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When Ukraine was invaded and production stopped on Season 2, we were determined to not let this fantastic IP disappear from the collective minds of the licensing and broadcast industries, and Big Picture is very pleased to have been able to broker the equity acquisition deal between WildBrain and Glowberry & their co-production partner Anima Kitchent.

Big Picture Licensing as the EMEA / APAC master-agent and UK agent on the property has been proud to support Brave Bunnies develop over the last 3yrs and help its licensor Glowberry. Many milestones were hit as S1 launched and tier #1 partners signed on incl; Aardman, Spin Master, Penguin Random House, PMI, Milkshake!, Nick Jr, Cartoon Network/Cartoonito, SuperRTL, ABC, Clan, HBO Max, the best licensing agents and too many more to list here.

Brave Bunnies will always have a special place with Big Picture as the only global kids property from Ukraine and we know it’s new home as part of the WildBrain family and portfolio means it has a very bright and long-term future for kids, parents, broadcasters, licensees and retailers alike. Oh and Season 2 production is now back on track and re-commenced which is great news for all parties.

Thank you again to all our Brave Bunnies partners for your continued patience through this challenging time, thank you also to Total Licensing and LicensingSource for all your support in helping keep the brand awareness during the last 8mths. It’s been emotional…

As the Brave Bunnies family say, “Let’s Go!”

https://variety.com/2022/tv/global/wildbrain-ukraine-animation-brave-bunnies-glowberry-1235445319/

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Big Picture has been selected by Shane 54 to represent Tales of Awesome accross brand extensions into apparel, NFT & content. Tales of Awesome is the brainchild of international dj/producer Shane 54.

Shane 54 is a well known international music producer / dj with remix / production credits to Lana Del Rey, Demi Lovato, Tiesto, Armin Van Buuren,
Above & Beyond and many, many more. He has nearly half a million monthly listeners on Spotify, and – as part of duo Myon & Shane 54 – is the only Hungarian act to have several Top 20 hits and a Number One on the US Billboard Dance Top 100 Charts.

The innovative new short-form content series is a unique brand property that crosses different target-demos from kids to teens/adults with its quirky and surreal storylines using original artworks that tell the story of Prince, Dragon Dog, Ben & Astro Wolf on their adventures around a world full of pop-cultural reference.

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Big Picture Licensing brings Hardline Comics’ flagship title to a new publishing partner.

Hardline Comics and Big Picture Licensing, its exclusive licensing agent, have signed an agreement with Soaring Penguin Press to publish Mahoney’s, the widely popular comic book described as “Cheers meets Super-Villains.”

Mahoney’s is an action comedy by writer Rich Carrington and artist Brian Dawson, set in the titular bar for Super-Villains (imagine a mixture of Cheers meets The Suicide Squad). The book features a large cast of colorful characters like Mike, Kat, Bloodgeon, Vileofax, The Flamer, Snowstorm and The Blender and mixes classic comic book action with plenty of heart and plenty of laughs. Mahoney’s may be a hive of scum and villainy – but they serve the best craft beers in town. We’ll see you at the bar!  Mahoney’s issues #1 and #2 both debuted at the No.1 spot on the Comichaus app chart. Mahoney’s stayed #1 in the chart for two months, beating off new releases such as Vampirella and Judge Dredd. Issue #2 was featured in the Comics of the Year list on the Pipedream Comics website. 

Hardline Comics is a small press publisher based in the UK and US and is the home of comic books including The Claws, Limits, The Guys and The Long Game.

Soaring Penguin Press is an Ignatz and Eisner nominated publisher of comics and graphic novels including Meanwhile, Breaks and The Bad, Bad Place.

