VFX Animated shorts, 'Arctic Friends' go global -

Animated shorts, ‘Arctic Friends’ go global

A new animated series titled Arctic Friends Shorts Collection is set for release on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video through WWPS, which acquired the digital distribution rights and brokered the deal.

Iervolino Entertainment S.P.A acquired the spinoff rights to the characters from the original film, including all merchandising rights, commercial exploitation, soundtrack, and print publishing rights. They created Arctic Friends in the form of animated shorts of five-minutes. The series is produced by Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi.

The series is a spinoff from the popular feature film Arctic Dogs, which was released in 2019 and became one of the top rated animated films on Netflix and the third most viewed Italian film on Netflix in the United States. The Arctic Friends Short Collection just made a grand debut in Italy, becoming the #1 overall title on Apple TV in Italy and #1 on the Kids and Family movie ranking upon release last week.

Arctic Friends follows Swifty, the arctic fox who has finally achieved his dream job of being a delivery dog at Arctic Blast Delivery Service. With his friends PB the polar bear, Jade the red fox and the ABDS team, Swifty must ensure that he delivers the parcels to the rightful recipients by outsmarting the obstacles that stand in his way, including Otto Van Walrus and his mischievous puffins.

Iervolino Entertainment CEO and founder Andrea Iervolino said, ā€œIā€™m really proud of this collaboration and of the success we are having on digital platforms. Our studio is focusing on developing and producing amazing short content adapted for the mobile and streaming services. I am convinced that in 10 years from now 98 per cent of the content consumption will be on mobile of short content.ā€

The first two collections are available in the U.S. starting 15 September. The series will be available on Apple TV in 80 countries with four episode collections per week. On Amazon Prime Video, the series is available to subscribers in the U.S., United Kingdom, Japan and Germany.

VFX