Tag Archives: coolabi

Dr Seuss catalogues and Clangers audio adventures are landing on the Tonies platform

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Still fresh from its latest portfolio extension with Disney earlier this week, the children’s audio storytelling platform, Tonies, is continuing to roll out the classics, having welcomed the popular works of Dr Seuss as well as the British preschool sensation Clangers to its content library.

In a new partnership with Dr Seuss Enterprises, Tonies is introducing a series of five bundles showcasing the most beloved Seuss characters and stories, kicking off with The Cat in the Hat in early 2022. The deal arrives as Dr Seuss Enterprises details a new major focus on building more audio-first experiences for children.

In time for its 65th anniversary, The Cat in the Hat will be the first Dr Seuss Tonie to debut, and will feature original audio productions of some of the most iconic characters and stories, including The Cat in the Hat, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, and There’s a Wocket in My Pocket.

Further titles will be unveiled in the coming months.

Susan Brandt, president of Dr. Seuss Enterprises, said: “Audio continues to be on the rise as parents look for new ways to entertain their kids beyond screen time, whether its audiobooks or podcasts, or something as innovative as tonies.

“The tonies team has created an experience that is verbal, tactile and inspirational for kids’ imaginations. As our team continues to bring our properties further into the world of audio, we see tonies as a cornerstone partnership.”

Christoph Frehsee, president of Tonies USA, added: “The Dr. Seuss library is filled with timeless and universally loved stories that appeal to imaginations of so many youngsters. Beginning with The Cat in the Hat, we are looking forward to bringing this whimsical world of characters to the Tonies universe in 2022 and beyond.”

But the new additions to the Tonies platform don’t end there. The system has also welcomed the popular preschool property, Clangers, to the portfolio. Narrated by Sir Michael Palin, the new Clangers Tonie figurine can be placed on top of the Toniebox to take listeners to the unique and imaginary world on the little blue planet, somewhere out in space.

Billed by the company as ‘a great introduction to the CBeebies TV show for little ones’, the new Tonie plays six adventures that take children on an exploration of the Clangers’ planet under the stars, where they will be joined by Small, Tiny, Mother, Major and Granny Clanger.

As well as encouraging independence, the stories told by the new Clangers Tonie will inspire conversations and the development of emotional bonds with parents.

Jeremy Banks, CEO of Coolabi Group, rights holders to the Clangers IP, said: “We are absolutely over the moon to be announcing this new partnership and the Clangers Tonie release. The partnership celebrates all the fantastic music and sounds that make Clangers so magical and unique.”

Pinky Laing, UK partnerships at Tonies, added: “Tonies is committed to helping children through the power and magic of storytelling. We are delighted to be working with Coolabi Group to release our new the Clangers audio Tonie for families.

“Telling the nostalgic, loveable and iconic tales of the pink, knitted creatures that live together on a little blue planet, we hope that the new Tonie will develop bonds amongst parents and their little ones.

“Fostering a love of narrative and adventure, the launch of our new Tonie continues our commitment to engage the next generation by introducing them to beloved classic stories, such as The Clangers.”

But hold on a minute. The thing about Tonie figurines is – they’re like buses. And indeed there is a whole trail of new releases for the month of August, including the new How to Train Your Dragon Tonie boasting 35 minutes of adventure with the young dragon trainer Hiccup and his loyal dragon Toothless, as well as Trolls, following the adventures of Poppy, Branch, and the residents of Troll Village, and Super Wings – a full 72 minutes of quests with Jett as the plane sets off to deliver packages to children around the world.

Coolabi’s Clangers lands on ten VOD channels across China in Fantawild partnership

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Coolabi’s award-winning preschool series, Clangers, is building its international presence having secured a major new broadcast partnership with the Chinese animation leader, Fantawild. Under the deal, the series will now be made available across all of China’s major VOD channels, including iQiyi, Tencent Video, and Youku.

The series will also be accessible on platforms such as the mobile video service NewTV, and the world’s largest IPTV operator, BEstTV. Other Chinese VOD platforms include GITV, Sino Media, and Prosee.

A total of 78 episodes from series one and two of the award-winning stop motion animation are being uploaded across 19 days, following the launch on May 15th. New episodes will air daily leading up to Children’s Day on June 1st this year. With an estimated potential audience of 700 million people across China, the show will be promoted across all of the platforms, with a supporting promotional push on social media platforms WeChat, Weibo and TikTok.

Coolabi began its partnership with Fantawild back in 2019, since which Fantawild has also engaged with a number of key licensees to introduce Clangers products to the Chinese market throughout the year.

Coolabi Group CEO, Jeremy Banks said: “We are delighted that Fantawild has been successful in placing Clangers across all of the major VOD channels in China, and look forward to introducing our lovable ‘space mice family’ to children across China following the launch on 15th May.”

