Skywriter Teams with Mixer for New Animated Series

TORONTO: Skywriter Media & Entertainment Group has partnered with Mixer to develop the animated series Vivi for Canada’s TVO.

Vivi features 2D cut-out animation combined with live action. The series follows the adventurous travels of a curious artistic girl, and her Grandmother, through the use of a multiplatform approach to interact with viewers on her exploration of the world and self-knowledge. Skywriter will be designing an interactive online component that allows kids and their families to create their own scrapbooks of their journeys—real or imagined—to share with each other. Animation will be done by Mixer in Brazil, while preproduction and post-production will be done by Skywriter. Skywriter Distribution will be handling the international sales. Vivi received funding from the Brazilian program AnimaTV to stimulate the development of animation in Brazil.

“We are delighted to be working with TVO and Mixer,” said Kevin Gillis, the executive producer and CEO of Skywriter. “Vivi is a great character who will endear herself in the hearts of children all over the world. The digital scrapbook of her travels will inspire children to play and interact with the world around them.”

Pat Ellingson, the creative head of children’s media, content and programming for TVO, said of Vivi, “We are very excited to be developing Vivi with Skywriter and MIXER. We believe that Vivi will entertain and engage our audience. The interactive component speaks to our online audience and reflects TVO’s concentration in creating web based entertainment for the whole family.”

“Vivi is our third project geared to children and the second one with a partnership with a Canadian company," added Tiago Mello, the executive director of Mixer. "We are very excited with this new series. Vivi will position Mixer in the market as a production company specializing, among others, in this segment and also accredit the company as an international player.”