Presented at Unifrance Rendez-Vous on Le Havre by the French animation powerhouse alongside YouTube hit spin-off 'Chickies' and legacy IPs 'Oggy & the Cockroaches' and 'Zig & Sharko', 'Submarine Jim' delighted broadcasters, rolling oit internationally. France may in general have suffered last year a sales’ decline and export slow-down but “Submarine Jim“‘s characters don’t seem to be bothered as they weather this storm with a smile on their face. Xilam’s latest production, in which a naive young dolphin (Jim) takes charge of an “inverted” submarine full of fish and sea water, is a road trip/slapstick comedy adventure blending laugh-out-loud children jokes and subtle references aimed and at an older audience.
Created by Frédéric Martin, the acclaimed director of “Oggy Oggy” and a Xilam alum, “Submarine Jim” is produced with Super RTL and France Télévisions and already has licensed multiple territories and broadcasters, including the BBC (U.K. and Ireland), RTS (French-Switzerland), RTBF and VRT (Belgium), NPO (Netherlands), YLE (Finland), NRK (Norway) and Noga (Israel), as well as Warner Bros. Discovery in EMEA, Latin America, Southeast Asia and South Korea. During the Unifrance Rendez-vous, where Xilam presented the series to international buyers, Variety spoke with the teams behind “Submarine Jim.” “Sitcoms work particularly well in contained settings, so I started looking for one… and landed on a submarine,” explains Frédéric Martin.
Simple: it’s obviously filled with water! One logical question led to another, until we landed on having an aquarium on wheels, where the fish experience Planet Earth as if they were exploring Mars.” Xilam developed this series with children 6-10 as its main audience in mind, adds Caterina Gonnelli-Linden, Chief Content Officer at Xilam. The stories had to work for 6–10-year-olds first, but if the teams could add a second layer of humor through workplace-comedy situations, along with little references here and there during the writing / storyboard stage, he was happy with it.
For visual development, Miam worked with François Maumont, also a Xilam alum. From there, the real challenge for Clémence Bourson, our art director, was to preserve that handmade quality and achieve the same look on screen.” With its distinct 2D approach, “Submarine Jim” stands out from the very first minute. Although set in an easily recognizable French setting, the series feels universal both by its humor and rhythm, a feat the team at to maintain at the same level for the whole 52 x 11-minute episodes.
I felt that the whole production, although very demanding in terms of design assets, was smooth.” For the executive, every step felt cohesive and coherent, something she interprets as the sign of a clear creative vision, and a universal appeal. The French setting gives it a strong identity, while the humor and rhythm help make it universal. And of course, we wanted to put the lovely French town of Macon on the map!” From a sales point of view, “Submarine Jim” feels like great material.
And the wave of sales Xilam already proves that there’s definite interest for a road-tripping inverted submarine and its crew. As the Le Havre Unifrance Rendez-Vous rounds its final corner and teams now prepare for Cartoon Forum, Europe’s biggest co-production event for animated TV series, Xilam is in the starting blocks for a second season. Given that the signs we’re getting from the market are very positive so far, we’re feeling pretty comfortable about a second season.”
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