Toon2Tango: the success story to continue at MIPCOM

Kids and family entertainment venture Toon2Tango comes to stand P-1.J22 at MIPCOM 2024 in Cannes in a buoyant mood. Not only does it have established hits and hotly anticipated new shows to promote but it arrives at the mother of all entertainment content markets only a few months after announcing a dream partnership that brings it closer to its goal of becoming one of the leading European animation companies.

It was in late 2023 that Toon2Tango announced that it had become a wholly owned subsidiary of the newly founded LEONINE Animation Studios, owned 50% by LEONINE Holding GmbH, Germany’s leading independent media company, and 50% by Toon2Tango founding partners Ulli Stoef and Jo Daris. The creative freedom and economic support the new partnership offers Toon2Tango will be evident in a confident showing at its stand in P-1.J22, where Toon2Tango has a lot to say – and show.

It’s been a busy and exciting year for the company and its founders, respected industry experts Hans Ulrich Stoef and Jo Daris, with big sales for its leading titles and some very strong prospects for the future already in production.

From a diverse and impressive portfolio of titles, Toon2Tango will highlight ongoing successes, AGENT 203, MONSTER LOVING MANIACS and THE WEE LITTLES. It will also present finished episodes of future hits HEY FUZZY YELLOW and DINOMITE & LUCY. Visitors can also find out about some highly innovative new shows starting production soon, such as SHOWTIME.

In Agent 203, one of the Toon2Tango’s biggest hits to date, you are invited to meet Zoe Stranek, and share Zoe’s surprise when she finds out her dad used to be a secret agent protecting our planet against alien invasions! Together with her new alien bestie Ulav and her best friends Quigley and Rock, she follows in his footsteps, protecting our planet from General Gore, the ultimate badass alien, hoping to find out what happened to her father.

A 26 x 22’ CGI adventure comedy and the world’s first Spy-Fi show, primarily targeted at girls aged 6-10, Agent 203 is a co-production between Toon2Tango, Mondo TV and Cosmos Maya Animation distributed by Toon2Tango and Mondo TV.

Season one has already sold to over 100 countries – so it’s no surprise that Agent 203 season 2 is about to start production.

The clever, original and very funny kids’ animation Monster Loving Maniacs, a 52 x 11’ 2D comedy for 6-10-year-olds, is about three siblings trained as monster hunters by their tough old grandfather. There’s just one problem: these kids are massive horror fans. Why would they want to hunt their monster idols? They love dangerous paranormal creatures. So they find a way to save the monsters.

Now available in over 150 countries, the show, commissioned by leading broadcasters SUPER RTL of Germany and DR of Denmark, is a ratings success internationally: in the UK it has ranked consistently among CBBC’s top shows; it is also available on Ceska Televize in the Czech Republic, RTL Klub in Hungary, Noga in Israel, MBC3 in MENA, True Visions in Thailand, and Canela Kids in Spanish-speaking US and Latin America.

In recent months the show has been acquired by several broadcasters serving key European territories, with premieres planned for Halloween / autumn 2024. These include France’s premium pay TV broadcaster CANAL+, Italy’s Paramount Global Italia, Belgium’s VRT Ketnet, Hungary’s RTL Klub, Latvia’s TV3, and Northern Spain’s Basque Autonomous Community’s public broadcast service EITB.

Monster Loving Maniacs is produced by Ja Film and co-produced by Mondo TV, Belvision and Ginger Pictures and distributed by Toon2Tango and Mondo TV.

With pre-schoolers in mind – and offering an appeal to children across all cultures – comes The Wee Littles, the new 46 x 5’ animation for 3-6-year-olds, commissioned by Ireland’s public broadcaster RTE and produced by MagPie6Media in a unique style: simulated stop-motion animation using puppets made by leading puppet-making studio Mackinnon & Sunders.

The Wee Littles is about a family of four very small creatures – Mum, Dad, Bitsy and Itsy – living in a great big forest world and working together figuring out how to overcome life’s little obstacles – like raindrops the size of your head! – with imagination, positive support and humour. After a strong response from broadcasters, Toon2Tango and Mondo TV are jointly distributing the show internationally.

Fully available next year, and with a lot of industry buzz behind it, is Hey Fuzzy Yellow (52 x 11’), a fresh, highly original 2D animated series for kids aged 3-5, with unpredictable comedy and an entertaining, magazine-style format which supports early education concepts. Previewing at MIPCOM, this is a spirited, very amusing new spin on childhood edutainment with a focus on thinking and self-expression through exploration and play, with fun, and very funny, original songs.

The show was created and developed by Måns Swanberg and Toon2Tango and commissioned by the Irish public broadcaster RTE. Educational guidance was provided by Crandall Consulting and funding includes support from Creative Europe, the Government of Ireland and Screen Ireland.

Hey Fuzzy Yellow, which is a co-production by Toon2Tango, Curiosity Ink Media, Treehouse Republic and Hotel Hungaria Animation, is currently in production with 26 episodes available now; the remaining 26 episodes are set for delivery in spring 2025.

The show has already been acquired by Warner Bros Discovery in Latin America, while Cookbook Media LLC, a premier global franchise management agency, has been appointed as North American content distributor.

Coming to screens at the beginning of 2025 is Dinomite & Lucy, a wild, and wildly original, new show set in an alternative prehistoric world in which dinosaurs are the superior species.

This eagerly awaited new animated 39x11min show about Dino, an inventive dino boy, and his extraordinary pet, headstrong cavegirl Lucy, their friendship and their crazy ideas, delves into the adventure of childhood and all the small and large challenges that come with it, not to mention all kinds of fun!

Dinomite and Lucy is based on an internationally successful series of books called MINUS DREI, by German author Ute Krause. Admired animation experts TRIKK17 and M.A.R.K.13™, together with Fabriques d’Images, are co-producing this delightful new venture of which 26 episodes are available already, with the remaining 13 to be delivered in early 2025.

Toon2Tango has also entered into a partnership with ZDF Studios, the commercial subsidiary of ZDF, to jointly work on the distribution of this fantastic new show. Toon2Tango will be in charge of the French-speaking territories, Italy, Iberia and China, while ZDF Studios will handle distribution in all other territories worldwide.

At a slightly earlier stage, and for older pre-schoolers, there’s Showtime, a 2D concept soon entering production. The idea behind Showtimeis based on an experience which every parent knows only too well: kids setting up their own theatre/musical show, which quite often ends in a funny situation – or not!

Toon2Tango co-founder Ulli Stoef says: “Following hard on the heels of the rapid development of the company since we became part of the LEONINE group, Toon2Tango is keen to let visitors to MIPCOM know that we aren’t slowing down – even slightly. We will not only underline the huge successes we’ve enjoyed in production and distribution to date but are enormously confident that our forthcoming shows will add to that success. Come to stand P-1.J22: we’d love to tell you more!”