more info on Hullabalooba here as PDF.

THE SYNOPSIS
Hullabalooba is the story of misadventures of three incompetent pirates, a
parrot and two seagulls. In the search of riches, guided only by their lack of
wits and a second hand treasure map, the crew takes the ship MS Fortune on
journey filled with good old slapstick action and an improbable amount of
herring.
HULLABALOOBA
An animated TV-series with pirates and lots of laughs
Produced by Studio Outo
Format:
Audience: Language:
Release:
Habhab is is our captain. He’s got a short fuse, bad temper and the navigation
skills of a stuffed parrot. A tiny man with a huge ego, he’s completely blind
to the fact that his leadership is the main contributing factor to the chaos on
the ship. Gunnar is a big jolly fellow with an IQ of a peanut. What he lacks in
smarts he makes up in muscle. This combined with his enthusiasm tend to
cause more trouble than a barrelful of monkeys in a Tortugan banana market.
Vlad is an old experienced sea dog. He’d be perfectly happy mariner if nothing
much happened and understands that with this crew any change is probably
for the worse. Unfortunately he also has the uncanny ability to place himself
in harms way. Pollo is the captains speaking parrot with somewhat limited
vocabulary. The only word he knows is “Starboard!” which he promptly croaks
at the exactly wrong time. Finally, the ship is also followed by two mischievous
seagulls Ritz and Hilton. They keep themselves entertained by adding to the
conundrum with their little shenanigans.
52 x 5 min
from 4 up to 8 years
universal pirate talk, no need for localization
Dec 2015 (est.)
Contact:
Taina Ronkainen, Producer
[email protected]
+358 405829143
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STUDIO OUTO
Studio Outo was founded 2003 by Jussi Saarela and Tero Takalo with Janne
Kariniemi joining the team already during the same year. For the past 10 years
Studio Outo has been one of Finland’s leading animation and illustration
studios in the field of advertising. Studio Outo has worked with many of the
most recognised brands in Finland and the work has always been known to be
delivered in time with top quality and reasonable costs.
The founders are still working with the company forming the backbone of
it. Jussi Saarela is the lead artist and has a background in architecture. His
designs are always innovative, capturing and unforgettable. Janne Kariniemi
is a highly skilled audio producer and the mastermind behind the scripts.
Tero Takalo is the lead animator and has a background in classic animation.
He has worked in feature animation as well as in game animation. Producer
Taina Ronkainen joined the team in 2013 when the idea of Hullabalooba was
presented to her. She has worked in international festival productions and has
a strong background in working with different media from press to TV.
History and development of Hullabalooba
2010
The idea and first designs of Hullabalooba
2011
The Finnish Film Foundation granted development support for writing the scripts and
producing the trailer
2013
YLE (Finnish Broadcasting Company) committed to acquiring the first 13 episodes of the show
The Finnish Film Foundation committed to co-funding it. Soon after this, the series was also pre-sold to NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Company) and SVT (Swedish Broadcasting Company)
2013
Trailer testing for target groups in Spain and United Kingdom
2013
A special mention in the category of TV-series in pre-production at Cinekid Junior
Co-production market in Amsterdam
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2014
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2014
TV Pilot to support the international sales
A distribution contract with Monster Entertainment
First season in production and the 39 more episodes in scriptwriting process
2015
The first season airs
THE CONCEPT
Hullabalooba is an animated series for children aged 4 to 8 years. Episodes
are 5 minutes in length and packed with action. They function as stand-alone
stories and don’t have to be watched in any particular order. The dialogue is
written in a universal pirate language, so there is no need for localizations for
different markets. If audiences happen to understand a word or two, it just
adds another layer to the story and makes the series more enjoyable for older
audiences as well. The characters’ actions are derived from the animation
classics and the style of comedy is pure, straightforward slapstick.
The style of Hullabalooba stands out. The series is realized in advanced
digital cut-out animation with a strong emphasis on design. The artistic crew
behind the animation confess their love for classical animator masters from
the wackiness of Tex Avery combined with the anarchism of Terry Gilliam bringing their spiritual heritage to life with their own special way of textural
flavors and collage-like mixture of 2D and 3D techniques.
According to Studio Outo crew, especially boys from pre-schoolers up to 8
years old need entertainment with no intentional violence that is meant to
harm others, but action with enough adventure and a lots of visual humor.
