Chris Bangle of Italian prodco Inanimatti and producer Eric Rollman discuss their new project Arky Arch Adventures, an animated series for kids inspired by Bangle’s decades of experience as a car designer.

Arky Arch Adventures is set in a universe where the inanimate comes alive

Veteran car designer Chris Bangle, who spent 17 years as chief of design at BMW, is coming to MipJunior and Mipcom next month with a brand-new creation: an animated children’s series called Arky Arch Adventures.

The series is a comedy-adventure for kids aged 6-12 that follows a young Roman triumphal arch who embarks on a high-stakes journey to uncover his true purpose, all while saving the world from devastation.

The show is set in the ‘Inanimatti’ universe, an imaginary reality where inanimate things are alive, and Arky’s friends and enemies are all objects and architectures, each with their own personality.

“The real story is about Arky and his friends finding their purpose and what they are meant to be. It’s about that search for purpose that all of us have in our lives,” Bangle says.

Inspired by Bangle’s work in car design, Arky Arch Adventures began as a series of sketches which evolved into a podcast. The animated show is currently in development, with producer Eric Rollman attached to spearhead the project. Rollman is former president of Fox Family, Saban and Marvel.

Chris Bangle

“I don’t really believe car design is necessarily wedded to the automobile,” Bangle says. “What I’ve learned in all my years in car design is that our job is to put character and personality into objects. So when we started doing sketches of giant Roman triumphal arches, I thought, ‘Let’s give these a bit of personal style and make them walk.’ Suddenly the idea was to create a world around that – where are they going, why are they doing this? – and little by little, filling out the characters like car designers would.

“We look at things and see into the object itself. Where is its emotion? Where is its gesture? What is it trying to tell me? That’s what car designers do. We see the world as being alive and thought it would be cool if kids could see that duality themselves – this kind of cognitive dissonance where a thing is a thing but at the same time it’s alive.

“The more we looked at Arky and his friends in terms of how they moved, the more we realised we couldn’t do it in a comic book with speech bubbles. It just wouldn’t come across right. We have to see the things in motion.”

Rollman will be joining Bangle in Cannes next month, where he will be looking for buyers and potential copro partners for the project. Writing of the series will start early next year with completion scheduled for 2025.

“I knew there was something very different and very special [with Arky Arch Adventures],” Rollman says. “I want to work on things that are going to stand out in the marketplace and have a chance at making a difference, and I think this project, more than any I’ve ever seen, has the opportunity to optimise animation to its full extent.

“The reason I say that is we’re taking everyday objects and making them relatable through character, story and movement, but we’re leaving out the human attributes. As a result of that, it’s kind of the ultimate play pattern. You’re taking things that are around us and finding ways to use your imagination and bring those into a real world.”

Eric Rollman

Breaking into the market with an original idea is no easy feat, especially among all the successful known IP that is being exploited, but Rollman is confident Arky Arch Adventures will find a place in the world of children’s animation.

“To have a breakout IP is incredibly difficult. Something that comes from a level of awareness, from a brand or a version of something [that already exists] certainly has an easier road in most cases. But at the end of the day, getting everybody to believe in the idea as much as you do is what it takes to break out in the marketplace,” Rollman says.

“Ideas that are timeless, as I believe this is, will find a place. It’s a question of when and where. It’s really a matter of trying to be as contagious as possible with the passion you bring to your project.”

Bangle has formed a production company in Italy, Inanimatti Inc, to produce Arky Arch Adventures and house all the IP associated with the Inanimatti world.

“There’s a lot we can do with it. This story can go a lot of different ways. There are all kinds of sub-characters; literally everything in the world has potential to be in this,” he says.

“I believe, as a designer, that animation is the great undiscovered tool for design. People don’t know how powerful animation is, not only in the end product – convincing someone of something being life-like and real – but the process of going through it. You have to learn so many things about what you’re dealing with.”