Apr 25, 2018

TV ROUNDUP: Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Disney Junior, Gaumont

This is a regular roundup of animated series that have been announced for development, production, and distribution.

"Little Big Awesome" will debut on Amazon Prime Video on April 27. Click here to watch. The series is produced by Tomi Dieguez of Tronco and written, developed, and executive produced by Ben Gruber, co-creator of Superjail. and writer of Spongebob Squarepants.

The mixed media series has won a Daytime Emmy for Art Director Khang Le for the episode "What's the Trouble Bubble."

Little Big Awesome is set in the "whimsical and bizarre" Town Police, where best friends Gluko and Lennon try to help citizens live their best lives as best they can. Other characters include Mr. Sprinkles (a kitten with an eye patch), Claude the buff hamster, Fluffy Smooch, and Stafven, who lives in Lennon's hat. Weird Al Yankovic plays the Sun and provides musical performances along with Grammy winner Aimee Mann.

Apple, which will soon unveil its streaming platform, announced "Central Park," the first original animated show produced by 20th Century Fox Television.

The musical series, which has already received a straight-to-series order for two seasons (26 episodes), will be produced by "Bob's Burgers" creator Lauren Bouchard, Grammy Award winner Josh Gad of "Frozen" fame, and Bob's Burgers" native Nora Smith will write the script. Bouchard and Gad also serve as executive producers, while Smith is credited as a consulting producer.

Central Park follows a family of caretakers who live and work in the park of the same name and end up saving both the famous place and the entire world. The series features Leslie Odom, Jr, Titus Burgess, Kristen Bell, Stanley Tucci, and Josh Gad.

Disney Junior is also greenlighting a new comedy series T.O.T.S. by creator Travis Braun, who will serve as executive producer. Braun previously wrote Disney Junior's Vampirina and will also produce the Disney Channel live-action series Fast Lane.

T.O.T.S. is aimed at children ages 2-7 and centers on the adventures of Pip the penguin and Freddy the flamingo. These two best friends are the only non-work employees of Tiny Ones Transport Services (T.O.T.S.), a team charged with delivering baby animals to their forever homes around the world. On the educational front, the show shows young viewers how to think creatively and problem solve.

Vic Cook and Chris Gilligan join Brown as executive producers, and Guy Toves (creator of The Stinky and Dirty Show) serves as story editor. Titmouse co-produced the series with Disney Jr.

Disney Junior reaches 91 million households and airs 36 channels in 27 languages worldwide.

Musician and photographer Julian Lennon, son of John Lennon and his first wife Cynthia, has signed a deal with French studio Gaumont to produce an animated show based on his New York Times best-selling picture book series. The socially-conscious picture book series has so far consisted of "Touch the Earth" and the recently released "Heal the Earth. Like the picture books, the animated series is aimed at preschool children and focuses on environmental protection and other social issues.

Gaumont produced "Narcos" for Netflix and co-produced "Hannibal." Current animated films in production include "Noddy," co-produced with DreamWorks, and "F is for Family" for Netflix.

Lennon and co-author Bart Davis will serve as executive producers on the series, with Terry Karagian, senior vice president of creative development for Gaumont's Animation & Family division; Kimberly Dennison, development executive; and Nicola Atlan, president of animation Collaborating with.

Following the recently announced "Tuca & Bertie," Netflix has decided to produce "Paradise, P.D."

Waco Ogin and Roger Black, creators of Comedy Central's "Brickleberry," have teamed up again for this comedy about a small town police department's truly terrifying cops. The series will premiere later this year and has an order of 10 half-hour episodes.

Odenkirk Provincial Entertainment will co-produce Paradise, P.D. with Bento Box Animation ("Brickleberry," "Bob's Burgers"). The voice cast includes Tom Kenny (SpongeBob) as Chief Randall Crawford, Dana Snyder (Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Squid Girl) as both Stanley Hopson and Dusty Marlow. Cedric Yarbrough, Dave Herman, Sarah Chalk, and Kyle Kinane also lend their voices.