Content creator, Paula Dinan, announced the market debut of the animated children’s series Ocean Rescue Battalion 52 x 22’ at MIPJunior.

Following extensive development, Ocean Rescue Battalion (ORB) is a 2D/3D animated comedy series with environmentalism at its core, (target audience 9 – 12 years/family). The series follows a vast underwater colony of Horseshoe Crabs who have evolved to use wonderful technologies to ‘maintain and restore’ the Great Ocean from ecological disaster. The entertainment series aims to encourage and share positive environmental stories with its audience whilst heralding the beneficial improvements occurring in our Oceans.

The ORB family are a bunch of plucky, brave, and charismatic ‘Elite Special Ops’, responsible for the Ocean’s entire food network. From the Phyto-plankton to the Apex Predators, the Battalion’s covert missions are undertaken to restore balance in the aquatic ecosystem. The series’ motto is ‘It’s all about the balance, bud!’

The series has been created with a bold blend of comedy and action/adventure and offers broad international appeal. Each episode covers a specific issue affecting the ocean’s ecosystem and the plotlines weave drama with comedy, enabling viewers to gain insight and feel positive in the face of climate grief. A key message of ORB is ‘In the face of adversity, friendship and collaboration are key!’

Ad, the youngest recruit of the Ocean Rescue Battalion has high ambitions and is always ‘daring to aspire’. Unlike the rest of her extended family, she is the only member of the colony to have a special human friend, a 12-year-old boy, ‘Tuleg’, who is always on hand to eagerly assist and bridges the divide between the ecosystem and the humans.

Ocean Rescue Battalion has brand expansion woven into the core of the IP. The series is developing licensing products for environmentally friendly merchandise, online/PC games, mobile apps, VR/AR experiences, and offers a live action ‘behind the scenes’ web series with an animated feature length film in development.

The series has been created and developed by Paula Dinan, whose credits as Editor include Moominvalley on Sky, and Bookaboo for CITV. Over the last few months, she has worked on the development for a major feature animation which has now been greenlit. Paula Dinan is an industry veteran having worked across all genres ‘scripted and non-scripted’ over her 25-year career in the TV and Film industry.

Head of Story on Ocean Rescue Battalion is Sarah Dhorne, whose previous credits include roles at Aardman, Gutsy, SuperProd, and Lupus. Co-Writer on the project is comedian and children’s writer, Tiernan Douieb and the talented voice cast Is led by Rhian Marston-Jones, Julie-Ann Dean and James Nacnaughton.  

Paula Dinan, Creative Producer & IP Creator says, “Horseshoe Crabs aren’t known for their outer beauty. Ocean Rescue Battalion takes these typically ‘ugly’ creatures and encourages its audience to look beyond their hard outer shells and discover the beauty deep within each of the wonderful characters. Having been around for 450 million years and outliving the dinosaurs, the Colony know a thing or two about survival. We know audiences are keen to see environmentalism within the shows they watch, and especially with younger audiences its essential to strike the right tone. We’re confident audiences will love the exciting nature respecting stories, identify with the characters, and come away with positive hope that may encourage them to feel better about the real world. The high-end series will be cinematic in scope. Its narratives, character comedy, music and captivating underwater scenery will feel like individual films and most importantly bring happiness to its audience.”