Fantawild Animation Inc. is recognised as the most influential animation studio in China, specialising in the whole industrial chain from creation and production to global marketing, it has created China’s most popular cartoon Boonie Bears, and its merchandise sales reach over $467 million.

Daisy Shang, executive president of Fantawild Holdings Inc, said: “After Clangers’ long-running success in the UK and wide distribution in other parts of the world, we are very excited to share this beloved brand with Chinese audiences. Welcome to the Fantawild family and welcome to China.”

Ben Li, Deputy General Manager of Fantawild Animation Inc, said: “We are so grateful to now officially have Clangers as part of our team. The launch day on the 15th May was such an exciting moment for us. We can’t wait to see more and more of our audience grow to love Clangers as much as we do here at Fantawild.”

Coolabi Group is an independent international media group and rights owner specialising in the creation, development and brand management of high quality children’s and family intellectual property rights. The company owns the rights to over 200 book series and 20 TV series. Its shows have aired in more than 140 territories on channels including ABC, Cartoon Network, CBeebies, CBBC, Disney, Netflix, and Nickelodeon.

Coolabi’s Warrior Cats leaps onto Roblox with the new Warrior Cats: Ultimate Edition game

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The independent media group, Coolabi Group, has partnered with the Roblox specialists, Aldrich-Callen Studios to develop a new 3D role play game for the global online Roblox platform, all based on its fantasy brand, Warrior Cats.

The new Warrior Cats: Ultimate Edition game will be set in the Forest Territory from the successful book series and will invite players to create and customise their own cat character, explore the world of Warriors, join a Clan and interact with other players to make their own Warrior Cats story.

Warrior Cats is a feline fantasy book series about five clans of wild cats: ShadowClan, RiverClan, ThunderClan, WindClan and StarClan. The series was created by Working Partners, a Coolabi Group company, and has become a publishing hit with the release of over 80 titles, spanning 38 languages, and selling over 41 million books to date.

The most recent book, Warriors: The Broken Code: The Place of No Stars, is also a New York Times bestseller, debuting at number eight.

The news of the interactive game comes two years after the launch of the award-winning WarriorCats.com, an official digital destination for Warriors’ growing global fan community. The site attracted over 1.3 million visitors in 2020.

Since the book series launched fans across the globe have created fan art, animation and fiction, with user-generated content receiving over 42 million monthly views collectively on YouTube. There are also over 1000 dedicated Warriors YouTube channels with a new fan video uploaded every 30 mins on average.

Last year Coolabi Group conducted a survey with over 10,000 members of its Warrior Cats fanbase established that not only do they love gaming, but Roblox was one of the most popular online platforms.

Naomi Dare, director of digital at Coolabi Group, said: “We’re excited to be launching a Warriors game on Roblox as we know that so many nine to 12 year olds are on the platform, with over half of this age group in the USA playing on Roblox at least once a week.

“This tends to be the age that people start reading Warriors, so not only does it serve our existing fan base who are desperate to role play in a Warriors world, but it should also attract new fans to the brand too.”

The ‘Warrior Cats: Ultimate Edition’ Roblox game is free to play on Roblox and out now.

Coolabi’s Clangers eyes new global ventures with Jetpack Distribution worldwide deal

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The independent kids and family content distributor, Jetpack Distribution, has acquired the worldwide rights to Coolabi Group’s popular pre-school stop motion animated show, Clangers in a deal that includes three seasons of the BAFTA-winning show that currently airs on CBeebies in the UK.

The new partnership covers all audio-visual rights for territories worldwide, excluding the UK, Australia and China and arrives as part of Coolabi’s ongoing mission to extend the pre-school brand across the international scene.

The Clangers are a family of lovable, pink, mouse-like creatures who live out in space on their Little Blue Planet. The planet’s surface is peppered with holes topped with metal dustbin lids, which flip open with a ‘Clang!’ to reveal steps down to their home beneath the surface of the planet which contains a series of interconnecting tunnels and caves.

Co-produced by CBeebies, Coolabi Group and Smallfilms, the all new episodes have been animated by Factory (Scream Street, Newzoids)  in the UK.

Jetpack CEO, Dominic Gardiner, said: “Clangers has a timeless magic. It’s truly delightful for young children and their parents. As well as being highly entertaining and making them laugh, it’s helping children appreciate important developmental aspects such as team work.

“Quality content for children is imperative right now. As parents and professionals, we hugely value shows made with heart and soul which nourish young viewers.”

Allison Watkins, director of licensing and TV distribution at Coolabi, commented: “Dominic and his amazing team at Jetpack are recognised as being one of the best children’s content distributors in the world and we are delighted to have the Clangers join their family.”

