Gianluca Bellomo (l) of Cartoon One, which sponsored the KidsTown Pavilion, was selling School for Vampires, a hit on French, German and Italian television. Courtesy of Jan Nagel (l); © Hahn Film AG/Cartoon One S.r.l./ARD/RAI-Fiction.

BKN sat high in the hotel's suites, the center of the Latin action and the place to meet the "majors." Irene Civico, licensing manager of BKN's Spanish studio, was there drumming up Latin American buyers for Zorro Generation Z and Dork Hunters From Outer Space, two new animated series. Stressing NATPE's importance, Civico said that it was "a perfect place to meet the Latin American stations." Meanwhile, APA International Film Distributors was a busy booth on the Mandalay Bay convention floor, promoting lots of Spanish-language product and animation. President Rafael Fusaro brought an old favorite, Mafalda, an animated series produced in 1986 in Mexico, based on a comic strip that's 40 years old. This show has been sold around the world and is an international favorite, according to Fusaro.

"NATPE is the curl of the wave," said Kevin Gillis, exec producer and managing partner at Breakthrough Animation. "You get the splash here before it goes public." He has Atomic Betty going into a third season with a new twist in the story -- and Atomic Betty will be going multi-platform. Captain Flamingo will be going strip on Jetix/Toon Disney and is also headed to the mobile market. The Captain Flamingo web-based games, under the control of Breakthrough's New Media division, are award winning and there will be new ones coming in season three. Gillis says he always comes out of NATPE with new relationships and new ideas; some of them work and some don't, but they are all great. This year he was also looking to woo Latin American buyers with his popular animated shows.

Another stalwart distributor and producer was the ever-present PorchLight Ent. Each year CFO William Baumann and his team man a booth to present their kids and family fare. In addition to selling animated series such as Gofrette, a preschool show co-produced with Subsequence and Zoe Mae, they were also looking for content for Kidvideos.com, a YouTube-style site for kids they are launching.

Where's Animation?
Mark Simon, an animator and contributor to AWN.com, started NATPE with a win. He landed a contract with Youzuu, a mobile-content distributor, the opening morning. Walking around the convention floor, he was looking for the animation and thought the floor looked smaller and less crowded than in the past on opening day. He considered this an advantage because he could take longer meetings and have less rushing.

Breakthrough Animation's Atomic Betty (l) will be going multi-platform. Andre Dunn (r) of FatKat, had a couple of shows to promote at NATPE: Three Delivery and Space Knights. © Atomic Cartoons.(l); Courtesy of Jan Nag

Showcase Ent. and Konnie Kwak, vice-president of production and co-production, introduced their new kids' division, Showcase For Kids. They were promoting their animated series Ape Escape, a Nicktoon/Frederator/Hawiian Film Partners co-production. FatKat, from Canada, had a couple of shows to promote in their booth. Andrew Dunn, vice-president of business development, was chatting up Three Delivery, a new Flash series from YTV/Nickelodeon/BBC/Animation Collective, and Space Knights, a new pilot. Dunn says NATPE is an important place to start relationships, meet buyers and have contact with the industry.

NATPE proves to be a great place to debut companies and properties. This year there were a few new players occupying booths, where they were seeking partners, distributors and buyers. Salvatore Cavalieri, president and CEO of Cilantro Animation Studios, has a couple of adult-orientated CGI properties that speak to a Latino/American acculturated audience. He is seeking co-production for Johnny The Roofer and La Carta, and NATPE was his place to start.

Deos Animation Studios has a successful award-winning PBS series, Ribert & Robert's Wonderworld, which they are promoting for wider distribution. President and CEO Michael DeVitto is looking at launching Wonderworld.tv, a new website "where kids love to learn and learn to love!" Deos was also promoting The Hidden Treasures of Wompkee Wood, a Deos Animation production in association with The Wompkee LLC, which MarVista is distributing. And he was promoting his Structured Animation Method (S.A.M.), a new production method and the only animation technology featured at the conference.

Lincoln Butterfield Animation is a unique animation studio that introduced themselves and several properties this year at NATPE. Exec producer and founder Robert Hughes and his team of producers brought Tan, an anime kung fu spoof for kids, and a couple of adult properties, When in Rome and Adventure Probe. Hughes was seeking co-production and distribution for their properties and deemed NATPE a good place to do this.