Mr. Bean: The Animated Series is back on Boomerang for the second season. Yet again bringing more laughter since April, the brand new 52 episodes follow the adventures (or sometimes, mishaps) of everyone’s favourite mumbling, bumbling character, voiced by Rowan Atkinson as he creates his own electricity, wins a cruise, inadvertently becomes a teacher, makes his own horror movie, is hypnotised, wins a wrestling match and finds himself in many other hilarious escapades. The second season comes on the back of the first series which has been licensed to broadcasters in over 70 territories.
Tom Beattie, Series Producer and Tiger Aspect’s Head of Animation and Children’s said, “Everyone knows Mr. Bean and it plays worldwide across audiences ranging from young to old. It’s amazing that we’re making a classic that can last another 10 years. It is a unique property because it focuses on visuals and is a non-dialogue brand of funny. You won’t find another show in animated form that does that.”
The 11-minute episodes are developed and produced in-house by Endemol’s Tiger Aspect Productions, using Celaction2D and is broadcasted on Turner International Asia-Pacific’s children’s channels across the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America, the Middle East and Europe, including Turkey, Spain and Italy. The studio used a lot more technology support this time. The previous season had 500 animators working on the project, which was made using completely hand-drawn animation style.
This season sees about 50 artists working to produce the same quality of animation. “There is much cost involved when having to match hand-drawn animations. We have assembled an extremely talented crew who can produce the quality of animation for a worldwide audience,” said Beattie.
Rowen Atkinson was largely involved in all aspects of the creative – pre-production, scripting, recordings and animations. This year also marks the 25th anniversary of Mr. Bean on television, where it has become a truly international brand with over 64 million fans across the globe and over one billion views on its YouTube channel.
“Social media is massive for us. Even though kids grow up in different cultures, they still find the same thing funny, just in different languages,” said Beattie. “We have to make something we believe in. It’s pointless to make a show just because it’s commercially viable. You’ve got to love that show to be able to talk about it and sell it.”
The revamp of Boomerang in January redefined the family co-viewing experience with fresher seasons of tent-pole shows like Mr. Bean in its catalogue. Plans to roll-out a complementary app for mobile devices that hosts video and gaming content are underway, with a new Mr. Bean: Flying Teddy app available for audiences to watch Mr. Bean videos.
“Boomerang has returned to Asia and it has never looked so good,” said Mark Eyers, Chief Content Officer – Kids, Turner International Asia-Pacific. “The channel is powered with premium content from Warner Bros. meaning it will now be the home in Southeast Asia for the likes of Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes and Scooby-Doo.”