From page to stage and the digital age: Beast Quest’s journey from print to mobile and video gaming

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Beast Quest is a global publishing sensation that to date has sold more than 20 million books since its first publication in the UK some 12 years ago. In just over a decade, the book franchise has released over 150 titles in over 30 languages and transitioned itself from print into a wider world of video gaming, live events – through a successful partnership with Hampton Court no less – and now, its latest iteration of mobile gaming with Beast Quest Ultimate Heroes.

Licensing.biz catches up with the leadership team at Coolabi, Michael Dee, director of content, Naomi Dare, head of digital, and Allison Watkins, director of consumer products and TV distribution, to talk about the latest developments for Beast Quest, and just how you start to turn a children’s publishing property into a successful video gaming franchise.

Hello everyone! Let’s start by talking about the success of Beast Quest over the past few years. What has the journey for the brand been like, evolving from a published title to a multi-media franchise?

Michael Dee, director of content: Beast Quest is a global publishing phenomenon, with sales of more than 20 million books since it was originally published in the UK 12 years ago. To date over 150 titles have been published in over 30 languages. It is a brand that is recognised and appreciated by kids, parents and teachers.

There are not many libraries, both inside and outside school that don’t have a huge range and the storytelling is recognised as being hugely important in encouraging kids, especially boys to read more. Our social media feeds, and communication with parents are full of ‘thank you’ stories for getting their kids to engage with books.

The move into games was a natural extension to that, and our rich world of characters, recognisable narrative of good vs. evil provided the perfect content to support that, both digitally and for console games.

Our initial gaming partner was Miniclip in 2015, and our game with them has been downloaded over 17 million times, and still achieves 200,000 downloads every month. Maximum Games are our console partner, and the Beast Quest game is available across all formats.

Experiential was our next move, and half term saw an incredible interactive experience at Hampton Court Palace which delivered 10 per cent more visitors than they had seen before, so conversations are already underway for 2021 to revisit on an even greater scale.”

What sort of growth have you seen for the Beast Quest brand over the past year? What is it about the brand and your approach to its licensing strategy that has fuelled its success in this time?

Allison Watkins, director of consumer products and TV distribution: As a publishing brand, Beast Quest continues to grow and we have very much taken an evergreen approach to brand extensions through licensing. One of the key advantages to Beast Quest is its ability to appeal to a whole new audience with each new group of kids who discover it for the first time so maintaining that remains key to our strategy.

However, we know that kids like to experience their favourite brands in other ways too so Maximum Games expanding the platforms and launching on Switch last Christmas was perfect as it suits our younger age group of kids aged six to nine.

How is Beast Quest – and its licensing activity – reflective of changing audience tastes and the way in which fans today engage with published title?

Naomi Dare, head of digital: We want to engage with our audience where they are choosing to spend their time, so gaming and events are a key part of that. Our new mobile gaming app Beast Quest Ultimate Heroes moves that on further, with a new design style consistent with the tower defence genre that Ultimate Heroes is based on, although moving it on even further with the player able to battle in 3D map environments and with 3D characters, with the ability to zoom in and out of the action.

It has various game modes for players to choose from as well as regularly scheduled game events/ battles for them to play online or in endless mode. We will allow our audience to build here, and then expand on the product offering through licensing in key categories.

Beast Quest has been across not only publishing, but video games, live events, and now stepping into mobile gaming. What will this latest development do for the brand in terms of tapping into new audiences and stepping up the licensing strategy?

Michael Dee: The new mobile game should see not only existing fans engage on a new level with the brand, but also we should see brand new audiences across the globe becoming familiar with the brand through discovering the game via the App Store and Google Play. We already see lots of people playing the Miniclip mobile game across the world, and with Animoca based in Asia we expect to see this new game expand into more Asian markets too.

Also Beast Quest Ultimate Heroes has a completely new art style that brings the world to life. The new 3D art and assets make it easier to envision new products and even potentially animation.

How is Beast Quest pushing for innovation in the licensing space today?

Allison Watkins: I don’t think that it’s about pushing for innovation in the licensing space, but more about how to manage the brand to both protect its huge existing fan base, while continuing to push in new areas and styles. We think Ultimate Heroes goes that brilliantly.

As demands, tastes and the licensing space continue to evolve, how is Beast Quest maintaining its position of strength within it?

Allison Watkins: We keep our reader at the front of all we do – they are our audience, and if we keep them happy and engaged with the book then they will want to enjoy the brand as it expands into other areas.

What’s the next big step for the Beast Quest IP?  

Michael Dee: The next big step for Beast Quest will be content and there are some very exciting plans that we will be able to share later this year, but for now just enjoy the game.