After selling Atomic Betty to practically every one of Cartoon Network’s international channels and into 40 territories worldwide, Toronto, Canada’s Breakthrough Animation has cracked the all-important U.S. market with a monumental five-year deal with Cartoon US. The only acquisition the net is launching this year, Atomic Betty was created by Vancouver, Canada-based Atomic Cartoons and is a co-production with French prodco Tele Images. The 13 x half-hour toon tells the story of a young girl who lives a secret life zipping around the galaxy on daring missions to save the universe.

Alliance Atlantis has inked a major U.S. deal for Dragon Booster, scoring a slot on ABC Family’s recently rebranded Jetix block in January 2005. AAC Kids VP of programming and distribution Ken Faier says the CGI series will launch at the same time on international broadcasters including CBC (Canada), ABC Australia and Sky (U.K.), before airing on U.K. terrestrial Five six months later. Created by New York’s The Story Hat and targeting boys six to 12, Dragon Booster (26 x half hours) is an action-adventure series set against a dragon-racing backdrop.

MTV Networks has snapped up Futurikon’s Kaput & Zosky for both Nickelodeon and Nicktoons, marking the Paris-based prodco’s first U.S. sale. Futurikon CEO Philippe Delarue says the deal should give the studio more credibility in the U.S. market, and will likely pave the way for home entertainment and merch deals. The 26 x half-hour animated comedy stars two crazy and slightly stupid aliens who bounce from one planet to another and unsuccessfully attempt to rule the universe.

London, England’s Contender Entertainment Group has scored two terrestrial and seven international deals in less than four months for its 2-D animated preschool series Peppa Pig (52 x five minutes). On the homefront, the show has been picked up for a May launch on Five, and will be hitting Nick Jr. later this year. Canal J (France), TV3 (New Zealand), NRK (Norway), Nickelodeon (Scandinavia), C4U (Korea) and SVT (Sweden) have also signed on, and ABC Australia plans to use Peppa Pig as a character in its on-air kids branding package. The series is about a brood of pigs and centers around family-time themes like bathtime and helping parents.