Here Come the Pitches

Preschool shows (* denotes cross-media concept)

Format: 52 x 11’ Style: 2D Producers: Image-in (France), Fair Play (Canada) For spunky 7-year-old Sophie, who lives in a picturesque seaside town, each day is an adventure as she sets off with her best friend Emilio and her cat Sir to discover all the hidden treasures the world has to offer. Format: 52 x 11’ Style: 3D Producer: Blue Spirit Productions (France) Every night when she falls asleep, Alice, a joyful little girl, is welcomed in Wonderland by her friend, Lewis. Format: 52 x 11’ Style: 2D Producer: Kavaleer Productions (Ireland) Alva Doon finds a magical trollbead bracelet at the bottom of a well and each of the seven pretty beads is a petrified troll with the single goal of causing Alva strife. Format: 52 x 7’ Styles: 2D, 3D Producer: Creative Conspiracy (Belgium) Baba, Dada and Boo are three colorful and adorable friends who pack an impressive dose of creative superpowers. Boogaloo and Graham* Format: 52 x 5’ Style: 2D Producer: Sixteen South (United Kingdom) Boogaloo always has a question, and even though Graham can give him a very detailed and solid answer, this never satisfies him. He needs to see this for himself. Format: 35 x 11’ Style: 2D Producer: Illuminated Films (United Kingdom) Caiman, an inquisitive 5-year-old crocodile, lives with his family in Trickle End, a buzzing and bubbling community in the mangroves, where the river meets the sea. Finding Moo Friends* Format: 26 x 11’ Styles: 2D, 3D, drawing, painting Producers: Paperivene Studio (Finland), Hahn Film (Germany) Moo and his best friend, Sticky, spend hours exploring their surroundings. Happy Go Hopscotch* Format: 52 x 7’ Style: 2D Producer: Kinomind Films (Lithuania) Eight-year-old Hopscotch is a source of joy and a force for good; she’s quick to spot happiness dilemmas, invent fun adventures and help solve problems. Format: 52 x 11’ Styles: 2D, drawing, painting, cut-out Producer: Unanico Group (United Kingdom) The adventures of musical instrument characters provide a humorous and irreverent counterpoint to music from different genres. Format: 52 x 11’ Style: 2D Producers: Blue Zoo Productions (United Kingdom) A friendly young witch and her clever cat friend share the forest with exciting creatures based on mythical folklore. Format: 13 x 11’ Style: 2D Producers: Cornelius Films (Spain), Grupa Smacznego (Poland), Wuji House (Spain), Peekaboo Animation (Spain) Each night, six little paint drops come alive inside paintings and go adventuring through the amazing world hidden in the museum. Format: 6 x 12’ Styles: 2D, 3D, drawing Producers: Hob AB (Sweden), Naive (Sweden) Moonwolves love the moon so much they decide they couldn’t just sit and stare at it anymore — they decide to go there. Format: 52 x 7’ Style: 3D Producers: Zooper Film (Germany), Rubinstein Pictures (Netherlands), Grid Animation (Belgium) Come with Julia and Sam as they discover a secret hiding place, greet the ragman, and learn to make pancakes. Mush-Mush & the Mushables * Format: 52 x 11’ Style: 3D Producers: La Cabane Productions (France), Thuristar (Belgium) In the Mushables’ peculiar little community, everyone seems to have chosen his or her role. Everyone that is, except Mush-Mush. Format: 26 x 6’ Style: 3D Producer: Igloo Films (Ireland) Zookeeper Mr. Peek and his two children, Jimmy and Violet, look after the loud and colorful animals of Peek Zoo.

