French studio Zephyr Animation has partnered with France Télévisions to co-develop a new stop-motion series called Mogu & Perol, based on an award-winning short film of the same name. Its creator, Tsuneo Goda, is also the founder of Japanese stop-motion studio Dwarf, which is on board to co-produce the series.

Aimed at three- to six-year-olds, Mogu & Perol centers around a quiet, nature-loving monster (Mogu) and his loud, pint-sized friend (Perol), who learn to live with each other despite their differences.

Production on the 52 x seven-minute comedy will begin in 2022, with Zephyr chief creative officer David Sauerwein and Dwarf producer Yuriko Okada executive producing. A release date hasn’t been announced yet, but the series will land on France Télévisions’ Okoo SVOD platform.

Since premiering in 2018, Goda’s nine-minute original short has won numerous awards at festivals including the Alameda International Film Festival, the Sapporo International Short Film Festival and the Encounters Film Festival.

International co-pros have been top of mind for Zephyr lately; Mogu & Perol joins Pronto with Finland’s Gigglebug Entertainment and Gone Gills with Finland’s Ferly in the studio’s expanding kids pipeline. Paris-based distributor APC Kids launched Zephyr in 2018 to develop original kids projects and co-develop/co-produce content with global partners.

Dwarf is best known for its Domo character and series, which ended up on Japanese pubcaster NHK and Nickelodeon in 2008. Some of the studio’s other stop-motion originals include Netflix series Rilakkuma and Kaoru and The Curious Kitty and Friends, an Amazon short based on Dwarf’s popular Komaneko IP.