Just Entertainment unveils new toons for MIPCOM

The UK's Just Entertainment is in production on a new pre-school toon Wide Eye, based on a property from Just Group's publishing house Marshall Direct.

The 26×10' show will premiere in the UK on BBC and will be available internationally from autumn 2002.

The series follows the adventures of an eponymous old owl who looks after the Natterjack Forest and its younger residents, like Little Hoot and Flea. Just will handle all rights.

Also on Just's MIPCOM slate is Lost in the Snow, a 30' Xmas special produced by Honeycomb Animation for Just and Carlton Television. The 2D toon will be available from autumn 2001 and will air in the UK on ITV.

It features the voices of Hugh Laurie (Stuart Little) and Helen Baxendale (Cold Feet, Friends) in a tale about a teddy bear who loses his way in the winter snow. Just handles all worldwide rights.

Another of Just's upcoming animated specials, this time 50', is based on Roald Dahl's kids' book The Giraffe, The Pelly and Me. The toon is scripted by Karey Kirkpatrick (James & the Giant Peach, Chicken Run) and will remain faithful to the book's original illustrator (and the show's creative director), Quentin Blake.

Just-owned Optical Image will also be at MIPCOM with broadcast-quality 11' pilots for a number of cgi series, including The Diddlys, about two steam trains that can transform into other futuristic vehicles and travel in time to save the world; and Reds Away, a 26-parter about the Red Arrows display team.

Optical Image is also developing a cgi series for kids 7-10 called Junk Planet. The 26×11' sitcom is set on a orbiting trash can and follows a hapless bunch of robots who are dumped there.