MIPTV 2011 Animation Spotlight

The first full week of April 2011 again gives way to globetrotting producers and pitchmen, legions of which settle upon Cannes, France, in an effort to generate more substantive support for their libraries. The MIPTV 2011 (April 4-7, 2011) industry event has set its sights on new media and connected devices this year, a timely and sufficient supplement to scheduled spotlights on fiction, international co-production, and other competitive means of program creation and distribution. Meanwhile, a number of animation producers will be getting into the mix: showcasing their latest wares and networking with an array of future business partners.

MIPTV's emphasis on expanding the reach of content by enlisting new tech professionals and targeting innovative, usually online opportunities, isn't particularly new to the animation community, but the professional focus will go a long way toward assisting studios wishing to further embrace digital trends.

Certainly, a few keynotes, experiential labs, and closed-door sessions later, the event's attendees will have healthily boosted their knowledge base for content connectivity.

Animation production studios and their distribution associates return to MIPTV 2011 in greater and more effective numbers this year (Check out the 2011 animation highlights.). The diversity of new and entertaining programming has grown quite amicably. The following Animation Insider feature news article will spotlight a few animation studios and distributors whose animated properties are particularly notable this season:

from Justin Time

from Scary Larry

Guru Studio is hard at work on their first original intellectual property, a beautifully-designed cartoon called Justin Time (page two / watch); Europe Images Int'l is pursuing global sales for Scary Larry, a lively new animation about a werewolf kid and his rock band (page three / watch); the Germany-based producer ZDF Enterprises offers a look at Sherlock Yack (page four / watch); the skilled artists at TeamTO meanwhile have their work cut out for them with the upcoming CG series Plankton Invasion, an animated comedy about sea creatures, climate change, and more (page five / watch); and Sidekick, already on-air, the latest from Nelvana Studios (page six / watch).

There's also the Paris, France-based Cyber Group Studios represents a number of titles, either co-produced as distributor, including the raucous 2D animation Nina Patalo, produced by Je Suis Bien Content (page seven / watch); and Grimm Studio, from Seoul, Korea, goes to work on Cobot, in addition to a slew of CG game cinematics and film visual effects commission (page eight / watch). Video is available for each series/studio profiled.

Additional animation note for MIPTV 2011 include Italy's Rainbow Group gathering new support for it's spin-off project Pop Pixie and the second season of Huntik: Secrets & Seekers; the launch of Kioka, an adorable preschool title from Goldilocks Studio (Seoul, Korea) and Awol Animation (Paris, France); more hype surrounding Voltron Force from the UK's Classic Media; and a number titles represented or produced by Studio 100 Media (Munchen, Germany), such as the revised Maya the Bee series and children's adaptation Woodlies, both are in production for 2012.


Guru Studio (page two)	Europe Images Int'l (page three)

ZDF Enterprises (page four)	TeamTO (page five)

Nelvana Enterprises (page six)	Cyber Group Studios (page seven)

Grimm Studio (page eight)