Europe’s Cartoon Forum Unveils 2019 Lineup (EXCLUSIVE)
ANNECY, France – France’s “Lucy Lost” and “Galaxy Camp,” and the U.K.’s “The World’s Worst Children” are among the 86 TV series projects set to unspool at the 2019 Cartoon Forum, which takes place in Toulouse, Southern France. The 2019 Cartoon Forum runs Sept. 16-19.
Preeminent French animation company Xilam Animation, headed by Marc du Pontavice, is developing “Lucy Lost,” a family-targeted show of 26 26-minute episodes. Set during 1915 in the Islands of Scilly off Cornwall, the plot kicks off when a fisherman and his son rescue an injured girl from the sea. The girl just seems to be able to say one word- ‘Lucy’ – becoming a mystery for everybody in the local village.
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The fishing community is not ready to accept mysteries, especially during war time. Is she a German spy? The adventure drama is an adaptation of bestseller “Listen to the Moon,” a WWI mystery novel by British children’s laureate Michael Morpurgo. Jean-Christophe Dessaint (“Day of the Crows”) is on board to direct.
Producer of the Academy Award winning short film “Logorama,” Nicholas Schmerkin at Autour de Minuit is set to produce “Galaxy Camp,” 13-minute 52 episode series for children. It tells the story of an interstellar family just about to begin their holidays when mom and dad’s spaceship is sucked into a black hole. The daughter calculates that it will take 30,000 years for them to return, so the children decide to set up a campsite in the space. The series is directed by short-film director Christophe Gautry .
A co-production between the United Kingdom (King Bert Productions and Sky TV) and Ireland (Brown Bag Films), “The World’s Worst Children” is a 11-minute 52 episode comedy show targeting children in which a character, The Collector, has gathered an enormous battery of statistics, pictures and videos for his World’s Worst Children Museum. Among its attractively repulsive highlights are god-awful singer Stacey Superstar and Nigel the NitBoy, who has a severe case of lice.
There is a significant Nordic presence this year with eleven projects, five from Finland, which received a focus at Cartoon Forum two years ago. France is the country with the highest number of projects (25), followed by Belgium (8), Denmark, Germany, Ireland, and the U.K. with six, Finland and Spain with five, then the Netherlands (4) and Canada, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia and Ukraine, with one each.
24 countries participate in total, 20 European countries. Canada, South Korea, Burkina Faso and Togo also co-produce titles.
Another comedy series—this time for adults— is the 3-minute, 52-episode “The Homonobos, The Missed Link.” exploring the missing link in human evolution from pre-history: the homonobo, a proto-human being with a distant spark of humanity in the depths of his eyes,” the producers claim, though he hasn’t yet featured in history books. France’s Des Singes Animés and Umanimation produce this three-minute 52 episode series.
A co-founder of Spain’s Imira Entertainment, Myriam Ballesteros is producing via MP Producciones,“ her current label, Annie & Carola,” a comedy show about Carola, a nerd with no social skills who builds a robot clone as a friend. But an accident turns her clone into an unpredictable, dangerous companion. Ballesteros (“Lola & Virginia”) has created and will direct the series.
Possibly the first animation co-production between France (Nebularts Productions), Burkina Faso (Pit Productions), and Togo (Yobo Studios); “Palimpsest’s Tree” is a 7-minute 52 episodes show about Iba and Emeka, siblings who are always arguing. They usually visit wise Mamie Palimpsest in order to settle their disputes. She illustrates episodes of African history to them to find a sage solution. Directed by Ingrid Agbo and Sacha Perrin-Bayard, the project won the 2018 Gulli Prize at the Annecy Festival’s ever more important Animation du Monde project showcase.
Of other Cartoon Forum projects, the short 7-minute six episode series, “Dounia,” produced by Canada’s Tobo and targeting children, tackles the worldwide immigrant crisis. “Dounia” already won at Cartoon Connection in 2018. The series turns on a girl and her grandparents who embark on an adventure-packed journey to find a new home. When she run into trouble, the wisdom of her ancient culture comes to the rescue.
With two final projects still to be announced, this year’s Cartoon Forum, an E.U.-backed co-production initiative focusing on TV series, shows a clear predominance of pre-school (25) and kids (42) projects. Eight more target families; eleven are adult audience-oriented.
2019 Cartoon Forum projectors have a collective budget of around €320 million ($362 million) and represent around 500 hours of production.
Projects’ average cost is $4.2 million.
Launched in 1990, Cartoon Forum has built into a key gathering for Europe’s animated series industry. It forms part of a wider network of events, including the Cartoon Movie animated feature forum, Cartoon 360, devoted to multi-platform projects, Cartoon Connection, which linking companies from Europe, Canada and Asia) and Cartoon Masters, a training program.
SELECTED PROJECTS AT CARTOON FORUM 2019
PRE-SCHOOL
“Atom Town,” Treehouse Republic (Ireland), Turnip & Duck (Ireland)
“Bibi, Bobby & Zazzy (Bibi’s World),” Bibiland (Macedonia)
“Big Tree City,” Blue Zoo Productions (U.K.)
“Bird & Sheep,” Curt Fortin Imaginations (Netherlands)
“Cara’s on the Case,” Flickerpix (U.K.)
“Fia’s Fairies,” Little Moon Animation (France)
“Floki,” Puppetworks Budapest (Hungary)
“Goodnight Mr. Clutterbuck,” Anima Pictures Entertainment (Finland)
“Hugo & Holger,” Wil Film (Denmark)
“Juliette & Jules,” Altitude 100 Production (Belgium)
“Lotte & Totte,” Fridthjof Film (Denmark), Noerlum (Denmark)
“Monika’s Garden,” M4e / Studio 100 Media (Germany), Blue Zoo Animation Studio (U.K.)
