A Norwegian animation company has hired a CBBC veteran to revamp a seven-year-old Scandinavian toon for the international market.

Theresa Plummer-Andrews, who runs Plum Trees TV in the UK, will be a consultant on Oslo-based Animando’s new production of Elias: The Little Rescue Boat.

A new bible and scripts will be written to make the show more “agreeable” with an international audience, according to Sigurd Slåttebrekk, CEO of Animando. A first-look at the show’s re-developed characters can be seen above, courtesy of French animation house Action Synthese.

Animando acquired the intellectual property rights for the show from fellow Norwegian firm Filmkameratene in August 2011. Filmkameratene’s first two seasons of Elias enjoyed huge ratings success ^[2] on TV2 in Norway and were subsequently sold to YLE (Finland), TV4 (Sweden) and TV2 (Denmark).

Two films, Elias & the Royal Yacht and Elias & the Treasure of the Sea, were also made, distributed by Svensk Filmindustri, in 2007 and 2010, respectively.