My life as a Zucchini – Over 1 million admissions in France
A big thank you to the Gebeka teams for their work on such a long term exploitation.
An congratulation to Claude Barras, and to all teams and partners on the film.
Blue Spirit ( Newen kids and Family Company) is joining Ecoprod
Joining this community of professionals reflects our commitment to the ecological transition of the audiovisual sector and will allow us to participate in the development of tools and resources adapted to our needs.
Blue Spirit appoints new Managing Director and announces new structural organization
He will take over responsibilities from Éric Jacquot in January 2023. After accompanying Olivier Lelardoux during the transition period, Éric Jacquot will leave the company, which he created in 2004, in June 2023.
Olivier Lelardoux will notably be in charge of developing Newen Kids & Family (Blue Spirit’s holding company, renamed at the start of the year), a unit dedicated to seeking out new talent and production companies, in France and abroad, in line with policy actively developed by the Newen group in other areas.
Since 2005, Olivier Lelardoux has been Studio Director and Associate Producer at Cyber Group Studios. He has directed more than 700 episodes of a dozen animation series, including Gigantosaurus, Zou and The Chronicles of Zorro.
In line with growing activity, Blue Spirit recently reviewed its structure, which is now organized around 4 Associate Managing Directors:
- Camille Gérard, director of productions at Blue Spirit since 2007, is appointed AMD of studios (Paris, Angoulême, Montreal) and head of executive productions (France and international).
- Sandrine Vellieux, who arrived in 2020, holds the position of CFO and is now AMD in charge of financial and administrative affairs.
- Frantz Delbecque, technical director, becomes AMD of Blue Spirit Lab, overseeing all technical resources and developments.
- Armelle Glorennec, CEO of Blue Spirit Productions, newly accompanied by Justine Francke, will now focus on delegate production (series and feature films), which has intensified in recent years.
Over the past 4 years, production has increased dramatically, with series including “Arthur and the Children of the Round Table, Season 2,” “Alice & Lewis, Season 2,” “Mille Bornes,” development of the series “The Borrowers,” “Splat & Seymour, Season 2,” “Nightmares are in Trouble,” and “The Baker Street Four” in co-production with Folivari. Blue Spirit works successfully with the largest major French and international channels, including TF1, France Télévisions, Canal +, Rai, ARD, Warner, and Globo.
In parallel, Blue Spirit has strengthened its development of feature films, some of which go into production in 2023. Four films are currently in development: “The Legend of (almost) King Arthur” directed by Jean-Luc François, “The Ballad of Yaya” directed by Cédric Babouche, “Cut and Run,” and “Colleen et Amélia” (in co-production with Syon in Canada).
The Blue Spirit studios (Angoulême, Montreal and Paris) have experienced similarly strong growth with the manufacture of in-house productions, series helmed by French producers (Gigantosaurus, Samsam Season 3, Ernest & Célestine, Runes…), but also thanks to the executive production of ambitious international series such as Gremlins (Warner) and What if (Marvel). The studios employ over 300 people.
FWD:HBO Max Reveals First Look at Gizmo’s Animated Return in Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai
Gremlins : Secrets of the Mogwai ( producteur Warner Bros Animation.)
Blue Spirit is proud to be part of this great adventure, and congratulations to the talented teams from Blue Spirit Studios who are working on this project!
Read about it in the presse ici
Splat & Seymour – Watch the Special 22 minutes on TF1
In this Special episode of 2 x 11 minutes Splat meet Seymour for the 1st time !
