‘Mystery Soup,’ ‘Peeled Prawn and Shaved Sheep’ and ‘Poles Apart’ -- shortlisted as finalists from more than 300 entries in animation pilot scheme from CBBC and BBC Worldwide.
UK -- CBBC and BBC Worldwide have announced the three shortlisted projects being taken forward to the final pitching stage of the channel’s first animation pilot scheme, ANIM8. After receiving close to 300 submissions, Mystery Soup by Hannah Jacobs and Victoria Manifold, Peeled Prawn and Shaved Sheep by Vincent James & Karina Stanford-Smith (Fat City Films) and Poles Apart by Alex Collier will now enter the final stage of the scheme, in which they will receive additional development time to complete scripts, visuals and a bible.
The projects will be pitched and then assessed by Cheryl Taylor, Controller of CBBC; Sarah Muller, Creative Director, Scripted, Animation and Co-Productions at CBBC; Henrietta Hur-ford-Jones, Director of Children’s, BBC Worldwide; and Nathan Waddington, Head of Children’s, Scripted at BBC Worldwide.
The final three projects have been carefully selected following a short development period and reflect CBBC and BBC Worldwide’s aspiration to tap into the wealth of talented individuals who work within the UK’s creative sector, and include several new names as well as established individuals.
Mystery Soup is a surreal comedy about three 13 year-old girls investigating their weird new boarding school and the bizarre goings-on there. Created by writer Victoria Manifold and director Hannah Jacobs, Mystery Soup follows the adventures of 
Hen, Olive and B as they find themselves plunged into mystery at a handsome school for dedicated boys and girls.
Hannah Jacobs is an award-winning director and animator from London. She graduated with an MA in Animation from the Royal College of Art in 2014. Past clients include Vogue, The School of Life, The Washington Post and Harvard University. Victoria Manifold is an award-winning fiction writer from County Durham. She has been published by The White Review, The tNY Press and Squawkback, among others.
Peeled Prawn and Shaved Sheep is a new series following the adventures of a genius sheep and his shell-less friend. With the help of his Prawn-Powered Super Shell Suit, Prawn and Sheep battle Mr. Big and his gang of Super Villains while juggling work, home and finding love with the mysterious Lucia Langostina. With a distinct comic book visual style and clever snappy dialogue, it’s the summer blockbuster superhero series with a twist. Peeled Prawn and Shaved Sheep is created by Vince James, Karina Stanford-Smith, Simon Godfrey and Kaine Patel.
Karina Stanford-Smith has been working in the animation industry for over 20 years, producing such shows as Tickety Toc, Wissper and Florries Dragons. Vincent James has directed animated shows for CBBC, ITV and Dreamworks TV and has also storyboarded on over 30 children’s TV series.
Simon Godfrey’s involvement in TV has spanned production, development, design and promotion for clients such as Amazon Prime, Sky UK and The Jim Henson Company. Kaine Patel owns Snipple Animation servicing such productions as Dora the Explorer and Bunnicular.
Poles Apart is an animated, action packed, character comedy, following the adventures of Ryder, a haphazard elf who has been banished from Santa's grotto to live in the South Pole with Santa's brother, Sandy Claus. Ryder's job is to deal with the massive, never-ending, Naughty List, and encounter Naughty Kids the world over! Ryder, Sandy and techno elf Irwin must all work together, despite being completely different to one another, truly making them all Poles Apart.
Poles Apart is created by Alex Collier, a Viz comic cartoonist who has recently written on Mr Bean: The Animated Series, and even more recently, The Danger Mouse Comic.
Once selected, the finalist will work alongside the CBBC and BBC Worldwide creative teams to develop their project through to a pilot.
Cheryl Taylor, Controller, CBBC, commented, “The ANIM8 team have been struck by the standard and volume of entrants to the program proving what a dynamic talent pool we have for the UK animation industry. We're looking forward to the more textured pitches from our three finalists, their concepts show great promise."
Source: CBBC & BBC Worldwide
