Pat the Dog Performs for Superights

Nathalie Pinguet, the deputy managing director of sales and acquisitions at Superights, talks to TV Kids about the app-based animated series Pat the Dog.

Inspired by a series of mobile games, the animated show Pat the Dog is a top-performer in the Superights catalog. The story follows the adventures of a devoted canine as he constantly strives to save the day for his beloved owner, Lola. “Pat the Dog is a series combining all the ingredients of a universal cartoon and a dose of heartfelt emotions,” Nathalie Pinguet, the company’s deputy managing director of sales and acquisitions, tells TV Kids. “A great mix of tenderness, action, humor, adventure, friendship—appealing to boys and girls, younger and older.”

Co-produced by Superprod and Animoka Studios, Pat the Dog has been licensed in more than 180 territories. Broadcasting partners include Canal+ Family in France; Boomerang in EMEA and Asia; Discovery Kids in Latin America; Disney Channel in the U.S., Spain, Germany and Russia; Radio-Canada; RAI in Italy; and VRT and RTBF in Belgium. “Most of these broadcasters already committed to season two,” says Pinguet.

The second installment of Pat the Dog will feature 63 new 7-minute episodes, as well as four television specials and ten shorts. “The four half-hour specials will be themed: Christmas, Halloween, summer holidays and a prequel about the first meeting of Pat and Lola,” says Pinguet. “The ten shorts will be non-dialogue and will focus on comedy with Hoodie—the cutest cat ever—the other hero of the series.”

According to Pinguet, Superights is focused on developing consumer products for Pat the Dog. “ProSiebenSat.1 Licensing is our global L&M agent,” she says. “They just signed a European plush deal with NICI. They will launch in October 2019 a wide range of plush with all Pat the Dog characters.” The company is also looking to boost the property’s multiscreen presence. “We are already providing our broadcasting partners with online games. We are also currently producing a new version for iOS and Android…. We will even integrate a new feature creating live interactivity between the TV series and the app for kids who play and watch at the same time—there are quite a lot of them!”

Moving forward, Pinguet says that Superights is “looking to expand the free-TV exposure” of Pat the Dog, with some opportunities still available for home video and VOD. “Also, we will announce at MIPCOM a new partnership with a major kids’ media company in China.”