Viva Kids has picked up North American rights to French family animation hit The Jungle Bunch - World Tour from France’s SND, the feature film arm of broadcasting group M6, and will release the film in theatres in the US in January 2024.
France’s TAT Productions produced the 3D film (titled Les As de la Jungle 2 - Operation Tour du Monde in French) directed by Laurent Bru, Yannick Moulin and Benoît Somville and written by David Alaux, Eric Tosti and Jean-François Tosti.
It is the sequel to 2017’s The Jungle Bunch (Les As De La Jungle), adapted from the popular children’s animated show by the same name about a group of misfit animals defending the jungle.
The first feature in the franchise sold to more than 70 territories and generated €15m at the international box office. The sequel reunites the titular animal crew for a new global adventure in search of an antidote to a mysterious, toxic pink foam covering the jungle sent by a mysterious supervillain. Their race against time sends them to Europe, Asia, the Middle East and more on their greatest quest yet.
The Jungle Bunch 2 has been a hit at the French box office since its August 16 release via SND’s local distribution arm with 778,000 tickets sold (and a gross of approximately $6.4m), already surpassing the first instalment’s $5.2m and 693,000 tickets sold in 2017.
Both The Jungle Bunch – World Tour and another SND release Miraculous: Ladybug & Cat Noir are among the top three animated titles in France of the year, trailing only
Disney’s Elemental. Miraculous, currently streaming on Netflix in the US and Canada among other major territories, has generated approximately $13m at home in France with more than 1.63m tickets admissions, and sold 318,000 tickets on its opening day in theatres, a record for a French animated film.
SND’s head of sales and international distribution Ramy Nahas said: “In a world where the US animation market is trusted by the studios, getting a theatrical release for a European independent title is very precious and we value Viva Kids’ support.”
Laura Prieto, VP acquisitions at Viva Kids added: “We’re very excited to add a new TAT Productions title to our line-up, which is our second collaboration with SND. This will strengthen Viva’s commitment to releasing high-quality family animated titles theatrically.”
Los Angeles-based family entertainment house Viva Kids recently launched animated indie The Amazing Maurice at in Sundance in January ahead of its February release and is also behind production and distribution on both animated and live action titles including Rally Road Racers, 100% Wolf and R.L. Stine’s Zombie Town.
TAT productions’ further animated credits include the first The Jungle Bunch in addition to Terra Willy in 2019, Epic Tails in 2023 and Pil’s Adventures in 2021, also a Viva release. Tat is in production on upcoming features Pets on a Train for 2025 and Lovebirds for 2026 in addition to an Asterix series directed by Alain Chabat for Netflix, slated for a 2025 release.
SND’s animation sales slate also includes Kittened, an SND co-production with Quad about a body swap between a cute pink kitten and a famous rapper.
No comments yet