Mind Your Business: Title Your Toon

Mark Simon discusses the best approach to finding your title.

By Mark Simon | Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 2:27 pm

Posted In | Magazines: AnimationWorld | Columns: Mind Your Business | Site Categories: Business, Films, Television

Luke & Reece Save the World, created by Jeanne Simon. ©
2011 A&S Animation Inc.

My wife/production partner, Jeanne, created an animated series based on stories she used to tell our twin boys when they were babies. We got our boys into martial arts when they were very young (proud father bragging; they hold multiple national titles) so Jeanne's bed-time stories revolved around twin infants who were also ninjas. We developed these stories into an animated series.

We called the series Baby Ninjas. We thought it sounded really cool. It also describes our lead characters.

But, we ran into a problem with the title. When we were meeting with Fred Shaeffer at Porchlight he said he liked the look of the show, but thought the title made it sound like a one-joke premise. We had run into this concern in one other pitch. With Fred, we retitled the show with our character names, Luke & Reece Save the World.

Same art, same characters, same show description, new title. Now when pitch the show we no longer hear the concern that the show is a one-joke premise.

Titles do make a difference. What's your title?

Want more info on titles and pitching animation? Mark's Pitching Animation webinar with Max Howard replay is available online at http://www.sellyourtvconceptnow.com/seminar-max-pitch2011.html.

Mark Simon is an animation producer/director with more than 2,900 live-action and animation production credits. He is also the author of Storyboards: Motion in Art.

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Comments

Hey, that's poewfrul. Thanks for the news.

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Margery (not verified) | Mon, 07/04/2011 - 22:43 | Permalink

Likewise, the title "Toy Story" is a short, brilliant title.

In the opposite end I've always found the titles of the Don Bluth animations "All Dogs Go To Heaven" and "A Troll In Central Park" to be such a mouthful.

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Schwpz (not verified) | Fri, 04/08/2011 - 05:28 | Permalink

Thanks for the info, Mark. The only title I've come up with for my series idea turns out to be a video game title from a few years ago, though it doesn't seem like it was too popular of a game, made by a semi-big company I believe. I'm not nearly ready to pitch the series yet, so I'll keep my eye open for some other titles.

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Mike (not verified) | Fri, 04/01/2011 - 16:14 | Permalink

What other TV and movie titles do you like or dislike?

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Mark Simon | Fri, 04/01/2011 - 06:27 | Permalink

You do need to research titles. Between IMDB.com and TV.com, you can do a quick search of TV and movie titles. Sources like tvtracker.com also have info on projects in development. I would avoid using names of songs or games if there can be any confusion, unless you have the rights to that property.

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Mark Simon | Fri, 04/01/2011 - 06:27 | Permalink

When naming a show, should you worry about overlapping with the names of other properties? I imagine it would be tough to make sure that absolutely nothing else has ever held the same title, but would it turn off a buyer if your title was the same as a lesser known game or song or something else?