The Grünwald-based brand management and media company m4e AG gives the green light for the start of production of the TV series YOKO, MO & ME. The series emerges in co-production between the Italian production studio Rainbow S.p.A. (among others “Winx Club”, “Huntik”), the Canadian animation studio March Entertainment (among others “Dex Hamilton”, “Playmobil CGI Movies”) and Lucky Punch, a joint venture between Professor Gerhard Hahn and m4e AG in Grünwald. Gerhard Hahn, founder and chief executive of Hahn Film AG in Berlin, will be acting as executive producer. His company is one of the leading animation studios in Europe, which brought forth such achievements as “Werner – Beinhart!”, “Asterix in America” and “Bibi Blocksberg”. Negotiations with a German TV channel as a further co-producer will shortly be completed. More information on this will be made known soon.

This fantasy-adventure, whose production budget stands at around 12 million US dollars, will be elaborately produced at a number of locations in HD-quality and is a mixture of real film and CGI animation. The most important actors have already been casted for the real-film sequences – the shooting of which is the responsibility of Rainbow Entertainment under the auspices of hit-producer Iginio Straffi and producer Mario Anniballi. Filming of these scenes will take place in Florence, Italy. The TV premiere of the first season with 26 episodes of 24 minutes each is planned for 2011. A second season with a further 26 episodes is already being planned.

At centre-stage of the series, which is primarily aimed at a female childrens’ target group of 6-12 years of age, there is the 12-year-old Milly, who, following the accidental death of her parents, has to come to terms with life at a boarding school. Via a holographic game console inherited from her father, Milly turns into the figure of an elf in the mysterious and breathtaking world of Centopia, which Milly’s father initially created as a computer game. In Centopia there are elves, pans and unicorns living peacefully together. However, these peaceful ways are in danger, since the treacherous Queen Panthea, leader of the Munculus, urgently needs the ivory from the unicorns in order to lengthen her own life-cycle or even to become immortal. It is now solely down to Milly to save the secure world of Centopia and its unicorns. By switching to and fro between the real world and the fictitious, and with the help of the elves Yoko and Prinz Mo on the one hand, and her new schoolfriends Paula and Vincent on the other, she attempts to restrain the intrigues of the devious Panthea.

All of the actions in the fictitious world of Centopia will be produced in state-of-the-art CGI animation. Their manner of representation stands in contrast to the real-film sequences and with their surreal, warm and organic look they remind one of the style of the famous artist Gustav Klimt.

The m4e subsidiary Telescreen B.V. as well as Rainbow S.p.A. will take on world distribution of the series and will be presenting YOKO, MO & ME for the first time in a big way at the movie and TV trade fair MIPCOM in October 2010 in Cannes.