Lassie (2014 TV series)

Last updated

Lassie
Zoe-Parker-and-Lassie-poster.png
Also known asThe New Adventures of Lassie
Genre Comedy-drama
Adventure
Created by Eric Knight (character)
Developed byJill Brett
Directed byJean-Christophe Roger (season 1)
Dominique Monféry (season 2)
Voices ofMirabelle Kirkland
Kaycie Chase
Maxime Jarquin
Matthew Géczy
Sharon Mann
Composers Guy Michelmore (season 1)
Laurent Aknin (season 2)
Country of origin
  • France
  • Germany
  • India (S1)
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes52
Production
Executive producers
  • Clément Calvet (S1)
  • Jérémie Fajner (S1)
  • Eric Ellenbogen
  • Doug Schwalbe
  • Nicole Keeb (S2)
  • Tapaas Chakravati (S1)
  • Rouhini Jaswal (S1)
  • Sumedha Saraogi (S1)
  • Arne Lohmann (S2)
Producers
  • Clément Calvet (S2)
  • Jérémie Fajner (S2)
Running time22–23 minutes
Production companies
Original release
Network TF1 and Télétoon+ (France)
ZDF and KIKA (Germany)
Release2014 (2014) 
2020 (2020)

Lassie (also known as The New Adventures of Lassie) is an animated television series based on the classic character by Eric Knight. The series is produced by Superprod Animation in France and DQ Entertainment (S1) in India, in co-production with German broadcaster ZDF and their production/sales arm ZDF Enterprises, with the participation of DreamWorks Classics, TF1 and Télétoon+. Season 1 was produced with traditional 2D animation [1] while Season 2 transitioned to Cel shading.

Contents

Characters

Zoe and Lassie with their family and friends. Zoe-Parker-family-and-friends.png
Zoe and Lassie with their family and friends.

Main characters

The title character of the show, Lassie is a brown and white collie who lives in the Grand Mountain National Park with her owners, the Parker family. Fearless and brave, Lassie will never hesitate to put her life on the line for her family, friends and even random people she may or may not have met before.

For the majority of the episode durations, Lassie will only communicate through her body language and barks, which are only understood by those who know her well. However, she can "talk" to her animal friends from the Red Barn.

Owner of Lassie and daughter of Sarah and Graham. Having inherited her parents' love of nature, Zoe cares a great deal about life in the Park and goes out of her way to protect it, sometimes without thinking and ultimately putting her life at risk. Zoe often takes care of baby animals whenever they need her help. She is normally the one to call Lassie in the day old style, whether there is an emergency or not.

Head of the Grand Mountain National park Ranger Department, Graham, like the rest of his family, is a passionate nature lover and will do anything in his power as Chief Ranger to prevent anyone from damaging the serenity of the Park. Like his wife, Park veterinarian Dr. Sarah Parker, Graham will often worry about the safety of his daughter Zoe before reassuring himself that Zoe is a smart kid who has forgotten more about exploring the beauty of the Park than any tourist has ever learned and as long as she has Lassie by her side, she can never come to any harm.

He once owned a dog that was similar in breed and personality to Lassie, named Shadow, when he was a boy. Sadly, when Graham was eight years old, Shadow was bitten by a snake as he tried to save Graham. Graham, who didn't fully understand at the time, thought he was responsible for the death of his dog and ultimately, even the death of his grandfather, who got sick and died a short while after Shadow, and thus distanced himself from the cabin owned by his grandfather. He later discovered, thanks to Lassie, Zoe and Harvey, that this was not the case and that his grandfather's sickness and death was purely down to something else, more than likely old age. Graham revealed that, whilst he never actually visited the property since the Shadow incident up until the point that he returned to face his fears, he was still keeping up the mortgage on the property and land, meaning the Parker family still owned the property, which ultimately prevented Robert Humphrey from selling it to developers looking to build a leisure hotel.

As the National Park's resident veterinarian, Sarah takes pride in her work, caring for any animal that may need her medical knowledge. Like her husband and daughter, Sarah is quick to express outrage whenever someone or something is threatening the tranquillity of the Park.

Zoe's best friend. A skilled navigator, like his late father, Jason Smith, Harvey always has a route planned out. He will often follow Zoe and Lassie in their adventures, even if the situation may seem dangerous.

Mother of Harvey Smith and supposedly a member of staff at the National Park's visitor centre. As Harvey is all she has to remember her husband by, Beth is often concerned whenever Harvey could be in danger. Luckily, she knows that, wherever there's danger, Lassie won't be far.

Zoe and Harvey's snooty rival with brown hair. She sometimes throws herself into dangerous situations without thinking anything through.

Owner and manager of the Valley Hotel. He is sometimes a minor antagonist, as some of his schemes to drum up tourists can often result in him doing some unscrupulous things, such as telling the driver of an old steam locomotive that he had personally inspected every inch of track on the line he was planning to send a trainload of tourists down to make sure it was safe when, in fact, he hadn't.

Proprietor of the National Park's general store, 'The Happy Camper', Mrs. Lee may look like any ordinary old lady, but she is far from it, as a couple of poachers learnt when she demonstrated her skills as a rodeo champion by hogtying them whilst they tried to capture a bear cub. She is the owner of Biff the pug, who she often has take the Parker's morning paper to them.

