Underdog is heading back to the small screen in a new CG-animated series co-produced by Paris-based Superprod Animation (Ghee Happy) and Milan’s Red Monk Studio (Home Sweet Rome!), both owned by the Superprod Group.
M6 and Gulli in France and Italian broadcaster RAI have ordered this 52 x 11-minute toon for bridge audiences. Underdog is currently in production and set to deliver in 2025, with Superights managing international distribution.
Like its 2D-animated predecessor, the roboot centers around a bumbling but endearing canine who fights crime as a superhero. Story editors Matt Smith (The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants) and Shane Morris (Frozen) have developed the project for TV, with Charles Vaucelle (Oggy and the Cockroaches) in the director’s seat.
Originally created by ad execs W. Watts Biggers, Chet Stover, Treadwell Covington and Joe Harris in 1959, Underdog got its start as part of a package of cartoons promoting General Mills’ breakfast cereals. The Underdog Show (62 x 20 minutes) was produced by New York’s Total Television and aired on NBC/CBS from 1964 to 1967, and then in syndication until 1973. Reruns hit Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network in the ’90s, and the vintage animated series is still available today on the MeTV Toons linear channel.
The Underdog franchise has expanded over the years with multiple comic books, a radio show (1999) and a live-action/animated film (2007) that grossed more than US$65 million at the box office.