New Zealand’s Pukeko Pictures has signed a development deal with Chinese entertainment group, Guangdong Huawen Century Animation Company, to produce ‘Kiddets’, a sister series to Pukeko Pictures’ hit pre-school animated series, The WotWots.
‘Kiddets’ is being developed as an official TV co-production under the treaty guidelines signed by New Zealand and China last year to explore as many opportunities as possible and forge closer ties with businesses in the two countries.
The agreement enables approved projects to gain official co-production status and gives production houses access to funding and incentives in line with those for national films in each country.
Pukeko Pictures’ chief executive, Clive Spink, said he was delighted that a year of hard work and many trips back and forth by both parties had led to this moment.
“In the end it’s all about finding good partners to work with which takes time and commitment from both sides," he said.
"We want ‘Kiddets’ to be the first of many business ventures with Guangdong Huawen Century Animation Company over the next ten years or more”.
“We are very excited to be going on this journey with our colleagues from China”, said Martin Baynton, creator of The WotWots and the creative lead at Pukeko Pictures. “The WotWots has sold to over a hundred countries including many Asian territories. With that proven universal appeal it’s time to grow and expand the franchise with a sister series that has an eye on the growing Chinese market”.
Guangdong Huawen Century Animation Company chief executive and executive producer of content, Wang Bing, said they will be building a new animation pipeline to undertake the animation elements of ‘Kiddets’.
“We are very thrilled that Martin and Richard Taylor will be in charge of producing all the creative elements of scripts and design in Wellington and our team will handle the animation in Beijing," he said.
"This is a very exciting opportunity for our company”.
Guangdong Huawen Century Animation Company managing director of licensing and distribution, Wen Jianfeng, said he was excited to be working with Pukeko Pictures.
“In the last year we have successfully introduced the BBC show Waybuloo to little children all over China with a big launch last April which Clive and Martin attended with us," he said.
"We want to make ‘Kiddets’ loved by millions of children in China”.