Format: 13 x 7’ Style: 3D Producer: Ionart Studio (Hungary) PoCats fit in a child’s hand, and only children know that the cats are able to do more than what can be seen at first sight. Potatoyz the Appisodes* Format 104 x 1’ Styles: 2D, 3D Producer: Potaterie (France) Little limbless potatoes made of pure and bright colors wander around in a scarlet fog with spirit and humor taking on the colorless Beta Pota. Sing and Dance with the Pops* Format: 20 x 1’30 Style: 2D Producer: (France) Four friends learn nursery rhymes and create a simple and happy choreography for each new song. Format: 52 x 5’ Style: 3D Producer: CarpeDiem Film & TV (Canada) Four best friends flip the world on its head in high-energy comic escapades that pose the challenge: Go outside and play! Format: 13 x 6’ Styles: 2D, 3D Producer: Animoon (Poland) A little fox named Toru stumbles upon a box of family souvenirs, photographs and a band that belonged to his grandmother – who was once a superhero looking after all the creatures living in the forest. Format: TV special & 26’ Style: Stop-motion Producer: Xbo films (France), Moukda Production (France) Batten down the hatches! Kerala, the enthusiastic and curious baby kangaroo, wakes up to discover a new adventure aboard Noah’s Ark. Format: 13 x 8’ Styles: 2D, Cut-out Producers: Letko (Poland), Animoon (Poland) When Ally is alone with her best-friend cats, she grows cat ears and a tail. Format: 25 x 5’ Styles: 2D, drawing Producer: Fettle Animation (United Kingdom) A series of colorful animated comedy shorts, showcasing surprising, extraordinary and funny facts about well loved animals. Format: 26 x 7’ Style: Stop-motion Producer: AnimAlps Productions (France) Barbara is an impatient little girl who is full to the brim with dreams and imagination in the 1970s. Format: 52 x 11’ Style: 3D Producer: Anyzac (South Korea) A boy discovers a hidden elevator and learns the secrets of the relics in the Stars Hotel while searching for its founder: his missing grandfather. Borka and the Magic Dress* Format: 26 x 7’ Styles: 2D, 3D Producers: Trionfilm (Hungary), Ladies First Consulting (Hungary), Dereng Animation (Hungary) A little girl who has a special dress, a traditionally embroidered garment she inherited from her great-grandmother, uses it to learn about the world and to solve her everyday problems. Format: 52 x 13’ Style: 2D Producer: Dandelooo (France) Three plant friends find adventure in SunnyDay Mall. Format: 52 x 13’ Style: 2D Producers: 1st-Day (Belgium), OUFtivi / RTBF (Belgium), Ketnet / VRT (Belgium) Charly assists her veterinarian father in an animal shelter and a zoo where they help animals in danger. Format: 13 x 22’ Styles: 2D, 3D Producer: Giant Animation (Ireland) Three lifelong friends investigate and document the eeriest mysteries of their city. Format: 52 x 11’ Style: 2D Producer: Baby Cow Animation (United Kingdom) Sally, Jeffrey, Clive, Isobel and the Alien head off on adventures in their bright yellow camper van in a parallel world not unlike our own. Format: 26 x 6’ Style: 3D Producer: Zographic Films (Bulgaria) The adventures of an odd dragon family in the conservative city of Dragonville.

