Cottonwood’s Pre-School Series ‘Ollie & Moon’ Sold to Italy, Finland
DeAGostini channel Super! in Italy and pubcaster YLE in Finland are the latest buyers on pre-school series “The Ollie & Moon Show,” a Cottonwood Media production distributed by Federation Kids & Family.
The deals add to the show’s global reach of over 150 territories already licensed. Previous key sales include to France Télévisions in France, NBC Sprout in the U.S., TVO and Knowledge in Canada, Discovery in Latin America, D-Kids in Middle East and North Africa, VRT in Belgium and IETV in Israel.
An edutainment short-format series, “Ollie” follows a couple of six-year-old globe-trotting cats on a world tour, introducing to kids the joys of unlikely friendships, global citizenship, memorable adventures and new food, language, cities, and customs.
“These new acquisitions just go to show that good storytelling and magnetic characters are truly universal,” said Monica Levy, senior VP, co-production and sales at Federation Kids & Family, a joint-venture launched in 2015 by Cottonwood Media and Paris and L.A.-based Federation Entertainment to distribute original content from both companies as well as third-party acquisitions.
“The enthusiastic reception of the series, which follows its huge publishing success, lays the groundwork for our long-term licensing strategy,” added Federation Kids & Family co-founder David Michel.
Mixing animation (cats) and live action (backgrounds) “Ollie” is based on the best-selling book-series created by Emmy Award-winning artist Diane Kredensor, whose credits include “Pinky and the Brain,” “Clifford the Big Red Dog” and “Word World.”
Co-developed by Kredensor, Robert Vargas (“Word World”) and David Michel (“Totally Spies!”), series’ delivery is scheduled for this year.
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