Creative director Guillaume Dousse presented his series in development, Where it Falls at the pitch panel of the Annecy International Film Festival in the series and TV-specials category of the MIFA market. Dousse is also one of the co-founders at Sun Creature. The series won the Disney+ Prize for a New Series at Annecy.
Where it Falls is set in a world where gravity suddenly shifts 90°, a reunited family goes on a perilous journey in search of their missing mother. As they learn and grow together, they reconnect in a disoriented world. It’s a coming-of-age-story that portrays well-known family dynamics – good and bad. The story relates to modern issues like global warming and is more than ever relevant today to the real issues of our world.
“It is really humbling to be rewarded by Disney+ for Where it Falls. I’ve had this project in the back of my mind for many years and only recently did I get to actively work on it. The Annecy Festival is the first venue to present this project and to win the Disney+ prize is both encouraging and a highly appreciated push towards turning this passion project into a reality,” mentioned Dousse.
The studio won the Disney+ prize back in 2016 for Flee, its first feature film, which has now been selected to this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The supernatural adventure which is still in development has potential to expand to several seasons, each of them treating different stories in the world, with their own story arcs. Targeted to a group of eight to 12 year olds and families, the team wishes to propose a high-quality narrative and a visually compelling universe for kids and family with this project.
According to Dousse, kids are capable of understanding and comprehending a vast panel of emotions and seeing the nuances in things. “With this series we would like to fuel this independence and childhood imagination and perhaps inspire the future generation to take charge and lead the way,” he added.
This is a rare format for animation series, aiming at a very high quality visual expression and storytelling. The concept itself is unique and it will be a show made for the family, with different levels of interpretation.
“The ambition is high and we hope to convince platforms, traditional broadcasters and investors to join us on this project to create something that will be loved and remembered by future generations,” he concluded.
The official synopsis of Where it Falls:
One day, people suddenly started to fall, families were left separated and cities disconnected. The world as we know it is far gone. In this disoriented new reality, a generation in search of its identity is born. The sisters Sarah and Judith lost their parents following the Big Shift and now live with their female chimpanzee Coco, their husky puppy Milo and other orphans in the abandoned districts of Paris. After reuniting with their long-lost father, the family goes on a perilous journey in search of their missing mother. Events unfold as the family travels around the globe. On their quest they encounter obstacles to overcome together, visit incredible sites and confront old wounds and family secrets.
The viewers will follow a turn of events through the eyes of the children, guiding all through this new world.