Production

The series was first announced in June 2009 as a co-production between Lassie owners Classic Media, DQ Entertainment (who Classic Media previously co-produced Casper's Scare School with them), and broadcasters M6 and ZDF. The series would be a U.K.-Ireland-France-Germany-India co-production, with Classic Media co-producing through their UK offices. The series was planned to be computer-animated and delivered for a late-2010-early-2011 window. [3] [4]

In October 2010, DQ announced that Superprod Animation and Storyboard Animation in France had joined animation production, while TF1 would replace M6 as the show's French broadcast partner. Distribution would be shared between the studios, with Superprod handling French-speaking Europe, ZDF for German-speaking Europe, and DQ Entertainment and Classic Media for all remaining territories. The series was now set for a 2012 delivery window. [5] [6]

Episodes

Season 1 (2014–15)

Season 1 aired 26 episodes from 2014 to 2015.

Season 1 [7]
EpisodeTitleShort Summary
1Saving Zuli!Lassie, a border collie, lives with her owner. After skipping school to Fish with her neighbor, Huckleberry, her parents forbid her from going with again. However, the girl goes frequently at school to go play with Lassie. While packing to move to the country, Lassie is left behind with the chain, but she eventually goes to try and find her own. On the way, she encounters a lemur named Zulu, who She has to protect. The two of them end up stranded on a strange looking man comes it offers them shelter in his shack.
2Poachers in the Park!
3Gold Rush!
4Danger on the Mountain
5The Treasure of Dan Montaigne
6Forest Fire!
7Spider Bite!
8Roundup!
9Night of the Wolves
10Avalanche
11The Day Off
12The Tornado Hunters
13Where's Lassie
14Who Knows Best
15Hide and Seek!
16Frances' Garden
17The Iron Horse of Grand Mountain
18The Demon of Diamond Lake
19Thin Ice
20Trapped
21Momma Zoe
22Condors in the Valley
23Harvey's Journey
24The Secrets of the Parker Clan
25The Grand Mountain Adventure Challenge 1
26The Grand Mountain Adventure Challenge 2

Season 2 (2020)

A season 2 with 26 episodes aired as of January 2020. [8]

Unlike the first season, it uses computer-animated characters in front of hand-drawn backgrounds as Indian animation studio DQ Entertainment stepped down from co-producing the series, giving Superprod Animation fully producing the series with its Angoulême-based animation unit Superprod Studio taking over. [9]

These episodes appear on CBS All Access, but are tagged as "Season 1." The copyright on them is 2016.

Season 2 [10]
EpisodeTitle
1Friends Forever Part 1
2Friends Forever Part 2
3The Great Scavenger Hunt
4Maiden Flight
5A Wild Encounter
6Trick or Treat
7White Out
8Trespassing
9The Blueberry Pie Challenge
10Old Doc Dudley
11Inside the Dam
12The Precious Gift
13Picture Perfect
14The Star Attraction
15Mrs. Lee's Secret
16The Reunion
17The Epidemic
18A Rare Sighting
19Like Father, Like Daughter
20Déjà Vu
21Face Your Fear
22Wild Camping
23The Visitor Center
24A Shaky Reputation
25False Accusations
26The Soapbox Grand Prix

Broadcast

In the United Kingdom, the show premiered on Pop UK TV on 6 June 2016. [11] In 2016, an official YouTube channel featuring episodes from the series was launched. [12]

In the United States, Lassie debuted on ViacomCBS's streaming service CBS All Access on January 17, 2020. [13] After the service was relaunched with a new name (Paramount+) in 2021, the show was carried over to the ParamountPlus.com site. [14]

References

  1. 1 2 Wolfe, Jennifer (June 2, 2015). "Year-End Earnings". Animation World Network . Retrieved September 10, 2018.
  2. Frater, Patrick (June 29, 2009). "DQ Ent. leads 'Lassie' 3D cartoon". The Hollywood Reporter.
  3. Frater, Patrick (June 29, 2009). "DQ Ent. leads 'Lassie' 3D cartoon". The Hollywood Reporter.
  4. Claire Afan, Emily (June 29, 2009). "DQE fetches Lassie for new TV series". Kidscreen.
  5. "DQE to stage Lassie's return". Kidscreen. October 7, 2010.
  6. Hopewell, John (June 12, 2013). "Superights Delivers 'Picnic with Cake'". Variety.
  7. "Lassie Season 1". YouTube. Retrieved August 9, 2016.
  8. "Lassie". YouTube. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  9. "SUPERPROD animation". www.superprodanimation.net. Retrieved July 3, 2020.
  10. "Lassie Season 2". YouTube. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  11. "The New Adventures of Lassie". Popfun.co.uk. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  12. "Lassie". YouTube . Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  13. Nellie Andreeva (January 12, 2020). "'Lassie', 'George of the Jungle' & 'Mr. Magoo' Animated Children's Series Picked Up By CBS All Access". Deadline Hollywood.
  14. "Paramount Plus – Lassie". Paramount+ .