Action in Hullabalooba is limited to tumbling, stumbling and fumbling - in a
traditional slapstick way.
Studio Outo is aiming to develop a long-standing international cross-media
brand and its own IP to exploit commercially. Hullabalooba will be launched
with an animated TV-series, and at the same time the characters with
ridiculous behavior will be played in the Herrings Away mobile app for phones
and tablets. In addition the characters are to appear as licensed products, such
as books, board games, toys, stickers and other applicable and well thoughtout merchandise.
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THE TREATMENT / STORYLINES
Captain Habhab has used his last bits of coin on a second hand treasure map
and believes that this map will lead him to unimaginable riches. Vlad is an old
sailor who’s seen it all, Gunnar provides muscle and the seagulls just like to
keep themselves entertained on the pirates’ expense. The action takes place on
the ship and the surrounding ocean. Because of their own ridiculous behavior,
the unlucky bunch keeps running in to just about anything sailing the seven
seas. Encounters with other ships, ports, islands, sea serpents, whales and
herring. A lot of herring.
After the initial episodes already in production, Hullabalooba will expand its
horizons, exploring new worlds, adventures and even characters. The crew
will sail its ship, Ms. Fortune, towards exiting islands and locations all the
way from the North Pole to a jungle, but also into the abysses of the seven seas.
Also in the next episodes, the crew will meet new characters. Like the genie
in a bottle, a beautiful mermaid, a sailfish, a monster squid and other things
that you naturally meet sailing the seven seas, like traffic lights, camels,
trampoline and an alien with a light saber. In addition to learning a lot of new
things, they even might explore new feelings. Like the Arctic, where they will
find Hulda, the fat lady who sings and likes to wear viking helmets with horns.
With Hulda, Habhab will explore new, mezmerising emotions, like Love and
Affection. That will expand his emotional scale to three emotions: Rage, Love
and Affection.
One thing will remain unchanged: the crew will never find the treasure they
are looking for, fail to blunder any loot anywhere from anyone, or harm in any
way anyone outside of the crew itself.
These are the simplified storylines for the 52 episodes:
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SEASON 1
Episode 4, The Fog
The ship runs into the thick fog. Crew bumps and blunders on the ship as
they can’t see anything. They make plans on how they can navigate. They tie
a string on Pollo’s leg and send him flying above the fog. Following the bird’s
advice they end up on a steep mountain and drop back into the water like a
cork. Miraculously the ship surfaces with a deck full of herring.
Episode 5, Something Fishy
Gunnar and Vlad get a great catch of fish. The fishnet gets torn and the crew
starts to clean up the mess. The two seagulls Ritz and Hilton start throwing
herring all over the deck when the crew is trying to clean it. Habhab orders
seagulls to be shot down with a cannon but in the end the only thing they
manage to do is wreck the ship and feed the seagulls.
Episode 1, Ship Ahoy!
There is a ship in the horizon. Captain commands the pirates to prepare
an attack. The preparations fail because they can’t load the cannon right.
Uncontrolled firing starts fires everywhere and breaks the main mast in half.
The approaching ship is revealed to be a friendly whale, who puts out the fires
with it’s spout.
Episode 6, Hole Lotta Holes
There is a mysterious hole on the deck. While reparing it, the crew is locked
under the deck by two seagulls. The only way out seems to be the hole above
them. After their escape, they end up shooting more holes on the deck and
being lock up under the deck again. The seagulls are entertained.
Episode 7, Fixing The Hole
Episode 2, On Course
Habhab thinks that the vessel needs to be in better shape and orders Vlad and
Gunnar to do the maintenance work. The captain thinks they are too slow and
decides to show them how it’s done. Unfortunately he is not a handyman and
they end up with more bruises and more damage to the ship. While they goof
around, the ship is out of control and ends up on a reef.
Episode 3, Filet-o-Fish
Pollo is missing. Vlad is fishing and gets a shark. Gunnar begins to fillet the
fish and Pollo flies out of sharks mouth. Gunnar wants to have the bird for
dinner, but Habhab takes the parrot back on its place. Pollo is confused and
starts squawking orders when the captain tries to do so. When they finally get
the bird to shut up, it bursts out gas from the other end.
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The seagulls start messing with the crew trying to maintenance the ship.
Habhab gets furious and the seagull hunt ends up in a torn sail and a broken
mast. The seagulls are having a great time.
