Tralala acquired by ABC Australia as Blue Ant unveils biggest kids slate – ABC Australia has acquired the first season of Tralala, the musical preschool animation at the centre of Blue Ant Media’s largest-ever kids and family sales lineup for MIPJunior and MIPCOM. BBC CBeebies has also joined the series for the UK and Ireland, while broadcasters in Sweden and Finland have taken it.
The Australian sale gives local families a clear connection to an otherwise international distribution announcement. Flower & Flour, another title in the slate, was produced for ABC Australia alongside Canadian broadcasters. Blue Ant has not announced Australian premiere dates for either programme, and its release does not establish local homes for the remaining titles.
The broader eight-title offering mixes new preschool animation, family-friendly live action and returning series from Blue Ant Studios and independent producers. It also shows how the distributor is pairing broadcaster sales with longer-term plans for character-led brands and consumer products.
Tralala adds ABC Australia and BBC CBeebies
Tralala is a 52-part series of seven-minute episodes from Blue Ant Studios and Stretchy, made for CBC in Canada and Sky NZ. The Canada-New Zealand co-production is created, written and directed by Harry Sinclair, whose credits include Kiri and Lou. Its animation work is shared between the two production partners.
At its centre is Tralala, an inventive seven-year-old frog who lives with her father, Sid, in a blue country cottage. Everyday moments become imaginative adventures and original songs. The series treats co-parenting with Tralala’s mother as an ordinary part of family life, while its young lead fills her world with companions she has found or imagined around the home.
Those friends include Batty, a sharply dressed bat; Pasilio, a shy tree in the garden; and Hildegard, a talking hill where Tralala likes to play. The setting gives the preschool show room for playful stories built around domestic routines, music and a child’s inner world rather than a single large quest.
BBC CBeebies has acquired season one for the UK and Ireland. Blue Ant also names ABC Australia, Sweden’s SVT and Finland’s YLE as first-season buyers. The ABC deal is the key local development, but no Australian launch date or viewing platform has been specified in the announcement.
Flower & Flour was made for ABC Australia
Also in the new slate, Flower & Flour has 39 seven-minute episodes aimed at four- to seven-year-olds. Cheeky Little Media and Sinking Ship Entertainment co-produce the animated series for ABC Australia, TVOkids, Radio-Canada and Knowledge Kids. It is therefore a separate Australian broadcaster connection, not an additional title that Blue Ant says it has newly sold to the ABC at MIPCOM.
Creator Dan Mansour draws on his family’s lived experiences for the story. Flower is a curious, big-hearted seven-year-old living above her family’s busy dumpling restaurant. After wishing for a pet, she imagines Flour, a mischievous cat made from a bag of flour. Together they turn small events into adventures across their multicultural neighbourhood.
Friendship, imagination, kindness and discovering the world close to home are among its themes. The restaurant and surrounding community also give the programme a distinct setting for stories that can feel familiar to young viewers even as Flower and Flour find something unexpected in ordinary days.
New preschool series and an animated special
Little Margo Stories arrives as 50 three-minute episodes plus specials from Lightcatcher Media. The non-dialogue, 3D-animated series follows a young mole who discovers the natural world one small experience at a time. New friendships and changing seasons become opportunities for curiosity, play and quiet adventure.
The project began on YouTube Shorts before becoming a licensable series. Blue Ant says Disney Jr., CBC and SRC are among the outlets it has attracted. Its gentle stories also introduce skills such as empathy, cooperation, resilience and problem-solving without relying on spoken dialogue.
For bedtime viewing, JAM Media’s BeddyByes offers 52 episodes of 11 minutes each. Made for BBC CBeebies and RTÉ, it follows best friends MeMo and BaBa around Planet BeddyByes. The producers use a reassuring daily routine, gentle storytelling and soothing visuals to help children move from active play towards sleep.
The slate also includes The Day You Begin, a 45-minute animated special from Atomic Cartoons, a Blue Ant Studios company, for PBS. Adapted from Jacqueline Woodson’s book, it follows four imaginative children on their first school day. Each initially feels out of place, but their different stories become a way to connect. The story’s focus is self-acceptance and the strength found in sharing an individual experience.
BooSnoo! returns with its calming format
BooSnoo! returns for a fourth season of 25 seven-minute episodes. Produced by Visionality Media and Mackinnon & Saunders for Sky Kids, the non-dialogue programme follows a little red ball through elaborate obstacle courses. Animation, live action and stop motion combine to create its unusual visual world.
The producers developed the show from a need for quiet programming that could appeal to children with autism. Its predictable episode pattern and easy-to-follow pathways are deliberate design choices. Blue Ant presents the new season as part of a broader catalogue that includes calmer options as well as energetic adventures.
All-Round Champion adds UK athletes
Blue Ant Studios’ sports competition All-Round Champion reaches season seven with 10 hour-long episodes. Made for BYUtv and TVOkids, it has ITV joining this season as a financing partner. For the first time, the competition also includes a selection of athletes from the UK.
Nine elite young competitors must try sports outside their own specialities. The announced disciplines include baseball, basketball, flag football, Latin dance, muay thai, wakeboarding and downhill mountain biking. That range asks the athletes to move between teamwork, technique, endurance and individual performance, rather than simply repeat a skill they already know.
Guest sporting figures Darrell “Housh” Doucette, Julie and Amber Kitchen, Jamaal Magloire and Cecil Fielder are among the mentors. The season ends with a new multi-sport, tournament-style finale designed to test what the contestants have learned across the competition.
Old Enough! brings back Colin Mochrie
Old Enough! is back for an eight-part third season, with half-hour episodes produced by Blue Ant Studios for TVO. Based on Nippon TV’s long-running Japanese format, it follows children aged three to six as they attempt ordinary errands on their own for the first time.
What looks like a simple task to an adult can become an unpredictable adventure for a child, while the parents must manage the discomfort of letting go. Colin Mochrie, known for Whose Line Is It Anyway?, returns as narrator, finding the humour and feeling in those early steps towards independence.
Blue Ant’s wider MIPCOM strategy
Diane Rankin, Blue Ant’s executive vice-president and general manager for Kids, Family and YA content and rights, calls this “the biggest kids lineup we’ve ever taken to market”. She says the response to Tralala reflects an appetite for distinctive creative voices and memorable characters. The distributor is combining series from independent producers with work from its own studios, then looking for opportunities to extend successful properties beyond television.
For Australian viewers, the confirmed news is the ABC acquisition of Tralala and its existing production connection to Flower & Flour. Blue Ant is presenting the other titles to international buyers, but the release does not provide Australian broadcast, streaming or release arrangements for them. Any local availability beyond the two ABC-linked series would need a separate announcement.
For more TV Central Blue Ant Media news, read our coverage of the company’s wider MIPCOM catalogue. The official Blue Ant Media website has more information about its productions and rights business.