Little Charley Bear

Little Charley Bear
Genre Children's
Created by Daniel Pickering
Directed by Mark Woollard
Starring James Corden
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of episodes 52
Production
Running time 7 min
Release
Original network BBC
Picture format 16:9
Original release 10 January 2011 (2011-01-10) – Present

Little Charley Bear is a 3D-CGI-Animated television show created & produced by Daniel Pickering, Annix Studios in 2007.[1] Narrated by James Corden, Little Charley Bear takes viewers on a journey into the world of let's pretend, where anything is possible.[2][3] Hit Entertainment were the original distributors, gaining a network deal with CBeebies in December 2008.

The show idea was originally created by Pickering when he attended animation school in Dublin, Ireland in the mid-1990s. He pitched the show to many international distribution companies and broadcasters, it was rejected across the board & at this point he shelved the idea. In mid-2007 he met Jennifer Upton (a Producer with HiT Entertainment) she saw the concepts of the show & suggested to him he should take another look at it. Annix Studios put together a small test sequence & HiT entertainment were impressed enough to become joint partners on the project.

Originally scheduled to start production in January 2009 but was halted due to the financial climate. Chapman Entertainment purchased Little Charley Bear from Annix Studios in September 2009 & full production commenced with Annix producing the show. Little Charley Bear made his TV debut in January 2011 on CBeebies[4] with 1.4 million unique viewers in the first week.[2] Annix finished making all 52 episodes in September 2011. The show has been sold into more than 80 territories, including Russia.[5]

Vivid Imaginations has produced a line of toys around the Little Charley Bear license.[2] In 2012 there was a stage version, Little Charley Bear and His Christmas Adventure written and directed by Brian Herring.[6] The Stage praised the adaptation for its "heart and imagination".[7]

In 2013, DreamWorks Animation bought the rights to Chapman Entertainment's back catalog, including the show.[8] and three years later, the rights to this show and other Chapman Entertainment's back catalog was bought by Universal Television.

In 2015, TVO (Ontario, Canada's public broadcaster - tvo.org) starting airing the shows as part of their TVOKids programming (tvokids.com) under the title "Little Wilfey Bear".

References

  1. Little Charley Bear at the Internet Movie Database
  2. 1 2 3 LTWmag.com
  3. "By Mirror.co.uk Comments James Corden to narrate pre-school series". Mirror (UK). 3 Jan 2011. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  4. "CBeebies Programmes - Little Charley Bear". BBC. Retrieved 5 January 2011.
  5. "Charley Bear enters 80th territory". Broadcast. 24 April 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  6. "Little Charley Bear and His Christmas Adventure". Time Out (London). 5 Oct 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  7. Dowell, Ben (10 December 2012). "Little Charley Bear and his Christmas Adventure". The Stage. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  8. "DreamWorks Animation Buys Chapman Entertainment Library". Variety. 18 September 2013. Retrieved 17 December 2013.


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/13/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.