An early lift-off has already been secured for Puk Grasten’s “Betty Balloon,” as the Copenhagen-based international sales and aggregation house LevelK has secured worldwide rights to upcoming pre-school animated feature and TV series.
The agreement, brokered between LevelK CEO Tine Klint and the film’s main producer Regner Grasten, was reached just ahead of the project’s work-in-progress presentation at Cartoon Movie in Bordeaux, LevelK told Variety.
A theatrical release of the animated feature is scheduled for October in Denmark, with Danish public broadcaster TV2 set to premiere the series.
A Danish co-production between Regner Grasten Filmproduktion and A. Film Production, “Betty Balloon” follows a modern family who just happen to be… balloons.
At the centre of the story is Betty, a creative and imaginative four-year-old. Life’s turned upside down when a cactus family moves in next door. The Balloon family (Mom, Dad, and Betty’s super tweenie big brother Bobby) must learn to connect with their new neighbours. But in “Betty Balloon”, it’s the kids who lead the way, as Betty quickly becomes best friends with four-year-old Kaj Cactus, proving that curiosity and openness can bridge even the prickliest divides. In this colorful universe, it’s the kids who show the grown-ups how to connect.
“In ‘Betty Balloon,’ the unknown is not dangerous,” explained director Puk Grasten, who also wrote the story and adapted it for the big screen. “It is an invitation to open up. The film [as well as the series] celebrates openness, imagination and emotional honesty,” as well as creativity and curiosity in a soft 2D computer animation style that will definitely appeal to the pre-school audience.
A European Film College/EICAR/NYU Tisch alum, Grasten received the Danish Arts Foundation’s Award for Outstanding Cinematic Work and the Carl Th. Dreyer Award for Visual Storytelling for her debut feature “37.” “Betty Balloon” is her third feature film, and her first venture into animation.
A female-driven fun, cosy adventure, “Betty Balloon” is also highly relevant today, inviting children and parents to openness and acceptance through the unlikely friendship between a balloon and a cactus. Values that both pre-schoolers and adults can relate to, as producer Regner Grasten underlines. “This dynamic stands out from more traditional family set-ups seen in shows like ‘Peppa Pig’ and ‘Bluey,’ offering an alternative vision of community and empathy.”
“Teaching through entertainment is indeed important”, added LevelK CEO Tine Klint, “and as Betty Balloon and Kaj Cactus have to navigate the challenges of living next to each other, becoming friends, and simply being who they are. Their creative minds make the journey fun.”
That’s an approach that fits perfectly with LevelK values and ambitions. A few weeks ago in Berlin, the company presented “Everyone’s Sorry Nowadays” (Generation Kplus), “Dust” (main competition) as well as such titles as “Chasing Millions” and the animated feature “Mumbo Jumbo”, an A. Film Production project.
Regner Grasten Filmproduktion, one of Denmark’s largest production companies, boasts a catalogue of 45 films totalling more than 14 million cinema admissions to date. The company also produced the hit TV Christmas series “The Crumbs’ Christmas” (Krummernes Jul, 1996) and “The Mortensen Brothers’ Christmas” (Brødrene Mortensens Jul, 1998) for TV2 Denmark, and several of the company’s productions have been sold worldwide.
Besides the feature and the TV series, development is also underway on “Betty Balloon” books and merchandising lines, strengthening this innovative and heartfelt IP in the making.
‘Betty Balloon,’ Courtesy of LevelK
Source: variety.com
