Award-winning Irish animation studio Kavaleer Productions have announced that they are teaming up with The Late Late Toy Show star Adam King to create Adam Adventure!, a preschool adventure-comedy series set in space, but with an environmental angle.
Inspired by and starring King himself, the show aims to promote his message of empathy and friendship; a truly universal phenomenon. Adam Adventure! breaks new ground for young audiences in multiple ways. It will be the first Irish children’s program to feature a wheelchair-user as the lead protagonist. With 150 million children living with additional needs worldwide, the show will introduce much needed on screen representation. In Ireland, one in seven people identify as having additional needs, but there is only around 2 per cent on-screen representation.
Kavaleer CEO and the show’s creator Andrew Kavanagh said “Adam stole the hearts of the nation when he appeared on The Late Late Toy Show last year. His message of following your dreams, no matter what challenges you face, inspired me to create this show. With Adam as our CAPCOM, we’re excited and thrilled to be embarking on our latest mission!”
Kalaveer MD and executive producer Gary Timpson added, “Our ethos at Kavaleer is to create innovative, ground-breaking shows that celebrate uniqueness and diversity in every child and support young hearts and minds to thrive. Adam Adventure! will be the latest hit from the creative team that created Kiva Can Do!, and co-produced household favourites such as Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese and Pablo. We can’t wait to share the development with the world at Cartoon Forum in a couple of months’ time.”
The 2D animation features comedy-themed quests, in which the legendary hero and his crew are on a mission to help aliens around the galaxy solve problems using his space-smarts and compassionate personality. The key takeaway for the audience is to learn about how to protect the planet in the best possible ways and they try to achieve so through humour and empathy for the world.
Adam’s father, David King said, “Our family is delighted to share this exciting news with the world! We believe in the importance and power of representation of difference in the stories we tell our children. That is why we are thrilled that Adam, our beloved son and a child with additional needs, is going to be the star of this wonderful cartoon. Not only this, but his trusty friends Speedy (his wheelchair) and Bubby (his toy rabbit) will travel on all his adventures with him. Through this cartoon, we hope other children and families will benefit from the power of seeing differences represented in the wonderful stories and characters of Adam Adventure! Our deepest thanks to Andrew and all the team at Kavaleer. From the moment we first connected, we knew Kavaleer was the right fit for our family as we share the same values. We can’t wait to go on this adventure together!”
RTEjr, Children’s and Young People’s Programming, executive producer Eimear O’Mahony added, “RTEjr are delighted to support Adam Adventure! for cartoon forum this year. Adam is such an inspirational boy and puts a smile on the faces of children and adults alike. I’m sure Adam Adventure! will be one of the star shows this year at Cartoon Forum.”
Adam Adventure! kicked off development in April and has been selected for inclusion at the 2021 edition of the prestigious Cartoon Forum in Toulouse, France this coming September. We cannot wait for the real-life hero to dig into the wonders of the galaxy through his imaginative ways and fun-filled animated adventures packed with heart. The show will have 52 episodes, each being 11 minutes long.