Corporate profile
PRODUCTION
The Moonscoop Group puts out 7 to 10 major new series every year, all the while maintaining the majority of the operating rights for each of its productions.
This is the policy at both Moonscoop Productions and Mike Young Productions, the two large animation production companies belonging to the group.
MoonScoop Productions
Born from the merger of France Animation and Antefilms Production, MoonScoop Productions is now one of the world’s leading independent animation producers.
As a leader on the European market, this company develops original shows and properties which gain international notoriety and have become world-famous in the audio-visual world. Code Lyoko, The Fantastic Four, Tootuff, Pet Alien, Dr. Dog, Little Vampire, Funky Cops, The Invisible Man, and Casper, The Little Ghost are but some of the leading properties developed by producers Maia Tubiana and Nicolas Atlan for Moonscoop Productions.
MoonScoop Productions designs and produces an average of six new 26x26' series per year. Each series is produced in partnership with the world’s leading kids’ entertainment market players (producers, broadcasters, publishers, licensees, etc.).
MoonScoop Productions’ know-how spans every step within the fabrication of animation series. We offer our clients valuable expertise in international co productions.
Mike Young Productions
Mike Young Productions is one of the largest and most innovative independent animation studios in North America. MoonScoop Group and partner Mike Young Productions are now beacons in the animation world, and have won numerous international awards for both traditional and computer-generated animation. The shows play in over 160 countries.
Mike Young Productions is run by Mike Young, the creator of the series Super Ted, which won a British Academy Award. Liz Young oversaw the supervision of Clifford, a series by Scholastic Entertainment (and a nominee for the Emmy Awards), and its spin-off Puppy Days (an Emmy Award winner). Bill Schultz produced The Simpsons, a double Emmy Awards winner.
Operating out of its own animation studios in Los Angeles, Mike Young Productions develops, creates, and produces many series: Pet Alien, ToddWorld, Growing Up Creepie, I Got a Rocket, Dive Olly Dive! and Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks.
In 2005, Moonscoop Productions and Mike Young Productions launched Taffy Entertainment, their unique distribution and consumer products label.
The strength of the MoonScoop Group resides in the wealth of its growing catalogue of shows as well as in its properties’ potential.
LuxAnimation
In 2002, Lilian Eche and Ariane Payen founded and set up the production company LuxinAmation in Doncols, Grand Duchy of
Luxembourg. It quickly became a leader in the animation field and a prized partner for international coproductions.
The company masters every phase in the making process of feature-length films and animation series. From pre-production to post-production, LuxinAmation has a wide range of skills, impressive drive, and expertise to get the job done.
Software developed in-house was designed for real-time monitoring of production schedules. With some thirty productions in various fields, LuxinAmation is now a well-established international production partner. Its list of feature-length movies includes: Dragon Hunters, Renaissance, and Nine. Among its animation series are: Skyland, Franklin, Galactick Football, Mikido Millenium Kids, The Large Family and Di-Gata Defenders.
Located in the heart of Europe, LuxinAmation attracts highly skilled talent and has carved out a niche for itself as a leading player in the international market.
In September 2006, LuxinAmation became a partner within the MoonScoop Group.
DISTRIBUTION AND CONSUMER PRODUCTS
One of Taffy Entertainment’s strengths lies in an already rich, but
constantly growing, catalogue of offerings, as well as in the merchandizing
potential of the group’s properties.
Worldwide Distribution
Taffy Entertainment is in charge of international distribution for the
group, handling the combined catalogues of Mike Young Productions and Moonscoop
Productions, as well as those commissioned by prestigious third-party
producers. Taffy is handling Bayard Jeunesse’s cartoon Sam Sam, Entara’s
Jakers, Sunwoo’s game show Mixmaster, and Kaze’s Japanese anime.
Today, Taffy Entertainment can offer over 3,000 half hours in shows.
That number is growing by 200 new episodes per year, making it one of the
world’s largest animation catalogues.
Under the management of Lionel Marty, a staff of ten in the Los Angeles,
Paris, London and Shanghai offices has established lasting partnerships with
the world’s main television channels. Each new series is distributed in over 30
countries, and some of them in as many as 100 countries.
Taffy Entertainment won TV France’s 2006 international export award
for excellence for its distribution of the animated series Code Lyoko.
Consumer Products
Taffy Entertainment’s Consumer Products Department is an in-house unit
with 15 staff members located in Los Angeles, Paris, and London. It has
expertise in program licensing for the group’s properties as well as certain
prestigious outside properties such as Sam Sam, owned by Bayard.
