Irish animation company Cartoon Saloon have teamed up with Dutch company Telescreen to produce and distribute 26 x 30min animation series.
What if a short-sighted stork makes the mistake of his life and delivers a skunk to a Panda in China?
And what if this Panda is the protector of the forest and a Master of martial arts? Master Panda believes that this was not a mistake, it was destiny! The forest animals are fighting for their lives against an evil Dragon and his army of ninja monkeys. Young Skunk must learn Kung Fu and control his unpredictable talent for pungent odours if he is to become the defender of the forest animals and someday defeat the Dragon, leading to many humorous -action packed - adventures.
Following the overwhelming response to the Skunk presentation at Cartoon Forum 2003, the Kilkenny-based animation company Cartoon Saloon, has opted to team up with Telescreen as partner on the Skunk property.
Telescreen’s CCO Tom van Waveren: “We feel privileged to have been chosen as partners on the Skunk property by Cartoon Saloon. They are a very talented company and have made a name for themselves in the few years since their inception. We have discovered over the past few months that we share a common vision for Skunk and a profound conviction this property has the potential to go very very far”.
The series is based upon an original idea by Aidan Harte & Hyun-Ho Khang and was further developed in Cartoon Saloon. The forest animals seem to be fighting a losing battle against onslaught of a once great and good Dragon. Skunk is a young westerner raised by a wise old Panda in the ways of Kung Fu and Zen. Brave but impetuous he must learn to master the different Kung Fu animal styles and wisdom if he is to defeat the Black Dragon and his army of Ninja Monkeys. Ultimately the young hero is the unknown element that will bring back balance to the Chinese forest.
Cartoon Saloon’s Paul Young: “Aidan and I felt very lucky and appreciative to have had a number companies interested in partnering with us on Skunk after our pitch at the Cartoon forum. We decided that Telescreen fitted our needs best, from both a creative and business perspective, to help us produce and exploit the series. This is our first foray into television with our own show after a number of service work contracts, short film successes and TV commercials. We believe that Tom, Stephanie, Ruud and the rest of the Telescreen team’s collective experience in animation will add a lot of value to the future of Skunk… They also bribed us with Stroopwafels which we have no defence against.”
Cartoon Saloon will be the lead studio on the series. Telescreen will handle all rights exploitation. Intended 26 half hours. Intended production start is summer 2004. Detailed plans for publishing, gaming and broad presence across multiple platforms are being developed.
Cartoon Saloon
As an international animation service provider and co-producer The Cartoon Saloon is regarded across Europe as a high quality design and animation studio that has provided key design and animation for feature films and television series. With a number of award winning shorts, TV commercials and service contracts behind them, the Cartoon Saloon team have been straining at the leash to get their first TV series off the ground. The studio is based in Kilkenny, Ireland.
Telescreen
Internationally Telescreen is known for its quality productions, successful partnerships and knowledge with regards to all rights exploitation possibilities. As producer, agent and distributor Telescreen is renowned for over 20 years and is still expanding into new fields of media opportunities.
