end of 2023 for a total of 16 countries and a target of 12M subscribers by the end of 2025.
- ViacomCBS Network International‘s Pluto TV is launching in Italy on Oct. 28 with over 40 exclusive channels. The free ad-support TV (FAST) service has over 52 million global monthly active users across 25 countries.