Directed by Cynthia Money, this team has a specialized approach to building
international brands from TV series. Its know-how, its talented team members,
and its properties’ notoriety, have made Taffy Entertainment one of the major
players in the world consumer products market.
The company is also developing and piloting a worldwide merchandizing
program for top-selling categories of products. Taffy made Code Lyoko’s
and Tootuff’s merchandizing campaigns worldwide successes.
Taffy Entertainment has signed major agreements with market segment
leaders: EMI and BMG in music; Game Factory for WII & DS video games;
Marvel Toys and Spinmaster for toys; Panini and Upperdeck for collector’s
items; and Universal, Pathé, and 20th Century Fox for video. It has also signed
with other partners such as Burger King, Fisher Price, and Unilever, all leaders
in their sectors.
Having now become one of the major contenders in its field, by 2010,
Taffy Entertainment will have launched some 20 new properties worldwide.
NEW MEDIAS
In its US operations, the Moonscoop Group launched “Kabillion” in
January 2007. This brand new kids channel targets a viewer aged 6 to 12, and
offers both video-on-demand and community content for broadcast via digital
cable, internet protocol television (IP TV), and cell phones. Kabillion, a
channel owned by Moonscoop, is distributed by the leading US cable operator
Comcast. In 2007, it covers nearly 30% of US households with its cable service,
60% via IP TV, and 20% on cell phones. More than an ordinary TV channel,
Kabillion is offering children entertainment on demand that they can trade and
share, and which goes everywhere they go. This new agreement constitutes a
first for a French player in the US market. It represents a major turning point
in the group’s evolution on the international level.
In Europe, Moonscoop is adapting to the specific needs of local
markets with the launch of Taffy Channel. This kids channel, designed for the
new generation, offers all sorts of entertainment content (VoD, interactive
games, community content) via all the new media (broadband TV, PC, Mobile VoD).
The channel is distributed in most European countries by local, major operators
such as France’s Orange, Neuf, and Bouygues. As of 2007, Taffy Channel is
broadcast in Spain, Great Britain, Germany, Poland, and France. Taffy Channel
is the first triple-content and triple-play channel in the European Union.
Meanwhile, Queen Bee, another Moonscoop Group subsidiary and
operator of Taffy Channel, is busy developing other channels based on similar
contents (e.g. Maestro TV and Adibou TV).
Moonscoop plans to develop these new media channels in Japan and
throughout Asia.
STUDIOS
The three animation specialists are all well-respected names in the fields of computer-generated images, post-production, and special effects.
Xana Post Production
This studio is located in our Paris headquarters. It has two AVID™ montage units, a DS™ HD unit, for creating special effects in high definition and all the tools needed for image processing and for after effects (e.g. Pegs™ and After Effects™).
Antefilms Studio
Antefilms Studio has become a big name in the field of computer-generated images due to its know-how and its teams’ wide range of technical and artistic talents (e.g. designers, modelers, animators, rendering artists, and special effects artists).
Quality and technological innovation are the common denominators in the images that the studio produces.
Since setting up in 1998 in Angoulême, the studio has been flourishing in the city’s artistic quarter, Magelis, which is France’s second image creation park.
Antefilms Studio has gained recognition for its mastery of putting cartoons together and bringing them to life whether this be with full 3D or by integrating 2D/3D techniques. The studio’s know-how has grown with each series it has made:
- 1999 Air Academy, 26x26’ integrating 2D/3D
- 2001 and 2003 Funky Cops, 39x26’ integrating 2D/3D and motion capture
- 2003-2007 Code Lyoko, 97x26’ 2D/3D
- 2004 and 2007 Pet Alien, 104x13’ full 3D
- 2005 The Invisible Man, 26x26’ integrating 2D/3D
- 2006-2007 The Fantastic Four, 26x26’ integrating 2D/3D
- 2007 Casper, 52 x 13', full 3D
Developing fabrication pipelines, production management tools, along with the technical and artistic talents of the teams combine to provide the balance in quality and volume of images produced.
The studio is equipped to produce animation series in High Definition.
The most-used software applications are by far Softimage’s SXI for 3D, and Flash Macromedia for 2D.
Mike Young Prroductions (Wales) Ltd.Mike
Young Productions (Wales) Ltd., is housed in a 500-year-old stone barn which
has been converted into a state-of-the-art animation facility. The studio
currently has a small permanent staff with a number of freelance artists at its
disposal. Gary Hurst serves as the senior Director there. The studio is
mainly a traditional artist-based facility but is fully wired for video
conferencing, Avid editing and features Toonboom software. The new "Dive
Olly Dive" series is the first show produced there with more to follow.
The studio is supported in part by grants from the EU and the Welsh Assembly.