With specials already in the works, WildBrain is expanding the Caillou universe even further with a new CG-animated series (52 x 11 minutes).
The Toronto-based media company is teaming up with NBCUniversal’s streaming platform Peacock to produce the new series, titled Caillou. Caillou is the four-year-old protagonist of the 2D-animated preschool series, which premiered in 1997 on Teletoon.
Featuring a similar premise as the classic predecessor, the new Caillou will continue following the daily life of the self-proclaimed “Prince of Imagination,” who is always curious and driven to explore.
WildBrain’s Caillou family specials (five x 44 minutes), which were announced last year and are currently in production, will also be released on Peacock. Details of the release date are not yet known.
The specials are designed for year-round viewing, covering holidays like Christmas and Halloween and also celebrating family and summer vacation. One special will also address the subject of bullying for national anti-bullying day.
The new CG-animated series and specials will be US exclusives on Peacock and will be distributed to international markets by WildBrain at a future date.
The Caillou expansion reflects WildBrain’s strategy to team up with streamers to strengthen and build on classic IPs. The Peanuts brand, for instance, has been steadily growing with the launch of new series and specials as a part of a deal between Apple TV+ and WildBrain.
Meanwhile, 234 episodes of Caillou—encompassing the original series and the digital shorts that launched in 2016—rank as the top property on WildBrain Spark, the company’s AVOD network on YouTube, garnering more than 73 billion minutes of watch time in 21 languages.
The original series was produced by Canadian prodco CINAR (later acquired by WildBrain, which was known as DHX Media at the time). WildBrain holds global distribution rights for all Caillou content.