At Cartoon Forum next week, 75 creative teams from around Europe will gather in Toulouse to pitch their animated TV projects, in hopes of connecting with potential buyers, co-producers and other partners. And every day this week, we’ll be featuring a different series or special that we believe deserves a closer look. (You can also catch up on the ones we’ve already covered—This Moose Belongs to Me and Sam & Watson.)

Finland’s Gigglebug is heading to Cartoon Forum to pitch The Underglow, a 2D-animated preschool series with two broadcasters already attached that’s all about inspiring kids to embrace the lost art of wondering. 

BBC is on board as a commissioner and will help finance the 50 x seven-minute project, and Finnish pubcaster YLE has signed a letter of intent. 

Created by Tanya Scott and Sam Morrison, The Underglow is all about instilling curiosity in kids. Today, children can find the answer to any question by Googling it, but there’s still a beauty in imagining and thinking about the unknown, says Gigglebug CEO Anttu Harlin. 

Episodes will kick off with the characters exploring a magical garden known as The Underglow, where they go to discover human-made objects. They’ll wonder what these mysterious things are, coming up with their own theories and then testing them out. For example, when they unearth a toothbrush, their dog-like pet uses it to puff up his fur so much that it floats up into the treetops. Luckily, they imagine a way to use the toothbrush in a different way to bring it back down to terra firma. 

The Underglow marks the first time that Gigglebug will produce a show that wasn’t created by its co-founders, Harlin and creative director Joonas Utti. But it stems from a shared belief with the BBC in the power of incubators to discover and nurture new talent. 

Gigglebug runs an annual festival in Helsinki to seek out fresh concepts from up-and-coming creators. In 2024, its jury to assess these pitches included Liz Chan from BBC Ignite, which had discovered and developed The Underglow as part of its 2023 incubation program. Realizing the two companies had a shared creator-centric ethos, Chan brought the project to Gigglebug. 

Harlin says the studio is looking to raise roughly US$1.2 million to close a 16% financing gap. If it can accomplish that after the Cartoon Forum pitch, production could start early next year, tapping into tax credits and subsidies by running some of it through its Canary Islands and Finland pipelines. 

Harlin will be pitching The Underglow on Tuesday, September 16 at 11 a.m. (local time) in the Blue Room, presenting a trailer and several storyboards. 

Gigglebug will also be meeting with potential partners in Toulouse for its Cartoon Forum 2023 pitch Tadpoles, which is going into production imminently and set for delivery in fall 2027.