Kartoon Studios announced its most ambitious project in the history of the company, Kartoon Studios’ “Winnie-the-Pooh.” The plans include an animated holiday movie, five holiday specials, and a four-year/104-episode series set to premiere on Amazon Prime Video via Kartoon Channel!’s subscription service on the platform. Simultaneously, Alliance Entertainment, a distributor of physical entertainment supporting major nationwide retailers like Walmart, Target, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble, will debut new merchandise through a nationwide retail program in conjunction with Kartoon Studios' rollout of a global consumer products campaign. The series is being financed through Joint Venture Production financing of $30 million provided by WTP SPV 1, a subsidiary of Catalyst Venture Partners. It is non-dilutive, production financing.
Kartoon Studios’ “Winnie-the-Pooh” is based on the designs and stories of one of the most successful brands of all time, A.A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh,” a property that has generated over $80 billion in sales over the last four decades and is estimated to currently generate $3-$6 billion per year for The Walt Disney Company. The total lifetime revenues exceed those of “Barbie,” “Harry Potter,” “Star Wars,” “Mickey Mouse,” “Peanuts,” “Ninja Turtles,” “Power Rangers,” “Marvel,” and almost every major brand in the world.
Andy Heyward, Kartoon Studios’ Chairman & CEO, referred to the opportunities enabled by the property entering the public domain: "Disney created an iconic and tremendously successful global brand with ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’ that we have all admired so much over many decades. When the property went into the public domain, we knew we could only undertake creating Pooh for a new generation if we could bring a completely new, different and unique look that was contemporary, protectable, and gave voice to the characters and stories created by A.A. Milne, as has never been done," explained.
Fianlly, Steven A. Horowitz, Sr. Managing Director of WTP SPV and Catalyst Venture Partners, described the terms of the deal: “We have committed to provide $30 million to the Special Purpose Joint Venture for this exciting new version of A.A. Milne’s ‘Winnie the Pooh’ from Kartoon Studios, which is non-dilutive to any of TOON’s existing stakeholders," punctuated.