Episode 8, Reales Doubloonies
Habhab is fantasizing about his treasure. The seagulls interrupt him and he
burst out in rage. This leads into flying herring, a flying Gunnar and a flying
Vlad all in the manner of a one-armed bandit. Broken barrel spilts herring out
of it like doublons coming out of a one-armed bandit.
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SEASON 2
Episode 9, Starboard!
Habhab is trying to navigate. Seagulls mess with Pollo, who’s squawking makes
Habhab lose concentration and ship drifts off course. The ship almost runs
into a rock, barely evading disaster. Seagulls are having the time of their life.
Episode 10, Calm Before The Storm
There is no more drinking water on the ship. Habhab desperately tries to find
water but there is only herring in all the barrels. When it finally rains all the
barrels are filled with water and all the herring is thrown overboard. Seconds
later the pirates notice they’re feeling hungry.
Episode 11, Jolly Rod’ers
The crew is fishing. After seeing a whale on the horizon they are going for bigger
fish. But the fishing lines get mixed up and they end up fishing themselves
from the sea.
Episode 12, Trawling and bowling
Gunnar has a new method for fishing. He is trawling with a cannon. The
seagulls want to mess around. All three crew members end up staggering
around the deck with stuff on their heads. The seagulls see an opportunity for
some maritime bowling and everything ends in a strike.
Episode 1, The Broth That The Moth Cooked
A Moth is found gnawing the sails of Ms. Fortune. The Crew tries to evict the
pest with all available resources. Shooting the bug with a cannon seems like a
good idea at first but the crew only ends up doing the moth’s job.
Episode 2, Ice Wide Shut
A mysterious cave engulfs the crew endeavouring to the arctic seas. They
manage to thaw the permafrost, de-freezing an ancient monster. The cold
eventually encapsulates the ship with its crew.
Episode 13, Another Day At The Job
Crew prepare to board a small jolly boat. Cannons ready, the pirates are furious
and then Habhab wakes up. He sees his unskilled crew and seedy ship. Habhab
bursts out in anger again and things deteriorate even further.
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Episode 3, The Brine of the Ancient Marinade
The crew finds out their herring barrels have gone bad. Dumping them
overboard, they awaken a monster squid. After moments of tumult the beast
ends up feasting on the fresh herring cargo while the crew escapes to a barrel
of putrid herring floating on the waves.
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Episode 4, Sailing the Sandy Seas
After a storm, the crew find themselves in a desert. After struggling with heat,
mirages and camels, the pirates end up sailing in an oasis.
Episode 5, Genie in a Bottle
A mysterious bottle is found and the genie grants the crew three wishes. All
wishes are fulfilled, but not the way Captain Habhab would have liked them to.
Episode 6, Never Gunnar Give You Up.
Gunnar sees a mermaid and falls in love. When trying to impress the mermaid,
Gunnar falls into the sea. Habhab and Vlad try to save him but their attempts
result in all of them being thrown overboard.
Episode 7, Mess in a Bottle
A huge bottle emerges from within the waves. The thick glass, opaqued by age,
refuses to shatter, no matter what tools and tricks are tried. Eventually, after
the main mast has been shattered and the ship’s rudder destroyed, the crew
notice the screw-off cap and uncover the disappointing contents: herring.
Episode 8, Dive, Dive, Dive!
The rudder is stuck and Vlad is sent on a diving mission to fix it. His bowel
movements cause some unexpected underwater trouble and the seagulls make
sure that the end result is a blast.
Episode 9, Sailfish Blues
While fishing, Gunnar catches an enormous sailfish. The startled fish propels
the boat to record speeds and Vlad finds himself water skiing. The pace finally
slows down when the fish escapes after a crash and the boat ends up trapped
on an atoll.
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Episode 10, Stroke a Pose
Habhab wants to have his portrait made. Gunnar and Vlad are ordered to paint
a one. Nothing seems to please the captain’s desires. A photo shoot is arranged
instead and what a shoot it turns out to be, indeed, with a little help from the
seagulls!
Episode 11, A Bored Wood-boring Beetle
The crew finds a lone wood-boring beetle onboard the ship. After an exhausting
beetle hunt to save the ship they end up destroying it themselves.
