Dandelooo

The Paris-based company has hammered out a raft of new deals for hybrid preschool series The Treehouse Stories. In North and South America, the 103 x seven-minute show has been sold to HITN (US), TFO (French-speaking Canada), TVN (Chile) and Pakapaka (Argentina). And European sales are now closed with TV5 Monde, OCS, Bayam and Tfou Max (France), RTS (Switzerland), ETB (Spain), OkkoTV (Russia), ERR (Estonia), HRT (Croatia), RTP (Portugal), Ceska Televize (Czech Republic), Arte Editions (French-speaking Europe) and LTV (Latvia). In addition, Majid Kids has snapped up The Treehouse Stories in the MENA region, and on the streaming side, the series will be available on Ameba (North America) and Azoomee and Da Vinci Kids (globally).

Originally produced for Canal+ by Dandelooo and French studio Caribara,The Treehouse Stories centers around a group of friends who meet in a secret treehouse to share and experience their favorite books.

Portfolio

Canada’s Portfolio Entertainment has shored up a handful of new broadcast deals for its 2D-animated STEM-themed show Addison. The 50 x 11-minute series for four- to six-year-olds will head to US kids and family SVOD Kidstream, Hong Kong’s telecom company PCCW and educational platform A+ Kids in France and Africa. Addison is a CBC Kids original series produced by Six Eleven Media about a seven-year-old inventor with a passion for solving mysteries. Portfolio holds the global distribution rights everywhere except Canada.

Wow! Stuff

The UK-based toyco has received US$6.3 million in new funding from Independent Growth Finance by way of a flexible asset-based lending structure that includes receivables and a cash-flow loan. Wow! Stuff will use the money to invest in new toy and gift products and character licenses. Its existing roster of partners includes Magic Light Pictures (The Gruffalo), Wizarding World (Harry Potter), Disney (Frozen) and Moonbug (CoComelon).

Guru

Warner Music will be singing a rainbow-hued tune, thanks to a new global deal it has just signed with Toronto’s Guru Studio and bRAND WARD Services for Guru’s hit preschool property True and the Rainbow Kingdom (pictured). Warner Music will release its first True and the Rainbow Kingdom single this month, with additional singles and albums slated to launch throughout 2021. Guru rolled out the franchise’s first album (TRUE: Tunes) in 2020, and it generated more than 100,000 streams in its first month.

The True and the Rainbow Kingdom animated series tags along with eight-year-old True and her cat Bartleby as they solve problems using the magical Wishing Tree. Guru produces the show in collaboration with Pharrell Williams’ label i Am Other, as well as fine art collective FriendsWithYou.

eOne

Hasbro-owned entertainment studio eOne has inked a distribution deal with Clan TV for PJ Masks. The Spanish broadcaster began airing seasons one and two of the popular animated preschool series on May 3, and the rollout is supported by a digital marketing and PR campaign, as well as a new and expanded toy line developed and launched by Hasbro. PJ Masks bowed globally on Disney Junior in March 2016, and currently airs in more than 150 territories. It features a group of kids who turn into superheroes when they put on their pajamas.