With natpe opening in New Orleans Jan. 25, pages 33-35 look at some of the new projects coming from Cuppa Coffee Animation, Evening Sky Entertainment, Catalyst Entertainment and Calibre Digital Pictures.

Versions of these stories also appear in the Winter 1999 edition of Playback International.

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With an eye to capitalizing on the synergies between music publishing and family-based tv programming, Anne Murray’s music publishing company Balmur Entertainment has purchased l.a.-based long-form animation company Evening Sky Entertainment and Toronto commercial studio The Animation House.

Under the deal announced last October, Balmur Music and Television, Evening Sky and Animation House were integrated to create a new production business focusing on tv content and music, with all long-form entertainment projects to fall under the Evening Sky banner.

Evening Sky has now landed its first tv series deal since the merging of the companies, the 26-part, half-hour program The Hippo Tub Company, which will be produced for the cbc.

In keeping with the cross-promotional mandate of the new company, the series is based on Anne Murray’s popular kids’ tune Hey Daddy, written by Canadian Bob Ruzicka, in which a hippo in a bathtub disappears down the drain. The Hippo Tub Company will be set in this otherworld beyond the drain and will be traditionally animated in Toronto, with digital ink and paint.

The series totes a $400,000 per half-hour price tag. Evening Sky is seeking a u.s. broadcast partner and foreign sales, says president David Corbett.

The series will be delivered for fall 1999.

Evening Sky is also finalizing a $1-million, one-hour Christmas special, Timothy Tweedle. The special will be ready for Christmas 2000 and will have a book, music and home video component.

With Animation House and Balmur having a strong foothold in the Canadian market and Evening Sky being born out of l.a., Corbett says the company is in a perfect position to explore opportunities on both sides of the boarder.

Evening Sky’s development slate includes Trucktown, a 3D animated preschool series for which the company is seeking European partners. The program will feature all sorts of animated cars, trucks, school buses, and police cars which all interact. Corbett says there will be publishing and music opportunities twinned with the project. The budget is $450,000 per half-hour.