Inspiration behind the animated entries steamrollering into New Orleans hails from indie comics, kids’ books and direct-to-cel from the overheated brains of Canadian animators.

Curiously, the market for the horde of Canadian toon series has grown since the demise of a vibrant syndication market – once the only opportunity for Canadians to crack the u.s. broadcast market – which has been offset by Canadians becoming regular suppliers to the new cable services, and suppliers of tv movies and kids’ series to the major networks.

Nelvana

Michael Hirsh, head of Canada’s largest Toronto-based animation studio, Nelvana, has been going to natpe for about 20 years now, and has also seen a global evolution in the transactions: as fewer slots are available to clear on the syndie side, more international deals fill the gap.

‘One of the main reasons for everyone to attend natpe is not just seeing the American stations, but at least half the business you can do there is international.’

A lot of which better be kids’ animation.

One of the new Nelvana series is the animated comedy Sam and Max, aimed at the six-to-99 age group. Based on an indie comic, the edgy half-hour series (initially 13 episodes) is about freelance cops (Max is a manic rabbit and Sam is a dog who heads up the Freelance Police). The humor ranges from the somewhat cerebral (Get Smart overtones, such as cryptic messages and lots of devices) to the purely physical, like The Rubberpants Commandos, described as ‘high-energy toddlers’ who, together with a cynical chimp, ‘parachute into episodes.’

Cinar

At Canada’s other major animation studio, Montreal-based Cinar Films, Louis Fournier, vp distribution and marketing, says that in the last three years Cinar has seen a steady expansion of business, increased Latin American and European flow on top of the usual u.s natpe activity.

In the u.s. market, Fournier pegs consolidation on the kids’ side in tandem with weak syndie opps as creating fewer openings for indies. That said, 40% of Cinar’s biz is done in the u.s., and the country is viewed as a growth market. New cable services are targeted as likely fits for Canadian product. Beyond licences, natpe offers presales and the attendance of the video majors.

One new-but-familiar title looking for u.s. interest is The Adventures of Paddington Bear. Post its acquisition of the FilmFair library, which contains the original Paddington, Cinar, together with the author, is working on developing one of the world’s fave bear stars as a new animated series.

Lacewood

Ottawa’s Lacewood Productions, the third largest studio in Canada with a volume of about 100 half-hours expected for ’97, has two projects in tow at natpe. Legends of The Land, three half-hours for cbc and Disney in production now, is based on Cree, Haida and Mohawk stories and narrated by Graham Greene. The trio follows the Inuit story done three years ago, The Woman Who Raised a Bear as Her Son, and if all goes well, Lacewood prez Sheldon Wiseman says, ‘my sense is we will do more.’ Wiseman is looking for foreign sales and wants to talk u.s. video deals.

Matthew and the Midnight Adventures is a Lacewood copro with Dupuis in France. Based on the series of books by Allen Morgan about very nonsensical adventures at midnight, the episodes will unspool dreamlike sequences which resolve the issue of the day, but leave behind clues that suggest Matthew wasn’t just dreaming. The 26 half-hours for Family Channel in Canada are looking for a u.s. buyer. Production is slated to begin this month.

Red Raven, yet another animated series based on a comic book, is inspired by characters from Cree legend. The 13 half-hour series is being developed by Toronto’s Phoenix Animation Studio and Catalyst Entertainment, in association with the Opaskwayak Cree Nation of Manitoba and the CanWest Global System. The action/ adventure entry portrays a Cree warrior endowed with the power to shape-shift in his battles against the forces of evil.

Funbag Animation

Curtis Crawford and Rick Morrison of Ottawa’s Funbag Animation Studios have three animated half-hour series, all in development and looking for commitment.

Zachary is based on a series of kids’ books (in French and English) about a boy’s life with his single dad. The humorous series will have an illustrative style to follow the arresting images by Daniel Sylvestre in the books by author Bertrand Gauthier. The Funbag gang wants to do 26 half-hours, and is looking for a European coproducer since the books sell well in Europe. In Crawford’s words, ‘They’re great little books, we were enthralled by themfunny stories but told with poignancy.’

Zachary’s first outing will be boosted by a demo animation loop, a Web site and promo cd-rom.

King Weirdo, a Funbag original, is about a little boy who becomes ruler of the domain under his bed. The Land of Weird is a fantasy kingdom governed by wacky rules. The junior royal makes dubious decrees, like No Gravity Day, then learns to deal with the consequences of calling the shots. Funbag is looking to do 13 half-hours.

Slapstick-humor-driven Sergeant Balls of the Arctic is the third premise. It’s 13 half-hours about a keener snowman cop who serves and protects the northern hinterlands reluctantly abetted by his human sidekick Corporal Louis LeBlanc, who hates the North (he spends a lot of time on the phone with his agent trying to get out of the toon).

Creator Gordon Coulthart says every week the duo fend off some sort of miscreant invasion, the ilk of giant-tuna-smuggling ex-Soviets trying to infiltrate the North American tuna market and thereby upset the scales of Western economy, which they feel is based on fish. Coulthart says splitting the series into pairs of 15s is a possibility.

