Sixteen South Outlines Odo Co-Pro

Colin Williams, creative director and showrunner at Sixteen South Originals, talks to TV Kids about the new preschool series Odo, centered on the big adventures of a little owl.

The BAFTA-winning and Emmy-nominated children’s TV producer Sixteen South Originals teamed up with the Polish animation studio Letko for the new preschool series Odo, centered on the big adventures of a little owl.

The project came about from a meeting at MIPCOM in 2017 between Colin Williams, creative director and showrunner at Sixteen South Originals, and Jakub Karwowski, CEO and co-founder of Letko. “When Jakub showed me some artwork by a talented illustrator named Alena Tkach from a self-published book that he had optioned, of a little owl called Odo, I immediately fell in love with it,” Williams says.

“From the moment we met, we became great friends and trusted co-producers,” he continues. “It’s a superb relationship where our genuine respect and trust in each other and our respective teams have created genuinely one team split across two countries. We at Sixteen South took the wonderful artwork and created characters, a world and a solid set of values that we wanted our stories of comedy and heart to resound with in the series.” Sixteen South showruns, oversees editorial, music and gives design direction, while Letko handles the majority of the production, including art, boards, animation and direction.

The 52×7-minute series is done in hand-drawn 2.5D animation. “We created the show together in the style of Alena’s original art, with lots of hand-drawn brushstrokes and chalk lines and sprays with a warm earthy and secondary palette,” Williams says. “We created and produced a trailer and pitched it at Cartoon Forum, and the feedback we received was overwhelming—but the one stand-out comment we had from one buyer was that they felt that kids preferred CGI. That was interesting, but we love the theater of 2D and we weren’t going to lose that, so after some further visual development, we created a new additional look for it: 3D lighting on 2D animation that we call 2D.5. It made the characters pop right out of the screen yet didn’t compromise on the theatrics of the show; it worked.”

KiKA in Germany and Milkshake!, the preschool programming block on Channel 5 in the U.K., have come on board as partners. “We’re so thrilled to have two superb partners that not only are great editorial commissioners, but as the leading homes for kids’ content in Germany and the U.K., are each so important because that’s where kids watch TV!” Additional partners to date include Canal+ and S4C.

The show centers on Odo, a little owl who just can’t sleep. Being nocturnal, he should sleep during the day, but Odo is different. To keep him busy while they sleep, his parents send him to the Forest Camp where young birds of all species and sizes come to learn important life skills. Odo doesn’t mind being one of the smallest birds there; he’s very comfortable in his own feathers, but he does mind being told that he can’t do something because he’s little. Odo believes that he is capable of anything that he puts his mind to, but his ambitions far outweigh his ability, meaning chaos is never far away.

“When we created the series in 2018, we were really concerned at the growing levels of anxiety and depression in children,” Williams says. “After what children have been through in the last 12 months, now more than ever, this really is a show for 2021! We’re thrilled to have lots of new voices in our writing team, and we’re not shying away from telling stories that need to be told: stories addressing racism, welcoming the migrant, a story about Windrush, adoption, loneliness and friendship groups. Odo is a cheeky but lovable character with bags of self-belief.”

He adds that the response to the show from buyers has been overwhelmingly positive. “‘Cute,’ ‘charming,’ ‘funny,’ ‘cheeky’ and ‘lovable’ are some of the comments we’ve received. We’re delighted that Odo is the first series that we’re selling ourselves through Sixteen South Rights right from the start.”

A global merchandising deal has been signed for the brand. “We are really excited at the prospect of being able to augment the audience’s love of Odoby extending brand engagement across a range of appropriate product lines such as plush, publishing and apparel,” says Williams.