Granny Ranny's Coming Attractions

Leading family entertainment producer and distributor Chorion has signed a number of licensing deals for The World of Eric Carle in the US and Europe. In the US, Crayola will begin a collaboration with The World of Eric Carle with a large format coloring book. JEM will produce tees for juniors and children. Zoobies bring their patent-pending 3-in-1 plush, pillow, blanket concept to The World of Eric Carle characters and Carson-Dellosa will produce a range of classroom products including bulletin board sets, borders, cut-outs and work holders.

Leapfrog Enterprises, Inc., has also signed to produce the Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? book for its Tag™ Junior system for 2-4 year olds which will teach about the life of animals through the lens of Eric Carle.

Continuing on from the success last summer in the US with The World of Eric Carle, Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill and Bar, the world’s largest casual dining restaurant chain with nearly 2,000 locations, will distribute a themed Family Activity Booklet throughout the Spring.

These deals follow a raft of promotional activity for The World of Eric Carle and its celebration of the 40th anniversary of the iconic picture book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which kicked off in March 2009.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, written by Eric Carle sells one copy every 30 seconds somewhere in the world and has eaten its way into the hearts of literally millions of children around the globe. The beloved picture book has been translated into more than 45 languages and has sold over 29 million copies and a brand new The Very Hungry Caterpillar pop-up book has been released in the US, UK, Germany, Japan, Italy, Taiwan and Norway.

Just in time for summer, The Zula Patrol: Animal Adventures in Space! will take kids on a humorous, fun-filled adventure that offers an intriguing look at the natural world around us – while the Patrol’s wacky, lovable alien crew fends off an invasion of their planet! No job is too tough for Bula, Multo, Zeeter and their pals, who go on a series of missions that will leave kids and parents laughing as they discover the wonders of metamorphosis, ecosystems, and other fascinating phenomena.

The new feature-length DVD is based on the award-winning TV series, The Zula Patrol, which airs Saturday mornings on NBC as part of the qubo programming block and weekdays and weekends on public television stations.

The Zula Patrol: Animal Adventures in Space! follows the intrepid team from Zula in humor-filled stories that begin with a challenge, and end with a resolution, as they explore how insects, reptiles, mammals, plants and rocks form and interact with each other. In Larvae or Leave Me (the first episode), Skip the grasshopper can’t find his friend Wriggly the caterpillar – until he discovers, with help from The Zula Patrol, that Wriggly has transformed into a beautiful butterfly!

Four additional stories on the DVD are: Egg Hunt, There Goes the Neighborhood, Choosing Sides and Camp Worm. No job is too big for The Zula Patrol, as they search for stolen frog eggs, help restore life to a canyon ecosystem, solve the mystery of the missing honey, and tunnel through dirt with their worm comrades to help the trees grow – and end up thwarting a threatened “alien invasion” from another planet.

Are you familiar with the Fresh Air Fund? It is an independent, not-for-profit agency that has provided free summer vacations to more than 1.7 million New York City children from low-income communities since 1877. In 2008, close to 5,000 children visited volunteer host families in suburbs and small town communities across 13 states from Virginia to Maine and Canada. 3,000 children also attended five Fresh Air camps on a 2,300-acre site in Fishkill, New York. The Fund’s year-round camping program serves an additional 2,000 young people each year.

The Fresh Air Fund received a tremendous offer by some very generous donors. Right now any gift you make to The Fresh Air Fund will be matched dollar for dollar by a group of generous donors! If you can give $25 that means $50 for inner-city children. $50 becomes $100! But you must make your donation June 30thto take advantage of this wonderful opportunity!

The Fund is still in need of hosts for this summer. Host families open their hearts and home to a child to give a fresh air experience that these children never forget.

A new charity has launched, the Wilding Foundation, that aims to fill an overlooked gap in the charity and non profit marketplace. www.wildingfoundation.com The founder, award winning actress director and producer Anna Wilding, said it is “a diverse, exciting and contemporary charity that is also couched in history”

The Wilding Foundation awards scholarships to those of exceptional ability and prowess in sports, arts, humanities, health, medicine and environmental activities. The Foundation will support those who may not otherwise have the financial means and/or knowledge at hand to further their potential. The charities aims are diverse with the inclusion of several primary scholarships.

The first scholarship is in honor of one of the world’s greatest tennis players ,the Anthony Wilding Scholarship for prowess in sports. Anthony Wilding is a legendary tennis player who, amongst other things won Wimbledon a total of ten times prior to World War 1. He garnered the record for most Wimbledon singles titles in a row for over fifty years. This record was finally broken at Monte Carlo by Rafael Nadel in 2008. Rafael Nadel finally broke his long-standing record at Monte Carlo in 2008. Wilding’s doubles partner, in Davis Cup and Wimbledon was the great Aussie tennis player Norman Brookes. Wilding was the first man to take a motorcycle solo through Europe, his preferred method of travel between tournaments. Anthony tragically died in Flanders in 1915 at the age of 32.

Along with the Anthony Wilding scholarship are awards in environmental, arts and humanitarian fields.The charity accepts contributions from donors worldwide. The Board of Directors hopes to see the charity grow steadily over the next few years.

The Wilding Foundation is a proponent of Web 2.0, the social media platform and is pleased to announce that even Twitter users can now donate through their Twitter accounts. The Twitter username for the charity is “wildingcharity”.

Anna Wilding, a supporter of humanitarian and environmental issues as well as a gifted filmmaker, has personally experienced what it is like to miss out – of not being able to pursue a chosen direction due to financial factors. Ms Wilding, tipped to go to Wimbledon and join the professional circuit herself as a youngster could not afford the required training overseas.She hopes that this charity will help bridge a gap for those impoverished who display talent and cannot afford the training, travel, study or equipment.

Please visit the website at http://www.wildingfoundation.com/ to actively participate.

for inquires please contact : Wilding Foundation [email protected][email protected] Tel: 61 424 716 440

From Disney•Pixar comes “Up,” a comedy adventure about 78-year-old balloon salesman Carl Fredricksen, who finally fulfills his lifelong dream of a great adventure when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America. But he discovers all too late that his biggest nightmare has stowed away on the trip: an overly optimistic 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell.

From the Academy Award®-nominated director Pete Docter (“Monsters, Inc.”), Disney•Pixar’s “Up” invites you on a hilarious journey into a lost world, with the least likely duo on Earth. “Up” will be presented in Disney Digital 3-D™ in select theaters.

Starring the voice talent of Christopher Plummer as Charles Muntz, Edward Asneras Carl Fredricksen, Jordan Nagal as Russel, Bob Peterson as Dug, and more.

They brought us The Simpsons, Family Guy, and King of the Hill – and now they’re looking for the next great holiday TV special. And they’ve asked us to help find it.

Fox is giving you the opportunity to take your Shot at the only network T.V animation powerhouse. You could be the animator that the world is talking about. Here’s the skinny on the competition:

Create a 2 to 4 minute animated short about a well-known holiday – Christmas, Thanksgiving, valentine’s day, Halloween, anything celebrated in the U.S. Make it funny, make it edgy, make it uniquely fox.

Submissions will be accepted from May 27, 2009 through August 31, 2009 with five finalists receiving $5k each, and the grand prize winner receiving an additional $10k plus a fox development deal with a $25k fund.

To learn more about how Aniboom can get you an opportunity to a development deal based on your short on FOX, visit the competition site.