Big Picture Licensing is an international brand licensing agency with a difference, offering 360 licensing expertise across all territories and product categories and LBE solutions in bringing IP to market.  Big Picture Licensing works with and supports a number of global licensors and clients across all areas of brand licensing to support its partners across all commercial disciplines for brands and consumer products. For more information – www.bigpicturelicensing.com

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https://www.licensingsource.net/indepth/what-the-russia-and-ukraine-crisis-means-for-the-licensing-industry/

By Dan Frugtniet, MD @ Big Picture Licensing;

From Russia with love, this always used to be my sign off when I was on my business trips to Moscow and St Pete.  Since 2006 onwards I frequently travelled to both Russia and Ukraine (Kyiv and Odessa) during my corporate career at Jetix/Disney, LazyTown and most recently Viacom where for 8yrs I headed up the emerging markets for their consumer products business.  Russia was always, in the infamous words of Winston Churchill, “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”.  To me the Russians and Ukrainians were always very close, with shared history and family ties.  This is why the current geopolitical crisis there is a catastrophe for Ukraine and a nightmare scenario for ordinary citizens on both sides.  The current situation is clearly very dangerous and a geopolitical and historical throwback, of that there is no doubt, and this madness needs to urgently end with a withdrawal treaty so peace can return to Ukraine. 

Having worked closely with many Russians and Ukrainians over the last 16yrs, I consider many of them old friends.  We have shared many successes and challenges over the years, we have shouted and laughed together and we have drunk far too much vodka together (beer is considered a childs drink in Russia!).  There are so many stories and anecdotes to share, from having partied all night in Moscow and then flown home on the 6am flight (not recommended btw!) to being beaten up by Russian police whilst innocently walking back to my hotel late one night, to being kidnapped in a Moscow taxi with my old boss at the time, to eating mid-mouthful a strange Black Sea fish in Odessa, when the licensee suddenly shouted at me not to swallow the lumpy bits as they are poisonous (true fact), I can still say with hand on heart that both Russia and Ukraine are interesting and great places to do business and the Ukrainians and Russians I have met are lovely people to know. 

Both territories have their own unique ways of doing business in the licensing industry.  The licensees and partners I met and worked with were always forthright and direct, but in general fantastic people to work with as long as you have a thick skin and lots of patience for the idiosyncrasies of doing business there.  Back in 2006 the territories were both still rife with counterfeit that was actually sold in retail, but I witnessed both markets evolve over time to be professional and productive revenue streams.  There are so many examples of what makes them unique, including; a debate in the Russian Duma by politicians to try and ban a global kids brand that they believed was ‘a threat to Russian kids’, to a genius graffiti artist climbing high on top of an old building to turn a Soviet Star into Patrick Star from SpongeBob, now that shows both guts and a sense of humour when you consider the draconian legal system in Russia.

So as I watch from afar as Ukraine is attacked by their neighbour under Putins orders.  What does this mean for the licensing industry, well first off we have already witnessed global media owners and brands pulling out of Russia, we have also seen a Russian court approve the counterfeit use of a global preschool property, so we are fast going backwards in regards IP protection and I fear that it will take a long time to recover.  The longer this situation continues, my guess is more and more global brands will pull-out of Russia in solidarity with Ukraine that it will snowball until none are left as active licensors there.  In reaction, I suspect Russian courts will approve more counterfeit use of protected IP until it’s the ‘Wild-East’ territory (again).  Obviously, we can only hope a rapid peace treaty is agreed before the situation deteriorates further for the licensing industry in Russia and peace returns to Ukraine. 

The current situation is very close to home, as for the last 3yrs I have worked closely as a master-agent for the only global Ukrainian kids brand, BRAVE BUNNIES so I have seen in real-time how the situation has impacted on the Glowberry team as the women from the team are now refugees of war and diaspora across Europe and the men from Glowberry are still in Ukraine to fight or support refugees as volunteers.  This is especially poignant when you know how hard they have all worked on this beautiful property and how proud they are to roll it out across the world.  The brand DNA is of friendship, inclusion, diversity and being brave in the face of adversity has this has never been more relevant than it is today in Ukraine.  Glowberry remain committed to the property and we are busy trying to relocate as many members of the team as possible to our co-production partner Anima’s studio in Spain.  Glowberry are supporting the UNICEF Ukrainian Childrens Charity as their nominated charity.  The support of our partners during this time has been immeasurable, and we can only thank you very much.  Its not business as usual for Glowberry and the business we have built, so please don’t forget our BRAVE BUNNIES. Duzhe dyakuyu!

For more information:

WWW.BRAVEBUNNIES.COM

Dan@bigpicturelicensing.com

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