“The Little Run” (“La Petite Cavale”), Julien Bisaro and Claire Paoletti’s follow-up to “Shooom’s Odyssey” and one of France’s most-awaited of upcoming animated features, has been boarded by Charades and Diaphana Distribution.
A renowned director-driven sales banner intent on bringing new voices to the world such as Gints Zilbalodis’ Oscar winner “Flow,” Charades is handling international distribution.
Diaphana Distribution, whose release slate includes Lukas Dhont’s “Coward” and Netflix Cannes big buy “In Waves,” will open “The Little Run” in cinemas in France.
Directed by Bisaro, co-written by Paoletti and now entering pre-production, “The Little Run” has also clinched pre-sales with Canal+, Ciné+, and France 3 Cinéma in France as well as ZDF in Germany.
It has also shared in exclusivity with Variety an unreleased image of “The Little Run,” which was a buzzy three-time winner at Annecy’s MIFA Feature Film Pitches in 2023, scoring its Ciclic Centr-Val-de-Loire Region Award, a SACD award and the Cristal Publishing Award.
A large part of “Shooom’s Odyssey’s charm for pre-schillers and parents alike came from its lead: cute owl chick Shooom , all burning black eyes, dainty orange pupils and pristine white fluffy plumage. “The Little Run’s” hero, Cookie, a young male blue penguin seen waddling towards the ocean in the new image, encourages comedy. He dreams of becoming a Dad, but can’t lay an egg. Then a volcanic eruption plops a curious soft echidna’s egg in his path. What if this was the little one he had been waiting for?
Targeting family audiences from age 5 and up, “The Little Run” is set up at Bisaro and Paoletti’s boutique studio Picolo Pictures. It currently establishing the animation pipeline with partner studios, alongside the development of a Luxembourg co-production with Doghouse Films.
“It’s amazing to see the movie we dreamed up with Julien come to life right before our eyes. I can’t wait to share this story – which is especially close to our hearts – with a large audience thanks to the partners and exceptional artists who came together for the film,” Paoletti said Friday.
Neither Cookie nor the echidna talk. “We played a lot with pantomime when writing and staging. We draw on silent cinema, which allowed us to develop Chaplin-esque situational comedy that dispenses with dialogue,” Bisaro told Variety at the 2023 Annecy Animation Festival.
“The graphic design is in 2D with no outline. It’s like painting with light and shadow. Still, there are also times when the image is more realistic, with less saturated tones. It really depends on the intentions and the register of the scene,” he added, noting that “at the heart of the film is our wish to tell the story of a family bond.”
An earlier image, below, captured Cookie’s torpor as he nudges the small fury echidna with his bill. Hailed as “a tender and visually rich adventure exploring inter-species adoption, attachment, and chosen family” with “an immersive sensory relationship to nature, painterly 2D aesthetic and strong emotional core,” “The Little Run” marks Bisaro and Paoletti’s feature debut.
It follows up “Shooom’s Odyssey,” where plucky hatchling Shoom sets out to find her mother or a replacement. It won Annecy’s 2020 Cristal Award for best TV project and an Annie for outstanding achievement for production design in an animated TV/media production. The exquisite 2D animated preschool film also sold worldwide and was chosen for Variety’s 2020 Annecy selection of 10 Shorts Not to Miss.