A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE WESTDOC

Cynopsis: Kids!

09/09/09

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, September 9, 2009, and this is your first early morning Kids briefing.

DHX Media launches its own licensing division, DHX Licensing, which will extend its three production divisions, Decode Entertainment, Halifax Film and Studio B Productions into consumer products.  Leading DHX Licensing is Beth Stevenson, EVP/Production and Development, Decode Entertainment, with Polly Beel serving as Director/Marketing and Licensing, DHX Licensing.  DHX’s distribution arm Decode Enterprises will continue to handle international broadcast sales for the brands.  DHX Licensing will represent kid-targeted properties including Franny’s Feet, Animal Mechanicals, Bo On the Go!, dirtgirlworld and Kid vs Kat, as well as third party content repped by Decode Enterprises such as Grandpa In My Pocket.

Disney Interactive Studios unveiled plans to acquire Wideload Games, a Chicago-based developer/producer of interactive games, which was founded by CEO Alexander Seropian, who also founded and was CEO of Bungie Software and was part of the team that created the Halo game video games.  Under the deal, Seropian will join Disney Interactive Studios in the newly created role of VP/Creative, overseeing creative development across the studio’s portfolio of video games.  Seropian, who is relocating to California, will report directly to Jean-Marcel Nicolai, SVP/Global Product Development.  The terms of the deal were not disclosed.  Additionally, Wideload Games President Tom Kang will continue to lead the studio as studio director, with the studio remaining in Chicago.  Wideload Games is currently developing a new family-targeted console game for release in 2010 from Disney Interactive Studios.

NEW PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

Little Airplane Productions and Spin Master Entertainment, a unit of Spin Master, enter into a partnership to develop a new preschool series entitled Stella Takes the Stage.  Slated to be available from early 2010, the series will employ a new animation style called “Theatre Arts Animation”, a mix of theatre stagecraft and computer animation developed by Little Airplane.  Featuring an educational curriculum, Stella Takes the Stage is designed to encourage preschoolers to become more aware of personal qualities they posses or would like to have and help them identify new skills and potential career ideas.

SupperTime Entertainment, kid’s book author/illustrator David Sheldon and Bix Pix Entertainment are teaming up to create a K6-11 targeted TV series and books and merchandise based on the TATTARRATTAT characters, which can flip, created by Sheldon.  Under the arrangement, Bix Pix Entertainment is developing and producing the series with Sheldon serving as creative director/lead character designer, and SupperTime handling marketing and merchandising for the property.  Bix Pix plans to produce the series using a style of animation that incorporates stop-motion and CG techniques.  TATTARRATTAT is expected to begin production in early 2010 with initial distribution scheduled for fall 2011.

MORE KIDS STUFF

Portfolio Entertainment will offer international buyers a sneak peek at the new preschool animated series The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That! (40×30 or 80×12) at Mipcom next month.  Starring Martin Short as the voice of The Cat, the series is currently in production and is already set to air on Treehouse (Canada) and PBS Kids (US) from fall 2010.  Developed and produced for TV by Portfolio Entertainment Inc. and Collingwood O’Hare Productions, in association with Dr. Seuss Enterprises and Random House Children’s Entertainment the preschool series is based on Random House’s Beginner Book franchise, The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library.  The series is also co-produced with PBS (US) and Treehouse TV (Canada), with the series already set to air on PBS Kids and Treehouse from fall 2010.  Portfolio Entertainment is distributing the series.

The Jim Henson Company will introduce the new series Pajanimals (26×30 or 78×7), which is currently in development, to potential co-production partners at Mipcom.  Produced by Henson and 4Kids Entertainment, the short-form, live-action Pajanimals (10×2) music video series was commissioned by and airs on Sprout, as part of it’s The Good Night Show programming block, in the US.

Chorion will introduce The Octonauts (50×11 and 1×22 special), a new HD CGI animated action/adventure preschool series, at Mipcom.  Produced by Brown Bag Films, The Octonauts has already been acquired by CBeebies (UK), TF1 (France) and ABC Australia, which will all launch the series in 2010.   The Octonauts follows a group of heroes that set out in their underwater adventures where they rescue sea creatures and explore underwater worlds.