Episode 12, Remote Control
The seagulls are playing with a remote control that can be used to alter the
crew’s actions. After millions of laughs the birds discard the device and it ends
up in Habhab’s hands. Unfortunately, the batteries have run out and an illfated idea of replacing them with herring only ends up with a slap in the face.
Episode 13, Frutti di Mare
Bored with eating fish, the seagulls order a pizza. The crew, also up to their
necks with herring, do their utmost to get their hands on the pizza, no matter
what the cost. The ship ends up paying the price, and finally the pizza toppings
are revealed to be somewhat fishy.
Episode 14, Peg a Leg
Vlad’s peg leg is nowhere to be found. An array of destructive replacements
are given a try: pogo stick, sledgehammer, shotgun and a dynamite stick are
all deemed unfit for leg duty. The unfortunate peg is eventually found from a
surprising hideout.
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Episode 15, Transformers.
Episode 20, Back to School
A UFO crash lands on the deck of Ms. Fortune. The alien space creature
introduces the crew to a ray gun that can change objects to different ones.
While the alien is refueling, the ray gun is left on the roof of the UFO and the
crew gets to play with it. Unfortunately.
Tired of his hopeless crew, Habhab decides to arrange them a refresher course
on how to be a pirate. The crew takes the lessons a bit too literally, only resulting
in an even worse situation than before the lessons.
Episode 16, Spic and Span
Episode 21, Lost
Vlad’s mopping gets out of hand when a miscalculated dose of detergent boosts
his bucket. A soapy catastrophe ensues.
The pirates embark on an island and get lost in the jungle. Just as they think
they are stuck in the spooky rain forest forever, they realize all they need to do
is step out of the bush, since the island is very tiny.
Episode 17, At Sea, Nobody Can Hear you Scream.
Episode 22, Hiccups and downs
Habhab’s flu renders him speechless. Shoals and rocks threaten Ms. Fortune,
while the navigator-less crew attempts to cure Habhab using a sledgehammer
to the knee, among other remedies. The seagulls are having the time of their
lives until Habhab finally regains his vocal abilities, a fraction of a second
before the ship crashes a rock.
Gunnar’s strong hiccups wreak havoc on the boat. Habhab and Vlad try to help,
but only end up doing more damage. Eventually the whole crew is suffering
from the hiccup.
Episode 18, Sleepy Sleepers
Bored, the seagulls decide to entertain themselves by feeding Pollo herring
and chili. The following fiery flatulence sends the parrot to the orbit. On reentry, plummeting Pollo blows up the ship.
Gunnar is sleepwalking and Habhab and Vlad desperately try to prevent
him from accidentally destroying the boat in the process. Seagulls take fun
advantage of the situation.
Episode 19, Laser Show
The seagulls get their wings on a laser device normally used to excite cats and
which apparently works with Gunnar as well. Habhab manages to steal the
beam-machine from the birds, turns the power to eleven and neatly slices and
dices the ship into pieces through a light show enough to make Jean-Michel
Jarre green with envy.
Episode 23, Pollo 13
Episode 24, Lovebirds
Pollo sees another bird and falls in love with it. Pollo tries to follow the bird,
but the crew ties him to the boat, which leads to the whole boat getting a flying
jungle and mountains escapade.
Episode 25, Fishy Deals
Habhab manages to sell some fish for a gold coin. The coin is difficult to keep
hold of and lands in crack on the deck. After much damage to the ship the crew
manage to dig the coin out, only for it ending up in the sea.
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Episode 26, Feast of burden
The crew prepares a dinner to die for. The seagulls gatecrash the party with
a huge number of winged friends. The crew is left with a pile of fish bones to
suck on.
Episode 27, Catch me if you can
The Crew meets Hulda, a full-bodied Viking matron that succesfully cruises
from a victory to another. Habhab tries to catch the treasure Hulda is carrying
on board. The pursuit ends with and embarrassment and a big kiss given by
Hulda.
Episode 28, Always a treasure
The pirates come up with a plan to try and steal a treasure from Hulda and
the sleeping vikings. They fail and manage to wake up the vikings, ending up
getting robbed themselves.
Episode 29, All that Glitters is Herring
Finally! Habhab sights a treasure island! The norsewoman, Hulda, with her
viking ship manages to unearth the loot before Habhab. Hulda feels sorry for
Habhab, her latest crush, and throws the treasure chest on board Ms. Fortune.
Elated, Habhab opens the chest only to find it full of glittering … herring.
