Little Airplane Productions and HIT Entertainment, two of the most high profile and trusted names in preschool television, have announced details of the first project to come from their development agreement, Billy Birthday Boy. The delightful 52 x 11’ animated series, about a young boy who saves birthday parties gone awry, will be pitched to broadcasters at MIP Jr in October.

Little Airplane and HIT Entertainment joined their considerable creative forces to develop high quality, original content for the worldwide market. Targeted at girls and boys aged 3-5, Billy Birthday Boy is the first major project to be launched from their collaboration.

The educational curriculum for Billy Birthday Boy was written by Dr. Christine Ricci (Dora The Explorer) and centers around the development of Planning Skills. The series will be completely interactive so that the child-viewer will feel that they are an integral part of every show and will attend the birthday party that takes place at the end of every episode.

“We are delighted to be bringing Billy Birthday Boy to MIP,” says Little Airplane Productions’ president Josh Selig. “With the combination of our joint creative power and HIT’s expertise in licensing, distribution and merchandising, and Dr. Ricci’s expertise in interactivity, we’re sure Billy is going to be celebrating success with pre-schoolers everywhere”.

“HIT Entertainment is dedicated to working with the top creators in the field to make the highest quality children’s programmes around,” says Chris Rose, Hit’s VP of Programming and Development. “With Little Airplane’s unique creative expertise behind it, Billy Birthday Boy is set to light up the market in the targeted age group”.

Celebrating the most important day in a young child’s life — their birthday — Billy Birthday Boy teaches important lessons about planning and helping others. From rainy days to late guests and missing birthday cakes, even the most well-planned birthday parties can run into problems. Fortunately Billy is always on hand to fix a problem and ensure a party runs smoothly. In a beautifully gift-wrapped world of party hats, games, candles and cakes, every day is someone’s birthday….

Chris Arrant

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