Aardman Secures Deals on Interstellar Ella

Aardman and co-producers Fabrique Fantastique and Apartment 11 have revealed a set of deals for the first season of Interstellar Ella.

The series—commissioned by VRT Ketnet TV (Belgium), Knowledge Kids, Société Radio-Canada, TFO and TVOkids (Canada)—has deals with SVT in Sweden, NRK in Norway and YLE in Finland.

The 52×11 minute CGI animated series is aimed at 4- to 7-year-olds. It follows 8-year-old Ella Ryder and her friends’ exciting adventures in space, where they discover as much about themselves as they do about planets and astronomy.

Alison Taylor, director of distribution at Aardman, said: “We couldn’t be happier entering into a partnership with Apartment 11 and Fabrique Fantastique on this exceptional show. Despite not being able to have any face-to-face meetings to pitch the series to our wide network of global partners, the response from the market to Interstellar Ella has been phenomenal. Securing such fantastic partners at such an early stage has enabled the series to get into production quickly, and we can’t wait to see the first episodes start to deliver next summer.”

Jonathan Finkelstein, executive producer at Apartment 11, said: “You can’t give kids a better playground than outer space. Young audiences will love the thrilling adventures and come away amazed by what they learn and see about our galaxy in this beautifully designed series.”

Telidja Klai, commissioning broadcaster at VRT Ketnet, added: “We are extremely happy to welcome Interstellar Ella to Ketnet. Interstellar Ella will take you on a fantastic adventure through the galaxies, between the stars and planets, along comets and meteors, through eclipses and formations . . . embraced by warmth, friendship, solidarity, respect and emancipation. Every child will find his, her, their place in the universe of Interstellar Ella . . . an amazing universe that goes beyond imagination.”