Zodiak Kids Studio France, part of Banijay, and Gigglebug Entertainment, the leading creator and producer of original kids content in the Nordics, have announced that they are co-producing The Unstoppable Yellow Yeti, an original animated comedy series for kids aged 6+ and their families, which has been co-commissioned by Disney Channel Europe, Middle East & Africa and Nordic broadcasters YLE, DR, NRK, and SVT.
The original concept was created by Gigglebug Entertainment’s Joonas Utti (Creative Director) & Anttu Harlin (CEO) and co-developed by Zodiak Kids, Gigglebug Entertainment, and Disney EMEA. Joonas Utti & Anttu Harlin will direct and produce respectively alongside Zodiak Kids Studios Head of Content Development Gary Milne as Creative Producer. The Executive producers for the series are Benoit di Sabatino (Zodiak Kids) and Anttu Harlin (Gigglebug Entertainment).
The Unstoppable Yellow Yeti is an off-beat comedy series set in a quirky little town above the Arctic Circle, where it is winter all-year-round, and monsters are strictly forbidden. The series follows the unexpected adventures of an unlikely trio of friends: surfer-boy-newbie Osmo, his no-nonsense cousin Rita, and the enormous, outrageous and unstoppable Yellow Yeti!
Production began in Summer 2020 and the series is set to launch in 2022. The series marks the first time Disney and YLE have co-commissioned a series.
Benoit di Sabatino, CEO, Zodiak Kids comments:
“The unstoppable Yellow Yeti is a top comedy IP we have been successfully developing with Gigglebug and Disney EMEA for a couple of years. We are so proud to greenlight the production and give birth to this series with such quality partners all over the world.”
Anttu Harlin, CEO, and co-founder of Gigglebug Entertainment said:
“At Gigglebug we aim to positively impact the lives of children around the world by spreading joy through our work, and no character is more outrageously delightful than the Yellow Yeti himself! The coming together of Zodiak, Disney, YLE and our creative team at Gigglebug has been great fun and together we look forward to sharing with kids everywhere our exuberant fish-out-of-water comedy about the power of friendship and belonging.”
Zodiak Kids holds international distribution rights to the series.
About Zodiak Kids
Based in Paris and London and led by Benoit di Sabatino, Zodiak Kids, part of Banijay, produces a wide range of animation and live-action series, digital content, TV films, and entertainment formats for children worldwide.
Zodiak Kid’s sales division represents a catalogue of more than 2000 hours of programming including internationally successful in-house animation productions such as Totally Spies! and award-winning live-action series Secret Life of Boys and Joe All Alone. The catalogue is home to LoliRock, Marsupilami, The Ranch, Gormiti, Mister Maker, Street Football, Millie Inbetween, Magiki, Kody Kapow, and Lilybuds. Zodiak Kids also represents third-party series including Horrid Henry. Little Princess and 17 exclusive series and specials from Amazon Studios.
The digital team manages 50+ YouTube channels in English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Norwegian, Danish, Hindi and Chinese. In late-2018, they launched Zodiak Kids content on Amazon Prime Video, via a self-publishing service. Since then, over 150 different titles and series have been made available for SVOD and TVOD, in 8 different languages.
Zodiak Kids, Banijay’s dedicated kid’s production company, is one of the world leaders in the production and exploitation of kids content.
About Gigglebug Entertainment
Gigglebug Entertainment is the leading creator and producer of original kids content in the Nordics. Founded and managed by executive producer Anttu Harlin and creative director Joonas Utti, Gigglebug’s mission is to draw next-generation joy. The company develops and produces original content and co-productions and provides animation as a service, including TV-series, games, shorts, gifs, & digital micro content. It’s original IP’s have been licensed to books, music, live events, messaging and other consumer products. Gigglebug’s credits include Best & Bester for Nickelodeon, The Yellow Yeti for Disney, Last Kids on Earth for Atomic Cartoons, 101 Dalmatian Street for Disney and Gigglebug, first launched as an app, with over 1 million downloads and #1 chart positions in 64 countries. The flagship production is a 360-franchise inspired by the emotional objectives in the Finnish curriculum.
The company stands for Nordic playfulness. An attitude – taking our Nordic honesty, equality, creativity and high quality, and squeezing it all into the most constructive kids content on the planet.
Learn more at gigglebugentertainment.com
About The Walt Disney Company EMEA
The Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries is a diversified worldwide entertainment company with operations in four business segments: Media Networks; Parks, Experiences and Products; Studio Entertainment; and Direct-to-Consumer and International. Disney is a Dow 30 company and had annual revenues of $69.6 billion in its last fiscal year (FY19).
Seeking to entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling, The Walt Disney Company has been in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for over 80 years, employing thousands of people across the region and reaching consumers in more than 130 countries. The Walt Disney Company’s iconic brands – including Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, National Geographic, FOX, FOX Sports, and ESPN – are experienced diversely across the region in cinemas, on TV screens, online, at retail, in Disney Stores, and at Disneyland Paris.