The magic in me is the magic in you – believe and you can do it too. The lyrics from the title track of the DVD feature Kiddo – The Super Truck say it all.
Kiddo – The Super Truck – The DVD cover
Box Office # Broadcast & Cable # Licensing # Merchandising # Home Entertainment # Comic Books # Games #Toys. Multiple revenue streams originating out of indegeniously developed IP have been the dream of all IP creators in Indian animation.
Each animation player in the country is constantly toying with ideas, searching for conviction. Should we delve into IP? Will our IP work? Those are the questions that resonate in many a boardroom of an Indian animation studio.
The so far elusive goal seems to be closer, almost within grasp. At least for Chennai based M.U.V Animation studios.
MagicDreams LLC. a joint venture between M.U.V animation studios and US based veteran animation producer Wiliam DuBay is going ballistic in tapping the revenue potential of their IP KIDDO THE SUPER-TRUCK. The latest development is Kiddo’s representation at the recently held Licensing 2005 (June 21-23 in New York City)
Speaking to Animation ‘xpress, MUV Animation Studios Chief Rajesh V Shah said,”We have recently signed a representation agreement for North American distribution with Earthworks Entertainment for Networks, Home Video and Licensing / Merchandising. Incidentally, Kiddo is probably the first ever property from an Indian creator to have been represented at Licensing Show”
“The first direct to DVD starring Kiddo-The Super Truck is a 78 minute CG animated film made for the international markets especially focusing on the North American market. The home video rights have been sold for 12 major territories across the globe so far. These include UK, France, BENELUX (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg), Greece, Poland, CIS (Commonwealth of Independent states), Croatia & Slovenia, Australia / New Zealand and South Africa. All these deals were done through our one of our distributors Marvista Entertainment” he added.
“This project was thought of when no one else was even considering content development in India. Even now we find companies focusing on content more suited to the Indian market rather than the global one. It is time someone took the lead and I am glad it was us” he further added.
“It is indeed quite rare to discover a monumental pre-school property that really stands out from all the many, many good pre-school properties KIDDO definitely has the potential to be a massive hit” quipped Peter Keefe – President & CEO EarthWorks Entertainment, Los Angeles, USA.
“One look at the finished first episode told us that Kiddo was a star” – commented Fernando Szew, Managing Director of Marvista Entertainment.
So what’s the story?
Kiddo- The Super Truck is the story of a cute little magical truck who can transform himself into any vehicle he wishes to be, from a rocket powered race car to big-foot utility vehicle, to a happy passenger truck. “Kiddo is the lead character and due to his magical powers changes into these cool looking vehicles making him a licensing boon” informed MUV’s Rajesh Shah.
Target Audience?
The show is targeted at preschoolers primarily boys from Age 2 ~ 6 and secondarily girls of similar age group.
Other characters
“The other characters are Double “O” davey, Humee, Fire Truck Dad, Race-Car Mom, Grandpa, Old -max, tickles the Taxi, Delight the minister of traffic. In total there are over 45 characters in this project” he added.
Pre Pro
The pre production was done by MagicDreams LLC in Los Angeles and took around 2 years. “We wanted to be sure that Language, dialogues were right for the age group and even had a county educator in LA to go over the script, apart from this we wanted to be sure that the script was good enough for pre school Children and had a children’s psychologist give us his stamp of approval as well” shared Rajesh.
Production
The production took about 8 months after MUV received the pre production pack from Los Angeles. All the work was done in-house; They did use another studio to share the load of rendering”
So who are the regional distributors?
IMC in UK, IMAGINE Entertainment in Australia / NZ, Foriegn Media Licensing in Benelux for home video , Ster KineKor in South Africa.
What are the monies involved?
“All these deals are on Royalty basis and what we receive now are the advance royalties, once the product hits the shelves it takes about a year to start receiving royalties.” informed Rajesh.
Kiddo – The Super Truck – A still
Licensing/merchandising deals so far?
Books – One licensing deal for book publishing with Pimento Publishing in Benelux. The books shall be published in Dutch and Russian. Current discussions are on with American publishers for the North American & Canadian markets. MUV shall be publishing books and comics around Kiddo in India.
Toys & Games – MagicDreams is currently negotiating with a North American Master Toy licensee and a Game Developer to license Kiddo for gaming. Current discussions are on with American publishers for the North American & Canadian markets.
Voices
The voices were done using actors from Hollywood and voice over actors in Los Angeles. Mickey Laszlo giving the voice of Kiddo. The casting, rehearsals and recording were done in several studios in Los Angeles.
Music
“We have had some great musicians who were involved with this project, William Roberts our music director and Venessa Hart – Producer and Lyricist have produced exceptional music and songs for this project. Surf ‘n’ drag icon Gary Usher Jr. is the music segment producer. Usher is the custodian, on many levels, of the surf ‘n’ drag musicial legacy pioneered by his father, BEACH BOYS, BEATLES AND BYRDS producer Gasy Usher, Sr” beamed Rajesh.
Commenting upon the Indian animation industry, Rajesh said,”Indian animation Industry is growing on its own merits and will lose its standing very soon if there is no support from the Indian government. Animation Industry has been left out like an Orphan to survive on its own. Take China for instance – their industry is still in its early stages and the government has already taken several steps to make it grow rapidly and even forcing Television stations to show majority of Chinese content and creating opportunities for Chinese animation studios to get easier access to capital. In India we don’t even have an idea if Animation comes under the Ministry of I&B or under Ministry of IT or under the Sub-section of NASSCOM ITES, The industry needs to find who its parents are before a proposal is made”
Throwing light upon MUV’s future plans, Rajesh shared,”We have established a CONCEPT TO SCREEN pipeline, Now we are focusing our energies in making KIDDO into a bigger global brand and have started developing other properties as we have distributors asking us â€?What’s next?â€? and we have lined up 3 properties with global appeal and exceptional value in Licensing and Merchandising. One of the properties is a 25-year-old comic book and was published until the mid 1990’s. Our aim will be to create more and more ORIGINAL properties only and we will not use the Public domain. We have already proved that not only do we have the ability to create Original properties which are univerally appealing but also have excellent licensing & merchandising potential – which is the key today. We are planning to raise further capital to meet this demand and focus on creating more properties either independently or jointly with other studios.”