Hasta La Motion!

Netflix will premiere Novel Entertainment’s first animated feature-length Horrid Henry special in the UK on 6 June. 

Featuring the voices of UK presenters Dick and Dom, it reprises the starring roles they played in the live action Horrid Henry: the Movie. The official synopsis follows – Horrid Henry’s Wild Weekend is the story of what happens one quiet weekend in Ashton; when Henry is unexpectedly chosen to join the Ashton Adventurers to compete for the Brainbox of the Year Cup, Mum and Dad try to slip away for a night without the kids and Great Aunt Greta has a teenager to stay, chaos inevitably ensues. 

It’s also the story of how Henry learns to work as a team, battling alongside Moody Margaret, Beefy Bert and Anxious Andrew against his nemesis, Stuck Up Steve, and the Brick House Boys. It’s the story of the secret life of a cat (and a hamster) as we discover what Fluffy and Fang get up to when they are left to their own devices in the Henry household. It’s also a story of bravery and heroism, of greed and sacrifice, of failure and ambition. But above all it’s the story of the love of a perfect little brother for his Horrid big brother. 

Novel Entertainment co-founder Mike Watts said, “Horrid Henry continues to be hugely popular on Netflix in the UK and we are thrilled to have a feature-length animated commission.”

This will be the first time Henry and his friends will be online on Facebook and Instagram for a very special viewing party, which is also designed to raise awareness of the company’s campaign to address the UK’s digital deficit. 

Horrid Henry’s Wild Weekend is written and produced by Novel’s Lucinda Whiteley and executive produced by Watts, along with Hilary Audus and Gary Andrews as animation directors. It features the same voice cast as the award-winning TV series, with guest voices Richard McCourt and Dominic Wood (Dick and Dom).

In addition to this new animated special, Novel Entertainment has a raft of newly created content output, produced under the banner of Horrid Henry Unlocked and designed to offer a familiar environment for fans to discover how the Horrid Henry family is responding to the current crisis. As well as the recently launched Horrid Henry podcast, new material includes daily Horrid Homework in the form of activities which are available via the Horrid Henry website; projects, challenges, puzzles, and bespoke videos including newly created songs, short videos and behind the scenes content and interviews.

Novel’s four-time BAFTA-nominated Horrid Henry is one of the biggest children’s animated shows ever in the UK. The fifth season is currently on air in the UK and Novel is in production on new longer form content. The brand includes film, stage, radio and online extensions, as well as being at the heart of a successful licensing and merchandising programme. 

Fifth season of Horrid Henry is currently airing on Netflix in the UK and also on Nickelodeon UK & Ireland. A total of 250 episodes are now available with recent sales including MBC (Middle East), Alati International (Russia),  Atlantic Digital Networks (Canada), TG4 (Ireland), Amazon Prime Video (India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka), P&P (Bosnia), Produkcija (Slovenia), Kids Network (Latvia and Estonia) and Emirates (UAE and Middle East). Renewals include Turner Broadcasting System (Asia Pacific), Mediacorp (Singapore), POP TV (Slovenia), E-Vision (Middle East), Asiana (Korea) and Netflix (France, US, Canada, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland and Belgium).

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Social distancing and lockdown has involved many in home improvement works like adding a new rug or changing the order of the furniture and so on. However, decorating a home is not always feasible when many are at a financial crunch due to COVID 19 pandemic. Therefore, home decoration games are an unlikely game theme, but in the pandemic it became handy. As one can decorate their virtual homes according to their desires without investing time, money, and hassle or gather ideas on how to rearrange their furniture to give their home a new look. The concept has attracted the app store by storm in recent times as more new players looking for new options in gaming to get over from the lockdown boredom.

What’s the house design game?

House design games are simulation games that have advanced graphics and it feels like decorating their own homes which are similar to playing with child’s dollhouse. The main purpose of the game is to create an attractive aesthetic design inside one’s virtual home.

In the game, a player is provided with a basic room from where one should usually start out along with options like carpets, wall coverings, couches, lamps, and so on. It depends on the player  how they want to design their room with their imagination.

Why home design games are skyrocketing?

The rise of the gig economy and a seemingly impending recession – make mortgages seem even more out of reach. Personalising a house may have been a luxury in real life for mature generations of people, but for many young people tapping away at our phone screens for future design of homes may be as close as we can get. This less-than-perfect reality has spurred a meteoric rise of apps to fulfill us digitally. Interior design apps are on the rise as home ownership rates among people under 35 have fallen by 20 per cent in the last decade according to Statista report. Interior design games allow users to play and experiment with interior design – two things nearly impossible to achieve without time, effort, and money in real life.

Also home design games are appealing and they work as a form of wish fulfillment. Players might be living in a small, cluttered apartment full of mismatched furniture in a real-life, yet they are able to live out their dreams of more idealistic looking living spaces.

Types of Home Design games

There are various types of home design games are available for android and iOS devices both in freemium and premium models. First of its kind is Glu Mobile Design Home is one of the most popular interior design apps, with over 75m downloads and at least 1 million daily users. Players are given daily “challenges” of decorating different rooms, with a vast range of furniture to choose from. A player unlocks paintings, ornaments, and additional pieces of furniture in various colors and styles. Rooms are judged by other players, which players need to take into account. A high score earns a player new furniture options and more opportunities to score highly later on virtual cash and rewards are handed out daily, and can also be won based on a rating system.

