Finnish animation studio Ferly has appointed Hong Kong-based United Smile as the master toy licensee for its Momolu & Friends brand, preparing a consumer products program that will include figures, plush, playsets and arts & crafts items to hit shelves worldwide in 2023.
Developed and co-produced by Ferly, Canada’s Yellow Animation and Belgium’s DGA, Momolu & Friends stars a panda who helps his friends when they run into trouble on their island home. The 2D-animated preschool series (78 x seven minutes) was commissioned in 2020 by TVOKids (Canada), Knowledge Network (Canada), Société Radio-Canada and YLE (Finland). Delivery is scheduled for spring 2022, though no premiere dates had been announced at press time.
The partnership with United Smile builds on a small range of existing Momolu products that include audiobooks (Storytel), eBooks (Epic!), Momolu Minis Music and the Momolu Learning Game for Nintendo Switch.
Launched last year by former Hasbro exec Josue Rosenzweig, United Smile was appointed as the first exclusive master toy partner for Guru Studio’s 3D-animated preschool series True and the Rainbow Kingdom this past June. Distribution partners already secured for this consumer products program include Bandai (Spain), Imports Dragon (Canada and the US), First Group and Spacetoon (the Middle East), Big Balloon and Haven Licensing (Australia), Toyriffic (Israel) and Token Toys (Mexico).