In its sixteenth year, Cartoon Forum was hosted for the first time ever in Denmark – by the city of Kolding and its enthusiastic singing mayor Per Bødker Andersen. Kolding rose to the occasion with a Cartoon Festival of its own, involving the local community in animation events throughout the time that Europe’s animation business came to town.
The formula for Cartoon Forum, supported by the EU MEDIA Programme, is now well-tested and successful and everything ran smoothly this year with a full three days of presentations for new animation series concepts. Some 67 projects 
were shown off from 16 European countries with a combined budget of €232 million.
By the end of the final day, 24 of the projects – representing a total 156 hours of programming – had attracted enough interest from broadcasters and investors to confidently expect to complete their financing in the short term. This was in line with the average for the first 15 editions – with around a third of all participating projects so far having been produced. This is the best measure of Cartoon’s successful track record in increasing and accelerating animation production in Europe since it began.
Projects from New European Countries
The latest challenge to face Cartoon has been to encourage producers from the 10 new countries of Europe to participate in the Forum and develop their abilities to work with co-producers on successful series. With this in mind, Cartoon organised a special meeting earlier last year in Warsaw for producers from the new countries to learn about Cartoon and other projects supported by the EU Media programme.
That event was a great success and joint managers Marc Vandeweyer and Corinne Jenart said they were pleased to note that this year in Kolding there were in fact four projects from the new countries – Happy from Kid Animation in Slovenia, Tales Of The Sunrise Tree from Jet Media in Latvia, Qollective in Slovenia and Sidewinder Films in the UK, Wake Up Sleepy from Soffa Design in Bulgaria and Wiggy Wizard from Eesti Joonisfilm in Estonia and First Freedom Productions in the UK. They went on to add they were particularly pleased that one of these – Tales Of The Sunrise Tree – emerged in the top twenty of all projects presented at the Forum this year in terms of overall attendance and attendance of investors.
I have to come clean at this point and proudly admit my involvement in this project – Sidewinder Films is my own company and I’m the writer of the series. But it’s important to note that the team behind this project would never have come together at all without Cartoon – as I met my talented Latvian and Slovenian co-producers last year at the Warsaw meeting. And the opportunity to present at this year’s Cartoon Forum has now opened some very encouraging doors.
In terms of other trends, Corinne went on to say there had been an increase in the number of pre-school shows this year. Teenage and adult projects are still less common with only six being presented this time. There was also a continuing switch from 2D to 3D technology – the majority of presentations are now for CGI series. However, she added that all the evidence indicates broadcasters are still hungry for 2D programming.
Average budgets are running at around €10,000 per minute – but with major variations between territories. In Denmark the average was €12,600, in the UK €10,500, in Spain €7,700 but in Ireland only €5,200.
The most successful projects
The top shows in terms of attendance at presentations this year were: Khudayana from BRB Internacional in Spain, Frankenstein’s Cat from Mackinnon and Saunders in the UK, The Pinky And Perky Show from Pinky and Perky Enterprises in the UK, Anna Young from CAOZ in Iceland, Little Kingdom from Astley Baker in the UK, Minifant – Forgotten Tales From Okavango from Toons ‘N’ Tales and Scopas Medien in Germany, Oliver Panpot from Funkhauser Film in Denmark, Dad The Impaler from Kavaleer Productions in Ireland, Twisted Tales from Jam Media in Ireland and Safehouse Hotel from Calon in the UK.
Khudayana is a beautifully animated 3D toon-shaded anime concept with a mystical Eastern theme in which a team of three kids learn to be heroes. It’s planned as a series of 52 half hours on a budget of €200,000 per episode. Set in the imaginary world of Magesh, the young heroes have to find the runes that will help return the world to harmony.
Puppet making and animation specialists Mackinnon and Saunders stepped into a wacky 2D world with their offering of Frankenstein’s Cat – a 26 X 11’ comedy caper for six to eleven year olds.
The Pinky And Perky Show brought together The Picture Production Company and Lupus Films in a CGI revival of the classic British piglet puppets who starred in their own BBC show from 1957 until 1973. Rights are now held by Pinky and Perky Enterprises and this update gives the pigs their own peak time celebrity TV show – including a 2D animation created by Pinky called Powerpig and Swillboy. The plan is for a 52 X 11’ show for six to elevens.
Icelandic CGI studio Caoz returned to the Forum this year with Anna Young – a series of 13 half hours based on the same concept as the half hour special Anna And The Moods launched at the Forum in Varese two years ago and now complete. With a teenage theme and high quality 3D animation, it was a popular session – although it’s proposed budget of €17,500 was one of the highest being pitched.
Little Kingdom is the latest series to be created by Astley Baker Davies following their huge success with Peppa Pig – which was itself launched at Cartoon Forum three years ago in Wales. Another series of 52 X 10’ in a simple 2D style, it’s the charming tale of Holly the fairy princess and her little friend Ben the elf.
