Children’s production and rights company Hoho Entertainment (Cloudbabies, Abadas) is boosting its animated comedy portfolio with brand new development project Rat & Pigeon and recent acquisition Aaagh! It’s The Mr Hell Show!!! joining Everybody Loves a Moose in the company’s comedy line-up.
A 2D animated series targeted at 8-12 year olds, Rat & Pigeon is a brand new, high-octane buddy series about a blustering, boastful pigeon and an escaped classroom rat and their thrilling, chilling adventures across the streets and alleyways of New York City.
Co-developed with Christopher Keenan, Rat & Pigeon is created and written by Grant Moran (WordGirl, Thomas Edison’s Secret Lab, Curious George) and designed by Aglaia Mortcheva (Family Guy, All Grown Up). Rat & Pigeon will take viewers on a fabulous rollercoaster ride across the Big Apple where street smart meets real smart. From Broadway to Wall Street and Central Park to Chinatown, the series follows the feral animals in their big adventures around the City that Never Sleeps.
A naive, wide-eyed and bookish rodent, Rat is itching to explore the big bad world beyond the classroom. Thank goodness the first person he bumps into is swaggering, streetwise Pigeon! – the perfect partner to guide him through the dangers and delights of urban New York. Everything is big here. From crossing the vast ice rink at the Rockefeller Centre, to the dark, underground New York sewers, to the tip of the Chrysler Building, the unlikely duo give the viewer a glimpse of the Big Apple from their own unique perspective.
Faced with a colourful cast of characters including countrified Central Park ducks, fearsome Chinatown cats, pampered Park Avenue pooches and hipster SoHo ferrets, Rat & Pigeon need to use all their education and street savvy to survive the most exciting city in the world.
Meanwhile Hoho Entertainment has also acquired the rights to the adult animated comedy sketch show, Aaagh! It’s The Mr Hell Show!!! Previously aired on BBC Two in the UK and Comedy Central Canada, written by David Freedman/Alan Gilby and art directed by Jeff ‘Swampy’ Marsh (Phineas and Ferb), the series can air as a 13×30’ series or as interstitials online. The two shows will sit alongside anarchic 2D animated series Everybody Loves a Moose (52×7’), due to air on Rai in Italy imminently.
Hoho Entertainment’s Joint Managing Director, Oliver Ellis said: “We can’t wait to come to MIPCOM 2014 with our newly expanded comedy slate. Sparky, witty, funky and fresh, Rat & Pigeon has a really distinctive voice. The storylines sparkle with invention, the characters spring from the page and the series has got a spectacular backdrop. We think it’s got potential and look forward to talking to prospective partners about this and our other animated comedy projects.”