Paris based Cyber Group Studios and Moscow based Soyuzmultfilm Studio announced a co-production partnership for two upcoming animated kids’ series, titled Digital Girl and Magic Chess Odyssey.
“I am thrilled to partner with a legendary studio like Soyuzmultfilm which has developed so many successes in Russia and comes with a great tradition in the animation community and I look forward to working with Juliana Slashcheva and Boris Mashkovtsev to create some of the next compelling animation series for kids and families available all over the world,” declared Cyber Group Studios chairman and CEO Pierre Sissmann.
Under the terms of this agreement, both companies will jointly develop and produce original content distributed worldwide by Cyber Group Studios outside of Russia. Created by Pierre Sissmann (Zorro The Chronicles) and Sylvain dos Santos (Droners), Digital Girl is comprised of 26 episodes of 22 minutes each and unfolds the story of 14-year-old Chrissie, the first ever digital super heroine.
Concept artist Alexis Briclot (Captain Marvel, Thor, Ant-Man or Avengers) will take care of the graphics. In the series, Chrissie will be confronted to Hack Girl, a digital supervillain to restore ecological balance and a peaceful community life in a futuristic but very contemporary world dominated by the digital networks.
Magic Chess Odyssey tells the story of a magic chessboard with supernatural powers that can change the lives of children around the planet.
“Chess is a battle of brains over a board, where with a few pieces you learn so many things like patience and respect for your opponent, but also the ability to look beyond just one move. FIDE is thrilled to partner with experts in animation such as Cyber Group Studios and Soyuzmultfilm on this unique project. Their talented animators will bring to all, from the inside of a competition, the magic that chess players do experience when they play chess,” said FIDE the World Chess Federation deputy president Bachar Kouatly and president Arkady Dvorkovich.
The series combines storytelling with ground-breaking animation while immersing kids in the real intricacies of the great chess competitions.
“We are pleased to work with the notable French Cyber Group Studios and the World Chess Federation and hope that our co-operation will be successful. This will be the first major international agreement for co-production of modern animated series in the newest history of the legendary Russian Soyuzmultfilm Studio,” commented Soyuzmultfilm Studio chairman of the board Yuliana Slascheva.
Slascheva expressed that over the years the studio earned good skills in the production of animated series in Russia, therefore it will help them to implement these new projects as well. The development of both series is already underway and will be presented to the international markets in 2019.