The Doozers (series)

In Development: Content subject to change.

The Doozers is an upcoming computer animated television series featuring the Doozers of Fraggle Rock. Starring four young Doozers (Spike, Mollybolt, Flex and Daisy Wheel), the series takes place in Doozer Creek, a self-sustainable community located just beyond the view of humans. The series focuses on cooperation, teamwork, inventing, technology, and eco-consciousness. It will begin broadcasting in Europe in 2013.

Description

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Doozers are three inch tall, green characters who live in communities (just beyond the view of humans) all around the world. The new animated series is set in Doozer Creek, a high-tech enchanted forest that merges nature with innovation. It’s a self-sustaining, green community that exists in harmony with nature and generates zero waste. In every eleven-minute episode of Doozers, viewers will follow the adventures of four brand new Doozer kid characters: Spike, Mollybolt, Flex, and Daisy Wheel, each with differing characteristics and skills. Together they make up the bright, bold, and fun “Pod Squad” who share a passion for inventing.^[1]

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Pre-production

The series, targeted at 4 to 7 year-olds, was to have been produced by the Jim Henson Company with Decode Entertainment. It was presented for sale at television industry conference MIPTV. A March 2009 press announcement stated that test animation was being made, with the series to comprise 52 eleven minute episodes (26 half-hour broadcast episodes). Production was planned for fall of 2009 with release estimated for fall 2010.

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Who could forget the industrious little Doozers who wore hard hats as they cheerfully labored alongside the Fraggles, building scaffolds composed of 'Doozer sticks' made of 'radish dust'? Now the Doozers are back to inspire kids to make the world a better place by making smart, eco-friendly choices, and by inventing tools, gadgets, buildings, structures, and other technology that supports the environment’s ecology.

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- Halle Stanford, Jim Henson Company executive vice president for children's entertainment.

On July 3, 2012, a new press release from DHX Media (parent company of Decode) announced that the production had been greenlit. This time the announcement claimed that the series would begin production in July 2012 at DHX computer animation studio in Hallifax, Canada (making it a co-production, much like the original series). However, the press release also noted that the Jim Henson Company was still "in negotiations" with broadcasters around the world to sell the series, and would be presenting it yet again at the MIPJunior and MIPCOM events.^[2]

On September 12, 2012, a new press release was announced on Kidscreen:

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Coinciding with 30th anniversary of Fraggle Rock in 2013, The Jim Henson Company has created a new 52 x 11-minute spin-off series that puts the the classic’s diminutive laborers into the spotlight. And Turner EMEA, for one, likes the new direction. The broadcaster has snapped up Doozers for its expanding pan-Euro preschool channel Cartoonito’s fall 2013 schedule.

Co-produced with Canada’s DHX Media, the new series stars Spike, Mollybolt, Flex and Daisy Wheel. The four kid Doozers live in Doozer Creek, a self-sustainable community (located just beyond the view of humans). The action really takes place in a high-tech, eco-friendly enchanted forest, where the Doozer pals share a passion for inventing.

“We call the Doozers playful inventors,” says Richard Goldsmith, EVP of global distribution at TJHC. “It’s about exploration and working together with others, and to do so they borrow things from nature to make their world and the larger world around them better.”

“There was a combination of appeal for us in that it is a well-known brand, and it’s something we didn’t have on the channel in the sense that it’s a make-and-do series with an engineering aspect,” adds Cecilia Persson, VP of acquisitions and co-productions for EMEA at Turner Broadcasting.

Goldsmith says there is a possibility that Turner will pick up the series for other territories. “But there is so much interest globally that it is really going to be a focus of ours at MIPCOM this year to close deals,” he adds. He’s also open to licenses in some terrritories where the property might start on an SVOD platform before it goes to DVD.

The company also plans to carry the series’ inventing and building philosophy into interactive digital content and consumer products, though its currently keeping mum on specifics. TJHC is now in talks with licensees for products across categories. “The stories are about making things, so it allows us to do more with ancillary businesses such as CP and interactive,” says Goldsmith.

“Everything that is being done in 2013 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Fraggle Rock will help lead up to the premiere of Doozers,” he says. The anniversary year will see classic Fraggle Rock episodes rolling out across international territories on various platforms, as well as special DVD releases.

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