After ten years of developing content, Toronto\u2019s Little Engine Moving Pictures made its way into the distribution business in August 2021. Since then, its library has grown to 15 titles, which it has sold to broadcast partners all around the world, including Australia, Germany, Israel, South Korea, the U.K., the U.S. and, its home territory, Canada.<\/p>\n
Moving into the distribution business \u201cmostly stemmed from us wanting to take more ownership and control over our series\u2019 sales,\u201d Kyle Perez, business development lead, tells TV Kids<\/em>. \u201cWe knew, being boutique and nimble, that we could quickly carve out a niche as a more intimate, hands-on distribution company that could give other production companies that kind of one-on-one attention that we were striving for.\u201d<\/p>\n The company has continued with this mindset as its business continues to grow. \u201cBeing boutique, we want to be very mindful of the whole process,\u201d Perez says. \u201cIf a show isn\u2019t selling, we\u2019re very up front with this with the producers we work with. We want to be transparent and efficient for our producing partners.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOne thing that we do really like to do with our partners is to have weekly or biweekly meetings just to catch up as their distributor and let them know what\u2019s going on,\u201d explains Maria Kennedy, owner of Little Engine. \u201cThat\u2019s not always the case with larger distributors. There might be quarterly reports. But we like to have one-on-one conversations and meetings with our partners.\u201d<\/p>\n The company\u2019s distribution business has been aided by the proliferation of so many platforms\u2014including those specifically for children\u2014and their request for metadata. \u201cSome of our partners may ask for particular episodes that hit a certain keyword or theme,\u201d Perez explains. \u201cSo, if a streamer or network at the time is looking for farm-related episodes, we\u2019ll go through our catalog to see what fits the bill for that category.\u201d<\/p>\n Kennedy adds, \u201cA little kid may just want to watch shows about farm animals, and if they type in those keywords, they\u2019re going to see different episodes from different shows. That helps our producing partners. It helps the discoverability of their shows.\u201d<\/p>\n In terms of what the company is looking to pick up right now, \u201cwe want shows that are pure, thrilling fun for young audiences around the world,\u201d Kennedy says. \u201cStriking a balance between education and entertainment is really important for us.\u201d<\/p>\n Among the latest additions to the ever-growing Little Engine distribution library is The Smack-Dab in the Middle of the Day Show<\/em> from Mango Moon Productions. The live-action\/puppetry hybrid talk show for 4- to 8-year-olds is rooted in social-emotional learning. \u201cIt blends catchy songs with fun academic strategies,\u201d Perez says.<\/p>\n \u201cAll in all, we want our development pipeline and our distribution library to complement one another,\u201d Kennedy notes. \u201cWe\u2019re looking for consistency in shows from third-party producers that are similar to those of Little Engine.\u201d The Smack-Dab in the Middle of the Day Show <\/em>fits well with this strategy, as the company\u2019s development slate features a wide variety of live-action hybrid series and puppet-led shows.<\/p>\n That being said, Kennedy stresses that they are open to working with new creators and producing partners on other types of programming as well. Another new addition to the catalog is Dino Powers<\/em>, a high-end 3D animated action-adventure series set in a world where kids and robot dinosaurs coexist and convert into fast vehicles. \u201cIt\u2019s not something that we\u2019ve produced or distributed in the past, but we definitely see a desire for that kind of content globally,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd we just really love the partners at Dofala Studio in Thailand and Indonesia. We\u2019ve had some amazing meetings with them. We\u2019re really excited to work with them and try something new and challenging for us.\u201d<\/p>\n In terms of age demographics, Kennedy and Perez note that preschool series and those for 6- to 10-year-olds are plentiful and popular with networks around the world, but they \u201cwould love to see more interest in shows for 8 to 12s and young teens,\u201d Kennedy says.<\/p>\n They recently picked up BoyBand the Series<\/em>, a live-action coming-of-age story for this age demo. From World Star Network, it tells the story of two artist trainees who are rivals in a cutthroat competition to debut as the next big boy band in the Thai music scene. With this show and the others they have picked up, \u201cwe\u2019re pushing ourselves creatively as a distribution company,\u201d Kennedy notes.<\/p>\n Of course, Little Engine continues to work on developing its own shows, too. Its upcoming slate includes Tiny and Tall<\/em>, created by Ben Mazzotta with his new 3D motion-capture animated workflow, and Benjamin Ojo<\/em>, an early teen live-action mystery series from writer, director and influencer Tope Babalola. On the preschool side is Ava + Pixels<\/em>, about a little girl and her cat, Pixels, who live in a video-game-style world. \u201cThe educational component is that it\u2019s coding for preschoolers,\u201d Kennedy says.<\/p>\n Additionally, it is in early development with Rahrang Studio on HeyDays<\/em>, a preschool animated series \u201cabout the days of the week come to life as comedic characters, who live in a super colorful world,\u201d Kennedy notes. \u201cThey won the best preschool pitch competition at the Asia TV Forum.\u201d<\/p>\n No matter how big the catalog grows, however, Little Engine plans to remain true to its roots.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re working with amazingly creative new teams all over the world, but we still try to stay true to being a boutique company and working with a small but growing library of really, really exceptional titles,\u201d Kennedy says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Maria Kennedy, owner of Little Engine Moving Pictures, and Kyle Perez, business development lead, on the company’s distribution business. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1412,"featured_media":24872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,21],"tags":[7500,1828,7185],"class_list":["post-24871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-kyle-perez","tag-little-engine-moving-pictures","tag-maria-kennedy","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\n