Format: 52 x 11’ Style: 2D Producers: Lynx Animation Studios (Macedonia), Will Production (France) Follows a mischievous group of little dragons and the calamities of their everyday kindergarten life. Format: 52 x 11’ Style: 2D Producers: Cyber Group Studios (France), The Jim Henson Co. (United Kingdom) Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter couldn’t possibly be more different, but they love each other, and would do anything to make one another happy. Format: 52 x 13’ Styles: 2D, Drawing Producer: Media Valley (France) Little Rebecca makes best friends with Ernest, a microbe she caught who has given up being a practicing microbe and devotes himself to protecting her. Ernst, Bobbie and the Rest Format: 52 x 8’ Style: 2D Producers: Trend Media (Netherlands), Wim Pel Productions (Netherlands) Friends Ernst and Bobbie end up in all sorts of impossible situations they resolve with a cheerful attitude and a healthy dose of luck. Format: 52 x 12’ Style: 3D Producer: Cottonwood Media (France) A fun-loving and clumsy stray dog tumbles into a tranquil, otherworldly pet paradise — and accidentally breaks the source of its peacefulness. The Great Robot Challenge Format: 78 x 7’ Styles: 2D, 3D Producers: Savoir FER (France), DLP Paris (France) Teams of robots face off in a series of wacky adventures. I’ve Got a Time-Traveling Monkey on My Back* Format: 78 x 7’20 Style: 2D Producer: TF1 Production (France) For one full year in a thousand, Kikoumba has to defend his crown as king of the animal kingdom from a constant stream of challengers. Format: 78 x 7’ Styles: 2D, stop-motion, live action Producer: Millimages (France) Unexpected events are the gateway to breathless adventures in an extraordinary new world for Bunny and Doggy, who have to unite, hide and fight together to overcome their enemies. Format: 26 x 24’ Style: 2D Producers: A. Film Production (Denmark), Comet Film (Germany) Young Tony moves to the country and finds a very special friend, Rudolph, who happens to be a vampire. Format: 52 x 11 Style: 3D Producer: Framestore (United Kingdom) Each episode features sketches, songs, stories and silliness as the Loopy Fruits get each other into trouble, laugh at each other, dress up in costumes, take petty revenge and sabotage each other’s attempts to perform their show. Luckily Enough, It Was a Beautiful Day tiques (France) Three adults and several children are aboard a library that has set sail on the ocean. Format: 52 x 7’ Styles: 2D, live action Producers: Folivari (France), WINDS (France), Cyber Group Studios (France) Menino explores the lives of real children living in every corner of our magnificent planet. Format: 26 x 5’ Style: 3D Producers: Hoho Entertainment (United Kingdom), Grid Animation (Belgium) Mimi and Bibi are twin girls with very different perspectives on the world: One through rose-colored spectacles, the other through dark shades. Format: 78 x 7’ Styles: 2D, drawing Producer: Xilam Animation (France) Mister Magoo is a kind-hearted and cheerful guy whose severe near-sightedness causes him to mistake his whereabouts for other places, get people mixed up, and wreak havoc everywhere he goes. Format: 52 x 11’ Style: 3D Producer: Caligari Film und Fernsehproduktions (Germany) The gang of rats controls all the Hamburg docks and no one dares stand up to them except for the Muscleteers!

Format: 52 x 11’ Style: 2D Producer: Watch Next Media (France) Eight-year-olds Nate and Malika leave home 30 minutes early to go to school, and yet every morning they arrive late! That’s because every morning, something amazing happens on the way. The Piracy of Princess Priceless* Format: 52 x 10’ Style: 2D Producers: Adriatic Animation (Croatia), CUB Animation (Hungary) A restless and curious princess joins a pirate crew. Pirates of the Abyss* Format: 26 x 26’ Style: 2D Producer: (France) Lead by their mentor, a group of kids continues the work of historic scholars while maintaining the world’s oceans. Format: 12 x 11’ Styles: 2D, drawing Producers: Planet Agents (Greece), Amalia Giannikou and Co (Greece) Jason and his friends Ben, Marie and Anita become Planet Agents and take on adventurous missions to defeat environmental supervillain Ivan von Powervamp and his posse of resource-depleting allies. Format: 26 x 7’ Style: 2D Producer: Pyjama Films (Finland) Explores the weird and wonderful creatures of Planet Z, where evolution has taken mind-boggling courses and anything can happen! Ralph and the Dinosaurs Format: 26 x 5’ Style: 2D Producers: Vivement Lundi! (France), Nadasdy Film (Swit- zerland) Follow Ralph’s adventures in the world of dinosaurs and have fun learning or refreshing what you think you already know. Format: 26 x 22’ Styles: 2D, 3D Producer: Les Armateurs (France) The future King of England is sent to stay with a peasant family in a small village in Normandy and discovers the Cave of Baligan, which holds, through its runes, the keys to all sorts of Norman and Viking legends. Format: 52 x 13’ Style: 2D Producer: (France) Lily and her gang know better than anyone else that behind every jitter lurks a mischievous monster. It only remains to flush them out and return them to the Encyclopaedia of Scares, their natural habitat. Format: 26 x 7’ Style: Cut-out Producers: Fabrique Fantastique (Belgium), scopas medien (Germany) Mouse is an obnoxious, bossy, pompous character who lives under the delusion that she is a brave knight who will stop at nothing. Gentle and patient Dragon endures all Mouse’s stubbornness; she knows better than anyone how to deal with her. Format: 52 x 11’ Styles: 2D, 3D Producer: JAM Media (Ireland) A kid, his pillow and alarm clock chase the dream of one day climbing the social ladder in the surreal world of Snoozeville. Supermimmo - The Original* Format: 26 x 13’ Style: 2D Producer: mata (Italy) A super dog, a ramshackle super grandpa, a little boy who invents apps and a girl made of toy bricks take on the treacherous Mr. Gold. The Three Little Super Pigs Format: 52 x 11’ Style: 2D Producer: Fourth Wall Creative (United Kingdom) Three crime-fighting superhero pigs battle their nemesis, The Big Bad Wolf, and his henchmen. Format: 52 x 11’ Style: 2D Producer: Tori Design (South Korea) Tori and her friends use their magical hair to defend their town and go on awesome adventures. Format: 52 x 7’ Style: 2D Producer: Teidees Audiovisuals (Spain) A toy figure, a nibbled-on cookie, a picture and a dustball live together under a sofa left behind in an attic and explain what they do via internet videos. Format; 52 x 2’ Style: 2D Pink Kong Studios (Ireland) The Animal Music Artists ooze attitude as their videos play in the Urban Tails Music Chart show. Format: 1 x 26’ Styles: 2D, Live action Producers: Folimage Studio (France), Nadasdy Film (Switzerland) A mixed-race girl from Paris journeys through the rainforest seeking a cure for her sick aunt and finds the key to success in her own hair.

