By: Sadhana Bharanidharan & Andrea Hernandez

Nearly 80 new projects in development are heading to Cartoon Forum’s annual pitchfest, and we’ve rounded up our favorites, featuring some razzle-dazzle, a little flora and fauna, and a side of medieval meow-gic!

Dungeons & Kittens (pictured, above)

Demo: Six to nine
Producer: Watch Next Media (France)
Style: 2D animation
Format: 13 x 22 minutes
Budget: US$5.5 million
Status: A bible, two scripts, series arc and trailer are ready, with a full episode animatic slated for production this fall.
Delivery: 2025/2026

In this RPG-inspired adventure, four kittens face the ultimate test of survival and friendship as part of a mission to return home. After they’re banished from the Kingdom of Cats due to a misunderstanding, they set out to find a treasure that is purr-fect enough to get them back in the good graces of their ruler, King Walter. France Télévisions is attached as a commissioning broadcaster and Jeremy Guiter serves as director of the project.

Ran­cid Ranch

Demo: Seven and up
Producer: Hampa Studio (Spain)
Style:  2D animation
Format: 26 x 11 minutes
Budget: US$2.9 million
Status: A bible and character/background designs are currently available, as well as a pilot script and an animation test. The company is now seeking co-production partners and broadcasters.
Delivery: 18 months after greenlight

Adán Martínez and Álvaro Ortiz created this series about a scarecrow and a koala bear who are ordered by their boss (a 500-year-old frog) to save the failing Rancid Ranch—their home and the only remaining traditional candy farm in Sugar Town—from a modern mega-factory next door that wants to buy it. Candy Inc. already owns the rest of the town, and its greedy owners will stop at nothing to make this final acquisition to complete their monopoly.

The Sand Box

Demo: Two to four
Co-producers: Made By Us and JA Film (Denmark)
Style: 2D animation, with computer-generated backgrounds that look like drawings and paintings
Format: 52 x 2.5 minutes
Budget: US$1.8 million
Status: Seeking broadcasters and distributors.
Delivery: 2024

Melvis and Marie are a pair of ladybug siblings with mismatched personalities who used to live in a book, but end up in a sandbox after a strong gust of wind blows their literary home away. They learn to manage their feelings and strengthen their relationship by respecting each other’s differences—all while doing things like playing, exploring, building sand castles, playing sand drums and discovering a fly cave.

Yukon, Space Botanist

Demo: Five to six
Producer: Dept. (Norway)
Style: CG animation
Format: 52 x seven minutes
Budget: US$4.4 million to US$5.5 million
Status: A bible, character/background designs, pilot script and animation test are ready. Securing co-production partners is the next goal.
Delivery: Late 2025

This sci-fi preschool toon is all about plants and planets, starring a notebook-toting botanist who collects cosmic seeds and plants for future generations. The mission seems simple enough, but Yukon and his two best friends—a witty earthworm and a doting planet—face some intergalactic and botanical hurdles along the way, ranging from navigating the intestines of a monstrous space cow, to being ejected from a seed-spitting cannon-flower. Sara Daddy (Puffin Rock) is attached as the main screenwriter on the project.

Crazy Inven­tions 

Demo: Nine to 11
Producer: Badi Badi (Poland)
Style:  2D and CG animation
Format: 56 x six minutes
Budget: US$2.9 million
Status: One pilot episode is complete, and Badi Badi is looking for co-producers, broadcasters and distributors. Development is supported by the Polish Film Institute.
Delivery: 24 months after greenlight

In this educational series, a 14-year-old boy creates an online vlog to explain the origins and workings of everyday inventions and phenomena ranging from smartphones and airplanes, to vibration and solar energy. He also cracks jokes related to their creators and discoverers.

Fred­die—Lit­tle Chopin

Demo: Four to six
Co-producers: Letko (Poland), The Fryderyk Chopin Institute (Poland)
Style: 2D animation
Format: 52 x seven minutes
Budget: US$3.8 million
Status: A bible, three scripts and 10 stories are ready, and a pilot will be completed by the end of September.
Delivery: Q4 2025

This fantastical series centers around an imaginative six-year-old boy who is passionate about music and inspired by legendary Polish composer and pianist Frédéric Chopin. Freddie explores the world of sounds and symphonies with his sister, his best friend and a mysterious cat named Candy.

Ursa—The Polar Bear

Demo: Two to four
Producer: Fabelaktiv (Nor­way)
Style:  2D animation
Format: 26 x five minutes
Budget: US$1.3 million
Status: A bible and pilot are completed, and Fabelaktiv is looking for broadcasters, distributors, sales agents, co-producers and financing.
Delivery: Season one in 2025; season two in 2026

Ursa, a young polar bear who lives in the Arctic Circle, has epic adventures with his friends while saving other animals from environmental dangers such as melting ice and plastic waste in the ocean. The show’s music and design are inspired by the art and culture of the North.

Stage Struck!

Demo: Six to nine
Co-producers: Lighthouse Studios (Ire­land), Dog Ears (UK)
Style: 2D animation
Format: 26 x 11 minutes
Budget: US$4.6 million
Status: The producers are looking for a lead broadcaster.
Delivery: Late 2024/early 2025

This comedy is set at Showtime School, an arts-based primary school for animals founded by an ostrich named Miss Feathers. With a fair share of fur, feathers—and, of course, a passion for the performing arts—the students tackle subjects like the history of puppetry and the science of sound waves. Gilly Fogg (El Deafo) is directing, with Sian Ní Mhuirí (Fia’s Fairies) on board as a scriptwriter.