Beach House Pictures and JumpStart have joined forces to develop a new Neopets animated series geared towards children. Any kid from the ’90s to present day knows the phenomenon that is logging into Neopets, adopting an Aisha, Kacheek, or JubJub and saving up Neopoints for a paintbrush that transforms one’s Neopet into a pirate. The experience was very similar to owning a Pokémon or Tamagotchi toy. ’90s and early 2000s kids refer to their days in Neopia as “the good old days” while present and future children will continue to experience the glory for many years to come. Neopets has been running for 20 years and despite some hiccups, continues to have 75 million players and over 350 million page views a day.
While Neopets has remained consistently popular, its owners have fluctuated over the years. Original Neopet creators Adam Powell and Donna Williams Powell created the site in 1999. They sold the site to Viacom in 2005 for a whopping $160 million. Viacom then sold the site to JumpStart 9 years later in 2014. Now NetDragon is technically the owner since it acquired JumpStart in 2017, even though JumpStart still operates under its own name. Since taking ownership, JumpStart has initiated new ways for Neopets to expand across platforms in addition to revamping the website.
According to Kidscreen, JumpStart will be working with Blue Ant Studios’ production company Beach House Pictures on the animated series. The project is still in the very early stages of development. While the show’s format isn’t finalized, the companies are pitching to broadcast networks and producing partners. The new animated series will be geared towards children between the ages of 8 and 12. Beach House Picture’s creative director Donovan Chan claimed that the project has plenty of potential, saying, “It’s rare to come across a property with global reach, which has a great historical DNA, but is also a blank slate for creatives because it doesn’t already have a series.”
Blue Ant Studios and Beach House Pictures will influence several of the creative aspects of the series. The Singapore-based Beach House Pictures will tackle the storytelling aspects of developing plot and creating characters for Neopets. Meanwhile, the Canadian-based Blue Ant Studios will handle the artwork and provide animation services. The partnership is necessary considering Beach House Pictures’ main focus is live-action shows. The company mostly produces puppet TV shows for children like Hiccup & Sneeze and Teddies along with the live-action Kooki’s Crafty Show.
Neopets is long overdue for an animated series. The franchise has impacted so many people’s childhoods for the better so why not expand and spread joy across more platforms? It’s any kid’s dream to see these adorable creatures they’ve taken care of online come to life and be given a voice. Any network would be smart to jump on this opportunity and bring Neopets to the screen.
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Source: Kidscreen
