9 Story Media Group to Produce Little Critter Series

Canadian production company 9 Story Media Group has joined forces with Little Critter, LLC to produce a new animated series based on Mercer Mayer’s popular literary characters.

The 80 x 11-minute Little Critter series will feature a cast of animal characters who live in Critterville, and will be underpinned by a social-emotional learning curriculum.

9 Story holds the global distribution and merchandising rights to the series, with the exception of publishing and digital media content, which remain with Little Critter. 9 Story’s global reach was recently been bolstered by the launch of a new distribution operation based in subsidiary Brown Bag Films’ Dublin studio.

Little Critter, LLC was formed earlier this year. Former Turner kids exec Stuart Snyder is also on-board to help adapt the books into a full-fledged multi-platform media brand. The company is spearheaded by longtime producer, creative director and writer John R. Sansevere, with partners Sword, Rowe & Company and real estate developer Richard Dreher.

The Little Critter franchise has sold more than 200 million books worldwide over the past 40 years. The brand has had considerable success in Asia recently, with more than 100 titles released in China this year. In South Korea, meanwhile, 16 titles were licensed to Eplis book company for an audio book package, and the publisher has since licensed another 40 to be released as part of an eBook program.

Source: kidscreen