anada’s capital city is a long way from the dream-paved streets of Hollywood, but Chris Prynoski is ready to bridge the distance as his feature directorial debut Nerdland lands in competition at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, set for Sept. 21-25.

Nerdland is the tale of two “idiot characters” who ineptly seek fame for fame’s sake in the movie business. Voiced by Paul Rudd and Patton Oswalt, John and Elliot’s pursuit of fame reaches desperation levels as their 30th birthdays approach with less than nothing to show for it, leading them down a darkly funny path in search of infamy.

“They’re basically guys who have nothing to offer society,” says Prynoski, who founded in 1999 Titmouse Animation with his wife, Shannon. “Fame for fame’s sake is the theme, but it’s also a commentary on how (rotten) our society is, our fame-obsessed society and how it’s going down the tubes, and it’s a lot about consumerism and L.A. in general.”

It was Titmouse and Prynoski’s work on so many Adult Swim shows that piqued the attention of award-winning screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, of Se7en fame. “Andy brought the movie to me because he liked Beavis and Butt-head and Metalocalypse, which are two shows that I worked on,” says Prynoski.

The offer arrived with Walker’s production partner, former agent Gavin Polone, attached — along with a modest budget the duo had procured for production. “We did sweat equity in the movie and put in a little bit of money, but very, very little compared to the other investors,” says Prynoski.

The first big challenge was casting. “The characters really are (jerks), and really the movie would not have worked if you couldn’t get actors who could pull off those charac- ters,” says Prynoski. Rudd and Oswalt were ideal, he says — funny enough to make Elliot and John somewhat likable while adding quirks that the animators could build on.

Prynoski says he embraced the idea of the movie looking like the kind of low-budget movie it is — and taking advantage of that esthetic. With Titmouse creative director Antonio Canobbio as art director, Prynoski designed

Beavis and Butt-head or something in that zone where it’s like, it’s kind of sketchy and crunchy, but it’s appealing.”

One sequence fans are sure to talk about is when John and Elliot try to prepare to commit dirty deeds by watching a video called Extreme Violence, meant to be four hours of the most horrific acts ever committed to film. To pull off this sequence, Prynoski turned to a bunch of his animator friends (including Bill Plympton, Peter Chung and Christy Karacas) to do a one-second animation of the worst thing they could think of and edited them into a mini montage. Animation was mostly done in-house at Titmouse, with the studio approaching the fourreel movie as a four-episode TV series. “We had to execute this pretty fast because of the low budget,” says Prynoski.

The film played at Tribeca and Annecy prior to its slot at Ottawa. Prynoski says he’s excited the film is getting out there, with a distribution announcement expected soon. [