At Cartoon Forum this week, 75 creative teams from around Europe have gathered in Toulouse to pitch their animated TV projects, in hopes of connecting with potential buyers, co-producers and other partners. Kidscreen’s senior reporter Ryan Tuchow is there, and will be covering the trends and exciting projects he sees. (You can also catch up on our Cartoon Forum preview series from last week here.)

Day two of Cartoon Forum is almost done, and I saw a few standout projects today that have strong potential to get made and travel worldwide. Here are some details: 

Level up

Revelator Studio (which pitched the adorable Boxford & Bounce last year) is tapping into kids’ love of video games with a new 52 x seven-minute comedy called Bro Quest (pictured above). It revolves around another unique duo—this time, it’s a human (Rory) searching for his brother and a bear-like character (Booch), and they don’t know they’re actually in a video game together. 

Each episode in this CG-animated series for six- to nine-year-olds will be driven by the characters exploring an exciting new game level. For example, Rory is eager to get to the boss of a lava level, but Booch stops to help a penguin. Rory decides to join Booch in the rescue—which ends up being the right call, since it’s the penguin who helps them defeat the fiery monster at the end of the level. 

Bro Quest has the kind of bright visuals and wild landscapes that capture what a video game might look like if it was created by a 10-year-old, the producers say. The game might even have some glitches, like making clones of the main characters, giving the writers endless possibilities for creative video game-inspired stories. There’s also potential for the studio to tap into the show’s theme and make a real video game of their own down the road. 

This project is budgeted at US$6.5 million, and Revelator has a bible, a full pilot episode animatic and an animated trailer ready to show. The studio is currently looking for broadcasters, distributors and co-producers to join the game. 

Frostheart looks hot 

The room was packed for La Chouette Compagnie’s pitch for Frostheart, the Seven Hearts of Darkness. This 2D-animated series for six to nines is based on a series of books by Jamie Littler (published by Puffin in the UK and Viking in the US), who was part of the presentation. His books have sold in more than 20 countries.

Author Jamie Littler is second from the left here. The epic fantasy series Frostheart series picks up where his popular books left off.

Frostheart picks up where Littler’s books leave off, with a story that revolves around a seafaring crew that must confront ancient creatures corrupted by dark magic. 

Germany’s Super RTL (which brought the project to La Chouette) is attached to this 26 x 22-minute fantasy, and commissioning editor Kira Schneider called it “a gripping epic” during the pitch. She expects that there will be a good-sized audience for this series, which already has a solid trailer produced. “We totally believe we can find plenty of kids to enjoy this.” 

The studio is planning a US$9.4-million budget for the semi-serialized series, and La Chouette is looking for co-production partners and presales. 

Bringing a YouTuber’s stories to screen

Another adaptation I saw that has decent franchise potential is 2D-animated Lyon – Plague Lab (52 x 11 minutes). It’s based on a series of books written by Italian gamer Lyon (real name Ettore Canu), whose YouTube channel WhenGamersFail has five million subscribers. The books have sold more than 600,000 copies in Italy since the first title was released in 2020. 

Lyon – Plague Lab builds on the stories that popular YouTuber Lyon has told through books. Pictured above are the materials the studios have to show potential partners.

Italy’s Cartobaleno, VISMANIMATION and WGF are co-producing this US$8-million adventure-comedy for tweens. (Notably, VISMANIMATION pitched a concept called MindTOONness at Cartoon Forum last year, and it’s going into production now.) The series premise sees Lyon and two friends battling their way out of an underground laboratory. In each episode, they have to fight monsters to get a keycard that will let them reach new levels. 

It isn’t just an action series, though—the creatures they battle reflect mental and emotional challenges the characters are also facing. For example, in one episode, they face off against a giant heart monster that can speed up heartrates, making one of the characters’ anxiety and stress even worse. The situation seems dire until he tries a meditation technique to get into the right mindset to beat the monsters. 

Lyon has already expanded his brand and books into a broad range of consumer products, including a Monopoly game, apparel and snacks, according to VISMANIMATION founder Lucia Vismara. The plan is to leverage this popularity by having him host livestreams that showcase new creatures in the series and promote the show.