NFB

For further flexibility, the National Film Board just came out with a new catalogue of its animated films that programmers can use to put together packages of shorts for deployment as specials or interstitials.

Recent films for kids include Shyness by Les Drew, which comically presents techniques for overcoming the problem by using the Frankenstein monster as an example of a shy guy. It airs this month on the Cartoon Network, one of 56 titles they’re acquiring from the nfb. How Dinosaurs Learned to Fly by Munro Ferguson is another diverting new title. On a more sober topic, in Children Speak, children express their thoughts about death and grieving accompanied by whimsical images of their beliefs.

In Dinner For Two, a delightful Janet Perlman animated film on conflict resolution, two small animals disrupt the whole community when they quarrel as they both try to suck up the same piece of food. The award-winning The Legend of The Flying Canoe, based on an old legend about loggers who make a problematic pact with the devil, is also new to the market.

Delaney and Friends

Nilus the Sandman series producer Chris Delaney of Delaney and Friends Animation has a slew of new shows the Vancouver animation studio is working on at natpe in the hands of some of these friends.

A short promo is wrapped for The Guardians of Good Sense, developed and designed by Delaney for Florida-based Aston Management. Aston, which is handling the project at natpe, wants to do 26 half-hours of the series, which combines elements of popular kids’ fare, blending the likes of Power Ranger action/ adventure with mega doses of humor. The series is premised on four Guardian protagonists who learn from mistakes as they protect the kingdom of Good Sense from the machinations of Sy Kotic and his nonsensical Zero Zone cohorts.

Live Entertainment is touting The Littlest Angel, a half-hour Christmas special produced by Delaney in association with Live and Toronto-based Cambium Film and Video Productions, premised on the classic story written 40 years ago by Charles Tazwell. The book was brought to the small screen in a live-action version in the ’70s, but this will be its animated debut.

Vancouver’s Water Street Pictures is handling The Short Tree and The Bird Who Could Not Sing pilot, based on an award-winning book by Dennis Foon.

The series, starring the aforementioned tree and bird combo, will be made up of five five-minute shorts per half-hour.

Bardel Animation

Another Vancouver animation studio, Bardel Animation, is developing three series through its Boing Entertainment subsidiary. One new series, which Cambium is distributor on, is Thorax the Conqueror, about a bloodsucking mosquito and its flea and fly sidekicks. Think very rude insect version of The Three Stooges. The one-sheet describing the concept developed in-house by writer Dwayne Beaver and animator Bob Bennett is filled with gems like ‘proboscis of doom.’

Thorax’s first incarnation was as a festival short designed for an adult audience. Barry Ward, prez of Bardel, says they’re now trying to decide whether or not to tone it down for kids.

Pig William is a preschool project based on a u.s. children’s book, which Ward describes as very cute with cool design sense, sort of Rugrats in tone. The hero is a five-year-old unfazeable pig who always turns bad luck to his own advantage. It’s a joint venture with Cambium, with ytv involved in its development.

Dark Dog is a copro being done with the u.k.’s King Rollo Distribution and Tony Garth Animation, the show’s creator. It’s about a superhero without powers who bought a cape in a prop shop from failed b-movie director Ed Woof. His sidekick is Jack Lemming, a nihilistic lemming who wades in against the likes of dangerously cute fluffy things from outer space. Dark Dog does good deeds in Muttropolis but never gets the credit, which goes to a more media-savvy female pooch superhero.

Alliance

And Canada’s largest live-action production companies are also increasingly honing in on the animation market. Toronto-hqed Alliance is bringing Captain Star to animated series life via 13 half-hour episodes.

The series, premised on a British comic, is described as Star Trek meets The Simpsons. The hero and his crew embark on deep space adventures each episode; the twist is that Captain Jim Star is sort of a planet-to-planet salesman, selling dubious goods to citizens of the strange new worlds. The animation is traditional, the style unconventional and the humor is akin to The Simpsons’ sophisticated tone.

Jean Michel Ciszewski, senior vp sales, Alliance Television International, says, ‘Our goal is to reach the traditional children’s audience, but appeal to a larger audience as well.’

The coproduction came from htv’s Harvest Entertainment and Filmworks in the u.k. Its first u.k. run is on itv with a second on Nickelodeon. In Germany, zdf is the broadcaster and in Spain it’s Canal+. Ciszewski thinks there will be strong merchandising potential, and is looking for u.s. and Canadian broadcasters.

Alliance started in animation recently, and Ciszewski says the company wants to differentiate itself from other animation suppliers, ‘which is why we jumped in with 3D computer animation series like ReBoot and Beast Wars.’

How much toon volume can you expect from Alliance? ‘Quite a lot.’ ReBoot is in its third season (39 episodes) and the series’ Vancouver producer Mainframe is also about to finish the first season of Beast Wars, which Ciszewski says they hope to do a second season of in the near future.

Alliance is in development on Turpin’s Library – a series about two kids who meet an inventor with a machine that can load them into books (wherein adventures ensue). Based on a Spanish comic, the series will probably be presented at mip. Ciszewski says it has strong interest in Europe, and will start prepro soon.

‘Our goal is to supply two to four series a year,’ sums up Ciszewski. All with a special edge and merchandising potential, which is where real revenue lies