Cartoon Forum: The Future of CARTOON & Cartoons
Following the same fast-paced format for a broad audience was Scratch and Sniff from A Productions in the U.K. The quick-fire adventures of a cat and a dog who thinks he’s a cat has been specifically designed for iPod and mobile phone distribution as well as for TV.
Another short-form hot property was The Annoying Thing — based on the ubiquitous Crazy Frog ringtone star. The pilot features some excellent CGI animation that makes this series of 52x1 look like a done deal.
Xilam (France) joined with Castelrosso Films (Italy) to pitch Rahan — an epic comedy/adventure series set in a pre-historic world. Based on a classic French comic created by Roger Lecureux, it is set some 35,000 years ago in a land of exotic animals, lush valleys and warring clans, where hero Rahan sets out on a quest to see all of “those who walk upright” live in peace. Two broadcasters, France 3 and RAI, are already signed up for the 2D/3D series.
Pre-school projects were especially well represented this year and one of the strongest was Jo and Jack from Irish company Ikandi. Strong illustrations by creator Corrina Askin translated to a fresh-looking style that combines hand-drawn backgrounds with Flash character animation. It tells the story of a boy and a cat who set off on wild adventures in their own back yard. Buyers were jumping for a slice of the action in the 26x5 series, which is budgeted at €1.5 million and already has the support of Five in the U.K. and TG4 in Ireland.
Gabriel — The Little Short-Slighted Snake was another show with original designs — this time from the Estonian studio of A Film. The 26x13 format explores the world of reading with a short-sighted snake and a young boy in the jungle. If they wish hard enough then characters from their books will appear right there in the jungle.
Welsh company Calon launched its new 26x10 pre-school stop-motion comedy Ig. That’s the name of a little cave-girl with an adventurous spirit and a dinosaur for a pet. Calon was set up last year when Robin Lyons and his creative team left Siriol — a well-known studio throughout the history of Cartoon Forum.
“Preschool work is far from just producing something creative and cute,” said Lyons. “It’s about developing characters and scenarios that youngsters can relate to and empathize with based on their own limited lifelong experiences and understanding. The parameters of a young child’s world are limited and Ig’s prehistoric playground is a reflection of this.”
The new trend for producing a CGI series and feature film at the same time continued with a couple of new projects at Cartoon Forum. Magma Films (Ireland) and A Film (Denmark) worked together on the recently completed Ugly Duckling and Me using the format. This time they each presented a new series/movie package.
Magma teamed up with Europool to present Bug Muldoon — the insect population’s own Bogart-style private eye at the bottom of the garden. A Film teamed with Mikisoq Media to pitch Mikisoq — a story of Arctic life and traditions told through the eyes of a Greenlander boy.
And then to round it all off was the madness that is Petteri Pasanen and his Finish studio Anima Vitae, following up last year’s Leningrad Cowboys pitch, with his latest Human Being News. Based on existing anarchic Finish characters Pommi the Cat and Gommi the Rabbit, the show takes an offbeat look at the human world and rounds off with karaoke. The whole thing links in with a website that allows kids to load their own pictures to the show.
Next year, Cartoon Forum moves on to the medieval Spanish town of Girona — close to Barcelona — from Sept. 19-22.
Bob Swain is an animation scriptwriter based at Sidewinder Films in the U.K. He has attended every edition of Cartoon Forum since it began in 1990.
Ron Diamond is the president of AWN and the owner of animation production house, Acme Filmworks.
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