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December 3, 2020

Toonz Takes a Strategic Approach to 360-Degree Storytelling

Over the last two decades, Toonz Media Group has strategically grown its business to become a true 360-degree media powerhouse specialized in creating top-flight entertainment for kids and families across the world. The company has established itself as one of Asia’s most active animation production studios, with over 10,000 minutes of 2D and CGI kids’ and family content produced each year. Its business lines cover content creation, production, distribution, digital media exploitation, licensing and merchandising, gaming, AR/VR and other emerging technologies and animation academics.

Along the way, Toonz has collaborated with renowned creators and studios around the world. This year, the company teamed up with Keith Chapman of PAW Patrol fame for the interactive preschool series Paddypaws & Pals. American actress Janet Hubert is a partner in the value-oriented show JG & the BC Kids, which inspires kids to embrace differences and is driven by a multicultural team. Also in production at Toonz, Sunny-Side Billy is a colorful and upbeat 2D preschool series about fun and positivity. The creative heads behind the project are celebrated animators Olivier Jean-Marie (Oggy and the Cockroaches) and Jan Van Rijsselberge (Robotboy). Toonz is also partnering with the renowned Russian studio Soyuzmultfilm for the brand-new CGI series Aliens in My Backpack, which comes from Rob Lee and James Driscoll, creators of BAFTA-nominated titles such as The Shoe People. And there’s much more in the works, as P. Jayakumar, CEO of Toonz Media Group, tells World Screen’s Kristin Brzoznowski in this video interview.

In the coming months, for example, Toonz will be launching an exclusive OTT platform for kids’ and family entertainment: MyToonz. The platform will include a vast library of Toonz’s original productions, co-productions and licensed properties. MyToonz is being positioned as a hub where the whole family can come together to enjoy over 1,000 half-hours of movies and episodic content across different genres.

Also coming up, Toonz is launching the e-learning platform Vizdem. It will be a highly agile online education platform that will carry over the legacy of Toonz Academy with a modern, technological approach. The vision of Vizdem is to transform the lives of creative talents and artists across the world by bolstering their skills and making them employable at a time when the techno-creative industry is booming globally. The plan is to launch Vizdem in India in early January and then in other English-speaking territories by the end of 2021.

In this video interview, Jayakumar tells us more about what’s in store for Toonz Media Group as it continues to innovate the ways in which it provides entertainment for kids and families around the globe.

See Toonz Media Group's Winter 2020 Showcase here.