Toonz Media Group & Driver Studios Team For Kids Series ‘The Blahs’

EXCLUSIVE: India-based animation producer Toonz Media House and New York’s Driver Studios have teamed for 3D-animated kids series The Blahs.

The series, targeted at 3-8 year-olds, will launch on YouTube. It comes from Rob Kurtz and Dan Markowitz, who created Driver Studios Cool School YouTube channel, where The Blahs will launch on March 31. The show will also run on Toonz’s Chotoonz TV channel, which has 11.1 subscribers.

The comedy series is centered around The Blahs, their rulers King Gray and Lord Blue and neighbor Joy who spreads light everywhere she goes. The characters are planned to be sources of merchandising and licensing this year. 

Driver Studios will use a proprietary data tool so the show’s creators can evaluate engagement to determine themes that attract viewers and inform plots in future episodes. 

The executive producers are P. Jayakumar and Bruno Zarka of Toonz Media Group, and Driver Studios’ Scott Weitz, Diana Horowitz and Ross Venokur, the writer and director of Rally Road Racers and a producer of Shrek 2. Gigi Meroni, an Emmy Award-winning composer of projects such as What’s New Scooby Doo?, composed the music for the series. 

Toonz, which has credits for series such as Marvel’s Wolverine and The X-Men and Lionsgate/Nicktoons series Speed Racer: The Next Generation, led the 3D animation, while Driver developed the characters, concept art and visualization, and script.

“YouTube today is the leading platform where kids ages 2-12 discover content. In fact, streaming platforms look to YouTube for content acquisition and licensing opportunities,” said Scott Weitz, founder & CEO, Driver Studios.

“At Driver Studios, we’ve been ahead of this trend, developing high-quality kids and family entertainment designed specifically for this platform. Our in-house team created this original content and built it for where data tells us our viewers are watching.”

P Jayakumar, Chief Executive Officer of Toonz Media Group said the kids TV industry “is at a deep and complex turning point that will require new innovations and approaches for long-term growth,” adding: “Driver Studios’ data-driven approach and success in developing IPs powered by new technologies aligns with Toonz’ strategy to advance into building IP in the new ecosystem of choice, YouTube, for parents and kids, ages 2-12, where content discovery is happening today and will increase in the future.”

Wait added: “The entertainment industry is at a point of transformation, and we fully expect to see YouTube and connected TV platforms continue to accelerate in popularity with viewers. Building content for these platforms is essential and we’re energized to be at the forefront of this evolution.”