Rainbow & Toonz Align for Pinocchio and Friends

Rainbow Group has partnered with Toonz Media Group for an animated series based on Carlo Collodi’s classic children’s story The Adventures of Pinocchio.

In Pinocchio and Friends, the enchanted puppet is transported into today’s modern technological world, with adventure, comedy, fun and educational elements for children to enjoy. It follows Pinocchio and his best friends—Grandpa Geppetto, the pirate doll Freeda and the Talking Cricket—as he dreams of one day becoming a real boy by following the advice of the Fairy with Turquoise Hair. Aimed at kids aged 4 to 7, the CGI show is slated to premiere by the end of 2021.

The preproduction, post-production and supervision operations will be carried out at Rainbow studios in Italy, while the animation will be done at Toonz’s studios. Toonz will handle distribution rights of the show in the Indian subcontinent, South East Asia, Spain and Portugal. Toonz will also hold the licensing and merchandising rights of the show in the Indian subcontinent. Distribution and L&M rights in the rest of the world will be handled by Rainbow.

Iginio Straffi, founder and CEO of Rainbow Group, said: “The new Pinocchio I imagined speaks to children in a light-hearted, educational way and empowers their dreams. Families will love this compelling series and kids will find their new TV hero in Pinocchio. We are glad to partner with Toonz, combining the great expertise of both our solid and international teams, which will be indeed an asset of this great production for a worldwide audience.”

P. Jayakumar, CEO of Toonz Media Group, added: “Giving life to a world classic is always a challenge, but at the same time very exciting as well. We are happy that Toonz has got a great partner in Rainbow to take up this challenge and deliver Pinocchio as a top-notch series with very high-quality content. I am sure kids across the world will love and enjoy this show.”