TV Roundup: ‘The Last Kids on Earth,’ ‘Betches,’ ‘Woman World,’ And TFOU’s New Slate
A regular round-up of animated series that have been announced for development, production, or distribution.
Netflix: The Last Kids on Earth
A new animated series based on Max Brallier’s book series, The Last Kids on Earth, is being developed by Atomic Cartoon, and will debut later this year on Netflix. The show, currently in production at Atomic, features the voices of Mark Hamill, Rosario Dawson, Catherine O’Hara, Keith David, Bruce Campbell, Garland Whitt, Montse Hernandez and Charles Demers.
The comedy-action story follows Jack Sullivan (voiced by Nick Wolfhard), a 13-year-old boy who survived the monster apocalypse and must band together with other kids to defeat the hordes of zombies and creatures that roam their town.
Brallier will also serve also as executive producer, along with Scott Peterson, who is showrunner/EP. Matthew Berkowitz and Jennifer Twiner McCarron are executive producers on behalf of Atomic.
Atomic Cartoons acquired rights to The Last Kids on Earth in 2017, and Netflix ordered the series in February 2018.
Freeform: Betches and Woman World
Freeform, the cable network focused on young adults owned by the Walt Disney Company, has announced development on two animated projects aimed at women.
Betches is based on the multimedia brand of the same name created by a group of millennial women. The half-hour animated series will focus on the relationships between three best friends and roommates struggling with adulthood in New York City. Tackling the characters’ professional lives and love prospects, the show is said to have an “irreverent” tone.
Rachel Koller (Lady Bits with Lauren Giraldo) will write the pilot and Emma Roberts (American Horror Story), Carli Haney, Kesila Childers and Gil Goldschein from Bunim-Murray Productions are set to executive produce alongside Betches Media co-founders Samantha Fishbein, Jordana Abraham, and Aleen Kuperman.
The other project, Woman World, will be a half-hour, comedic animated series based on Aminder Dhaliwal’s graphic novel of the same name. The show is set in a world in which men have gone extinct and women have developed a supportive community in their newly-found ladies-only existence. The pilot is being executive produced by Felicia Day (The Guild), and written by Aminder Dhaliwal (Pinky Malinky).
TFOU: Gus, Imago, and Mille Bornes
France’s TFOU, a children’s television programming block on TF1 channel, is developing three new animated series: Gus with Technicolor Animation Productions, Imago with La Chouette Compagnie and Studio Reaz, and Mille Bornes (working title), based on the famous board game and adapted by Blue Spirit Productions’ Just Kids subsidiary.
Gus is inspired by Dankerleroux and Françoise de Guibert’s characters created for publishing house Editions Gulf Stream. The series, about a tiny boy who wants to become a knight, will target 4-7 year-olds in 52 x 11-minute episodes.
Imago (pictured at the top of this post) is a fantasy-adventure series based on ah original concept by Sylvain Dos Santos. Set in the kingdom of Ramal, the show follows Zayn and his friends Shazemine, Zora, and Bo, and their pet imagos, which are “simple creatures born where arcane magic fields enter the imaginations of children with heightened sensitivity to that magic.” Together, with their imagos, the children must rid the kingdom of the Queen of Shadows, whom they have accidentally released. The project targets 6-10 year-olds, in 26×26 format.
Mille Bornes is an action-comedy series based on Edmond Dujardin’s classic card game. The show is aimed at 5-8 year-olds in a 52×11 format, and follows the Mille Bornes World Championship, an automobile race that all the animals on the planet dream of winning, including a group led by Fleur the rabbit.