Magic Light sprinkles some magic animation dust on the market

As Magic Light Pictures prepares to launch its latest animated Christmas special, titled Tiddler, international distribution director Muriel Thomas and marketing director Marc Ollington discuss what makes Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s stories so successful and give their thoughts on the industry’s changing landscape.

“This time of year is always the highlight for us as the production of our latest special is coming to an end and all the pieces come together,” says Muriel Thomas, international distribution director of Magic Light Pictures. The company is about to launch Tiddler, its 12th adaptation of the children’s books written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler.

“Tiddler has long resonated with readers because at its heart, it’s a tale about imagination, adventure and the joy of storytelling, which appeals to both children and adults alike. Parents love it for the positive messages around creativity and perseverance, while kids are drawn to such a lively character as Tiddler and the imaginative scenarios that surround him.

“As for the adaptation, I’m incredibly excited because the visual and auditory possibilities in animation allow us to dive deeper into Tiddler’s adventures, giving audiences a new way to experience his world. It’s a chance to engage not only readers who love the book, but a broader audience who will discover Tiddler for the first time. At Mipcom, we’ll be able to show an extract of the animation for the first time. The production is close to completion, and we are ready to push on the international roll-out,” says Thomas.

Meanwhile, marketing director Marc Ollington has been busy working on promotion in the UK in preparation for Tiddler’s primetime premiere on BBC One over Christmas.

“We traditionally get the slot just preceding the King’s Speech,” says Ollington. “Last year for Tabby McTat, we had over eight million viewers and we were in the top 10 shows. In a world of fragmented viewing, maintaining that stand out position is an exciting challenge”

Magic Light’s first animated special, The Gruffalo, was released in 2009. Thomas shares the recipe for the specials’ continued success: “The stories are beautiful because they are based on rhyming and they trigger imagination, but they are not only appealing to children. They also appeal to parents, grandparents and carers so there is a wider audience finding something relevant to them.”

“Each time I watch The Gruffalo, I find some little thing that I didn’t notice earlier and that’s the same conversation I have with all our partners around the world. The stories still look fresh and reach new generations over and over again.”

Ollington agrees: “The films have become as beloved as the books. When your children grow up and you have a clear-out, they’re the type of books you keep. I think the same thing is true for our specials. Even though my kids are no longer the target demographic and even if I didn’t work at Magic Light, we’d all still sit down on Christmas Day and watch the Magic Light special because it’s a family thing.”

Keeping the essence of the original stories is a key ingredient, says Ollington. “We stay very, very true to the source material and sprinkle it with the Magic Light quality and stardust.”

The specials translate well across the globe because they are also relevant to different cultures, adds Thomas, but translation and adaptation need to be carefully managed. “It’s very important for us to maintain the high level of quality when it comes to local languages to sustain the longevity of the specials.”

When it comes to international pre-sales for Tiddler, she says: “We’ve already got a number of international broadcasters on board, which is wonderful – they are very loyal. All of our previous specials have been placed in over 180 countries across the world, so we plan to follow the same pattern. Post-Mipcom we will have the full list of all the partners for 2025 international launch.”

While Tiddler is Magic Light’s Mipcom focus, Thomas says: “We look at the whole picture so we can maintain ongoing business on the rest of the specials. Tiddler is the driver but we need to maintain awareness that it is part of a collection.”

Aside from TV, Magic Light has been ramping up its activities in other areas including cinema releasing, says Thomas. “The specials are so beautifully made that you can go to the cinema and have a completely different experience to watching them on the smaller screen. We’ve now got different models in different countries. In the UK and, more recently, in Australia, for example, we work directly with cinema chains to schedule the specials and plan ahead in terms of new releases.”

“We’ve been in transition in terms of home entertainment with the decline of the DVD market. In the past, we worked with various local home entertainment distributors and those deals are expiring, so we are moving on to working directly with digital platforms, to have our titles available for TVoD exploitation in major countries and languages.”

Another revenue stream is live experiences, says Ollington, but this is an area where the company treads cautiously. “It’s always something we want to grow and nurture but we’re also quite choosy over who we work with and what we do,” he says.

“For example, in the UK, we have a strong relationship with Forestry England and there are Gruffalo trails on 27 of their sites. We also have a very successful commercial relationship with Merlin Entertainments, with The Gruffalo River Ride at Chessington World of Adventures and The Gruffalo & Friends Clubhouse in Blackpool. It’s a vital part of our business and we want to do more internationally too, but the opportunities have to be correct – it’s all about maintaining quality standards.”

Aside from the Donaldson/Scheffler specials, another priority for Magic Light at Mipcom is Pip & Posy. Thomas says: “This was our first animated preschool series and now we are on the second season, plus we have a spin-off educational series, Pip & Posy Let’s Learn. A key part of our mission at Mipcom is maintaining its presence and looking for new partners.”

YouTube and TikTok are important channels for Magic Light, but purely for marketing, says Ollington. “YouTube is a brilliant promotional tool but it’s really hard to work out how to make true money from it. You rely on pre-roll and mid-roll advertising, which isn’t enough to sustain or create our content.

“Our Gruffalo World YouTube channel has 1.5 million subscribers and that’s growing every day. Pip & Posy is another fast-growing channel. The channel has cost us a lot of marketing investment but we see it as a vital part of brand building.”

Magic Light has only recently dipped a toe in the water in terms of using TikTok, says Ollington: “I had concerns around TikTok as it is very much aimed at parents not kids so we want to make sure that any kind of activity we do is purely promotional to reach parents and let them know about our content.”

Magic Light is confident about the future despite a changing landscape, says Thomas. “We can all recognise that the market is changing in various ways and we are all trying to work out what the future will be. We’ve built up a large network of broadcasters and streamers and there is a level of loyalty there, but obviously partners change and shift depending on market trends.

“What has really helped us to maintain good demand internationally is being precious about the quality of our content but after that it’s up to us to find the right route to market and the right positioning both locally and globally, so we are always thinking about how to reach the audience in the best way possible. We are also small enough to be flexible, so when things change, we quickly try to find other opportunities.”

While the company sees a revolution coming through the arrival of artificial intelligence (AI), Ollington says: “As a business we’re looking at what tools are out there and how AI is being used to make sure we’re keeping up to date. We anticipate it providing tools to assist with production and other activities, but the heart of our work is storytelling of the highest quality and that relies on human talent and endeavour.”

While audiences are likely to become more integrated into shows through AI, Thomas says: “There will always be the need for people to find half an hour of their time to sit back and enjoy a good story with beautiful visuals. This is my comfort blanket – there will always be the need for that, no matter what.”

Magic Light continues to push forward with exciting new projects, as Ollington reveals: “We’re delighted that we were able to announce recently our new Zog series is to launch in 2026. This is the first time a Donaldson and Scheffler book has been adapted into a series. The flying doctors Zog the dragon, Sir Gadabout and Princess Pearl work together to care for the weird and wonderful inhabitants of their fantastical world. It’s an animated comedy adventure series of 52×11’ episodes for four- to six-year-olds about caring for others, yourself and the amazing world around you.”