Peacock

NBCUniversal-owned streamer Peacock has picked up season three of Archibald’s Next Big Thing is Here from DreamWorks Animation. The new season, which also serves as a stand-alone series, will launch exclusively on Peacock.

Inspired by a kids book penned by actor Tony Hales, DreamWorks Animation first adapted the IP for Netflix with Archibald’s Next Big Thing (26 x half hours). The series premiered in 2019, and a second season launched in March 2020. Netflix will continue to stream seasons one and two of the animated comedy exclusively.

Featuring a slightly different name, the new six x half-hour season will drop on Peacock on February 18. It stars a chicken who improvises his way through life and has many adventures along the way.

Sixteen South

German free-to-air channel KiKA and Channel 5’s Milkshake! preschool programming block in the UK have ordered new animated series Odo (pictured) from Sixteen South and Letko.

Based in Belfast (Sixteen South) and Poland (Letko), the partners are co-producing the hand-drawn 2D-animated series for preschoolers, and will deliver 52 x seven minutes that should premiere this summer.

Odo is about the smallest owl in a forest camp who doesn’t let his size stop him from believing in himself and trying to prove he can do whatever he puts his mind to. The show received funding from the British Film Institute’s Young Audiences Content Fund, Northern Ireland Screen and the Polish Film Institute.

Xilam Animation

The Paris-based studio has secured the first broadcast deals for its new reboot Oggy—Next Gen (78 x seven minutes). Netflix has picked the project up as an original series, and plans to bow it this fall. Next Gen has also been acquired by broadcasters across Europe, including Gulli and M6 (France), Discovery Italy and DeAKids (Italy), and VRT kids channel Ketnet (Belgium). In this series for six- to 10-year-olds, lead character Oggy has to babysit his friends’ kid, which leads to many new slapstick adventures.

Xilam has also inked broadcast deals for the first two seasons of CG-animated preschool series Oggy Oggy (156 x seven minutes). Previously picked up by Netflix as an original, the series has now been acquired by France Télévisions, Discovery Italy and Super RTL (Germany). This version sees a young Oggy living in a world full of other cats, who bug him to no end.

Hasbro

The toyco has tapped WildBrain CPLG to represent eOne’s kids and family brands in the Nordics and Central and Eastern Europe, expanding on an existing partnership.

Under the deal, WildBrain CPLG will now represent eOne’s Peppa Pig, PJ Masks and Ricky Zoom IPs in the merchandising, publishing, promotions and location-based entertainment categories. The licensing agent already represents Hasbro brands My Little Pony, Play-Doh, Monopoly and Nerf in these regions.

Apple TV+

Apple TV+ has teamed up with meditation app Calm to create three x seven-minute guided meditation videos for kids. They launched on January 28 and teach kids how to regulate their emotions, relax and develop kindness.

The videos are available on both Apple TV+ and Calm, which has been making a push into kids entertainment, recently partnering with Mattel to launch Thomas & Friends stories to help kids meditate and sleep. Meditation and mindfulness content boomed throughout the pandemic as kid anxiety spiked.

The new videos are a spinoff of Apple TV+ animated series Stillwater from Gaumont and Scholastic. Based on the Scholastic book series Zen Shorts, it follows three siblings who get advice and meditation tips from a wise panda.

Lil Critter Workshop

Malaysia’s Lil Critter Workshop has acquired TV rights to the Lawak Kampus comic series, and plans to turn it into a series for kids and families.

The new Lawak Kampus (10 episodes) anime will center around three friends who discover self-acceptance and inclusion while going to school.

Lil Critter said in a statement that there’s a great demand for anime in the APAC region right now. And in Malaysia alone, 6.5 million copies of the comics have sold at retail.