Village Gamer

Atomic Cartoons, creators of the international hit series Atomic Betty, partners with high powered creative team, Punktuition LLC, to develop and produce Sally Boyden’s new CG kids’ comedy series, PUNKTUITION

Vancouver – Atomic Cartoons, creators of world famous Atomic Betty have announced a partnership with New York-based Punktuition LLC on the new animated comedy series, Punktuition. Vancouver-based Atomic will debut the project to buyers and broadcasters at the 2009 Kidscreen Summit in New York in February.

Punktuition is the brainchild of Australian singer-songwriter, Sally Boyden, a former child star and Jason Lake, son of British icon, Diana Dors. The colorful comedy has been developed for television by Sally Boyden and former UK Daily Mail writer, Tania Shakinovsky. Creative consulting was provided by Christopher Cerf (Sesame Street, Between The Lions) and Atomic Cartoons co-founder, Rob Davies. “We are very fortunate to be guided by such high caliber creative advice in bringing Punktuition to fruition. says co-creator, Sally Boyden.” And in Atomic Cartoons we know we have a partner with as much passion for the project as we have.”

The series is random comedy with a dose of adventure about a cast of fun young characters who are lost on a purple planet in the center of the Luniverse, not knowing how they got there or why they now bear more than a passing resemblance to punctuation marks. As if that wasn’t perplexing enough, they were in possession of mysterious super powers that definitely weren’t there before. The central theme of Punktuition is the gang of friends finding their way home, and on the journey discovering that they have actually made their own home together. The leader of the group, and series’ hero, is Mr. P.T., a rock ‘n’ roller from a far away place, who travels around on a flying V guitar. The villain of the show is Sir Slang, a nasty piece of work who lords over everyone on the planet. He especially despises our heroes and everything they stand for. Viewers will find that Punktuition offers comedy, adventure, and fun music – and illustrates that everyone has the potential to be a superstar in their own way. The quirky characters were hand-painted by Melbourne-based artist, Dean Gorissen.

“Stylistically, Punktuition is a multi-media property that combines both 3D (CGI) animation and Flash,” says the series’ director, Mauro Casalese (Co-Creator of Atomic Betty), “We’re going for a look we like to call neo-retro, kind of an homage to the classic Rankin Bass shows of the 60’s, only much more contemporary and edgier. Content-wise, I strongly believe the combination of humor and music, plus stories with the bonus of subliminal learning, will work exceptionally well for the intended 7 to 11 demographic.”

Adding to the richness of the episodes will be a star-studded cast of musicians that include Simon Le Bon and Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran, and the veteran voice talents of Billy West (Ren & Stimpy, Futurama) and Terri Apple (Rugrats, Real Monsters). Punktuition also has a publishing deal with Cherry Lane Music, home to The Black-Eyed Peas, John Legend and Pokeman U.S.A. “This gives us unique access to some incredible songwriters and performers if need be. ” Says Punktuition’s music supervisor Dave Lory, of Worldwide Entertainment Group, Inc. who has been instrumental in smash hit successes from Hanson’s “MmmBop” to “Who Let The Dogs Out.” Through songwriting collaboration by his artists’, including Jeff Buckley and Australian super star Shannon Noll, he has relationships with such song-writing greats as Richard Marx, Desmond Child and hit songwriter Matthew Gerrard (High School Musical).