Puffins Impossible - Animated Series
The Who:
When my boss, Italian playboy movie producer Andrea Iervolino, attended the acclaimed Serbian/Italian Film Festival at the invitation of his good friend, Serbia’s biggest movie star Miloš Biković, no one could have predicted he’d be stuck there for months due to the global coronavirus lockdown. What started as an unexpected situation turned into a classic “making lemonade from lemons” scenario, as Andrea and Miloš joined forces to start making animated productions together in Serbia. Soon after, I stepped in to build the new studio to produce the animated action-adventure series Puffins Impossible, featuring the vocal talents of mega movie star, Johnny Depp!
This large-scale initiative involved launching two cooperating studios in Belgrade and Novi Sad, built from the ground up to produce the episodes. Miloš' company, Archangel Digital Studios, handled key roles, including engaging acclaimed local directors as guest episode directors, the composer responsible for the series’ original music, and the sound designer. Meanwhile, ILBE Studios found and assembled the team of writers, designers, story artists, and VFX specialists to bring the show to life. To keep the momentum going, we also collaborated with our overseas animation partner, with whom I’d worked on my previous two series.
As showrunner, I oversaw all aspects of production. This included working with the writers to review and approve episode concepts and scripts, ensuring the final animatics, layout, and animation were on track, and providing final approvals for visual effects, renders, and sound. I also worked closely with the casting team (aside from Johnny Depp) and collaborated with the composer to establish the series' score and variations for future seasons. My role also involved locking the final edits after receiving guest directors' cuts and ensuring brand consistency with the marketing team for all distribution platforms.
The What:
Every day was just regular fun for our puffins, Didi, Pie, Tic, and Tac - until they touched a meteor and unleashed incredible superpowers of speed, strength, intelligence, and empathy. With help and guidance from their mentor Johnny Puff, they transform into Tactik, Didi Damage, Megapie, and Mystic - a unified superhero team. While they are still just puffins and they have their own disagreements and issues, when help is needed, they are quick to put their differences aside, suit up and fly out to save the day.
The bossiest of the bunch, Didi has a brilliant and quick mind. As Didi Damage, she gets the power of super speed! She also has the ability to see time slowed down, allowing her to act ahead.
Tic is a dreamer and an artist. As Mystic, he can communicate with plants and animals and control the forces of nature. He also has uncanny luck in perilous situations.
As the biggest and strongest of the puffins, Pie acts the part. As Megapie, she has the power to become an unstoppable force when she starts running, swimming or flying.
Thoughtful and calculated, Tac always thinks five steps ahead. As Tactic, he can hack technology to make it work in his favor. He also visualizes calculations to decide the best plan.
Johnny Depp's first visit to our Belgrade Studio
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