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The magic in me is the magic in you -
believe and you can do it too. The lyrics from the title
track of the DVD feature Kiddo - The Super Truck say it all.
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Kiddo
- The Super Truck - The DVD cover
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Box
Office # Broadcast & Cable # Licensing # Merchandising # Home
Entertainment # Comic Books # Games #Toys. Multiple revenue
streams originating out of indegeniously developed IP have been
the dream of all IP creators in Indian animation.
Each
animation player in the country is constantly toying with ideas,
searching for conviction. Should
we delve into IP? Will our
IP work? Those are the questions that resonate in many a boardroom
of an Indian animation studio.
The so far
elusive goal seems to be closer, almost within
grasp. At least for Chennai based M.U.V Animation studios.
MagicDreams
LLC. a joint venture between M.U.V animation studios and US based
veteran animation producer Wiliam DuBay is going ballistic in tapping
the revenue potential of their IP KIDDO THE SUPER-TRUCK.
The latest development is Kiddo's representation at the recently
held Licensing 2005 (June 21-23 in
New York City)
Speaking to Animation 'xpress, MUV Animation Studios
Chief Rajesh V Shah said,"We
have recently signed a representation agreement for North American
distribution with Earthworks Entertainment for Networks, Home Video
and Licensing / Merchandising. Incidentally, Kiddo is probably the
first ever property from an Indian creator to have been represented
at Licensing Show"
"The first direct to DVD starring Kiddo-The Super
Truck is a 78 minute CG animated film made for the international
markets especially focusing on the North American market. The home
video rights have been sold for 12 major territories across the
globe so far. These include UK, France, BENELUX (Belgium, Netherlands
and Luxemburg), Greece, Poland, CIS (Commonwealth of Independent
states), Croatia & Slovenia, Australia / New Zealand and South
Africa. All these deals were done through our one of our distributors
Marvista Entertainment" he added.
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Kiddo
- The Super Truck
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"This
project was thought of when no one else was even considering content
development in India. Even now we find companies focusing on content
more suited to the Indian market rather than the global one. It
is time someone took the lead and I am glad it was us"
he further added.
"It is indeed quite rare to discover a monumental pre-school
property that really stands out from all the many, many good pre-school
properties KIDDO definitely has the potential to be a massive hit"
quipped Peter Keefe - President & CEO EarthWorks Entertainment,
Los Angeles, USA.
"One look at the finished first episode told us that Kiddo
was a star" - commented Fernando Szew, Managing Director of
Marvista Entertainment.
So what's the story?
Kiddo- The Super Truck is the story of a cute little magical
truck who can transform himself into any vehicle he wishes to be,
from a rocket powered race car to big-foot utility vehicle, to a
happy passenger truck. "Kiddo
is the lead character and due to his magical powers changes into
these cool looking vehicles making him a licensing boon" informed
MUV's Rajesh Shah.
Target
Audience?
The show is targeted at preschoolers primarily boys from Age 2 ~
6 and secondarily girls of similar age group.
Other
characters
"The other characters are Double "O" davey, Humee,
Fire Truck Dad, Race-Car Mom, Grandpa, Old -max, tickles the Taxi,
Delight the minister of traffic. In total there are over 45 characters
in this project" he added.
Pre Pro
The pre production was done by MagicDreams LLC in Los Angeles and
took around 2 years. "We wanted to be sure that Language, dialogues
were right for the age group and even had a county educator in LA
to go over the script, apart from this we wanted to be sure that
the script was good enough for pre school Children and had a children's
psychologist give us his stamp of approval as well" shared
Rajesh.
Production
The production took about 8 months after MUV received the pre production
pack from Los Angeles. All the work was done in-house; They
did use another studio to share the load of rendering"
So
who are the regional distributors?
IMC
in UK, IMAGINE Entertainment in Australia / NZ, Foriegn Media Licensing
in Benelux for home video , Ster KineKor in South Africa.
What
are the monies involved?
"All these deals
are on Royalty basis and what we receive now are the advance royalties,
once the product hits the shelves it takes about a year to start
receiving royalties." informed
Rajesh.
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Kiddo
- The Super Truck - A still
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Licensing/merchandising
deals so far?
Books - One licensing deal for book publishing with Pimento
Publishing in Benelux. The books shall be published in Dutch and
Russian. Current discussions are on with American publishers for
the North American & Canadian markets. MUV shall be publishing
books and comics around Kiddo in India.
Toys & Games - MagicDreams is currently negotiating with
a North American Master Toy licensee and a Game Developer to license
Kiddo for gaming. Current discussions are on with American
publishers for the North American & Canadian markets.
Voices
The
voices were done using actors from Hollywood and voice over actors
in Los Angeles. Mickey Laszlo giving the voice of Kiddo. The casting,
rehearsals and recording were done in several studios in Los Angeles.
Music
"We have had some great musicians who were involved with this
project, William Roberts our music director and Venessa Hart - Producer
and Lyricist have produced exceptional music and songs for this
project. Surf 'n' drag icon Gary Usher Jr. is the music segment
producer. Usher is the custodian, on many levels, of the surf 'n'
drag musicial legacy pioneered by his father, BEACH BOYS, BEATLES
AND BYRDS producer Gasy Usher, Sr" beamed Rajesh.
Commenting upon the Indian animation industry, Rajesh said,"Indian
animation Industry is growing on its own merits and will lose its
standing very soon if there is no support from the Indian government.
Animation Industry has been left out like an Orphan to survive on
its own. Take China for instance - their industry is still in its
early stages and the government has already taken several steps
to make it grow rapidly and even forcing Television stations to
show majority of Chinese content and creating opportunities for
Chinese animation studios to get easier access to capital. In India
we don't even have an idea if Animation comes under the Ministry
of I&B or under Ministry of IT or under the Sub-section of NASSCOM
ITES, The industry needs to find who its parents are before a proposal
is made"
Throwing light upon MUV's future plans, Rajesh shared,"We have
established a CONCEPT TO SCREEN pipeline, Now we are focusing our
energies in making KIDDO into a bigger global brand and have started
developing other properties as we have distributors asking us “What’s
next?” and we have lined up 3 properties with global appeal
and exceptional value in Licensing and Merchandising. One of the
properties is a 25-year-old comic book and was published until the
mid 1990’s. Our aim will be to create more and more ORIGINAL
properties only and we will not use the Public domain. We have already
proved that not only do we have the ability to create Original properties
which are univerally appealing but also have excellent licensing
& merchandising potential - which is the key today. We are planning
to raise further capital to meet this demand and focus on creating
more properties either independently or jointly with other studios"
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