Magic Light Pictures is best known for its animated Christmas specials on BBC One and now it’s diversifying, execs from the company reveal.
As Magic Light Pictures celebrates its 20th birthday, 2023 is shaping up to be a big year for the UK prodco, which has made TV specials loved by many millions of kids around the world.
The award-winning London company, founded by joint MDs Martin Pope and Michael Rose, has produced 12 of the BBC’s Christmas animated specials, including 10 films based on the story books by Britain’s best-selling author and illustrator, Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.
Its most recent, The Smeds & The Smoos, had more than 8.5 million linear viewers last December, with many more streaming this beautiful film on BBC iPlayer. This success is the culmination of two decades of hard work, creativity and smart stewardship from Pope and Rose.
Muriel Thomas, Magic Light Pictures
“Michael and Martin had been friends for many years before forming Magic Light,” says Muriel Thomas, international distribution director. “Martin came from the world of live-action feature films, while Michael’s background was animation, working as executive producer at Aardman Animations.
“What they both had in common was a love of strong storytelling and at that time they had young families, so were reading lots of books to their kids every night, as parents do. That inspired a passion to tell imaginative, beautiful stories for children.”
While in its early years Magic Light produced feature films, including the Oscar-nominated animation Chico & Rita, comedy Wild Target with Emily Blunt and Bill Nighy, One Life narrated by Daniel Craig, and Sparkle with Bob Hoskins and Lesley Manville. But Martin and Michael had long wanted to focus on the family market; in particular the picture book they had both read to their children night after night, The Gruffalo, the wonderful story about a mouse who gets the better of a frightful monster, written by Donaldson and illustrated by Scheffler.
Having secured the rights in 2007, they set about financing their film, including from sales to BBC One and ZDF.
The Smeds and The Smoos
Broadcast in the UK on Christmas Day 2009, it attracted an audience of 10 million, won multiple awards, including a special Prix Jeunesse for best fiction of the last 50 years, and was nominated for an Oscar for best animated short film.
“Starting the relationship with Donaldson and Scheffler was a big opportunity for Magic Light,” says Thomas. “It allowed the company to carve itself a specific niche in the market and develop a reputation for delivering high-quality animated shorts.
“However, in recent years Magic Light has started to diversify from the seasonal specials into longer-form TV. The company’s first preschool series Pip & Posy launched in 2021. And we have a pipeline of content in various stages of development that comprises a mixture of live-action and animation.”
Pip & Posy
Pip & Posy (52×7’) is based on characters from the books written by Camilla Reid and illustrated by Scheffler. The series explores how young children build friendships through play, and it premiered in the UK on Paramount-owned Channel 5’s Milkshake! kids’ strand and later on Sky Kids. Magic Light has since licensed Pip & Posy to more than 30 international broadcasters covering 100 countries worldwide and in over 20 languages. Set to debut early this year is the second season of 52×7’ episodes.
The company won’t be drawn on the specifics of the roster of projects it is currently working on but says that its creatives are constantly developing content.
Marc Ollington, Magic Light Pictures
“Magic Light is always looking for great stories to tell,” says Marc Ollington, marketing director. “While we are massively excited about the next Donaldson and Scheffler special and continuing to grow Pip & Posy, we are also developing a small number of new IPs in various iterations. Our focus is on delivering the highest quality and experience for the audience. ”
The Gruffalo
It would be wrong to view Magic Light as merely a production company, however. The company takes a 360-degree approach to its operation, with the London headquarters also accommodating departments for distribution, marketing, finance and licensing.
Magic Light places great importance on creating not just content but brands. Licensing has evolved to be an important revenue stream, with the company securing the rights to manage the Gruffalo and other Donaldson and Scheffler brands, selling a very wide range of merchandise such as toys, games and stationery to retailers across the UK, including Sainsbury’s and John Lewis.
Brand partnerships and licences have also seen Magic Light launch projects such as The Gruffao River Ride and the Room on the Broom: A Magical Journey attractions at UK theme park Chessington World of Adventures, plus Zog Playland at Warwick Castle; Gruffalo, Zog and Stick Man walking trails with Forestry Commission England and commemorative Gruffalo stamps with Royal Mail, to name a few.
The Snail and the Whale
Increasingly, prodcos are finding that social media has become a vital way to promote their shows. This is especially the case for specialists in kids’ content, with dedicated channels on YouTube attracting millions of clicks.
“From a marketing perspective, YouTube remains the key location to grow brands,” says Ollington. “There are so many preschool and family shows that constantly add a plethora of extra content, such as compilation episodes or behind-the-scenes material to work the algorithm to their advantage.”
“But what you often find with some dedicated YouTube channels is that the quantity of the output means the quality of the content can sometimes be lacking. For Magic Light, it’s about enticing more parents and kids to our shows while ensuring our high-quality brand values are enshrined. We have to make sure social content adheres to our standards of excellence.”
Zog and the Flying Doctors
The emergence of free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels in recent years has provided another opportunity for the distribution of content.
“Magic Light has been approached by quite a few FAST channels and it’s an area we’re watching very closely,” says Thomas. “FAST channels are the new fashion in the TV industry. I’ve found that it can be difficult to carve out the rights, but there might be opportunities in the future if we can get the right partner onboard.
“In terms of our distribution strategy, we have close relationships with the BBC, ZDF and a multitude of other broadcasters around the world for our Christmas specials. But, of course, we want to expand our portfolio of partners, widen the audience and make Magic Light’s content as accessible as possible.
Stick Man
“I’m proud of how the distribution team has grown Magic Light’s footprint internationally. Pip & Posy does well for us in multiple territories, we’re constantly renewing the rights for The Gruffalo all over the world and Room on the Broom, for instance, is popular in the US, especially at Halloween.
“We work with a variety of partners, from public broadcasters and pay TV networks to streamers and smaller independent companies. Magic Light has built up such a level of trust now that buyers take pre-sales of our new content, confident that it will be of a very high standard.”
Notching up two decades as a prosperous independent production company in such a competitive industry naturally prompts some reflection on the company’s progress and the road ahead. What is the future of animation and what have been the biggest challenges Magic Light has faced over that period?
Room on the Broom
“While the animation space is always evolving with new technology,” says Thomas, “Magic Light takes a craft-like approach to developing our projects, which are usually adapted from high-profile book IPs. There will always be demand for beautiful stories with great characters and striking, imaginative design.
“One of the biggest challenges in recent years was the Covid-19 crisis, but the animation industry was able to adapt very quickly and we saw an increased demand for animated content, which worked well for us.
“In terms of the challenges faced presently, everyone recognises that getting the finance together for projects is getting increasingly difficult, especially with production budgets rising.”
Superworm
In the next couple of months Magic Light will reveal the title and voice cast of the latest Donaldson and Scheffler adaptation it is producing for BBC One’s Christmas Day slot. Fans of the books can be assured the project has been developed with the same love and care the company devotes to all its content.
“On my first day at Magic Light it was made clear to me that the company’s ethos is to enrich the imagination of kids and families by bringing wonderful stories to the screen that will be cherished for years to come,” recalls Ollington. “It’s that vision and obsession with quality control that runs through the core of Magic Light.”
