Dennis Jackson, the creator the award-winning youngsters’s sequence Wapos Bay, has teamed up along with his son, Eric Jackson of Saskatoon’s Paxolotl Media Inc., together with Leif Kaldor and Leslea Mair of Winnipeg’s Zoot Photos to current CHUMS, a brand new 3D animation sequence for preschoolers 3-6. An preliminary season of 9 x 30’ episodes of the sequence is at the moment in manufacturing in Winnipeg and Saskatoon for broadcasters APTN and Citytv Saskatchewan. The sequence is slated to premiere in early 2024 and also will be out there for streaming on APTN lumi.
On the earth of CHUMS, a younger eaglet named Ira and her rag tag group of furry buddies on Turtle Island are discovering their relationships to one another and to their surroundings on mom earth. Ira’s group of “Friends” — buddies — consists of Flies with Eagles, a younger woman who’s at all times prepared to assist; Emiree, a child beaver with the softest coronary heart; Romper, a rabbit that has bother paying consideration; and Pterry, a ptarmigan who needs he might fly higher. Our newfound pals take it upon themselves to be the explorers of Turtle Island, and to find and be taught concerning the world round them.
CHUMS is designed to encourage the invention of conventional Indigenous relationships to the animals and surroundings round us. It’s being produced in three languages — English, Cree and Ojibwe — with the purpose of serving to to protect Indigenous languages for kids earlier than official education begins. The present is formatted for lip synching and versioning the characters into the assorted languages.
Becoming a member of creator/director Darren Jackson and co-writer/producer Eric Jackson is an all-Indigenous inventive staff and forged. Zoot Photos’ Leslea Mair is government producing. The crew additionally consists of artwork director Stephanie Boulet; tech design by Winnipeg-based FRANK Digital.
For most of the Indigenous youngsters doing the voices of the animated characters, that is their first appearing break, and a possibility to refine their abilities behind the mic. That mentoring component is mirrored within the pairing of Saskatoon’s Paxolotl Media with veteran Winnipeg manufacturing firm Zoot Photos, geared toward growing extra Indigenous manufacturing firms.
The mission additionally marks the creation of a brand new animation studio primarily based within the Canadian Prairies. The producers have assembled a staff of animation abilities from throughout the 2 provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The mission gives expertise to under-represented forged and tech individuals within the movie and tv business and acts as an necessary car for coaching and staff constructing. Junior animators have been paired with skilled veterans as a part of a multi-year program to coach Indigenous animators, modelers and riggers.
“Past the entertaining and academic facets of CHUMS, it’s actually thrilling to be working alongside my dad. I’ve been saying I’d ever since I used to be a child and he was getting his Bachelor’s diploma in movie,” says Eric Jackson of Paxolotl Media. “Creating a wholly new animation studio within the Prairies with my dad and my youngsters makes this a fairly distinctive factor for all of us. Not simply now, however for the longer term in the event that they comply with in our footsteps to proceed creating Indigenous tales.”
Govt producer Leslea Mair of Zoot Photos provides, “CHUMS is an thrilling, modern mission is so some ways, and we’re lucky that our broadcast companions, APTN and Citytv Saskatchewan, have been such enthusiastic supporters of it from the get-go in addition to every step alongside the way in which.”
CHUMS was developed with APTN, the Canada Media Fund and the Indigenous Display screen Workplace. The sequence is produced with the participation of the Shaw Rocket Fund, the Canada Media Fund, the Canadian Movie or Video Manufacturing Tax Credit score, the Manitoba Provincial Tax Credit score, the Saskatchewan Characteristic Movie and Tv Manufacturing Grant Program and the Indigenous Display screen Workplace.
Kerry Moraes-Sugiyama, the APTN government in control of Indigenous language manufacturing on a nationwide stage, says that the community is happy about this new sequence. “This animated sequence connects younger youngsters to mom earth and helps result in some nice conversations about {our relationships}.”
Dennis Jackson created the basic Canadian stop-motion sequence Wapos Bay, which aired from 2005 to 2011 on APTN in addition to on the First Nations Expertise Community (FNX) within the U.S. The present’s pilot episode received the Canada Award for greatest multicultural program in addition to a Golden Sheaf Award for greatest youngsters’s manufacturing. The primary two seasons have been co-produced by the Nationwide Movie Board of Canada.
