australian television information archive

Porchlight Entertainment Announces Deal With CBC In Canada For Debut Of Animalia Fall 2007

Continuing the international momentum for the new children's series, ANIMALIA, PorchLight Entertainment announces a deal with The Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) that will bring the high-end CGI animated series to Canada in the Fall of 2007. CBC will debut the series immediately following the international debut by CBBC in the UK. The series brings Graeme Base's international best-selling picture book, Animalia, to life and is produced by Burberry/Lux Monkey/DoubleBase Productions in association with PorchLight Entertainment.

"ANIMALIA is an extraordinary television series and with the addition of CBC, ANIMALIA will be one of the first children's series to launch virtually simultaneously in all four of the major English speaking countries of the world," said PorchLight's president and CEO, Bruce Johnson. "We are thrilled that the CBC has embraced the series."

In addition to CBC and CBBC, ANIMALIA will be broadcast on PBS in the United States; and Network Ten and Nickelodeon in Australia. The series is being distributed internationally by BBC Worldwide and in North America by PorchLight Entertainment. Worldwide licensing and merchandising are being handled by PorchLight, excluding Australia, New Zealand and the UK which are being handled by BBC Worldwide.

"I have always loved the book, in particular the incredible illustrations," said Kim Wilson, Creative Head of Children's Programming, CBC. "So when Bruce Johnson pitched a project that would both celebrate that look in beautiful CGI to bring the characters to life, but also add these rich adventurous storylines, it was an easy decision to make. This series truly was love at first site and I'm thrilled to be bringing it to a Canadian audience of children."

The series features two contemporary kids, Zoe and Alex, who visit the extraordinary land of Animalia, a spectacular place inhabited by talking animals from the pages of Graeme Base's classic book. Mysterious events have undermined the very fabric of Animalia's civilization and Zoe and Alex and their new best friends, G'Bubu and Iggy (a huge green gorilla and a small but heroic iguana) will do everything they can to restore peace and order to Animalia. The series combines elements of humor, adventure and mystery and will also offer an interactive website to accompany the show.

First published in 1986, Animalia received immediate international acclaim and has since become a revered children's classic with worldwide sales of more than three million copies. Graeme Base is one of the world's leading creators of children's books, with regular appearances on The New York Times best-seller list.

"ANIMALIA is a many-layered world of detail, imagination and humor," said Graeme Base. "Capturing the spirit of the book has been central to our efforts, and seeing it come to life on the screen is tremendously exciting."

ANIMALIA is being produced by Animalia Productions which is a joint venture between BAFTA-Award winning Burberry Productions, Graeme Base, and Co-Producer Murray Pope, in association with Emmy Award-winning PorchLight Entertainment. Executive Producers for the program are Graeme Base, Ewan Burnett, Bruce Johnson, Murray Pope, and Tom Ruegger.

About PorchLight Entertainment

PorchLight Entertainment is a multi-faceted company focused on the production and distribution of high-quality family entertainment and licensing and merchandising representation for children's and family brands and trademarks. Since its formation in 1995 by veteran entertainment executives Bruce D. Johnson and William T. Baumann, PorchLight has produced more than 30 live-action and animated movies and major animated series including the Emmy Award-winning series, Tutenstein, for Discovery Kids and Jetix Europe, Jay Jay The Jet Plane for PBS, Four Eyes for France 3, Nickelodeon Asia and Nickelodeon Australia; and Adventures from The Book of Virtues for PBS, and a series of direct-to-videos for Leapfrog, the leading educational toy company. In addition to ANIMALIA, the Company is currently producing Secret Saturdays for Cartoon Network; A Tad of Christmas Cheer for Leapfrog, and a line-up of live-action and animated movies for the international television and DVD markets. For more information, visit www.porchlight.com.

May 18, 2007
PorchLight Entertainment