“Eventful and festive”: this is how Yann Labasque, director of youth programs at TF1, sums up the coming season on TFOU. New heroes, new seasons, special episodes: the youth section of the front page is enriched, always keeping the same course. “We have a very clear promise: take the children by the hand and tell them a story,” he recalls. Thus, for the coming season, young audiences will find the new adventures of the heroes they love: Thomas and his friends (season 26), Barbapapa with family (season 2), Gus the Tiny Knight (season 2), Oum the white dolphin (season 3), Miraculous (season 5)… Special episodes dedicated to PJ Maskshas Santiago of the seas, mighty express, super wingsetc. will punctuate the 2023/2024 programming.
“A real publishing favourite”
New heroes will also make their comeback next season. In addition to Ruben and companya spin-off from paw patrolchildren will discover Azuro and the Dragon Brigade And 1000 challenge terminals. But how does the TFOU box choose its new heroes? The complementarity of the stories with those already proposed comes into play, but not only. “Actually, it’s a programming compromise. You have to balance between the heroes that the children already know because that reassures them, but you also have to offer them new protagonists to renew themselves,” says Yann Labasque. Thus, for Azuro and the Dragon Brigade, he admits to having had a “true publishing crush” when he discovered the children’s albums of the brothers Laurent and Olivier Souillé, illustrated by Jérémie Fleury (Auzou editions). The story revolves around a unit of lifeguards specializing in the protection of fantastic creatures, Azuro, the captain, having the singular ability to spit water. “We had a fairly clear angle on this ‘fire dragon’ side,” says Yann Labasque. It’s something we didn’t know and we wanted to find a French series on rescue in a very original universe. It seemed interesting to us and not already seen”.
A very clear dynamic
The arrival of the 1000 terminals in animated series is more surprising. The family game (former property of TF1 which no longer owns the Dujardin group) comes in 52 episodes around a cross-karting race for apprentice pilots under the title: 1000 challenge terminals. “I had been looking for a series with a very clear dynamic for a long time. The race is clear, we know how it works. Then we participate by crew. That’s very TFOU. These are the heroes of the age of children that we will follow. Once again we have chosen to treat it in a world of itinerant racing, quite original compared to the traditional territory of the 1000 terminals”, he underlines.
For years to come, are already in development Louca (adapted from the comic of the same name), witch detectives about private detective witches, and Migali about a spider princess in a royal academy.
Other heroes at Okoo and Gulli
At France Télévisions, “the objective of the new heroes is to multiply the models of representation”, according to Pierre Siracusa, its youth director. Among the new heroes stamped Okoo, we can cite two adaptations which will be on screen at the start of the school year: “Billy the cowboy hamster” (52 episodes of 11 minutes), whose adventures plunge into an imaginary far west and ” Sam and Julia” (78 episodes of 7 minutes), two little mice passionate about sailing who evolve in a universe of dolls imagined by the Dutch author Karina Schaapman.
Committed to 21 new series, Gulli (M6 group) is banking on seasons 2 for this back-to-school period with “Spidey and his extraordinary friends” and “The adventures of Paddington”.