SVT (Sweden), TG4 (Ireland), SIC (Portugal), Canal Panda (Spain) and E Junior (the Middle East) have just acquired the broadcast rights to the Emmy-nominated, 40 x 22-minute series for kids ages three to eight.
Since premiering in the US on PBS KIDS in November 2015, the 9 Story, Spiffy Pictures and WTTW Chicago co-production has been a ratings success with 33 million US viewers tuning in. The series has also become a top-five performer on Canadian kidsnet Family CHRGD shortly after bowing this past July.
Coming up next month, PBS KIDS will air a special Halloween-themed episode of the series to accompany Nature Cat Park Builder, a new free online game for pbskids.org and the PBS KIDS Games App.
Co-created by Spiffy's founding siblings David and Adam Rudman, Nature Cat follows the learning adventures of a regular house Cat named Fred, who transforms into his alter ego Nature Cat once his humans leave for the day, and his friends. In each episode, Nature Cat can't wait to get outside for a day of nature excursions and bravery, but there's one problem: he's a house cat with no instincts for nature. With the help of his animal friends, Nature Cat embarks on action-packed adventures that include exciting missions full of investigation, discovery moments and humour, all while inspiring children to go outside and play.
9 Story handles the intellectual property's (IP) international distribution and consumer products rights outside of the US, while HiHat Media handles all brand licensing activities within the US.
The series was recently nominated for a 2016 Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Writing in an Animation Program" as well as a Television Critics Association Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming."
The new TV deals come on the heels of former Aardman sales head Alix Wiseman joining 9 Story to grow its business across EMEA.
The North American English-language dub of the series features the vocal talents of Saturday Night Live veterans Taran Killam (The Amanda Show) as Nature Cat, Kate McKinnon (Ghostbusters 2016) as Squeeks, Bobby Moynihan as Hal, Chris Parnell (As Told by Ginger, Glenn Martin DDS) as various characters, and Kenan Thompson (All That, Kenan & Kel, Good Burger) as Ronald, along with actress Kate Micucci as Daisy.
Original sources: TVKIDS, Kidscreen, C21 Media, AnimationXpress; Additional source: IMDb.
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