Parthenon Entertainment

September 24, 2009 World Screen
Marie Chappelow
Commercial Director, Children’s Brands
 
What are some of your top properties for MIPCOM?
City Of Friends
Castle Farm
Aquateam
Dex Hamilton – Fire & Ice The Movie
 
Why will these programs appeal to buyers?
 City of Friends is a very colorful preschool series that brings all of the emergency services together through exciting and entertaining storylines. The stories are primarily character–driven, with original and varied personalities including Max the only police officer monkey and Elphie the fire brigade’s elephant! I think it will appeal to buyers primarily because of its original approach to showing characters from all the emergency services and how they interact with each other.
 
Castle Farm is like a beautiful painting. Aimed at the preschool market, it offers humorous and imaginative storylines and appealing characters including an intelligent unicorn, a farmgirl and her best friend Piggy. Portrayed in the style of children’s drawings, which I think is both bold and quirky, each episode is set on the farm and begins with Farmgirl and Piggy being sent on a task, but getting distracted along the way by the environment around them.
 
Aquateam is a very inspirational series for older children and one which we are getting a lot of interest in.  Eight brave teenagers undergo a strict training program to earn their SCUBA certification and once completed they must being their series of Aquamissions. The viewer goes on a journey with each of the teenagers experiencing their fear as they come face to face with sharks, explore shipwrecks for treasure and go on electrifying night dives!  The series is filmed in beautiful locations and has a strong environmental message.  
 
Dex Hamilton Fire & Ice is an exciting movie-length prequel to the Dex Hamilton TV series we launched at MIPCOM last year. It’s great to be working on this and its testament to the success of Dex that it has its own movie already!  In the movie we discover the origins of Dex’s passion and talent for entomology. Whilst searching for his missing father and engaging on a dangerous mission to save the Earth, Dex is united with his future team.  They quickly see, that their combined talents makes them the perfect team to keep both the insects and the Earth safe.

What are some of the trends you’re currently seeing in this market?
We have seen a rise in demand for factual programming aimed at older children aged 8-12. Aquateam is a great ‘adventure series’ focusing on real children and real emotion rather than ‘presenters’ or ‘characters’ and I believe this ‘reality’ trend amongst children’s programming will appeal to more broadcasters in future . In addition, whilst budget constraints are still a factor, it was heartening to hear at the recent Showcomotion children’s conference in the U.K. that CITV had increased its commissioning budget. Let’s hope this is reflected across all broadcasters at MIPCOM.
 
What are your goals and expectations MIPCOM? 
To continue on-going negotiations with broadcasters and licensees and to present our new programming. Parthenon Kids is very supportive of the international children’s production community, we already have very strong relationships with a number of key Welsh producers and are pleased to represent Creacon, the Norwegian producers of "City of Friends". I think it’s not only important but refreshing to present content from a mix of territories as they can offer a range of bold and original ideas. I’ll therefore be looking forward to meeting with established and new children’s producers showcasing distinctive, original programming.

Is there any other information you would like to share regarding your plans for MIPCOM?
It’s a very special MIPCOM for us as we will have our own emergency services cadets on site! Don’t be surprised if you bump into Max the monkey, Ted and Elphie the elephant from our key ‘City of Friends’ title strolling along the Croisette. They will also be making a couple of appearances at our stand throughout the exhibition too.