Paris, 21 Sep. The environmental issue and climate change have crept into a good part of the animation projects that are presented this week at the Cartoon Forum in Toulouse, the main European co-production forum, with series that try to raise awareness among children from an early age.
“Cartoons can be an interesting support to lay the first brick in children’s environmental education, although it is imperative that they have other references in the family and at school to contribute to an ecological awakening,” Bonnie Lenner told EFE. , production company for Millimages, creators of the “Welcome to Permacity” series.
In these French cartoons, presented at the Cartoon Forum in Toulouse in search of an international co-production, the protagonist, Camille, moves with her family to the world’s first ecological city, an idyllic and colorful place based on respect for other people and the environment.
The ecosystem also plays an essential role in the Spanish animation “Zoey Oceans”, by the production company Studio Kimchi, inspired by the accident of a freighter in the 90s, which caused thousands of rubber ducks to drift and popped up in corners all over the world.
Based on these facts, the protagonist of this series, Zoey, a nine-year-old girl, creates a machine to track the ducklings and search for her father, who disappeared when the ship he was traveling in capsized five years ago.
“It is a series of adventures and comedy. Each episode takes us to a part of the world, but we also have three pillars: diversity, personal growth and climate crisis,” its creator, Carlota Pou, told EFE.
For Pou, the topic of the environment cannot simply be a cliché, but rather constitutes one of the pillars of his series, which has also been presented in the great moments of this 33rd edition of the forum, where Spain is the country of honor.
“It is super important that it is present in children’s content,” says Pou, who recalls that children “are much more aware than adults,” and believes that it is important that they grow up in contact with this reality.
Ecological awareness and environmental pollution or risks to animal diversity are present in many other series in this event, such as “Aquaworld”, about marine animals that are affected by a climate disaster that destroys their habitat, but also in “Les Minus”, “Le chant des orages” or “Magic Mission in Mexico”.
“Mexico is one of the few countries in the world that brings together a greater variety of flora and fauna in the world, and it must be preserved,” Patricia Mortagne, screenwriter and creator of this French series set in Mexico, told EFE.
Mortagne, in love with the country, tells the story of a foreign girl who, upon arriving in Mexico, discovers that her lizard is actually the reincarnation of a god, a myth that serves her to talk about our relationship with the divine, but also with the world around us.
“Mexico is at the same time a place with a lot of traffic of endangered species and a natural sanctuary for many animals, I wanted to bring that to the world of children,” settles the creator.
In Toulouse, it is looking for new partners to continue with the project, which already started at the beginning of the year with the launch of a first 26-minute episode on the adventures of Louise and her feathered snake.
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