Volume 4 – 2020
Featured in this edition: Riverbank Pictures, Rotating Planet Productions, Sinking Ship Entertainment, Shaftesbury, Sonar Entertainment, Taqqut Productions, Téléfiction Productions, Tobo, ToonDraw, and U Multicultural.
Riverbank Pictures
How Do You Feel? is a new show produced by Riverbank Pictures for broadcast on TVOKids. Currently in production, How Do You Feel? aims to get kids thinking about their mental health at an early age.
Illustrating the importance of food, family, fun and cultural history, Kids Cookout is set to air this year on TLN and Hei Hei in New Zealand. The series was co-produced alongside New Zealand producer, Chloe Gray.
Rotating Planet Productions
Rotating Planet Productions is currently in development of a live action youth series filmed around the world in remote, but important, ecological habitats in need of protection. The project has been accepted into MBRANE 2020.
Sinking Ship Entertainment
Sinking Ship Entertainment had a jam-packed 2019. Ghostwriter is the first live action family series available on Apple TV+. Meanwhile, their live action mystery series Just Add Magic has been sold to Nickelodeon, and The Unlisted has launched on ABC and Netflix.
Season 1 of Endlings is now available to stream on Hulu and CBC GEM. The team is currently wrapping up production on Season 2 of the popular sci-fi action adventure series.
Dino Dana: The Movie will launch on 600 screens in the U.S. and across Canada on 21 March. The live action / CGI kids movie will also appear at the Berlin International Film Festival as part of Telefilm Canada’s Perspective Canada program.
Sinking Ship Entertainment won multiple awards in 2019, including 4 Daytime Emmy awards, 6 Canadian Screen Awards, 3 YMA Awards, and a BAFTA Award. Dino Dana, Ghostwriter and The Unlisted have all been nominated for a Prix Jeunesse Award in 2020.
What else for 2020? Odd Squad Mobile Unit is set to air on PBS Kids and TVOKids on 17 February. Sinking Ship Entertainment is also working alongside Scott Brothers Entertainment on a new preschool animated series called Builder Brothers’ Dream Factory.
Shaftesbury
Shaftesbury is in post-production for the scripted series, and accompanying non-scripted documentary, The Solutioneers. The series focuses on 12-year-old best friends, coders and budding inventors solving everyday problems and making a difference in the world using STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math). Meanwhile, the non-scripted documentary features real life kids, and trailblazers making a difference in the field.
Being released in 2020 is ClearWaterKids Challenge, a grassroots climate action documentary series hosted by two young and passionate eco-champions. Filmed on a real-life working farm, each episode centres on an environmental theme, challenging the audience to do their part to save the planet.
Miikshi follows the adventures of a shy but genius sheep scientist who saves the world one day at a time…quietly. This live action puppet series provides a strong and unique female role model for a generation of STEAM-loving kids. Brought to life through hand puppets and model miniature effects, the series will be released in 2020.
Sonar Entertainment
Utopia Falls – a genre-bending teen music and sci-fi drama – wrapped production on its first season, and is set to premiere as a Hulu Original and CBC Gem on 14 February. A Sonar Entertainment Canada production, Utopia Falls features original music from producer Boi-1da, and the voice of Snoop Dogg. The show has received comprehensive worldwide press coverage from media outlets including Variety, CBC, Now Magazine and Out Magazine.
Go Away, Unicorn! premiered on Disney Channel US in spring 2019 and was rolled out internationally on Disney Worldwide networks and platforms. Season 1 is currently airing in over 100 territories in multiple languages, while Season 2 is in production and set for release this year. The animated series boasts a robust online following on its Instagram and YouTube channels, and was featured in Animation Magazine as one of the Top New Shows To Watch. On top of all that, Jazwares have been named as the global master toy partner for Go Away, Unicorn!, securing exclusive global rights to produce plush toys and figure packs for the series.
Alien Xmas is in production with Netflix and producer Jon Favreau. The stop-motion holiday special is voiced by Favreau and its directors, the Chiodo Brothers.
In partnership with Mosaic Entertainment, Sonar is in development with CBC Kids on a new live action teen series called Anarchy Anderson. Sonar is also in development with The 14th Santa, a co-production with Glassriver and CAOZ, with co-financing from RÚV and Sena.
Taqqut Productions
Season 2 of Anaana’s Tent is set to air in Inuktitut in February 2020. Set in the Arctic, this entertaining and educational children’s series will also be released in English later in the year.
Téléfiction Productions
While season 2 of Marika launched on ICI TOU.tv in March 2019, season 3 launched on ICI TOU.tv in January 2020. The youth series has been nominated 3 times at the 34th Prix Gémeaux.
Téléfiction Productions’ new series Les Mutants will launch on Télé-Québec in 2020. Season 2 has been confirmed, with production set to start next April.
Tobo
Tobo has started production on their first short animated series, Dounia. The team pitched Dounia this year at MIFA in Annecy, at the Cartoon Forum in Toulouse, and at MIPJunior in Cannes. All this since Dounia was awarded Best Pitch at the Cartoon Connection in Quebec City back in 2018.
Tobo will participate in a panel at Kidscreen this year called Moving Mountains: Creating Content for Displaced Kids.
Last year also saw Tobo completing development on a fun, action-adventure animated series about digital literacy. The team is working towards onboarding partners in 2020.
ToonDraw
ToonDraw has signed several deals for their pre-school animated series Genius Genie, with season 1 being picked up by YLE in Finland and Alati International in Russia. The series is set to premiere on Discovery Kids in the Middle East and North Africa on 17 March.
YaYa And Zouk was nominated for two Gémeaux Awards in 2019: Best Program or Animated Series and Best Digital Component – Youth Program or Series.
U Multicultural
TVKIDS show is a local cable and online talk show produced by 9 to 14-year-olds from Manitoba. Under the supervision and training of the project’s producer and director, Taya Rtichsheva, the kids are responsible for writing scripts, planning studio sessions, operating the equipment and directing the show! Shaw, WCGTV, and the Jewish Post and News have all featured TVKIDS, and in 2020, U Multicultural hopes to grow the community further.
