By Sadhana Bharanidharan and Cole Watson
TAT Productions
The studio producing CG-animated series Pil’s Adventures (52 x 13 minutes, pictured) has struck a global distribution deal with Federation Kids & Family. TAT has already presold the show, which is based on a 2021 feature film that has screened in more than 75 territories worldwide, to France Télévisions. Pil’s Adventures stars a young girl who uses her cunning wits and agility to watch over the inhabitants of a medieval town.
Holiday Hill Farm
Berkshire Hathaway’s Oriental Trading Company has inked a three-year agreement to manufacture and distribute consumer products based on Holiday Hill Farm’s roster of holiday-themed characters. The toyco’s sister company Fun Express will roll out an initial range of 25 stress toys, party games, activity books and arts & crafts products based on Spookley the Square Pumpkin across North America in time for Halloween.
Toikido
The company’s Piñata Smashlings TV series is greenlit and heading into production at Nelvana, which will also handle international sales. This 2D toon is based on a same-name Toikido Roblox game that has been played more than two million times on the platform. Nelvana and Toikido first announced their co-production agreement last April, and they have since released six Piñata Smashlings YouTube shorts to build hype for the long-form show. More shorts are planned to launch on the Keep It Weird Youtube channel later this year, and Nelvana has already closed a broadcast deal for the series with YTV.
Ellipse Animation
The French prodco is acquiring a majority stake in Italy’s Studio Campedelli (Calimero). Anne-Sophie Vanhollebeke and Valeria Brambilla will continue to run the company as managing directors, and co-founder Pietro Campedelli has sold his shares to them. Ellipse and Campedelli are currently in production on a tween toon called Versailles Unleashed (slated to premiere in 2025 on France Télévisions), and they’re also developing a Prendiluna feature film.
Lazy Shrimp Studio
PGS Entertainment has picked up global linear and digital distribution rights to Lazy Shrimp’s CG-animated preschool series Leo the Truck. This IP started out on YouTube in 2014, and it has been viewed there more than 23 billion times to date. Lazy Shrimp has also expanded the toon’s distribution footprint to 80 digital networks, including Amazon Prime, Tubi and Roku.
Banijay
The French prodco is selling its Beyond production arm back to founder and original managing director Mikael Borglund for an undisclosed amount. Borglund sold Beyond International to Banijay in October 2022 for just over US$32 million in a deal that closed in January 2023. As part of the new agreement, Banijay will hang onto Beyond’s distribution business, which manages the rights to kids shows like Beat Bugs, Motown Magic, Nippers, Milly Molly and Labrats.