Splat is the laughing stock of his class: he’s not very good at mouse hunting! But when he chances upon a little hot air balloon in the park, he decides to take it home. Little does he know, it belongs to a mouse named Seymour who has just crash-landed in Moggy Bottom and needs his balloon to get back home! The young mouse tries to retrieve the hot air balloon but gets seen by Splat. A chase ensues. The cat manages to catch the rodent by a sheer stroke of luck. A whisker away from getting gobbled up, Seymour offers a deal: he will teach Splat to hunt mice the right way and, in exchange, Splat will give him back his balloon. All well and good. Until the balloon disappears…
Gigantosaurus season 1 wins prestigious 2021 Export Award for Animation
The series Gigantosaurus season 1 made in our studios in Angoulême and Montreal, produced by Cyber Group Studios has been awarded the 2021 Export Award for Animation!
What if…? The 2 1st episodes of new Marvel Series produced in Blue Spirit Studios
The two first episodes of What if…? are online on Disney+ ! The 2 episodes had been produced in our studios! Clap Clap to our nice team and talents who work on this amazing projects.
What if…? A new Marvel’s series – trailer !
The new Marvel Series What if…? trailer is online. We are very proud to work with a such great studio !
The Mysterious Cities of Gold – aired every day this summer of France Télévisions !
Good News for the %ysterious Citites of Gold’s Fans !
The four seasons are aired on France Télévision this summer ! here
The Prince Voyage at CinéToupiti Festival
The Prince’s Voyage directed by Jean-François Laguionie and Xavier Picard is aired in Martinique in a wonderful selection of animated movies from Little Films Festival et the Annecy International Film Festival !
The Mysterious Cities of Gold at Serie Series Festival
A wonderful Master class of the 4th and las season of The Mysterious Cities of Gold with Jean-Luc François, the director ! On July 2nd at Fontainebleau at Serie Series Festival !
Blue Spirit in Annecy
Thursday June 17th, 4pm : Studio Recruiter Session with avec Didier, Camille and Mélinée. They will present our 3 studios in Paris, Angoulême and Montreal, our new projects in development and production ans all job opportunity. The Session is available in live, online and in replay until end od december 2021 there
Saturday June 19th at 9am : carte blanche Canal + with the 1st episode of Arthur and the children of the round table SEASON 2 directed by Jean-Luc François! here
Splat & Seymour at Animation National Film Festival in France
Studio Day in Bellecour
We were proud to present our studio at the Blue Spirit Studio Day organized by the Bellecour school! So many talented students ! Thanks to Bellecour for this great invitation!
Blue Spirit opens a creative studio in Paris
Blue Spirit Creation, a premium animation pre preproduction boutique comprised of senior 2d & 3D creative talent will be responsible for supporting visual development as well as the set-up of feature films and animated series.
This unique unit will be the first point of contact for producers, directors and art directors. The Blue Spirit Creation team will propose and support the adaptation of ambitious graphic universes ensuring a seamless production pipeline for each project in our studios in Angoulême and Montreal.
Blue Sprit plans to have this creative unit up and running by the end of the year.
In parallel, the Paris production branch, Blue Spirit Studio, is expanding and thus recruiting 3D operator positions for its animated series (lay out – animation / remote work possible).
Read more here
Blue Spirit at Cartoon Movie 2021
Blue Spirit Productions presents its new project in concept “Cut and Run” ( La poudre d’escampette), a film by Chloe Cruchaudet on wednseday 10, March at 12:20pm.
+ informations on Cartoon Movie 2021 here
My life as a Zucchini will be dubbed in Brittany language!
The french association “Dizale” is looking for children, from 9 to 13, to dubb My life as a Zucchini in Brittany language. The session will take place from April 26th to 30th.
The casting will be held on March 24th and 27th in Quimper.
More info here
The newspaper “Le Monde” talks about “The Prince’s Voyage” which airs for the first time on French television
The Prince’s Voyage will air for the first time on french tv on Ciné+Famiz on tuesday, February 23rd at 8:50pm.
It will be reruned sunday, February 28th à 5:35pm and thursday March 4th et 11:50pm.
The newspaper “Le Monde” talks about a “mischievous work” “with a revolutionary spirit”, a “diabolical and funny” film based on the “surrealist stories of Jean-François Laguionie, an animated film artist”.
