Brazilian children’s broadcaster Gloob has pre-bought a forthcoming animated series about an alien invasion that is being made for pubcasters in Italy, Spain and Catalonia.

Pumpkin Reports (52×11′), from Spain’s Motion Pictures, Sample in Italy and Young Jump Animation in Malaysia, is currently in production with Rai, Televisión Español and Televisió de Catalunya.

The toon follows an 11-year-old boy living in an idyllic town that is famous for growing pumpkins, whose life changes when two aliens crash-land and claim to be orphans that have come to live in his home.

Barcelona-based Motion Pictures holds distribution rights to the series and has also struck a deal with Middle Eastern broadcaster MBC for the toon, the distributor’s international sales and coproduction manager Xavi Mas told C21.

In related news, Mas said that Motion Pictures has also come on board production of the 2D preschool animation Mya Go (52×5′), which comes from Dublin-based studio Wiggleywoo and made its debut at Cartoon Forum in 2012.

Asked about the state of the Spanish toon industry, which has recently seen a spate of bankruptcies including Pocoyo producer Zinkia Entertainment, Mas said that Motion Pictures wasn’t experiencing the same difficulties as other producers in Spain.

Despite some positive news ^[1] emerging in the past 12 months, the overall picture of Spanish animation remains dire ^[2] and TVE recently came under fire ^[3] from local producers.

However, Mas told C21: “Things look like they’re more settled. It’s been on the edge for a few years but now things are starting to move forward.”