Restructured Loonland brings shows to market

TV Loonland has survived a series of financial crises and comes to MIPCOM with two new shows. The German-listed kids producer has survived a tumultuous period in which it gave notice of its intention to offload home entertainment outfit Metrodome and restructured its debt.

After a first round of bidding, Loonland said strategic investors in North America, Europe and the UK had expressed an interest in Metrodome.

Meanwhile, legal action against former CEO Selma Kappel, regarding alleged financial impropriety during her stewardship of the company, continues. But the corporate concerns have not stopped the creative output.

COO Olivier Dumont notes that, with the exception of a short period just before the debt restructuring deal, he has been free to carry on overseeing the development and production of new and ongoing projects.

Loonland comes to market with two new shows, Penelope and Raymond. The former is aimed at the preschool market and the latter at 7-to10-year-olds. Loonland got involved with Raymond after seeing it at last year’s Cartoon Forum in Pau. The main character, described as ‘Woody Allen for eight-year-olds’, is ginger haired Raymond and the show is a straight-up, flash-animated, comedy.

“We keep hearing broadcasters say we want a straightforward comedy for 6-to-10s or 7-to-11s,” says Dumont. “Adults will relate to the story but the themes are about kids daily lives.” The show will bow on Canal+ and will be one of the centrepieces of the schedule on Lagardere’s Gulli channel from March.

Penelope is a CGI show based on a French publishing property that’s also big in Japan. Produced by Nippon Animation, Loonland is handling distribution outside of the US and Asia and is also looking to mirror the success of the Penelope consumer products that are extensively rolled out in Japan. Buyers at MIPCOM will be able to see an English-language version after Loonland dubbed the first two episodes.