Stella Takes the Stage, TATTARRATTAT, The Jim Henson Company, Chorion, FremantleMedia Enterprises

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.

The Jim Henson Company will introduce the new series Pajanimals (26x30 or 78x7), which is currently in development, to potential co-production partners at Mipcom. Produced by Henson and 4Kids Entertainment, the short-form, live-action Pajanimals (10x2) 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 (50x11 and 1x22 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 (76x26) 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 (52x13). 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?).


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.