Episode 30, It ain’t over until the…
On a lazy day the seagulls dig out a TV to enjoy some opera. The pirates do
not appreciate the art form and take strong action against it. They end up
shredding the sails and tying themselves down. Hulda arrives to give the
captive audience a live show.
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Episode 31, Bubblegum crisis
Episode 36, Hat’s off
Bored, the seagulls chew bubble gum. They throw the used ones at Pollo, who
eats all of it and immediately starts getting gas. The pink bubble out of the
parrot’s rear end lifts the hapless bird and finally the whole ship to the sky,
where they - again - rendez-vous with Sputnik.
Seagulls clown around and steal Habhab’s hat. The pirates try to get the
hat back but end up destroying half of the boat and damaging the hat in
the process. Ultimately the seagulls return the run-down hat to Habhab.
Episode 32, Fast pass
Gunnar has the time of his life as the ship sails through a storm like a roller
coaster. After a huge wave throws them in the middle of a jungle the pirates
find themselves sailing down a small river. The river turns into rapids and the
ride starts over.
Episode 33, Looking for the looking glass
Habhab’s spyglass goes missing. The crew tries to locate it but end up getting
lost below the deck. Desperately searching for a way out and causing mayhem,
the pirates eventually manage to shoot out of the hold, crashing down on the
boat deck next to the spyglass.
Episode 34, Pink slip
As Hulda’s ship runs around Ms. Fortune in circles, Habhab starts a project
to improve the ships speed. The disastrous attempt culminates in a rocketpowered run straight to the rocks.
Episode 37, Timber!
As a result of the crew fooling around, Ms. Fortune loses a mast. They
land on an island looking for a replacement. The pirates learn that cutting
down a big tree is more difficult than it at first seems. When they finally
succeed, the falling tree trashes the ship.
Episode 38, Cave the day
Pirates enter a cave on a volcano island and get in trouble by accidentally
setting off all the traps Indiana Jones style. Things escalate and the crew
flies out of the volcano.
Episode 39, Road rage
The increased marine traffic brings out problems normally associated
with road traffic. The pirates have trouble adjusting to the new set of
rules and traffic lights and face many perils.
Episode 35, Dumb and Dumbbell
The crew needs a workout. A helicopter unloads dumbbells, a trampoline and
other sports equipment for the (wrecking) crew. The moon will be visited.
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THE CHARACTERS
Captain Habhab
Gunnar & Vlad
Captain Habhab is a tiny man with a huge ego and a short temper and poor
social skills. He considers himself to be a great pirate captain and the ultimate
authority and doesn’t care if he’s right, or as usual, wrong. He has used his last
bits of gold to buy a second hand treasure map and sets off to chase it. He is
focused only on the treasure and quite often blind to things happening around
him, which leads the pirates into trouble time after time.
Gunnar is the muscle of the crew. He is a simple man (even compared to his
mates) with a titanic appetite. His skill set is limited mainly to lifting things.
He has little or no initiative whatsoever, but when given a task, he carries it out
without giving it a single thought. He is a true master of misunderstandings
and in his case, big strength equals big mess-ups. Gunnar has a strong appetite
for fish and somehow he draws the ship where the fish flocks exist.
Vlad is the most experienced sailor of the crew. Life on the seas is the only life
he knows: he’s seen it all, and doesn’t look for troubles of any kind, anymore
and he desperately tries to keep things at least somewhat under control. Yet
he seems to keep finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, all the
time.
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Pollo
Ritz & Hilton
Pollo is Habhab’s pet parrot. It is nearly as stubborn as the captain and quite
often the spark of chaos. It’s vocabulary consists of a single word: ”Starboard!”,
which, if (constantly) used in the wrong context on a ship, can lead to a variety
of mishaps. Mostly, Pollo is sleeping or taking a nap, but always waking up
when another stimulus is not needed. Vlad knows Pollo is trouble. Gunnar only
sees Pollo as a grilled chicken. Which means trouble, too.
The seagulls Ritz & Hilton follow the pirates, because they are too lazy
to fly and they know that Gunnar will lead them to the fish. At the same time
they are entertaining themselves at the pirates’ expense. If the pirates don’t
seem to be able to make a mess by themselves, they will gladly hold out a helping wing, setting up the most sophisticated gags to lead the crew to a disaster.
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