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Basile and Melba was a planned CGI-animated television series under the ZAG Toon brand. It was going to be a co-production between Zagtoon, 2 Minutes, and Europa-Glénat, based on the graphic novel series of the same name that was published by Glénat Editions.[3]
A pilot was created and was shown at MIPCOM 2009.[4] However, the project ended up getting cancelled due to Glénat regaining the full rights to the Basile and Melba intellectual property after Europa-Glénat became defunct.
Synopsis[]
"Sparks fly and fun and games [are] guaranteed in this 3D series! He is called Basile and her name is Melba. He is a model student and she is bottom of the class. He is rich and she much less so. He is sensible, well brought up and sensitive and she is a tomboy and along with her brothers they are always getting up to mischief! They are so different and proof that opposites attract."[1]
Characters[]
Basile[]
Basile is one of the two main characters of the series. The only son of a wealthy family, Basile is a very good student in the class. He's sensible, well-brought-up, and sensitive.
Melba[]
Melba is one of the two main characters of the series. Daughter of a large and financially modest family, Melba is a tomboyish girl who's considered the bottom of the class.
Ben and Max[]
Ben and Max are two older brothers of Melba.
Production[]
The cover of the first book in the series first published by Glénat in 2008.
Basile et Melba is a French graphic novel series published from June 2008 to June 2010, by Glénat. The series consisted of three books written by Mathilde Domecq. Except for winter, each of the books is based on a season of the year. So, the name of the books are "Spring", "Summer", and "Fall".
On October 23, 2008, it was announced that Luc Besson and his production company EuropaCorp had partnered with Glénat to launch Europa Glénat, a production company that would produce animated adaptations of Glénat's titles.[5] Europa-Glénat is said to be sharing TV and film adaptation rights to Glénat's property "at a 50/50 split".[6]
In September 2009, it was announced during MIPCOM that animated adaptations of both Basile and Melba and Job Academy are being developed internally as a co-production between Zagtoon and Europa-Glénat. A pilot was confirmed to have been created and shown at the event.[4][2] On the same year, the official ZAG website was updated to include Basile and Melba in a list of licenses the company owned the television adaptation rights for.[3]
However, there doesn't seem to be any interest from French television broadcasters who would want to purchase Basile and Melba at MIPCOM 2009. As a result, the project isn't able to be greenlighted into a full-fledged series. In addition, Basile and Melba was removed from the ZAG website after 2011, indicating that the company lost the licensing rights for it. Eventually, Europa-Glénat later became defunct, causing Glénat to regain the full rights to Basile and Melba and the TV series to be scrapped altogether.
Trivia[]
- Despite Zagtoon's involvement with co-producing the pilot, ZAG doesn't own the full rights to Basile and Melba due to it being Glénat's intellectual property. Instead, it used to have the licensing rights so it could produce the series.
- Basile and Melba and Job Academy were parts of Europa-Glénat's plan to develop animated adaptations of Glénat's comic book properties.
- According to a press release at MIPCOM 2009, Basile and Melba was planned to have 52 episodes and be 13-minute long.[1]
- It's unknown if the pilot would ever be resurfaced to the public.
- In an Animation Magazine article, Basile's name was misspelled as Basil.[7]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 https://web.archive.org/web/20140301173129/http://www.virtualpressoffice.com/publicsiteContentFileAccess?fileContentId=174355&fromOtherPageToDisableHistory=T&menuName=Events&companyId=3123
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://kidscreen.com/2009/05/15/univergroup-20090515/
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 http://web.archive.org/web/20101016164926/http://www.univergroup.com/series.html
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 https://www.catsuka.com/news/2010-01-08/pilote-du-p-tit-cosmonaute-et-autres-adaptations-de-bd-le-petit-spirou-samson-et-neon-job-academy-basile-et-melba
- ↑ https://variety.com/2009/scene/markets-festivals/french-films-turn-to-comic-books-1117998281/
- ↑ https://www.mtv.com/news/x3w9cc/transporter-producer-luc-besson-partners-with-french-comic-publisher
- ↑ http://www.animationmagazine.net/features/zagtoon-launches-3d-film-division/
External links[]
- Basile and Melba on the French Wikipedia.
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