DQ Entertainment announces milestone partnerships at MIPCOM 2007

Announces partnership with American Greetings Properties for animated series Maryoku Yummy(52X11)
Announces partnership with American Greetings and TAFFY Entertainment for animations series-Twisted Whiskers (52X11)
DQ Entertainment partners with Classic Media and MoonScoop for Casper’s Scare School series (52X11)

CHENNAI, 10 October 2007—DQ Entertainment Limited one of India’s largest Animation and Gaming Company announced strategic partnerships with American Greetings Properties, Classic Media, TAFFY and MoonScoop for three animation series – Twisted Whiskers, an American Greetings Property, Maryoku Yummy and Casper’s Scare School. The series comprise of famous characters that have stolen the hearts of many across the globe in the past years.

Twisted Whiskers the characters are pet cats and dogs that have been popular with pet lovers for many years. Now these stretched, squashed, pop-eyed pets are soon to be launched with brand new CGI entertainment! With hilarious characters that can wrap even the most mundane of circumstances into something absurd this series is bound to become a great hit with its target audience.

Maryoku Yummy is a series targeted towards pre-schoolers between the age group of two and five. The series follows Maryoku an adorable Yummy who lives in a quirky, fantastical world where all children’s wishes go to be fulfilled.

The third series, Casper’s Scare School is about the very famous and popular friendly ghost who still can’t scare anyone. In this new cartoon series, entirely made in 3D, Casper begins taking some very strange lessons in how to be really mean, at a new school. Despite all the classroom lessons and the hands-on experiments, Casper makes no progress in turning his “boo!” into something really scary for humans.

Commenting on the new projects Tapaas Chakravarti, Executive Producer and CEO, DQ Entertainment Limited said, “DQ Entertainment is very proud to partner with American Greetings, Classic Media, MoonScoop and Mike Young Productions in order to produce entertaining cartoon series- Twisted Whiskers, Maryoku Yummy and Casper’s Scare School. Each of the series has its unique attributes. Whilst Twisted Whiskers has been a favourite with all age groups for several years especially the pet lovers, Maryoku Yummy is about wishes and their fulfillment targeted at pre-school kids. DQ Entertainment has a 50:50 partnership in this project, needless to say the entire DQ family is very excited. Our third project is the very loved friendly ghost- Casper where he is very unsuccessfully attending classes to learn how to scare people. We are very happy that Casper is making a comeback with us. On the corporate front I am proud to say that these partnerships have reemphasized India’s position as a serious player in the world of animation and entertainment.”

Stated Sean Gorman, Vice President of Production and Development, American Greetings Properties, “We look forward to Twisted Whiskers continued success as an entertainment property. In addition to being very popular with pet owners and animal lovers alike, the off-kilter look and attitude of the characters gives them strong cross-generational and cross-cultural appeal with everyone – kids, tweens, teens and adults.”

"Twisted Whiskers has quickly become one of those great brands you find nearly everywhere in the world," explains Liz Young, Co-founder, Partner & President, Mike Young Productions. "Working with American Greetings to bring these characters to life has been one of the most fun projects I've ever encountered, and our partnership with DQ Entertainment ensures that this fun will translate onto TV screens worldwide in a program on-par with some of the finest animation found anywhere. We look forward to previewing the series for broadcasters next year."

Speaking of Maryoku Yummy, its creator Jeffrey Conrad, Studio Chief at American Greetings Properties said "Maryoku means `magical’ in Japanese, and the characters grew out of doodles that I created over the years. I’ve always been fascinated by the landscape prints from the Edo Period because they create a visual journey that inspires both philosophical and poetic reflection. Combining the iconic characters with such a beautiful world, and having it come to life in animation, is amazing. We are very excited about partnering with DQ Entertainment to bring Maryoku Yummy to life in animation.”

About Casper’s Scare School Doug Schwalbe, executive VP of sales and co-production at Classic Media said, “We are thrilled to partner with industry leaders DQ Entertainment and MoonScoop to co-produce the new Casper’s Scare School series. This joint venture creates a great opportunity to bring Casper, one of the world’s most beloved and recognizable kids properties, to broadcasters around the globe.”

“Casper is clearly one of the world’s most beloved TV characters and we’re looking forward to delivering more new fun adventures for his fans,” explains Nicolas Atlan, executive producer on the series and Co-CEO at MoonScoop. “The experience and talent of the production teams at MoonScoop and DQ Entertainment will ensure that episodes of the new Casper series will feature some of the finest animation in the character’s history, as well as rank among the fans’ all-time favourites.”

About DQ Entertainment Limited
Hyderabad, India, based DQ Entertainment (DQE) is the largest Feature/TV/Video Animation, Games Art and Visual effects company providing Next Gen 3D, traditional 2D and Digital Flash animation as well as Next Generation Game Art and Cinematic productions with over 3000 employees globally.

DQE - a Red Herring 100 Awardee in the year 2005 was recently awarded in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific’06 program and Technology Fast 50 India ‘06 program by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, USA.

DQE has won Emmy 2007 for Animated TV Series , “Tutenstein” & has the distinction of receiving several premier international awards and nominations for its animation productions , 2D & 3D and Flash productions. These includes the awards at the Day Time Emmy USA, ANNECY- France, BAF-India, NZ SCREEN AWARDS, Cartoons on Bay, Italy, Manga Festival , London and many more.

The company client list, out of 14 countries, consists of leading business groups of the industry. For eg. Disney Group, Nickelodeon Group, Mattel USA, Electronic Arts WorldWide, BBC WorldWide, Sony Group, and many international broadcasters and distributors for TV programming, Feature Films, Direct to Home Videos and Next Generation Games development.

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Shraddha
DQ Entertainment Ltd
Tel: 040-23553726/27 Extn: 222
Email: [email protected]