Corus Entertainment’s Nelvana, a world-leading international producer, distributor and licensor of children’s animated and live action content, announces two new distribution partners for its new 3D animated original series Millie Magnificent (52×11) to Canal+ in France and Treehouse in Canada. With deliveries starting early 2024, the endearing preschool series will be prominently featured by Nelvana at MIPCOM this fall.
Kids Can Press, Corus Entertainment’s award-winning, internationally acclaimed children’s book publisher, has further expanded the Most Magnificent franchise with the new book The Most Magnificent Maker’s A to Z and the Make That Most Magnificent Thing board game, produced in collaboration with Fat Brain Toys, both launching this fall. “It’s been quite the magnificent journey with our Millie! What started as a fun and relatable children’s book about the creative process quickly turned into a best-selling franchise, an award-winning short film and now a highly anticipated TV series, as well as an interactive board game that encourages creativity, critical thinking and STEM learning,” said Mellany Welsh, VP of Nelvana Enterprises and Kids Can Press. “The new animated series is a celebration of the creative process featuring Millie’s notorious ‘brain spark’ moments and learning through trialand-error. We have had tremendous feedback from partners and are excited to share all the magnificent updates since we announced the series greenlight last spring.”
Inspired by the best-selling book by Ashley Spires and based on Nelvana’s award-winning short film The Most Magnificent Thing, Millie Magnificent fosters creativity and imaginative thinking for preschoolers around the world by actively promoting critical thinking, problem solving and the valuable process of trial-and-error. Through engaging storytelling, characters dive into relatable issues centered around community and home life while addressing the challenges of navigating complex and big emotions in a way that resonates with children.
“Millie Magnificent is an endearing and imaginative series that weaves together key themes of innovation, helping others, environmental consciousness, and empowering yourself to reach your full potential” said Geraldine Soto, Head of Acquisitions & Prebuys – Kids Content at Canal +. “Millie is a strong, curious and resourceful heroine who loves to create, recreate and innovate, and overcomes obstacles. We are proud to have joined the ‘Magnificent’ team so early on, and are delighted Millie and her Creato-Crew will soon be joining the team of Canal+ heroes.”
The latest installment in the immensely popular book series from the British Columbia-based author-illustrator arrived in bookstores in September and is a delightful twist on the traditional vocabulary book. The Most Magnificent Maker’s A to Z features the beloved characters from The Most Magnificent Thing as they take readers from A to Z, defining all the words they need to know about making. The new book follows the success of The Most Magnificent Thing and The Most Magnificent Idea, which combined have sales in excess of 925,000 copies.
The franchise has also expanded into the toy market, with a licensed board game to be released this month from Fat Brain Toys.
“I am a big fan of Ashley Spires’ book The Most Magnificent Thing, having read it many times to my daughters, and I could see how closely the elements of the story fit with a board game concept we were working on,” said Adam Hocherman, SVP of Product Development & Innovation at Fat Brain Toys. “We approached Kids Can Press about collaborating, and it moved along quickly. KCP and Ashley were a joy to work with.”
Make That Most Magnificent Thing encourages creativity and open-ended thinking. Players draw a prompt card and build something magnificent using the 200 odds-and-ends game pieces before the timer is up. Each player then explains why their invention is the most magnificent, before being awarded an appropriate badge by fellow players acknowledging their creation. The new board game is available at Indigo this October and Barnes & Noble next spring.