Category: Kids

MUMBAI: With plans to increase long-form series from two to seven per year for Disney Channel, Disney XD and Playhouse Disney, EMEA, the Walt Disney company, will triple its investments in production of animation for television.

The surge in production will be driven by a team of 14 people who will be based in London and led by Marc Buhaj, the senior VP of original programming for Disney Channels EMEA. The plans are for two long-form series for Disney Channel, four for Disney XD and one for Playhouse Disney.
 
Averred Buhaj, “For The Walt Disney Company, it‘s about creating world-class animation that will appeal to kids and families both locally and internationally. Part of our ongoing strategy as a global company is to provide a local voice to the Disney brand in markets around the world.”

The series that are currently in development for Disney Channel are I‘m in Love with Rikki Doom, Tomax, The Amazing Things and Out of Step.

Earlier, the London-based team also co-produced the European short-form series The Secret Life of Suckers and Marvo the Wonder Chicken. It is currently into production of the animated comedy Rekkit Rabbit from Marathon.

MUMBAI: Pogo has launched season four of Galli Galli Sim Sim. The new series hit the TV screens on 7 December and is being telecast Monday to Friday at 8.30 am.

Pogo will also air every Saturday on Cartoon Network at 8:30 am and on Doordarshan at 10.30 am.

The new season that includes 35 new episodes will focus on health, nutrition and bio diversity. The edutainment series, will have three segments – ‘Galli ki Duniya‘, ‘Muppet on location‘ and ‘Word of the day‘ across a 22-minute episode.

In ‘Galli ki Duniya‘, children will experience the fun world of muppets and learn healthy habits from them. ‘Muppet on location‘, will see the antics of Grover and Toto as they travel all over the world and in ‘Word of the Day‘, Elmo will teach a new word in each episode in his exciting and unique way.

Turner International India VP & deputy GM entertainment networks, South Asia Monica Tata said, “Galli Galli Sim Sim is more than just a television show for Turner. It is our endeavour to use Cartoon Network and POGO to empower kids across India to exercise their basic right to education.”

The series has cut across children between the age group of 3 to 6 years.

“The entire look and feel of the series, integration of colors and animation on the sets and the show format has been so designed to suit the viewing habits of these children,” said Miditech chairman Nirvet Alva.

MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, has entered into new deals in Spain for children’s animation series 3rd and Bird.
 
Playhouse Disney and Televisio de Catalunya have both secured broadcasting rights for all episodes and the 20-minute special and will broadcast in Spain from the first quarter of next year.

In a further deal, BBC Worldwide also confirmed the sale of 3rd and Bird! to PTS Channel, Taiwan’s major free-to-air channel. All episodes of the programme have been purchased and will broadcast in Mandarin from early 2010.

3rd and Bird! has enjoyed ratings success in the UK where it has aired on CBeebies since Summer 2008. The programme, aimed at pre-school girls and boys was created by Josh Selig and produced by his company, Little Airplane Productions.

3rd and Bird! is animated in an original style created by Little Airplane called photo-puppetry animation. The stories of 3rd and Bird! focus on a community of birds that fly and whistle in their feathery wonderland.

BBC Worldwide holds global distribution rights for 3rd and Bird! including programme distribution, DVD and merchandising.

GTV sales of the programme will be followed by licensing campaigns in territories across the world. Fisher-Price holds a multi-year global master toy license for 3rd and Bird! and is set to launch their first product to market in the UK for Spring 2010.

MUMBAI: Cartoon Network will roll out a new series of Ben10: Alien Force, starting 11 December.

The series will be telecast every Friday at 6 pm. “Ben 10 enjoys tremendous popularity amongst kids in India and has been a success since its launch two years ago. Cartoon Network continues to bring the latest comedy, action and adventure in Ben‘s life to its India fans, offering them a super-hero experience,” says Turner International India director programming South Asia Krishna Desai.

In the new series, Ben Tennyson fastens his Omnitrix to rescue Grandpa Max from a new foe: the Highbreed and their DNAlien servants, who are joined by the Forever Knights. He is accompanied by cousin Gwen and a reformed Kevin to complete the tasks.

Ben10 was launched in India in October 2007.

MUMBAI: Australia‘s first free-to-air channel just for children, ABC3, was launched in Sydney by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
The channel is aimed at children between 6-to-15-year-olds and can be viewed on digital channel 23 from 6 am to 9 pm every day.

The channel will also offer content online.

 
ABC director of television Kim Dalton said that ABC3 will feature a range of genres including drama, music, quiz shows, news and sport. “I‘m very excited about the presenters that we‘ve recruited,” Dalton said.

“We‘ve run a Me on 3 campaign and we‘ve had in excess of 4,000 applications. We‘ve sifted through all those and we‘ve selected a group of five or six really bright, young kids who are going to be the face of this channel,” he added.

Launching the channel at the ABC‘s Ultimo studios in Sydney, Rudd allayed that children‘s television was a key way of fostering creativity in children.