Minifant – Forgotten Tales From Okavango is a proposed series of 26 X 11’ set among the animals of the African savannah. Central to the tales is Minifant – an elephant who is so forgetful that one fine day he simply forgets to grow. His continuing forgetfulness is the starting point for all the stories in the series –although he always comes up with an off-beat solution to the problems that ensue.
A Danish CGI project
Danish studio Funkhauser Film invented a whole new format for its CGI story Oliver Panpot – a triple animation special of three half hour episodes. An impressive trailer made by director Jesper Østergaard attracted a lot of admiration and strong interest from broadcasters. Set in medieval times, it’s the story of Oliver the young inventor, a princess mixed up with another girl at birth, an army of dwarves and freedom fighters and the overthrow of a tyrant king. Budget for the animated miniseries is €3.26 million.
Irish horror spoof Dad The Impaler presents the story of two kids with a werewolf for a brother, a vampire for a dad and a mummy for a – mummy. The proposed series is for 26 half hours.
Also from Ireland, Jam Media came up with what appeared to be a guaranteed hit as broadcasters enthusiastically queued to praise its interactive series Twisted Tales. The company already has a big hit on its hands with its pre-school show based on the same technology – Pic Me. This allows parents to send in pictures of their children to star in animated episodes. Twisted Tales takes things a step further, using a website and mobile phones to download a series of digital pictures of your face, which can then be automatically combined with the show. You can watch your own version on the internet and broadcasters are able to select from these. The series itself is an extremely funny twist on classic fairy tales. Broadcasters are offered a package of faceless animation plus software to combine it with viewers’ pictures.
Cartoon Forum regular Robin Lyons made his first appearance with new company Calon – set up after his previous company Siriol merged with Entertainment Rights. Lyons is noted for his theatrical presentations and this year was no exception as he played a spy inside the animation community in order to present Safehouse Hotel – a proposal for 26 half hours of Flash animation about two children whose unsuspecting parents run a hotel that’s a nest of spies. It’s described as a cross between Fawlty Towers and The Prisoner.
A singing Cartoon Forum
And no comprehensive report of the Forum could possibly continue without noting Robin’s storming and rather personal version of I Will Survive at the opening dinner. Encouraged by the singing mayor of Kolding, this year saw a number of surprisingly powerful singing contributions from Forum regulars as the event was about to kick off.
Other shows that proved popular with broadcasters this year included Where’s My Dinner? from London’s ArthurCox. Faced with increasing government pressure to counter fast food advertising in children’s programming, broadcasters are keen to find entertaining projects that promote healthy eating. The situation is particularly pressing in the UK where the massive success of Jamie Oliver’s investigation in School Dinners has ignited public debate on the issue. And here’s a show that does the job so well – a great mix of 2D and 3D animation styles bringing together cookery, geography and crazy capers in a single 52 X 5’ package.
Coming out of left field and the only adult show to figure in the top third of attendances was Leningrad Cowboys from Finland’s Anima Vitae. It’s a madcap 26 X 3’ tribute to the insane anti-establishment Finnish band of the same name. The scripts are extremely funny with a crazy take on everyone from Ozzy Osbourne to George Bush.
Also aiming at an adult audience as well as at kids was Magma’s Footballer’s Husband – a fast turnaround concept of 52 X 2’ Flash animation designed to tie in with sports programming for next summer’s soccer World Cup in Germany.
Another contender this year would have been the striking designs for Hahn Film’s Tiki’s Band. A 26 X 4’ series with an €8,000 per minute budget, it applies animated 2D facial textures to simple 3D models. Emerging from a greetings card, the four Tikis sing a wacky song on request.
One of the best looking trailers was Dandy Production’s Pablo – a simple but beautiful pre-school concept about an artist with a set of magic crayons. The characters step into his childishly illustrated world for a series of 26 X 5’ episodes.
Marc Craste, winner of the Cartoon d’Or
And talking of good-looking trailers, what about an award for best trailer of the show? Maybe presented on the last night at the Cartoon D’Or ceremony? It’s an idea I came across this year that could prove to be a fun addition in future years.
At the end of three days packed with such great new projects, plus excursions to the Trapholt Museum of Modern Art, Koldinghus Castle and sailing in schooners on Kolding Fjord, all that remained was to switch into party gear and head for the Cartoon D’Or ceremony – the annual award for the best short film chosen from those that have won awards during the year at major European Festivals.
This year’s winner of the €15,000 prize was Marc Craste from the UK for Jo Jo In The Stars. The runners-up were City Paradise by Gaëlle Denis (France), Falling by Peter Kaboth (Germany), Flatlife by Jonas Geirnaert (Belgium) and Little Things by Daniel Greaves (UK).
Next year in Pau, France
And then of course it was onto the farewell dinner – drinking and dancing until the early hours and dreaming of next year’s journey down to Pau in south-west France. But that’s another year and another Forum – and another batch of great new animation series.
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