Panel & Premiere: The Wee Littles

Luana Perrero, head of content sales at Mondo TV Group, and Jo Daris, co-owner and chief creative officer at Toon2Tango, introduced The Wee Littles as TV Kids Summer Festival’s Screenings Day kicked off this morning.

In conversation with TV Kids’ Kristin Brzoznowski, Perrero and Daris talked about how the stop-motion preschool show came together ahead of introducing a teaser for the new series.

Watch the panel and premiere here and read excerpts below.

The series was created and animated by Ireland’s Magpie 6 Media. Mondo TV is handling distribution in Southern and Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia, Perrero said, with Toon2Tango managing German- and English-speaking markets, Benelux and Scandinavia.

The show, Daris said, originates from an Irish tradition: “In the woodlands, you’ll spot small, brightly colored doors at the base of the trees. The creators of the show got the idea of, who would live in these trees? What would they look like? That generated the idea for The Wee Littles.”

The world created by Magpie 6 Media for The Wee Littles is “filled with nature and wonderful, surprising creatures,” Daris added.

“The Wee Littles really has universal appeal,” Perrero added. “We’ve done sneak peeks with some close partners of ours in different parts of the world and we had really positive feedback from them. They responded with enthusiasm to the universal themes of the show, its unique look and the sweetness of the show. It makes you feel like you are walking in the forest along with them.”

Delivery of 26 5-minute episodes is targeted for January 2022, with the final delivery by April 2022. RTÉ is already on board for Ireland.

“The Wee Littles stories are all about the way they handle their compact size with their unique and inventive flair,” said Perrero, adding that the show’s major themes include family, overcoming everyday difficulties, sharing, protecting the environment, humor, creativity and imagination. “Children can relate to what The Wee Littles do and learn that no matter what your size is, you can do big things with teamwork, with the help of your friends and sharing.”

Daris added, “It shows you how beautiful nature is and how beautiful it can be if we treat it in the right way. The funny moments are primarily situational because our characters don’t speak. The only recognizable words come from the voice-over. There’s a lot of misunderstandings and some slapstick. At the beginning of every episode, there’s some obstacle that prevents them from doing what they wanted to do that day. And then Mom comes with a plan and Dad puts the plan into motion and the kids help. As a family, they create a successful outcome. They need to be creative and imaginative in order to solve these problems as a family.”