“It excites their ability to begin to look beyond the practical and the physical, and to begin to play in their imagination about what sort of person they might become, or what sort of community or country one day they might build,” he said.

MUMBAI: For Canadian kids, it is an early Christmas treat as Nickelodeon is offering a free one-month preview.

Starting 15 December, the offer will last till 18 January. It will allow viewers who are not currently subscribed to Nickelodeon to sample the live-action comedies and animated content offering from the channel.

The channel will have regular programmes like iCarly, True Jackson and VP (live-action) and animated properties like SpongeBob SquarePants, The Penguins of Madagascar, Dora the Explorer and The Mighty B! as well as classic hits such as Ren & Stimpy, The Angry Beavers and CatDog.

The special programming events and premieres of new Nick live-action series such as The Troop and The Fresh Beat Band will also be available as a part of free preview.
 
Nickelodeon‘s free preview will be accessible on all participating carriers, including Rogers Personal TV subscribers (channel 231), Shaw Direct (channel 182), Shaw (channel 135), Cogeco (channel 142) and Bell TV (channel 559).
 

MUMBAI: Sesame Workshop is in the process of developing a new version of the long-running children‘s series Sesame Street to bring messages about staying in school, girl‘s empowerment and HIV/AIDS to Nigeria.

Sesame Street Nigeria (working title) has been made possible through a five-year grant from the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to create 78 30-minute episodes for the series and supporting outreach materials, as well as conduct research to evaluate the programme‘s impact.  
 
The first season, We Can, will focus on empowering children to aspire to be anything they want and encouraging them to stay in school. The episodes will portray community participation in the learning process and infusing time for play, fun and creativity in kids‘ lives.

Season two, We Do It Right, will highlight honesty and integrity, courtesy and coping with mistakes. Episodes will incorporate themes of mutual respect and understanding and gender parity.

We Live Here, the third season, will focus on community activities that reflect the importance of culture and caring for the environment. There will also be a continued emphasis on respect and understanding.

Sesame Street Nigeria is an extension of The Adventures of Kami and Big Bird pilot outreach project that launched in Nigeria earlier this year.
 

MUMBAI: Nick Jr. was named channel of the year at the British Academy Children‘s Awards.

The channel beat CBBC, CBeebies and Cyw for the prestigious award.

In the animation category, Lost and Found took top honours, while Rhestr Nadolig Wil (Wil‘s Christmas List) scored the drama win. Best factual programme for children was Serious Ocean.

The Penguins of Madagascar won in the international category. Off By Heart won the award for learning (primary), and Troubled Minds won for learning (secondary).

In the way of preschool programming, Ben and Holly‘s Little Kingdom took the win on the animation side, while Bookaboo scored the nod for live action. See Something, Say Something was adjudged the best short form programme.
 
In the interactive category, Big and Small Online took the win over 1066, The Legula Adventure and Routes. Also scoring a nod was LittleBigPlanet in the video game category.

Children between the ages of 7 and 14 voted for their favourite film, TV show, video game and website with the BAFTA kids‘ vote.

Hannah Montana The Movie won in the feature film category, while the TV show Hannah Montana also notched a win.

MUMBAI: Marvel Entertainment Inc has called a special meeting of shareholders in New York on 31 December to decide on its takeover.
Marvel shareholders will vote on the planned takeover by The Walt Disney Co.

The company announced that the stockholders on record as of 23 November will be able to vote at the meeting.
 
Marvel said the deal will close on 31 December if shareholders approve it.

In August, Walt Disney had announced it is buying the comic publishing giant Marvel Entertainment in a $4 billion deal that will add characters like Spider-man, Iron Man and the X Men into the Mickey Mouse family.

As per the deal, Marvel shareholders will receive $30 per share in cash, plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share they own. The transaction will be subject to approval by Marvel‘s shareholders.

MUMBAI: March Entertainment, makers of animated movies, series and games, has teamed up with XLT and Toonz to co-produce a series of interactive animated movies for toy maker Playmobil.

Targeted at kids of five years and older, the films have a range of themes, combining fantasy worlds, adventure and comedy that includes catchy musical numbers by composer Tim Williams and Emmy award winner Anthony Vanderburgh.
 
The first DVD, The Secret of Pirate Island, is already available through retailers like Best Buy, Toys “R” Us, Costco, Walmart and online retailers such as Amazon, as well as through select Playmobil distributors.
The full-length, interactive films allow viewers to select their own path using an intuitive DVD menu. In Pirate Island, for example, there are 27 possible story combinations to choose from.

Says March Entertainment CEO Dan Hawes, “We are excited about working with the Playmobil products. The toys are creative and inspiring, allowing parents and kids to role-play together in the various Playmobil worlds. These interactive movies will be equally engaging.”

March Entertainment and its partners plan to release one film per year. The next release, which is currently in production, is Knight‘s Adventure: Quest for the Golden Scepter and is based on the Playmobil Knights playset.

The DVDs will be distributed by Sony Pictures Television International.