Serialised, high-concept animated shows from Europe and North America are finally finding a route to market thanks to the popularity of graphic novels, webcomics and streaming platforms. Nico Franks reports.

For decades, most bibles for animated kids’ projects have emphasised the closed-ended nature of their episodes, which lend themselves to repeatability and give schedulers the flexibility to air a series any way they like.

Flick on the telly and start watching an episode of kids’ TV and the odds are everything will be neatly tied up by the end of the show.

But the word ‘serialised’ is appearing more and more in the development materials of kids’ series, as the relevance of linear TV schedules to young audiences continues to wane and streaming platforms become the launch pad for new shows.

Of course, animé series from Japan have been doing serialised episodes for years. The genre continues to defy the ‘niche’ tag that it is often erroneously given, with Crunchyroll – currently the subject of a US$1bn takeover – recently breaking into the top 10 streaming services in the UK, according to research from BroadbandDeals.com.

Meanwhile, the reality for producers from Europe and North America has been that in order to get their animated children’s shows off the ground, the most commissioners would be willing to stretch to was a light story arc running through a series.

But binge viewing on streaming services and the success of shows such as Hilda on Netflix have put paid to the received wisdom that kids aren’t into serialised content. As a result, many European and North American animation producers have begun work on their first serialised shows, opening up a whole new subset of the industry.

Julien Borde, a children’s TV veteran who recently joined the kids and family arm of pan-European independent media group Mediawan, believes there has never been such a demand for so many different styles and formats among children’s buyers.

“The huge success of streamers means traditional broadcasters are really opening up to new kinds of shows. It’s a fantastic moment for content, because both the streamers and traditional broadcasters are looking for projects that are different.

“I’ve been in the industry for a long time now, so I can remember when things were really just focused on comedy series and you couldn’t do anything else,” he says.

“Now, with the streamers and all the content that is available for kids everywhere, all of the time, there is a real need to differentiate in the fight to get kids’ attention. So you can be really original. It’s a golden age.”

One of the main beneficiaries of this boom in demand for more ambitious children’s shows has been the publishing industry, with competition to acquire rights to established and popular IP growing fiercer by the year. So far, many of the serialised animated children’s series to be commissioned have been based on graphic novels, growing numbers of which are targeting school-age children and young adults.

According to NPD Bookscan, young-adult and juvenile categories were less affected by Covid in Q2 in the US last year, compared with adult graphic novels, as younger readers had more free time while in lockdown.

Ivanka Hahnenberger, general manager at VIP Brands, a Paris-based licensing agent that handles European comics and graphic novels, says there has been an uptick in the number of producers looking at graphic novels of late, accelerated by people burning through content whilst in lockdown.

“Graphic novels have a big advantage for producers searching for content, because the look and feel of the storyboard is already there,” says Hahnenberger, who attended Cartoon Forum in 2019 to link up with IP-hungry producers from across Europe.

France has a long tradition of comics and animation production, so it’s no surprise to see the two industries continue to complement one another as they both step up their storytelling ambitions.

Highlighting the extent to which interest is growing in serialised animated series, the most-viewed pitch at last year’s virtual Cartoon Forum event was The Upside Down River (9×26′), from French producer and distributor Dandelooo and based on the novel La Rivière à l’Envers by author Jean Claude Mourlevat.

This ambitious show is about an adventurous quest in a poetic fantasy world, following a young girl’s search for water drops from the Qjar river in order to heal her sacred bird. Backed by Canal+ Family, it certainly sounds a far cry from your average kids’ toon set in a high school overrun by monsters/aliens/etc.

Aimed at eight- to 12-year-olds, it wasn’t the only serialised show on offer, joining the likes of Andarta Pictures’ pitch for Baïdir (26×26′) and Vango (12×30′), from Tant Mieux Prod, which is also making the eagerly anticipated Toby Lolness (13×52′) for France Télévisions.

Discussing The Upside Down River, Emmanuèle Pétry Sirvin, partner and producer at Dandelooo, says the novel on which it is based could have been a feature film, but the firm decided to make it into a series due to the growing appetite from buyers.

“Surprisingly, more and more public broadcasters have expressed interest in serialised series and ‘deeper’ stories – not necessarily dark but more meaningful and definitely more original and creator-driven.

“The commercial channels don’t yet seem to have shifted towards this trend, although TF1 was one of the first European channels to show a serialised show, with The Mysterious Cities of Gold by Jean Chalopin, who is a true visionary creator,” says Pétry Sirvin.

“It seems The Upside Down River struck a chord because buyers are in need of beautiful projects and the pure ‘comedy-comedy-comedy’ era may well be fading. Some of the feedback said, ‘Wow we love this project, bravo, but unfortunately it is not possible on our channel.’ But, thank goodness, most of the comments were that they were open to buying the series once it’s been made.”

