TBI Kids Hot Picks: Hold On Gaston!

Producer: Dandelooo | Distributor: Dandelooo | Broadcaster: Canal+ (France)

French producer-distributor Dandelooo has partnered with Aurélie Chien Chow Chine for this adaptation of her popular children’s books, Les Émotions De Gaston.

The author, working with Chloé Sastre and Romain Gadiou, has turned the stories into a 52 x 11-minute 2D animated series following the titular Gaston, a young unicorn, and his friends, who live in the village of Corneville-la-Joie.

The comedy is “rooted in daily situations,” says Emmanuèle Pétry Sirvin, producer & head of international at Dandelooo, who tells TBI: “Kids will see Gaston going to school, having fun with his friends, making plans with his cousins, visiting his grandparents, but moreover they will be able to identify with Gaston as their own selves, going ‘wild’, being free and being themselves in a secure environment.”

Sirvin adds: “Gaston is a very enthusiastic kid – well a unicorn, really – a very special and super intense unicorn,” with a unique ability: his mane changes colours according to his emotions.

The series, aimed at upper preschoolers, aims to help kids identify and manage their emotions. “Thanks to Gaston’s extreme (visual and funny) embodiment of a given emotion, children will be able to see and feel their own self in a ‘distortion mirror’, which will allow them to laugh and understand the ridicule of each situation,” says Sirvin.

“Being able to put a precise name on each emotion will help them attach a tag to their own reactions when they do feel it themselves,” she adds.