“Mousse and Bichon,” Vivement Lundi! (France)
“Nutz,” Recircle (Croatia)
“Pepe,” Dansk Tegnefilm (Denmark), Ladybird Films (Luxembourg)
“Pins and Nettles,” Daily Madness Productions (Ireland)
“Pol The Pirate Mouse,” Submarine (Netherlands)
“Quinquin,” Beluga Jungle (Belgium), Wattson (France), Bidibul Productions (Luxembourg)
“Searching Snowflake,” Nukufilm (Estonia)
“Spookies,” Wolkenlenker (Germany)
“Tempo,” Girelle Production (France)
“The Hearios,” ALT Animation (U.K.)
“Wonder Woollies,” Bejuba! Entertainment (Canada), Pipeline Studios (Canada), Fuzzy House (Denmark)
CHILDREN
“#In the Middle,” Graphilm (Italy)
“Annie & Carola,” MB Producciones (Spain)
“Apple Hills,” Nice Ninja (Denmark)
“Barney the Piglet,” IMOS invest (Czech Republic), IS Produkce (Czech Republic)
“Belfort & Lupin,” Ellipsanime Production (France)
“Bella in the Belly,” Animoon (Poland), Letkon (Poland)
“Bobcat & Durl,” Pedri Animation (Netherlands), Submarine (Netherlands)
“Boots and Paws,” Studio Soi (Germany)
“Bugstron,” Studio Moggozi (South Korea)
“Calamity,” Maybe Movies (France), 2 Minutes (France)
“Cander & Ladilash,” Waooh! (Belgium)
“Captain Zheimer – The Animated Series,” Ferran i Ximo Produccions (F&X) (Spain), JCmedia (Spain)
“Claudy,” Miyu Productions (France)
“Crystal Tales,” Squarefish (Belgium)
“Digital Girl,” Cyber Group Studios (France)
“Dimbit,” Special Touch Studios (France)
“Dounia,” Tobo (Canada)
“Ducobu,” Cross River Productions (France)
“Ewilan’s Quest,” Andarta Pictures (France)
“Fact & Fiction,” Plotwise (Finland)
“Galaxy Camp,” Autour de Minuit (France)
“Hotel Strange,” Prima Linea Productions (France)
“Imago,” Reaz (France)
“Johann, Sebastiana and Bach,” GS Animation / Grupa Smacznego (Poland)
“Junkyard Paradise,” Haptic (Belgium)
“Marty’s Garden,” Derengo Animation (Hungary)
“MiniMecs,” Ferly (Finland), Yellow Animation (Canada), Zephyr Animation (France)
“Monster Park,” Ja Film (Demark), Zentropa Belgium (Belgium)
“Oink?,” Animal Tank (Belgium)
“Palimpsest’s Tree,” Nebularts Productions (France), Pit Productions (Burkina Faso), Yobo Studios (Togo)
“Paul-Emile,” Le Regard Sonore (France), Jungler (France)
“Polinopolis,” Mago Production (Spain), Godo Films (France)
“Snake News,” Kavaleer Productions (Ireland)
“Sprinter Galore,” Copenhagen Bombay (Denmark)
“Super Snail,” Sixteen South (U.K.)
“The Dangers,” Tchack (France)
“The Elfkins – The Series,” Akkord Film Produktion (Germany)
“The Great Dreamscape,” Kwassa Films (Belgium)
“The Legacy of the Magic Flute,” WunderWerk(Germany), edel Germany (Germany)
“The Marsupilamis,” Belvision (Belgium), Dupuis Edition & Audiovisuel (France)
“The World’s Worst Children,” King Bert Productions (U.K.), Brown Bag Films (Ireland), Sky TV (U.K.)
“Toutmosis,” La Belge Prod (Belgium)
“Truths,” Les Fées Spéciales (France)
“Worst Best Friends,” Haruworks (Finland)
FAMILY
“Critters TV,” Turnip & Duck (Ireland)
“Ghost Town,” Piranha Bar & Dear Will (Ireland)
“Jungle Box,” 38ºC Animation Studio (South Korea)
“Louise in Mexico,” Kazak Productions (France)
“Lucy Lost,” Xilam Animation (France)
“Pikkuli and the Starlight Reindeer,” Sun In the Eye Productions (Finland)
“Quirkistador: Book of Tales,” ZEILT productions WATT frame
“The Ishmael’s Journeys,” Les Batelières Productions (France), Foliascope (France)
ADULTS
“Doppelgänger, Here Comes the Future!,” Amopix (France)
“Feline Dion,” Planet Pollywood (Germany)
“Le Collège Noir,” Milan Presse (France), Bayard Jeunesse Animation (France), Studio La Cachette (France)
“Ollmill City Football Games,” Aliante (Italy), Rai Ragazzi (Italy), Paul Thiltges Distrbution (Luxembourg)
“Roni,” WKND (Spain)
“Sex Symbols,” TV ON Producciones (Spain)
“Some of Us,” Bachibouzouk, (France), DPT (Canada), Film Angels Productions (Latvia), Hors Zone (Belgium)
“Struggle(s),” Foliascope Les Films du Tambour de Soie (France)
“Summer Kingdom,” Yarki Studio (Ukraine)
“The Homonobos, The Missed Link,” Des Singes Animés (France)
“We are Family,” TeamTO (France)
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