Herein lies one of the challenges when it comes to getting a serialised animated show for young audiences off the ground: many buyers are still unwilling to take a risk on it until it has been made and they can see the finished product.

Pétry Sirvin says: “These shows are more expensive because all the episodes are original and a pure creation and there is no possibility for re-use. So either you go down the 100% digital model route – then the tough part is to keep ownership of the IP and international distribution – or you go by the ‘traditional’ route. Then the road is bumpy, because the French broadcasters can only support a quarter of the production cost and you need to set up a copro with another friendly company outside of France.

“But the demand is increasing because currently there is a growing culture of serialised series for adults and children are now seeing and envying their parents as they binge-watch.”

Another French producer, TeamTO, is similarly working on its first serialised show, having acquired the TV, film and licensing rights to the graphic fantasy novel Ninn last year and put a limited series based on the IP into development.

Written by Jean-Michel Darlot and illustrated by Belgian artist Johan Pilet, the series is aimed at the seven-plus age group. It follows an 11-year-old girl in Paris with an unusual passion for the city’s Metro system who is protected by an origami tiger as she searches for the secrets of her past.

Mary Bredin, TeamTo’s creative development executive, says: “Adapting graphic novels is a bit of a trend right now but I think it is because they play in a darker, more dramatic space, which provides a depth that isn’t normally present in a lot of animated series.”

Corinne Kouper, executive producer and co-founder of TeamTO, adds that while the streamers are the most keenly interested in these kinds of serialised shows, there are exceptions when it comes to more traditional buyers.

“Cartoon Network did Over the Garden Wall, so I think everyone is looking for that exciting story that will generate buzz and audience. It feels like now is a great time for all types of content and darker stories are just one of the new doors opening up. And while streamers are looking at traditional launch ‘strategies,’ the free-to-airs are all also developing their own platforms, so there is a lot of blending going on,” says Kouper.

Kouper agrees that the biggest challenge is the budget of such shows – which can be in the region of US$6m – as “there is a lot less amortisation of costs compared with a long-running animated series.”

It is not necessarily guaranteed that an adaptation of a graphic novel will be animated, as highlighted by Netflix UK’s recent commission of a live-action series based on Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper graphic novels, which started out as a webcomic in 2016.

It is not just Europe where graphic novels and children’s books are being eyed as launch pads for ambitious series. Canada’s Boat Rocker Studios (BRS) is set to soon announce its first animated projects in the genre, both of which are being made with streamers, says Jon Rutherford, president, BRS Kids & Family and Rights.

“It’s a different beast when it comes to producing these things. A lot more thought and planning is involved in their preparation versus a typical episodic series. From the writing and the storytelling arc to production efficiencies, you can’t go back and fix things, so you’ve got to be careful before you lock in scripts. And you’ve got to capture the nuance of the storytelling in the voice work,” says the exec.

Meanwhile, the fact that serialised series have fewer episodes has implications for the commercial viability of a project – something Rutherford has to consider when it comes to putting together deals to get the shows made.

Doing an all-in-one deal with a streamer and handing over all the rights, as Boat Rocker has done with one of its forthcoming shows, will depend on the extent to which it sees potential for further exploitation in areas like consumer products and franchise growth.

There are also considerations when it comes to the degree producer can push the envelope on a show that will be put in front of a wide variety of ages, particularly in an on-demand world.

“We’re always discussing how to make sure, even though you’re producing edgier content, that it’s not completely unsuitable for a kids’ platform. In a copro, it’s about finding common ground between the partners. You always have to be mindful of who you’re producing for,” says Rutherford.

The key is not “getting caught in between two worlds,” where a serialised show is too edgy for kids but not mature enough for older, young-adult and adult audiences, adds the exec.

Nevertheless, for most producers, it’s a welcome problem to have and many are revelling in getting their teeth stuck into the kinds of cinematic shows they’ve always dreamed of producing.

“Working on more mature pieces of animated content, you can get very creative with the visual aesthetic and style. It’s great. You can do a lot with animation, be it a fantasy, a gritty sci-fi or a high-end adventure series. You also save a lot of money compared with a big live-action shoot. So it’s very refreshing to be able to open up the doors for serialised work within our portfolio. And, thankfully, we live in a world now where there are a lot more platforms and broadcast opportunities for this type of content than ever before,” says Rutherford.

Serialised, high-concept animated shows from Europe and North America are finally finding a route to market thanks to the popularity of graphic novels, webcomics and streaming platforms. Nico Franks reports.

For decades, most bibles for animated kids’ projects have emphasised the closed-ended nature of their episodes, which lend themselves to repeatability and give schedulers the flexibility to air a series any way they like.

Flick on the telly and start watching an episode of kids’ TV and the odds are everything will be neatly tied up by the end of the show.

But the word ‘serialised’ is appearing more and more in the development materials of kids’ series, as the relevance of linear TV schedules to young audiences continues to wane and streaming platforms become the launch pad for new shows.
READ MORE