More to read here
Celebrate Valentine’s day with Splat & Seymour on TF1!
Next February 14th, TFOU will propose a special love program to celebrate Valentine’s day with Splat & Seymour! The brand new episod called “Cats in love” will air sunday morning at 7:25am.
Splat and Seymour are convinced Finn is smitten with Chloe and that they’ve unwittingly sabotaged the poor male cat’s declaration of love! To make up the damage, they go out of their way to try and get the cats back together again so that Finn can have another go at it. But by forcing fate in this wise, they do more harm than good!
Broadcast as of December 2, 2020 of the Mysterious Cities of Gold, season 4
The 4th and final season of the Mysterious Cities of Gold is finally here!
It will be broadcasted from December 2nd on FranceTV’s Okoo platform!
In the meantime, seasons 2 & 3 are already available here
The first episodes of Splat & Seymour are a hit on Tfou!
Broadcast on Tfou on November 8, the Splat & Seymour series produced by Blue Spirit and directed by Jean Duval achieved excellent performances with an average of 41.1% pda for its launch on Sunday, November 8 at 7:50 a.m.!
Adapted from the novels Splat the chat by Rob Scotton (published by Nathan), the series recounts the adventures of Splat & Seymour in Chatville-sur-Ronron, a small town populated by cats, Splat, a young 6 years old-cat, overflowing with energy and imagination, lives countless adventures in the company of his best friend, Seymour, a mouse of his age. But hush, this friendship must remain secret…
Splat & Harry in preview on Tfou!
Discover the 1st episode of Splat in preview on Tfou ” One last cookie box! »
Splat, a mischievous young cat has an inseparable friend, Harry, a mouse. But their friendship is very risky because the cats around them are always fond of a mouse to bite… And on air from November 8 on TFOU
The Prince’s Journey rewarded at the Schlingel Film Festival
The Prince’s Journey rewarded at the SCHLINGEL Film Festival!
The film produced by Blue Spirit in co-production with Mélusine, directed by Jean François Laguionie & Xavier Picard and made in our studios, received the prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Schlingel Film Festival (October 10-17) in Germany.
Congratulations to the film crew!
More info here
Sunday, June 21 at full speed on TF1 with Alice & Lewis!
In its special Music Day edition, Tfou will air the Alice & Lewis episode “The Feast of Silence”, an episode where Alice arrives in Wonderland on the day of the Feast of Silence, a special day when no music is tolerated by the Queen… but Alice is determined to do something about it!
UCMF 2020 PRICE
Congratulations to the composer Christophe Héral nominated in the Best Animated Film category with Le voyage du Prince directed by Jean-François Laguionie and Xavier Picard. The awards ceremony will take place on June 17th.
More info here
The Prince’s journey from June 7th on DVD
Le voyage du Prince, directed by Jean-François Laguionie and Xavier Picard, will be available on DVD from June 7. The film is already available on VOD.
The music of the film, composed by Christophe Héral, will be released in a digital version on June 12th!
The Prince’s rewarded trip to Stuttgart
The Prince’s Journey won the Feature Length Film Award at the Stuttgart International Animated Film Festival!
The prize was awarded on May 10th during the closing ceremony in live stream. More info here
AniMovie (best animated feature-length film) Le voyage du prince (The Prince’s Voyage) | Jean-François Laguionie, Xavier Picard | Blue Spirit Productions, Melusine Productions (Eric Jacquot, Armelle Glorennec, Stéphan Roelants) France 2019 Jury statement: “We had the honor as a jury from three different countries, far away from each other but virtually connected to review nine different movies from all over the world: France, Japan, Romania, India, Hong Kong, South Korea, Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg and Mexico. It was a truly inspiring time to be able to watch so many fantastic animated movies – we enjoyed it very much. Today we want to announce the winner of best animated feature film and also award a special mention. And the winner is: The Prince’s Voyage, directed by Jean-François Laguionie and Xavier Picard. Produced by Eric Jacquot, Armelle Glorennec, Stéphan Roelants from France. “It is a fantastic and philosophical fable story. It has an incredible contemporary touch, although it describes a very different time. It tells us to be without fear towards the outside or to things strange and unknown to us. It shows us that there are different ways to live a life, ways that shouldn’t be judged. It gently tells us to protect nature and our society – and last but not least to be careful with each other. The film is beautifully executed and animation and story complement each other excellent in a simple but beautiful presentation and we are sure that it will find a huge audience amongst all ages.”
