March 31, 2008 www.c21media.net
Foothill aims to make a splash in Big Top


Californian kids content distributor Foothill Entertainment will bring two new series from UK-based animation house Splash! Productions (Little Monsters) to next week's MipTV market.

Big Top Island (left, 26x11') centres on the activity at the Big Top School on the eponymous island. The school is run by the island's resident monkey troupe, the Gomez brothers, who make far better performers than teachers and have a tendency to create havoc in the classroom with their clumsy slapstick comedy acts.

Splash! is also behind Boy And The Dinosaur, which is currently in development. The CGI series follows a boy who makes a wish on a shooting star one night while playing with his toy dinosaur. When he awakes, the dinosaur has come alive and travelled through space and time to join him.

An early version of Boy And The Dinosaur was one of the most-viewed programmes at Mipcom Junior last year.

"We are very excited to be a part of a programme which so many people enjoyed at Mipcom Jnr," said Pat Ryan, Foothill's exec VP of sales. "This series is both warm-hearted and adventurous and we're really looking forward to helping with its development and production."

Other programming new to Foothill's MipTV slate includes animated classic Zot The Dog, based on Ivan Jones's best-selling books about fun-loving Zot and his human pal Clive and their adventures in the countryside, where all of the animals talk - except Zot, who has other ways of communicating.

"This series is loved by audiences of all ages and we are thrilled to add it to our catalogue," said Foothill's president, Jo Kavanagh-Payne. "There's an innocence and similarity between Zot and Clive that can only be appreciated by a child but will have parents laughing too."

Iconciles, a four-six-skewing format that has been on Foothill's books since 2005 and has been commissioned by CBeebies for a 2009 debut, will also be available for international sale at MipTV, as will Whac-a-Mole, a series based on the famous arcade game for which Foothill will be seeking to close a major partnership deal at the market.

Emily Brookes

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