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9 Story Secures Multiple Sales for Emmy® Award-Winning Preschool Hit PEG + CAT

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PEG + CAT1

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

9 Story Secures Multiple Sales for Emmy® Award-Winning

Preschool Hit PEG + CAT

Toronto, Canada – September 24, 2015 – 9 Story Media Group is pleased to announce that it has secured multiple sales of the award-winning animated preschool series, Peg + Cat (80 x 12’). Leading Canadian preschool channel Treehouse acquired the second season to the series, while Super RTL (Germany) along with Canal+ Family and Piwi+ (France and French-speaking territories) picked up an additional 40 episodes of season one. A deal was also secured with Canadian-based GRICS, which licensed the first season for French speaking Canada. The series originally debuted onPBS Kids in the fall of 2013 and has won 4 Emmy® awards, including Outstanding Pre-School Children’s Animation Program.

 

The series has also been licensed to Télé-Québec, TFO (Canada), Tiny Pop (UK), ABC TV Australia, TVNZ (New Zealand), TG4 (Ireland), Super RTL (Germany and German-speaking Europe),SVT (Sweden), YLE (Finland), RTP (Portugal), MiniMini (Poland), Telewizja Polska (Poland), Discovery Kids (Latin America), Beijing Sunshine Culture and Communication (China), MediaCorp(Singapore), PTS (Taiwan), Disney (Korea), Television Media Korea (South Korea), True Visions (Thailand), TV3 (Thailand), HOP! (Israel), E-Junior (UAE), MBC Kids (Middle East), and Zee Learn (Indian Subcontinent). Netflix holds SVOD rights for multiple territories while ABC Commercial (Australia), Nelvana (Canada), Sony Music (Germany) and PBS Home Entertainment (U.S.) hold home entertainment rights to the series.

The series follows the adorable spirited, Peg, and her sidekick, Cat, as they encounter unexpected problems that require fun and creative solutions. In order to solve the problems, Peg and Cat must add, subtract and apply basic arithmetic. Their adventures take them to historical far-away lands, art centers in bustling metropolises and the colorful cosmos, all the while demonstrating that it’s never too early to start learning the magic of numbers.

Peg + Cat is co-created and executive produced by Jennifer Oxley (Little Bill, The Wonder Pets!) and Billy Aronson (Rent, Postcards from Buster) and co-produced by The Fred Rogers Company and 9 Story Media Group for PBS KIDS. Kevin Morrison of The Fred Rogers Company and Vince Commisso of 9 Story also serve as executive producers. 9 Story, which also handles international distribution, has secured distribution in 180 countries. HiHat Media is the licensing agent within the U.S. while 9 Story manages licensing for the brand internationally.

9 Story Media Group is a leading content creator, marketer and distributor of kids & family focused intellectual property. Recognized around the world for best-in-class brands such as Daniel Tiger’s Neighbourhood, Wild Kratts, Numb Chucks, Arthur and Peg + Cat, 9 Story represents over 1,800 half hours of animated and live action programming, seen on some of the most respected international channels and platforms.  With one of North America’s largest animation studios, 9 Story employs over 250 creative and production staff in its Toronto facility and has produced over 900 half hours of award-winning children’s content. 9 Story recently acquired the award winning animation studio Brown Bag Films, which employs over 170 staff members across Dublin, Manchester and Los Angeles.  Brown Bag is recognized for producing leading animated children’s series such as Octonauts, Doc McStuffins, Bing Bunny and Henry Hugglemonster.  9 Story is owned by senior management, ZMC, (Zelnick Media Capital) and media entrepreneur Neil Court.  www.9story.com

About The Fred Rogers Company

The company was founded by Fred Rogers in 1971 as the non-profit producer of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood for PBS. In the years that followed, it not only created hundreds of episodes of this much-loved program, but also extended Fred’s values and approach to other efforts in promoting children’s social, emotional and behavioral health and supporting parents, caregivers, teachers and other professionals in their work with children. The Fred Rogers Company continues to build on Fred’s legacy in innovative ways through a wide variety of media, and engaging new generations of children and families with his timeless wisdom. The company’s highly-rated, award-winning children’s series include Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Peg + Cat and Odd Squad. For more information, visit www.fredrogers.org.

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Curt Chiarelli

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Curt Chiarelli and I am a designer, sculptor, illustrator and writer.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?So many candidates for the title, so little time. The boundary line between the absurdity of the jobs and the lunacy of those running these three-ring dog and pony shows were always somewhat blurred. One part-time summer job does stand head and shoulders above the rest because it played out like a bad TV sitcom directed by Ed Wood. I worked for a telemarketing company that peddled worthless coupon books to impoverished retirees for services and products not offered in the cities where they lived. And quite a motley crew we had assembled too: The top telephone salesman in our field office was a guy who looked and acted like Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs. A sullen fifty year old who suffered from some kind of anti-social personality disorder, his primary source of employment was as a pizza delivery boy. We nicknamed him, appropriately enough, “Psycho Ed”. He was one scary dude, but once he was on the horn he transformed into a regular Svengali of the shill. If you only knew him through his voice, you’d swear he was as debonair as Robert Mitchum. Little did his customers suspect that it was more like Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter . . . . If you think that was brilliant, you should have met our direct supervisor: a young, callow sociopath who charmed and bullied his way through all his daily interactions. He ended his employment with the company by swindling them out of tens of thousands of dollars and hopping a single-engine Cessna in a hasty retreat back to his hometown of Moline, Illinois. It remains vague in my memory whether or not he was ever tracked down or caught, but the direct result for his former employees was that everyone was laid-off, the office was closed and our final paychecks began to bounce like Flubber. All in all, the experience was more a source of bemusement for me than anything else: I was nineteen at the time and going back to college for the fall semester anyway.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’m proud of them all, but some more than others. Ironically, the projects I’ve made the most creative, original and extensive contributions to are the ones that are the least known to the public. One project that I loved working on was a production design I did for an animation and effects house called Metropolis Digital back in the summer of 1995. It called for character and environment designs and I had free reign to indulge my own uniquely wacky style of German Expressionism on it. It was very satisfying, creatively speaking, and is still represented in my portfolio. Another character design assignment for the same company was of the San Jose Sharks hockey team mascot. I nailed the look immediately within three thumbnails. From inception through to finished full color illustration in fourteen hours straight. That one is also still in my portfolio. More recently, my sculpture work on the Boris Vallejo Mistresses of Fantasy figurine line has to rank up there at the top of the list. Boris remains amongst the best creative directors you can imagine. He had a certain constellation of virtues found in common with all the great ones: he was very secure in his abilities, communicated his ideas deftly and trusted you to do your job. You couldn’t ask for more than that and the results show.

 

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m a born and bred Chicagoan. If you really want to know the origins of my involvement in animation you have to go back to the moment when Continue reading