I am off to the Ottawa Television Animation conference tomorrow. I am quite excited about it this year, last year was my first time so it took a bit to figure out what was going on and then it was over. This year I am ready.
So far my meetings include Teletoon, CBC Kids, YTV, Cartoon Network, and Jetix Europe as well as other animation producers & executive producers. I had a lot of luck with the FastTrack, and have been able to get meetings with everyone who I would like to speak to.
My meetings are primarily focused around moving Side Show Christmas and Toby’s Canada forward, however I have been developing a new TV show for this conference that I am really excited to pitch to broadcasters for the first time.
Boxed Out is an adult, animated Situation Comedy, that Jeff Martel (A Fairy Tale Christmas, Side Show Christmas) and I have been developing / designing for the Detour Pilot Project or the Adult Swim on Cartoon Network. Our focus has been on story, the creation of an original, unexpected, situation, universe and characters + a couple of juicy ideas for episodes.
Ideally we will get enough interest in this project to move forward in development, however it has been fun developing this idea as it is.
Boxed Out
Climbing back to the top of the heap has never been harder… or funnier
13 x 22 Animated Adult Situation Comedy
It’s like: Fat Actress meets Entourage set in an animated world where Cereal Box stars reign as the ultimate glitterati.
Logline: For ten years Donnie Delight was the biggest and brightest star in the world of Cereal Box Celebrities, until his career mysteriously landed in the toilet; now he’ll do anything to get back on top in the land of the rich, famous… and sleazy.
The community of Highland Falls lays claim to one thing: Breakfast Cereal… where it is the fuel of life. It’s a cereal town… manufacturing, marketing and the stars that hawk their cereals’ parade as the undisputed kings and queens.
Donnie Delight (a.k.a Donald Francis Kowalsky) was the toast of the town and the cream of the crop of all Cereal Box stars. Starting out as a rosy-cheekd kid, Donnie enjoyed the height of fame for ten years: his face plastered on his cereal box… Crunchy Sugar O Delights… bill boards, personal appearances, elaborate commercials that featured his multi-talented performances. He shone as the undisputed star, until one day… it ended: contract terminated; calls to the head of Nero Brand Cereals, Mr. Arnold Nero went unreturned; even his agent, tough as nails, Angela Demotrakas doesn’t have the time of day for her former favorite client. Broke, instant has-been, Donnie loses his mansion and all the trappings of fame (well… except his cell phone and its list of important people).
On his quest for a soft place to land, Donnie turns to him mom and dad: Marjorie and Frank Kowalsky but he discovers that they don’t have room in their empty nest and they’ve blown all the money he earned while he was a child star. Obsessed by her on-line shopping habit, Marjorie surfaces just long enough to tell her son to settle down and start a family. Meanwhile, Frank has become a Cereal Box Celebrity manager, with a stable of young impressionable clients ready and willing to do anything to break into the business.
Donnie ends on the doorstep of General Munch, a self-made Rastafarian pirate and long running cereal box celebrity. Munch lets Donnie string up a hammock in his house boat/party palace where Donnie begins his quest: restore his career while negotiating the twists, turns and outrageous characters like Snack, Crack and Crunch (long time, surly, unreasonable stars of their own cereal), Larry the Leapord (Donnie’s fitness guru and self-appointed life coach) and Cassandra Nero (the famous for being the famous daughter of rich and famous Arnold Nero and Donnie’s girlfriend for one night… before he fell from grace!).
Donnie remains fixed on getting back into the business and he’ll do anything to succeed: there is no one he won’t hustle for work, no public appearance too small, no dinner theater too shabby, no publicity stunt too outrageous, no angle too thin to be worked in Donnie Delight’s desperate climb back to the top of the Cereal Box world.
Animation and wanderings of director / producer Tim Tyler 