While at the Annecy Animation Film Festival, Mediawan Kids & Family unveiled a raft of new youth-centric shows, including “Karters” and “Witch Detectives,” on top of a licensing pact with DeAPlaneta Entertainment.
Spearheaded by animation veteran Julien Borde, Mediawan Kids & Family is a division of the international film and TV powerhouse Mediawan whose recent acquisitions include Brad Pitt’s Plan B.
Mediawan Kids & Family is partnering up with Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA on the production and distribution of its animated series “Karters” for the linear and non-linear services of Warner Bros. Discovery. The action-packed series will premiere on Cartoonito for EMEA, and will be distributed by Mediawan Kids & Family Distribution worldwide except Latin America.
Both “Karters” and “Witch Detectives” are being produced by Aton Soumache’s topnotch Method Animation (“The Little Prince”), whose credits include “The Three Musketeers.” “Witch Detectives” has already been boarded by TF1 and Super RTL.
Written by Lisa Kohn (“The Smurfs,” “Alvin and The Chipmuncks”) and Romain Van Liemt (“Iron Man,” “The Little Prince”), “Karters” follows five kids who take the wheels of karts and venture into dangerous battles to rescue magical unipets.
“Witch Detectives,” meanwhile, is a comedic, whodunnit series penned and co-created by Justine Cheynet (“PJ Masks,” “Petronix Defenders”). It revolves around three young girls who juggle work and teenage problems while solving wacky mysteries thanks to their magical skills.
Method Animation’s pipeline of originals and IP adaptations also include “Taitikis,” a preschool series based on RomualdRacioppo’s book series published at Gallimard Jeunesse; “Anansi,” a new action-adventure series developed in partnership with Diprente in South Africa; and “Banana Sioule,” a series for young adults created by Michaël Sanlaville.
As it seeks to build new franchises, Mediawan Kids & Family has also teamed with DeAPlaneta Entertainment for licensing and merchandising. The partnership will kick off with “Karters” for which DeAPlaneta Entertainment will be the exclusive worldwide master licensing agent, and will be co-producing the TV series, as well as distribute it in various territories such Latin America. DeAPlaneta Entertainment will also be the worldwide licensing agent of “Witch Detective” and “The Three Musketeers.”
Other Mediawan Kids & Family labels have also announced new projects, including Elliott Studio which is developing a mixed-media adaptation of the comic strip “Boule & Bill” with DEMD, another banner of Mediawan Studio France. Somewhere Animation, meanwhile, is developing 2D projects such as Chefclub Adventures and “Temtem,” a new comedy-adventure series based on the multiplayer creature collection game, in co-production with Marla Studios.
Mediawan Kids & Family is preparing for the wide release of “Miraculous the Movie” in France on July 5 and on Netflix globally from July 28. The big-budget animated feature is a spinoff of the hit TV show whose sixth season is in production for TF1, Disney, and Gloob. An original IP produced by Jeremy Zag and Method Animation, “Miraculous” has been the most watched animated series on Disney Channel Germany during the first quarter of 2023, and has also been widely popular in France on TF1, and on the Disney Channel in the U.S. and Spain.
Besides “Miraculous The Movie,” Mediawan Kids & Family Cinema has ambitious animated features coming up, for instance Sylvain Chomet’s “The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol” which has already been acquired by Sony Pictures Classics in the U.S.
Mediawan Kids & Family is also home to Joann Sfar’s Magical Society, Italy’s Palomar Animation, the U.K.’s Wildseed Studios and Dutch outfit Submarine Animation.
