With Barbie setting the stage on fire, Mattel learnt how much potential their toys hold. Though it made waves for its story (and the acting genius of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling), the toy giant realized that nostalgia can guide them to a new era of success. Not long after the Ryan Gosling starrer’s success, Mattel has officially announced its decision to come up with another series around a toy that has brought them great fortune over the years – Pingu.
Mattel all set to ally with Aardman for new Pingu series
Mattel has made its partnership with Aardman, who are known for churning out series of the likes of Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep, and Wallace & Gromit, for coming out with an animated Pingu television series.
Revolving around the penguin who hails from the South Pole, it won’t be the character’s first rodeo on the screen. All the way back in 1990, the series made its mark felt on BBC One. And Mattel CFO, Josh Silverman hopes to scale the heights that they once did with the show.
He said,
“You couldn’t ask for a more perfect marriage [than between Mattel and Aardman]. I was just with their their team. We are overjoyed about the project. It’s going to be really, really special. It just continues to, organically, have a tremendous amount of affection and attention. And a tremendous amount of relevance.” (The Hollywood Reporter)
The series will be another step in the direction of evoking ‘new-stalgia’, an idea which seeks to attract new kids to the character while also bringing back the old fans of the character.
Pingu is the way forward for Mattel’s ‘new-stalgia’ approach
Co-developed by Sarah Cox and Alan Thorpe for Aardman, and Sidney Clifton, Rob David and Melanie Shannon for Mattel Television Studios, Pingu series might be the next big thing for Mattel’s new plan. It follows the release of Barney’s World, a series around the familiar purple dinosaur Barney, sharing that its an “IP that is nostalgic for adults, but new for preschoolers.”
Sharing his process, Silverman said that the best way to guarantee a project’s success is to bring the best professionals on board. He said,
“I think, on the content side, we work with the best creatives who have a real connection to the [project], we collaborate and we trust, and that’s the ingredients, in many ways, of what you saw come through with Barbie.”
With Greta Gerwig helming Barbie, the expectations are sky high from the team in-charge of Pingu. And the fans are making that more than clear.
With the success of Barbie setting a precedent, fans are more than excited for seeing the bipeds return to the screen after years, entertaining kids and adults alike. After all who doesn’t want to see a little more of “noot, noot.” We surely do.
