Copenhagen-based international sales and aggregation company LevelK has secured worldwide rights to future preschool animated features and TV series, with early lift-off already secured for Puk Grasten’s Betty Balloon.
The agreement was brokered between LevelK CEO Tine Klint and the film’s main producer Regner Grasten, and was reached just before a presentation of the project in progress at Cartoon Movie in Bordeaux, LevelK told Variety.
The animated feature film is scheduled for theatrical release in October in Denmark, with Danish public broadcaster TV2 set to premiere the series.
“Betty Balloon,” a Danish co-production by Regner Grasten Filmproduktion and A. Film Production, is about a modern-day family who happens to be balloons.
The story centers on Betty, a creative and imaginative four-year-old. Life changes forever when a cactus family moves in next door. The Balloon family (Mom, Dad, and Betty’s super young brother Bobby) must learn to connect with their new neighbors. But in “Betty Balloon,” it’s the kids who lead the way, as Betty quickly becomes best friends with four-year-old Kai Cactus, proving that curiosity and openness can bridge even the nastiest gaps. It is children who teach adults how to connect in this colorful world.
“In ‘Betty Balloon,’ the unknown is not dangerous,” explained director Puk Grasten, who wrote the story and adapted it for the big screen. “This is an invitation to open your heart. This film (and series) celebrates openness, imagination, and emotional honesty.” It also celebrates creativity and curiosity in a soft 2D computer animation style that will surely appeal to pre-school audiences.
Grasten, a graduate of the European Film Institute/EICAR/NYU Tisch, was awarded the Danish Art Foundation’s Best Film Award and the Carl TH Award. His debut feature film “37” won the Dreyer Award for Visual Storytelling. Betty Balloon is her third feature film and her first foray into animation.
Betty Balloon, a fun and cozy female-led adventure, is also very relevant today, inviting children and parents to tolerance and acceptance through the unlikely friendship of a balloon and a cactus. As producer Regnar Grasten emphasizes, these are values that both preschoolers and adults can relate to. “This dynamic departs from the traditional family settings seen in shows like Peppa Pig and Bluey, and offers a new vision of community and empathy.”
LevelK CEO Tine Klint added, “Teaching through entertainment is certainly important, and Betty Balloon and Kai Cactus must overcome the challenges of living next to each other, becoming friends, and just being themselves. Their creative minds make the journey fun.”
This is an approach that is fully aligned with LevelK’s values and ambitions. A few weeks ago in Berlin, the company presented works such as “Everyone’s Sorry Today” (Generation Kplus), “Dust” (main competition), as well as “Chasing Millions” and the animated feature “Mumbo Jumbo” from the A. Film Production project.
Regner Grasten Filmproduktion, one of Denmark’s largest production companies, boasts a catalog of 45 films with a total of more than 14 million cinema attendances to date. The company also produces the popular Christmas TV series “The Crumbs’ Christmas” (Krummernes July 1996) and “The Mortensen Brothers’ Christmas” (Brødrene Mortensens July 1998) for Danish TV2, and several of its productions have been sold worldwide.
In addition to a feature film and television series, a “Betty Balloon” book and product line are also in development, enhancing the production of this innovative and heartfelt IP.
“Betty Balloon” provided by LevelK
