Nickelodeon picks up broadcast rights to Xilam’s Athleticus and Mr Magoo

The Academy Award nominated French animation studio, Xilam Animation has secured two new broadcast deals with Nickelodeon for its short form CGI series Athleticus and the animated comedy Mr Magoo.

The new global deal will see Nickelodeon take exclusive pay-tv rights to two seasons of Athleticus for Asia Pacific, EMEA, and Latin America. It has also secured the rights for the series in Benelux, Italy, Vietnam, Philippines, and Argentina.

On top of this, Nickelodeon has picked up the exclusive pay-tv rights for Xilam’s hit comedy series Mr Magoo in the UK, where the series launches on Nicktoons this week.

“We’re very excited to be building upon our successful partnership with Nickelodeon and to see the broadcaster become home to two further shows from our slate,” said Morgann Favennec, EVP distribution at Xilam Animation. “With its charming characters and humorous stories, we know families all over the globe are going to love watching Athleticus and following the fantastic response to Mr Magoo in the UK, we’re very much looking forward to bringing the series’ hilarious hijinks to new audiences.”

 Targeting family audiences, Athleticus is produced by Xilam’s recently acquired CGI-studio Cube Creative and features wild animals taking part in competitive sports, ranging from table tennis to high bar, bobsleigh to curling. How successful the animals are at each of the sports entirely depends on their personality and anatomies resulting in very comical, and often poetic, results. The series is created and directed by the multi-award winning Nicolas Deveaux.

 

Mr Magoo makes his move on the US market thanks to DreamWorks deal for Xilam

Mr Magoo is making his move on the US market, thanks to a new deal struck between the award-winning French animation studio Xilam Animation and DreamWorks Animation’s Classic Media.

Under the deal, DreamWorks has exclusively picked up all US TV, home video, and VOD rights to season one of the new animated series. It will be available from today on CBS All Access streaming service.

Marc du Pontavice at Xilam Animation, said: “Since debuting in fall 2018, Mr Magoo has drawn strong ratings and captured the hearts of kids and their families around the world. The original version of Mr Magoo was first created in the US so we’re delighted DreamWorks has now come on board to introduce local audiences to our fresh take on this wonderfully candid and optimistic character, back where it all began 70 years ago.”

Originally commissioned by France Télévisions,Mr Magoo currently airs on Turner’s Boomerang channel in France, Africa, the Middle East, Israel, Turkey and Nordics, Cartoon Network (Asia), Discovery Kids (Latin America), Super RTL (Germany), VRT and RTBF (Belgium), SIC K (Portugal), RTVE (Spain), RTS (Switzerland), CITV (UK), Discovery and DEA Kids (Italy), among other channels.

This latest deal expands Xilam’s US footprint which includes its recently announced Netflix commission for the CGI animated preschool series Oggy Oggybased on the company’s hit global franchise Oggy and the Cockroaches.

Netflix also acquired worldwide rights to the studio’s critically acclaimed first adult animated feature I Lost My Body, which launched on November 29 and received the International Critics’ Week Grand Prize at Cannes Film Festival, Cristal for a Feature Film and Audience Award at Annecy and Grand Prize at the Animation is Film Festival last year.

I Lost My Body has also just been nominated in the Animated Feature Film category for the Academy Awards 2020. Additionally, Xilam is in production on Disney+ original Chip ‘n’ Dale, which will feature the return of Disney’s much-loved chipmunk troublemakers in a non-verbal, classic style comedy.