Alice & Lewis among the most popular series for children on the TFOU youth box!
Broadcast since April 5, 2020 on the youth channel TFOU, Alice & Lewis new original series of Blue Spirit, directed by Bernard, knows a great audience among young people by recording an average of 30.2% of pda on the target of 4 to 10 years!
Alice & Lewis on TFOU from April 5th!
Discover the adventures of Alice & Lewis on TFOU every Sunday from April 5, 2020 at 7:45 am!
Alice & Lewis, directed by Bernard Ling is a new original series of 52 episodes of 11’30” in HD for 4-7 year olds produced by Blue Spirit in co-production with Movimenti (Italy) and Globo (Brazil). The series will be broadcast in France on TFOU from April 2020 and will be available from 2021 in more than 130 territories You don’t know anything about «Wonderland»? Don’t worry, neither does Alice ! For Alice, every day provides a good reason to visit her friend Lewis in Wonderland. Perhaps she just misses him, or she has two minutes to spare before school, or maybe she needs Lewis’ help to solve a problem…Alice & Lewis on TFOU from April 5th!
The Alice & Lewis series in preview on TFOU at Christmas!
Alice & Lewis, the new Blue Spirit series (52 x 11) directed by Bernard Ling, will be previewed on TFOU from December 22, 2019.
See you on TFOU: Sunday, December 22 and 29 at 8:15 am, from Monday, December 23 to Friday, December 27 at 8 am.
Splat & Harry on Tfou from November 8 at 7:50 am!
In Chatville-sur-Ronron, a small town populated by cats, Splat, a young 6 years old-cat, overflowing with energy and imagination, lives countless adventures in the company of his best friend, Harry, a mouse of his age. But hush, this friendship must remain secret…
Blue Spirit Studios go with MAYA !
As part of its development in France and internationally, Blue Spirit is migrating its manufacturing pipeline to Maya software.
Historically based on 3DSmax, Blue Spirit’s technical teams have chosen to migrate all production pipelines to Maya. The roadmap proposed by its publisher Autodesk now responds more effectively to the desired artistic requirement and the needs for greater economic productivity expected on the market.
This migration will enable Blue Spirit to improve the interconnection of production lines with its main foreign partners and customers, but also to meet recruitment needs – a large proportion of animation schools provide their training on Maya.
It is the increase in international projects produced within the studio as well as the desire to improve the working tools of its employees that motivated Blue Spirit to change software and review all the dedicated tools developed by its R&D teams for many years.
Blue Spirit is already looking for and recruiting experienced artists under Maya in the various animation professions to accompany it in this transition.
More information here
MIP JUNIOR 2019 : 2 programmes Blue Spirit dans le top 10 !
The Prince’s Journey rewarded at the Kids Kino IFF!
The Prince’s Journey directed by Jean-François Laguionie and Xavier Picard won the Special Mention of the Jury in the Discoveries Film Competition category of the 7th edition of the Kino Kids International Film Festival in Poland.
Jean-Luc François on France Inter Friday 31 July 2020!
Jean-Luc François, director of The Mystérious Cities of Gold, will be live on France Inter Friday, July 31st at 5pm. He is the guest of Frederick Sigrist in his show Blockbusters, France Inter’s Pop Culture show, and will talk about the Mysterious Cities of Gold (season 4 and final season of the series is currently in production!).
More info on the show here