Second is My Home – Design Dreams by Zenjoy which is close to 2 million downloads in Google play store has an in-game heartfelt story where a player gets to meet lots of lifelike characters in the storyline! A player gets to design from a quaint living room to a grandiose bedroom, a tiny condo to a luxurious mansion, and even a small home shop to their very own fashion showroom. Unlike Design Home this game includes match-three puzzle games to win coins, which can be utilised to decorate all kinds of rooms and houses including a backyard, a balcony, and even pools.

It is unclear how much interior design apps manage to monetize the game, or whether most of their income is made through small in-app purchases, with users upgrading their digital inventory rather than their real-life homes. However it is My Home – Design Dreams has in-game ads everywhere from crossing one level to get the desired item one has cross hurdles of ads which sometimes is bit annoying however the zeal to decorate the home for the players keep players rolling. Here is a small instance of such ad encounters:

As the housing market continues to be inaccessible for young people, home ownership will become an ever more distant fantasy – therefore the digital version of designing home is on the rise.

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ViacomCBS has named Syrinthia Studer as the first EVP of Nickelodeon and Awesomeness Films, overseeing all live-action feature-length content for both Awesomeness and Nickelodeon’s kids and family studio.

Reporting to studio EVP Shelley Zimmerman, Studer’s new role encompasses development, production, acquisitions and co-financing work. She will be based in LA and is in charge of developing original feature-length live-action content for the Gen Z, and kids and family audience.

Most recently, Studer was the EVP of worldwide acquisitions at Paramount Pictures, where she oversaw the global content acquisitions business (including acquiring films for domestic and international theatrical distribution, as well as home entertainment platforms). Some of her notable acquisitions include Book Club (which grossed US$100 million at the worldwide box office, according to ViacomCBS) and Richard Linklater’s Oscar-nominated Boyhood.

Studer joins Nickelodeon and Awesomeness Films as the kidcaster builds up its animated film slate. It’s signed an original animated film deal with Netflix, which will see Nick produce movies based on its popular IPs including Ninja Turtles and Loud House. It’s also working on a PAW Patrol movie with Spin Master and Paramount Pictures, with plans to hit theaters in August 2021.

Awesomeness is behind recent teen pics To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before and To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You, The Perfect Date and Before I Fall.

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Actress Gal Gadot who plays Wonder Woman has hinted at a potential romance between her character and actress Kristen Wiig’s supervillain Cheetah in the upcoming Wonder Woman 1984.

As Daily Mail UK reports, In an interview with SFX Magazine, Gadot and Wiig teased about their thoughts on fan theories about the relationship between their characters, in the Wonder Woman sequel.

Being enquired if Diana Prince (Wonder Woman) and Barbara Ann Minerva (Cheetah) were on a date during a scene that appeared in the trailer, Wiig asked: “Oh, for a lesbian thing?”

Gadot then said: “The sexual tension is always there, I can tell you that!”

Cheetah is one of Wonder Woman‘s most iconic enemies in the DC comics, but the pair have not been involved in any romance in the comics.

 

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In these dark and scary times, I am looking forward to a brighter future ahead. Where we can share the power of cinema together again. Excited to redate our WW84 film to August 14, 2020. I hope everyone is safe. Sending my love to you all. ❤️

A post shared by Gal Gadot (@gal_gadot) on Mar 24, 2020 at 11:54am PDT

The female superhero is back with a new battle, a new armour, new villains, edgier action and a reunion with her long-last love. The trailer as well as Gadot have teased the beginning of a “new era of wonder” with the awaited Wonder Woman 1984. Initially slated to release on 5 June, the film will now hit the screens on 14 August 2020. 

Gadot is reprising her role as Diana Prince, aka Wonder Woman, in the sequel of the 2017 DC film. Other returning stars include Chris Pine as Steve Trevor (Wonder Woman’s love interest), Robin Wright as Antiope, Connie Nielsen as Hippolyta, and Pedro Pascal as Max Lord.

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YouTube Kids, Google’s VOD streaming service targeted at kids, is now available on Apple TV streaming boxes. The YouTube Kids app can now be downloaded on App Store in the UK, US, and other countries and can be used with or without a Google login.

YouTube Kids comes with its key parental controls, where parents can set viewing limits, content restrictions based on age, and other limits. In 2018, YouTube introduced this feature to restrict content to human-approved videos. YouTube Kids is meant to give children a safer alternative to YouTube, where even ‘Restricted Mode’ can let through violent content and other things parents and caretakers don’t want kids to consume. 

Last year, YouTube disabled comments on videos in an effort to stop predatory behavior and also reached a $170 million with the Federal Trade Commission over violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Act (COPPA), putting into place new rules for kids’ video, but creators said the rules were confusing and resulted in lost revenue.

One can sign in to their account to transfer existing parental controls to the Apple TV, and Google allows to change the settings from the tablet or phone app. YouTube Kids can be restricted to specific videos and channels approved by parents as well as allowing kids to search for anything within the confines of the machine- and human-curated catalogue.

Launched in 2015, YouTube Kids is meant as a safer environment for children to browse and watch YouTube content, but it’s not been without its controversies. It’s essential to remember that completely unsupervised YouTube viewing, of the Kids app or otherwise, is never a good idea.

YouTube Kids still offers more features that can help caretakers prevent harmful content from being viewed by children, including one that lets them whitelist specific videos or channels.

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