Franny’s Feet

TV Kids
Weekly, October 23, 2007

ORIGIN: Based on an original idea by Cathy Moss
and Susan Nielsen. “They came in one day and pitched a simple idea that a
little girl puts a pair of shoes on and that’s how she goes on adventures,”
says Beth Stevenson, the executive VP of DECODE Entertainment, on the origins
of the series. “We had been working with an animation studio, C.O.R.E. Digital,
on another project, where they’d brought visual artists into the animation
studio. So there was a beautiful illustrative team that had already been
assembled for this other show. It was great for us. Not only did we love the
concept but we also had this animation pipeline in mind. It turned out we could
deliver a really lush, beautiful illustrative look.”

DISTRIBUTOR: DECODE Enterprises

CREATORS: Cathy Moss and Susan Nielsen

TV SHOW: 39×22 minutes or 78×11 minutes and new
interstitial content of 78×2 minutes, all produced in 2-D animation.

SYNOPSIS: Each 11-minute episode sees Franny off
on a different adventure. She puts on fisherman’s boots and lands on a trawler
in the middle of the Atlantic. She slips on a pair of hiking boots and is off
on an African adventure. Franny's adventures go well beyond the day-to-day
world of school and home life. Franny’s Feet lets children explore the bigger world
and shows them that you are never too small or too young to be a big help.

EXECUTIVE
PRODUCERS: Beth
Stevenson, Steven DeNure and Neil Court

COMMISSIONING
BROADCASTERS: Five in
the U.K. and Canada’s Family Channel

TV SALES: DECODE has concluded more than 80
television broadcast and video agreements for Franny’s Feet, covering more than 160 countries.
Broadcasters include: PBS in the U.S.; ABC Australia; France 5; Disney Channel
Germany; Cartoon Network in Japan, Taiwan and Korea; Italy’s Rai; TV2 Denmark;
TV12 Singapore and MBC3 in the Middle East.

MAJOR TOY
LICENSEES: DECODE
recently signed a major licensing deal with PLAYSKOOL, a division of Hasbro,
for the worldwide master toy and game license for Franny’s Feet. A series of toys and games incorporating
dolls, accessories, role play and puzzles are set to launch in 2008.

OTHER
PRODUCTS: Penguin
Group (USA) and Simon & Schuster have come on board as publishing partners
for the U.S. and North America. Grosset & Dunlap, an imprint of Penguin Young
Readers Group, is set to launch storybooks, readers, stickerbooks and a series
of novelty books—such as board, lift-the-flap and word-game activity
books—in 2008. Simon & Schuster will launch color and activity books
and kits, which will also roll out in stores in 2008.

DECODE has
also signed up a number of international licensing agents through its agent,
The Sharpe Company. These include CPLG (Copyright Promotions) for France and
Italy, Scandinavia’s Alicom Licensing, New Zealand Global Licensing, South
Africa CLM (Character Licensing & Marketing), IMC (International
Merchandising Consultants) in Argentina and Korea’s Asiana Licensing. In
addition, Rocket Licensing, the U.K. licensing agent, has already completed a
deal with Rainbow Productions for costume characters in Europe. In Japan, OLC
Entertainment has television and licensing rights.

Home-video
deals include Allumination Filmworks for the U.S., Universal Home Entertainment
in the U.K. and a further home entertainment agreement with Mediaway in Poland.
Scanbox handles home video for Scandinavia, Videovan covers Malaysia, Singapore
and Indonesia and EMG represents Taiwan.

In addition,
in the U.S., Halloween costumes will be rolled out by Disguise and Cadaco will
offer up crayon and paper arts activity products, glue-based cling moulds and
frames for activity. In Argentina, IMC has signed up Ediciones B as publisher
of storybooks and soft cover titles in Argentina and Uruguay.

STRATEGY
FOR ROLLOUT: “We have
great broadcast partners who are all well vested in Franny,” says Stevenson. “We’re making sure
that we can continue to get the audience awareness, so that when Hasbro’s toys
and the books and everything else start to hit the shelves, people know who she
is. It’s a major consumer marketing push, which is really what we’ve been doing
over the last three or four months and we’ll be continuing at least for the
next ten months.”

Stevenson
adds: “She continues to be our little surprise and continues to get more and
more momentum. Hasbro did extensive consumer testing and found that moms and
kids all identified with her and fell in love with her.”