Funny Face Cartoon Update

I wanted to take a few minutes to pass along some updates on the Funny Face cartoon series project. (A little background here if you're not familiar with it.)

While the project is still going strong, there are no specifics on when it might appear on TV. There are a number of interesting updates however:

1) McDonald's -- The team is working with McDonald's to get some air time on their in-restaurant televisions. Many newer McDonald's have screens inside which show a variety of content, typically aimed at kids. The exposure could be 30 restaurants or so, likely on the West Coast.

2) Plush Toys and T-Shirts -- It is expected to have a deal signed soon to produce plush toys and t-shirts of our favorite little Funny Face friends. I would imagine these being very popular among adults who loved Funny Face long ago and want to pass along the fun to their kids.

3) Food Marketing -- There have been discussions with an unnamed company to produce a healthy snack pack for kids which would use the Funny Face name. How cool would it be to see Goofy Grape and friends back on store shelves, even if not in drink mix format!

4) Daily Motion -- The team has an official site on Daily Motion, which is like YouTube, showing some of the cartoon shorts that they've produced. It's a good sampling of what to expect from the series. The shorts are just fantastic in every way! I encourage everyone to visit the site (click here), sign up on Daily Motion, post positive comments and help spread the word.

Here's an embedded Daily Motion jukebox with some samples (Flash plugin required).

As you can see, the project is very promising in many ways to revamp our beloved Funny Face characters!

For now I'll leave you with this vintage Choo Choo Cherry canister label from the mid 1970s. (Click through to see a larger version on Flickr.) Certainly these updates will leave everyone, uh, thirsting for more!

Update: Funny Face Cartoon wins award

Loudmouth Lime cannot keep his mouth shut about his much-anticipated Funny Face cartoon series, though he must share the spotlight with his other fruity friends. We wanted to take this opportunity to pass along a very exciting and promising update!



The Funny Face team was invited to participate in the MIPCOM Junior licensing challenge in October. MIPCOM Junior describes itself as "the world’s largest kids’ programming screening event and the leading international conference venue for kids and youth programming" and takes place in Cannes, France each year.

84 different projects had submitted applications for the event. Of those, only six were selected to present their pitch at the event.

Drumroll..........

I'm happy to inform you that the Funny Face team won the challenge as the "most promising property"!



They've put together a brilliant idea for a good, clean cartoon for kids with a splash of nostalgia for us big kids, too. If you have not seen it already, be sure to check out the original Funny Face trailer.

Jolly Olly Orange almost lost his hat while rolling in to remind me of another media highlight. The project was featured in a licensing magazine article which can be seen here.

Help spread the word and keep your fingers crossed that these happy fruits find their way to a television set near you in 2009!