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BRB plays to boys' love of cars with The Secret Life of Suckers

Ever wonder about those suction-cupped toys that stare out from the rear windows of the automobiles they're affixed to? Well, according to BRB Internactional's latest shorts concept, they lead richer and more active social lives any of us could have possibly imagined from mere decorative car accessories.

The 104 x two-minute CGI series stars a curious and determined round plush doll with a tuft of hair and expressive bobble eyes. He shares the back window of a suburban sedan with a quiet and lethargic toy dog. There's also Kawaii, a gothic Lolita-type who lives in a shiny black VW Beetle, and hip-hop character MC-Speaker who has a speaker for a head and rolls in a rap star's Hummer. The potential for the creation of new characters in this comedy targeting boys six to 12 are only limited by the animators' imaginations.

The human drivers, on the other hand, are faceless and anonymous, but their actions directly affect the lives of the suckers. For example, BRB is toying around with what effect a pile of parking tickets in the back window might have on a sucker's view of the world, or how a foggy day would impede communication between the the plush inhabitants of different cars.

Carlos Biern, head of co-productions, licensing and new technologies at BRB, says his team is in pre-production with 26 animatics and a battery of more than 50 story ideas. The show is also being outfitted with an upbeat hip-hop score. While the concept is free of dialogue, each character and car has its own theme, as well as characteristic noises and gestures derived from the urban soundtrack.

Biern says the show was inspired by the urban vinyl toys, and BRB plans to roll out a line of specialty toys and figures once the shorts are delivered at the beginning of 2009. So far, Spain's TV Catalunya has joined the presale parade along with Jetix Europe, which will hold the pay-TV license in Europe and EMEA plus consumer products and home entertainment rights. BRB is handling free-TV sales in Europe and is in talks with several broadcasters on both sides of the pond for first options. The Secret Life of Suckers is budgeted at roughly US$2.5 million.

Greetings, Ertlings

There's nothing worse than moving to a new city when you're a kid. But stumbling across dinosaurs from outerspace as you explore your new attic can certainly make the transition a bit more fun. That's exactly what happens to seven-year-old Macy and her younger brother Mick, who unexpectedly meet a trio of dinos stranded when their spaceship crash-lands on the planet "Ert" (thus Ertlings).

In development at Toronto, Canada's 9 Story Entertainment, this 78 x seven-minuter targets kids ages four to seven and tags along as Macy and Mick try to explain the more puzzling aspects of life on Earth to the prehistoric visitors.

The trio's questions reflect the target audience's tendency to look at the world in a very literal way. For example, the aliens want to know why Ertlings love apricot jam, but hate traffic jams. They also posit that chocolate milk must naturally be produced by brown cows because they're the same color. It's up to the kids to sort out the dinos' perplexing queries, and they often hop into the spaceship, which can travel anywhere on the planet but can't leave Earth's atmosphere, to hunt down the answers and get back home in time for dinner.