Cartoon Forum 2023: A Look At 5 Pitches For New European Shows

Cartoon Forum – a paradise for Linkedin networkers, business card printers, email exchangers, and the home of future European animated series. Animators, directors, and producers have gathered in Toulouse in droves to give pitches for their series in the hopes that they’ll be picked up by the broadcasters, platforms, and distributors in the crowd.

Around 30 pitches are presented each day that demonstrate all kinds of animation techniques alongside concepts ranging from the emotional to the insane. A single day at Cartoon Forum can feel like an assault on the senses.

Here are five pitches that deserve a more focused look.

Apocalypse Mojito

Country: France

Studio: Passion Paris

Audience: Teens/ Young Adults

Episodes: 10 x 7 min

Finding levity at the end of the world is Apocalypse Mojito, a 2d series following two friends road-tripping through humanity’s last days. Director Julien Seze described the show as something he made for today’s “eco-anxious” audience, people who feel powerless in the face of climate change.

Set in the year 2100, where most modern luxuries have disintegrated, the show looks into how different communities deal with the world’s end. Each episode sees two friends, Yolo and Wazo, encounter a new set of friends before being roped into increasingly ridiculous hijinks, such as aiding an android revolution and freeing people whose consciousnesses have been trapped in inanimate objects by a lonely billionaire.

Apocalypse Mojito uses its doomsday setting to satirize humanity’s path toward a bleak future, balancing political messaging with slapstick humor.

A Super Epic Tadpole Journey to the Surface of Croak Creek

Country: Finland

Studio: Gigglebug

Audience: Ages 6-9

Episodes: 52 x 11 min

A Super Epic Tadpole Journey to the Surface of Croak Creek promises an adorable 2d adventure full of heart. Two sibling tadpoles take on the dangers of the river to join their frog family on the surface. Regular reminders of how far they are from the surface emphasize the verticality of their journey as encounters with predators and other foes threaten their progress.

Further highlighting the show’s vertical nature, Gigglebug is producing the show in three ratios: 9:16, 16:9, and 1:1. This optimizes the series for viewing on tablets and phones, devices most commonly used by children.

Another quirk of the show is the video game-like progression of its characters. As the show progresses, they gain abilities and learn lessons, visualized in a sticker book filled up in each episode. The experimental format and charming story structure make A Super Epic Tadpole Journey to the Surface of Croak Creek one to look out for.

The Forgotten Women of the Père Lachaise

Country: France

Studio: Have A Nice Day Films

Audience: Adults/ Young Adults

Episodes: 30 x 3.5 min

Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris is the resting place for some of the most recognizable figures in human history. Often missing from the stories of its inhabitants is the role that many of the women entombed there played in shaping the modern world. The Forgotten Women of the Père Lachaise sees a bored cemetery gardener engage in conversations with the ghosts of these women, hearing their stories and putting them within the context of modern France.

Through its historical teachings, The Forgotten Women of the Père Lachaise demonstrates a sense of humor and an engaging artistic style. The drawn animation is welcoming while leaving frames mostly white. Splashes of color accentuate scenes with a dose of greenery or represent the communication between our main character and these great women from beyond the grave. The gardener learns from the women’s stories, inspiring her to overcome a fear of death.

Pleasure Beach

Country: United Kingdom

Studio: Nexus Studios

Audience: Adults

Episodes: 12 x 22 min

The coasts of England aren’t exactly known for their glamorous beaches, but what they lack in hot sand underneath the feet, they make up for in their theme park attractions. Paradise Beach is a workplace sitcom set on a coastal English pier populated with characters drifting incompetently through life.

Stand-up comic Sean McLoughlin lends his talents to the show, giving it an irreverent edge to match its unique cg art style. A typical episode will see the theme park manager looking for any opportunity to drag the business from the edge of bankruptcy. In one example, the boss builds an attraction on top of a beached whale, which develops an uncomfortable attraction towards him. Pleasure Beach is unafraid to go to some dodgy places to heighten its sense of comedy.

School Monitors

Country: France

Studio: Xbo Films

Audience: Young Adults

Episodes: 52 x 2 min

Capturing the chaotic life of a middle school teacher is School Monitors, which uses a stylized look as if it were drawn in a notebook. Exaggerating that feeling, the show offers loosely drawn character models whose size and shape shifts with each passing frame. Color is used sparingly to add a dash of blue to a character’s hair or to bring focus to a piece of clothing. In those cases, the color appears as scribbled crayon or highlighter, eliciting the rustic feel of a notepad or diary.

In the show, the daily life of Julie is recounted through fleetingly paced episodes, which dynamically dip in and out of surrealist imagery to accentuate the intensity of a regular school day. All characters are voiced by the same actress, allowing the stories to feel like Julie rattling off an anecdote, with the animation expressing her emotions. Frames can be packed with complex imagery in one moment and virtually empty within seconds. School Monitors is a show that seems to exist without boundaries.