Cartoon Forum Forecast

Jungle sounds abound in MacKinnon & Saunders' pre-talking vehicle Rah Rah!

Even before they learn to speak in sentences, most wee kids will pipe up and tell you that a lion says "rah" and a monkey says "ooh-ooh, aah-aah." And MacKinnon & Saunders' Cartoon Forum pitch Rah Rah! taps into this common bit of early childhood knowledge. Based on an original concept by Bob the Builder production designer Curtis Jobling, this 52 x seven-minute stop-frame series was inspired by classic kids song "Old MacDonald's Farm" and the animal noises it calls for.

The show centers around a diminutive lion named Rah Rah who has adventures in the Jingly Jangly Jungle with onomatopeically named friends such as Snap Snap the crocodile and Who Who the monkey. Besides using their individually unique animal noises to communicate, the characters talk to each other with very simple vocabulary that incorporates fun rhymes, repetition and rhythms. In each episode, they set about solving a simple mystery that leads to an adventure.

When they hear something ticking in the jungle, for example, the critters venture far beyond their home turf to find the source of the mysterious, scary sound, which turns out to be a harmless little alarm clock.

Rah Rah! is designed for the two to four crowd, so it has an undercurrent of teaching early communication skills to kids in the process of moving on from the "me, me, me" phase of infancy and reaching out to the world around them through language. Besides small words and animals sounds, the characters use key communication tools such as eye contact and body language to interact with each other, and M&S is consulting with experts who specialize in children's communication to properly develop these unique storytelling techniques.

With a lead broadcaster almost in place, the London-based shop has already started production on Rah Rah!, working with a budget of approximately US$4.4 million. M&S producer Jackie Edwards says Canada's CCI Entertainment is already on-board as a co-production partner. She has also shown the concept to a select number of buyers, but no deals have been inked yet. The goal coming out of Cartoon Forum is to lock in broadcast partners, and Edwards is aiming for sales in most major territories.

Why Alphanim's green comedy Pok & Mok rocks

Broadcasters may well fall in love with Pok & Mok's green-centric stories, which are certainly de rigeur these days, but the project's edgy visual style is a more immediately compelling calling card and should draw a crowd in Ludwigsburg. Alphanim's creative team has layered wacky 2-D animated characters over a detailed miniature model environment peppered with real-world photos to set the stage for this 78 x seven-minute comedy series starring a gregarious boy with crazy facial expressions (Mok) and his hyperactive pet (Pok).

Producer Clément Calvet explains that while each episode of Pok & Mok delivers a subtle message about environmental sustainability, aiming for a six- to 10-year-old audience makes high doses of slapstick and silly gags imperative to bury any inherent preachiness. So, for example, the lead characters learn the hard way why Pok shouldn't jump down the drain to see where the water flows, and why Mok shouldn't dose his science experiment with pesticides to make it grow faster.

It should also be noted that the series writers are being very careful to avoid black-and-white eco-judgments. When Mok and his father decide to take two different vehicles to get to the DVD store - Dad drives his car, and Mok hops on his emissions-free bike - the only conclusion drawn is that cars are better for longer distances, but bikes are a useful way to get around town.

With France 3 on-board as a co-producer, Alphanim will have a pilot and test scenes for each character ready to show at Cartoon Forum. Calvet says he's working with a US$9.2-million budget and hopes to attract terrestrial broadcasters from Italy, Germany, Spain and the UK, or a pan-Euro net such as Nickelodeon. He'd also welcome a co-pro partner, particularly from the UK, Italy or Canada.

Kindle serves up music appreciation for tots in The Troubadours

One need only look as far as The Wonder Pets! and The Backyardigans to see that music-based shows work like a charm in the preschool market. But London, England-based Kindle Entertainment is aiming to take this winning model a step further in its follow-up project to first release Big & Small, which is on track to join the CBeebies schedule this fall and is also gaining significant international sales traction.

The Troubadours is 26 x 22-minute CGI concept based around a trio of traveling minstrels on a quest to set the world on fire with their music. Basso the baritone, mid-range sound specialist Toots and dancing soprano Lindy Pop use sounds from their environment to find harmonies and compose new tunes in each episode. Kindle director Melanie Stokes says the creative team's goal was to go beyond song-based dialogue and develop a show that unpacks musical instruments that are usually kept away from curious little hands, introducing preschoolers to music basics like rhythm, beat, echo, volume and dance with an epic story leading the way.

When a letter arrives from the butterfly community asking the troubadours to write a song about collecting nectar, they set off on a journey to find inspiration. Jumping over boulders in a river delivers a one-two-three-four beat that becomes the foundation of a tango built up with more discovered sounds over the course of the episode, providing insight into the textures and layers of musical composition. To add a bit of jeopardy to the mix, the trio is constantly side-stepping Eugene the hungry dragon - a comic villain who sets an endless number of completely ineffectual traps to catch them.

The Troubadours is in production with an investment from Granada International, which will manage worldwide distribution and licensing rights. Stokes and co-creator Anne Brogan hope to attract additional co-production partners at Cartoon Forum, where they plan to present a bible, a pilot and a few songs from the series, which will cost about US$485,000 per episode to produce.