Spain-based Imira Entertainment is heading to Mipcom/MipJunior where it will offer two new series:

• Imira is representing the distribution rights to the live-action series Karku (76×26) across Europe.  Imira will showcase the series at Mip Junior in October.  Karku is produced by Chilean company My Friend Entertainment in co-production with Television Nacional de Chile.  The series follows the adventures of 13-year-old Emilia, who is sent by her parents to live in Santiago, and her pals as they try all sorts of jobs and scheme to raise money to take a vacation together.  Karku currently airs across Latin America on Nickelodeon Latin America, TVN (Chile), Ecuavisa, Senal Colombia, Televisa in Mexico and Brazil, as well as in the US, in Spanish, on Sorpresa.
• Imira will also showcase the flash animated series Sandra, the Fairytale Detective (52×13).  The series is co-produced by TVE and DQ Entertainment, with presales already inked with TF1 (France), Disney Channels in France, Italy, Germany, Spain and India and RTP (Portugal).  Sandra, the Fairytale Detective revolves around Sandra, a 10-year-old that uses her detective skills as she travels to a parallel world inhabited by fairytale characters and lots of what ifs (e.g. what if someone steals Cinderella’s glass slipper?).

Program Call: If your company is attending MIPCOM or MIP JR in early October with programming to sell, Cynopsis Media is producing our annual MIPCOM Shopping Guide available to all Cynopsis and Cynopsis Kids subscribers on Thursday, October 1. To have your programming included, please send only the following info for your top 5 shows: title, availability date, number of episodes, length, type (i.e., movie, series, special, etc.), genre and your terms (barter, cash, etc.). To be included in this free and highly-viewed special edition, please send details to [email protected] by Friday, September 25, 2009.

Correction: The Disney XD website can be found at www.disneyxd.com , and not the link provided in yesterday’s story about the special Phineas and Ferb’s Musical Cliptastic Countdown.

MARKETING/LICENSING

Marvel Entertainment enters into a deal with VTech Electronics North America to create electronic learning toys and aids (e.g. kid’s laptops, audio players, telephones, PDAs, handhelds) featuring Marvel’s super hero characters for younger kids.  Under the deal, VTech has the rights to develop new electronic products for kids in two demos, K18 months-4 years and K4-8, featuring Classic Spider-Man, Super Hero Squad and the Iron Man 2 feature film.

Where’s Waldo?  Well, under a deal between Classic Media and Tropicana, UK consumers are likely to find Waldo in the new mom-aimed print media campaign for the Tropicana Kids! line.  Playing against character, the campaign features Where’s Waldo? meandering on an empty beach for all to see with the tag line, “Nothing to hide” to underline the products contain either 100% juice or juice and water.

FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) signs new license deals for the design property Rebecca Bonbon.  Rebecca Bonbon is the French bulldog created by designer Yuko Shimizu (Hello Kitty).  Picking up the brand are: US apparel company Kids Headquarters – young ladies and junior products across categories including apparel, accessories, jewelry, sleepwear and loungewear, as well as a pet line; UK-based Blueprint – young lady-aimed stationery including storage products, notebooks, stationery sets and pencil cases and novelty items for launch in the UK in spring 2010; France’s MOA  the retailer will offer co-branded Rebecca Bonbon products including, jewelry, watches, hair/apparel accessories, mobile phone accessories, sunglasses, t-shirts, bags and footwear, among others, at MOA shops and MOA-branded areas in stores across France, Monaco and Andorra, Spain, Russia, Romania, Hungary and Greece.

EXECUTIVE MOVES

Madeline Levesque joins Montreal-based Sardine Productions to head its development and production efforts.  In her new position, Levesque will identify and secure new projects for the company’s development and production slate for Canada and the international market.  Levesque, former Director/Original Productions at Teletoon, will report to President Ghislain Cyr.  Levesque continues to serve as a Board member of The Alliance for Children and Television and a member of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television (ACCT), and Femme du Cinema de la Television et Video de Montreal (FCTVM).

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM THE NEW YORK TELEVISION FESTIVAL

Answer to Yesterday’s Trivia Question:  What show was a spin-off of Transformers?   GO-BOTS  Kudos to: Christopher Byrne-TimetoPlayMag.com/NY; Kelly Lawer-Art Institute of Portland/Hillsboro; Patrick Rieger-7ate9 Entertainment/Los Angeles

Today’s Trivia Question:  What was the name of He-man’s legless wizard friend?  (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: Only the second four correct answers from each time zone will be mentioned; and once you’ve been mentioned in any of the Cynopsis editions, you can’t be mentioned again that calendar week.)

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE THE WALTER KAITZ FOUNDATION

Later — Gwen
 Gwen Billings for Cynopsis Kids!
09.09.09

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