Magic Light Pictures, an award winning brand-building and production company, has signed a number of international agreements ahead of MIPTV for its Room on the Broom, The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child animated films, including TV transmission rights in the U.S. and Canada, and DVD rights in Korea, France and Slovenia.
Room on the Broom has enjoyed enormous success over the last year, winning a BAFTA and an International Kids Emmy, and receiving an Oscar nomination. The Gruffalo is celebrating its 15th anniversary year in 2014, and the critically-acclaimed classic continues to be loved the world over.
Room on the Broom
These latest international sales for the animated films, brokered by Muriel Thomas, Head of Sales and Distribution at Magic Light Pictures, cement Room on the Broom, The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child as titles that family audiences love.
In the US, Sprout has renewed the rights to broadcast The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo’s Child and Room on the Broom, and will air them at Halloween and in the lead up to Christmas.
Sprout first aired Room on the Broom at Halloween last year, as part of a positioning of the brand in the U.S. by Magic Light Pictures as a seasonal property across broadcast and licensing — supported by a push from U.S. publisher Penguin that led to the book claiming the number one spot in the Children’s Picture Book category for Halloween for the second year running.
Telequebec and TFO have both taken the French version of Room on the Broom for Canada.
Entertainment One will launch the Room on the Broom on DVD in France to tie in with Halloween this year. This follows the film’s recent run in French cinemas, where it is distributed by Les Films Du Preau with over 150,000 admissions to-date.
Slovenia’s largest and most successful publishers, Mladinska, who already publish The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child books, will now release the DVD. For the Asian market, Korean distributor Asiana has picked up the rights to release Room on the Broom on DVD.
Muriel Thomas, Head of Sales and Distribution, Magic Light Pictures said: “It is fantastic to be able to offer Room on the Broom and The Gruffalo to so many of our international partners, who are as enchanted by the stories as we are. It is great that they have all come on board to bring the stories and characters to new local audiences across the world and these sales show how far reaching and well loved these new classic titles really are. This being the 15thanniversary of The Gruffalo, we are delighted to be able to continue taking the brand to new family audiences.”
Magic Light Pictures’ key brand is The Gruffalo, celebrating its 15th anniversary year in 2014, from the best-selling picture books by author Julia Donaldson and illustrator Axel Scheffler. Magic Light produced the Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning half-hour animated films, The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child, and has sold them to over 80 broadcasters worldwide, winning over 15 awards. Magic Light also runs a cross-category international merchandising programme for The Gruffalo brand, with over 40 licensees and 250 products which capture the charm of the original books.
Room on the Broom which was first published in 2001 by Macmillan, continues to be a huge success with over two million copies sold worldwide. Room on the Broom has also won over 14 awards including Royal Television Society Awards – Best Children’s Programme, Annecy Animation Festival – Cristal for Best Television Production, and TIFF Kids International Film Festival – Best Animated Short Film. The film has had successful cinema runs in the UK, U.S. and France.
