Founded in 1983, Telemagination has become synonymous with high quality animation production. The company has grown from strength to strength over its twenty-two year history and is now one of Europe's largest 2D animation studios. Originally founded by John M. Mills and Elphin Lloyd-Jones, Telemagination was bought by the Munich-based animation distributor TV-Loonland AG in July 2000.
Throughout the 80s and 90s, Telemagination was responsible for a number of major long-running animation series. After completing 86 episodes of The Telebugs for TVS, European co-productions soon followed. The Animals of Farthing Wood and Noah's Island were both produced in collaboration with French studio Praxinos, and commissioned by the European Broadcasting Union. Both series received critical acclaim, illustrating Telemagination's skill and professionalism in the arena of international co-productions.
In 1999, Telemagination optioned the award-winning book The Last Polar Bears by Harry Horse and developed a half-hour Christmas Special featuring the voice of Nigel Hawthorne. Commissioned by CiTV and co-produced with German broadcaster ZDF, The Last Polar Bears was first broadcast on Christmas Day 2000 and has since been repeated every Christmas. The programme was BAFTA nominated and won 'Best TV Special' at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.
Following the success of The Last Polar Bears, Telemagination went on to produce Little Ghosts - a pre-school series based on the popular French books by Jacques Duquennoy and Pongwiffy - a BAFTA nominated comedy series about a group of witches, featuring the voices of French and Saunders. Telemagination also collaborated with Vancouver-based Studio B on Something Else, based on the books by Kathryn Cave and Chris Riddell. Metalheads, a series created by American cartoonist Steve Moore and focusing on the exploits of five young wannabe knights, was completed in September 2003 and was nominated in 2004 for 'Best Animation' at the Children's BAFTA Awards
Another successful production was the second series of The Cramp Twins. Based on the books by Brian Wood, the series marked the studio's first collaboration with Cartoon Network Europe. The series also won the Pulcinella Award at Cartoons on the Bay 2005 in the 'Best TV Series for Children' category and is currently being edited into downloadable shorts for the internet and mobile. Telemagination's first feature length film, Heidi was also completed in 2005. Based on Johanna Spyri's hugely popular tale about a young orphan girl, the production was the studio's second venture with Canadian studio Nelvana.
Recently completed productions include the third Pettson and Findus feature length film ‘Pettson’s Promise’, based on Sven Nordqvists book, ‘Tometmaskinen’. The film, which is a co-production between TV Loonland, Happy Life and A Film, saw a successful release across Scandinavia over Christmas 2005 and in December 2006 the film was leashed upon yet more eager audiences across Germany. Produced concurrently were six 12-minute episodes taken from the film and a further seven to complete a series. Telemagination is currently looking to develop a fourth film with the existing partners as well as a third series.
The pre-school series Rudi and Trudi was also completed in 2006. Based on the already successful ZDF children’s show ‘Siebenstien’ Rudi and Trudi follows the adventures of a young raven, Rudi, and his kitten friend, Trudi, through various fantasy worlds.
For Telemagination’s current activities in both production and development, please visit our ‘Production’ pages.
