Lionel Messi and Sony Music Entertainment will team with the Canary Islands’ Atlantis Animation to bring an animated series on the Argentine soccer megastar several steps closer to reality. The deal sees Atlantis producing as a service company a CG animated series trailer inspired by Messi himself.
Sony Music’s Premium Content Division, which is producing in partnership with Leo Messi Management, is overseeing the development and distribution of the series.
based out of Tenerife, Atlantis Animation is now in full productionof the trailer. Catherine Macresy is in charge of the production of the trailer.
Targeting all audiences, the series “will immerse viewers in the epic adventures of a young Messi overcoming titanic challenges as he navigates the vibrant world ofvideo games,” a written statement said.
The soundtrack will be provided by international artists and composers signed to the Sony Music Entertainment label, ensuring a complete audio-visual show.
Further content details are under wraps, but the plot set-up, placing Messi in a video game world, looks set to lay the basis of an artistically ambitious project working on multiple universe levels such as the young Messi’s reality and his adventures in a video game universe. In this line, the partners described the series on Thursday as a “modern and innovative” series.
The announcement of Atlantis’ involvement also served to emphasise that the series is “committed to conveying thecore values of sportand the lessons it embodies on screen, as it will follow the journey of one of the greatest athletes of all time.” “Messi’s passion for football will serve as the backdrop for a moving and captivating content, highlighting the moral values that characterize the world icon,” the partners said.
The project underlines the relevance of animation to arguably the most famous person in the world. “Since I was a kid, I’ve always loved animated series and my kids are big fans of animated characters. Being able to participate in an animation project makes me happy, because it fulfils one of my dreams!” he enthused.
“I would like to thank Sony Music for joining this project and we hope that everyone will love the result, especially boys and girls.”
As Messi appears to have decided his possibly final soccer club in his sporting career, the series looks set to play off his achievement, while being hailed as one if not the greatest player in soccer history, of remaining remarkably grounded
Atlantis Animation’s involvement in a series turning on one of the biggest IPs in the world marks the latest coup for the Canary Islands’ animation scene, one of the fastest growing in Europe, which has built from a very small base in 2016.
The Messi pilot project joins an illustrious bevy of big IPs which are now being animated out of the Canaries, including “Arcane,” which has been – and is being – animated by Fortiche España at its Canary Islands studio atLas Palmas de Gran Canaria, which opened in October 2020.
A French CG animation studio based in Tenerife, the Canary Islands, since 2019, Atlantis Animation became the first Canary Islands studio to develop a full season of animation broadcast on Disney Channelwith full CG TV series “Tara Duncan and the Spellbinders.” (2021).
The No. 1 rated Disney Channel show on Disney Channel, kids 4-10, in April 2022, “Tara Duncan” was directed by ex-Ubisoft art and narrative director Dan Creteur, who brought an anime edge to the series. Creteur now works as Atlantis Animation director.
Atlantis has also contributed to “Miraculous Ladybug” Season 5, a series that won the Kidscreen 2023 award for best animated series for kids.
“We are a service provider, but we try to being a creative input to everything we do,” said Raul Carbo, Atlantis Animation CEO.
“Our idea is to go for very premium and qualitative projects. So Messi is definitely one of them, a world scale project which for Atlantis is the next step, he added.
