Eco-Animation - Eco-Animation: a cutting
edge cartoon to raise awareness on climate
change and sustainable use of natural
resources among European children
LIFE07 INF/UK/000950
Project description Environmental issues Beneficiaries Administrative data R e a d m o r e Contact details:
Project Manager: Luigi PETITO
Fax: +44 20 85984140
Email: [email protected]
Project description:
Background
Today’s children are tomorrow’s potential polluters. If society fails to encourage
children to adopt environmentally aware behaviour then their future will be
bleak. It is important to try to help them understand where their energy comes
from, why species are in danger of extinction, why water is becoming scarce and,
most importantly, how their behaviour could offset the potentially devastating
effects of climate change. Communication barriers must be overcome, however, when trying to present
such serious issues to children. The project’s idea is therefore to translate the
messages into a medium that children find captivating. Children are visual by
nature and love cartoons and cartoon characters. Cartoon animation is quick to
the point and because it can cross gender, age, linguistic and cultural barriers it
can have an impact on a broad range of audiences. Animated characters can also
provide role models for children.
Although children can only be expected to respond to simple environmental
messages, these are fundamental to a later understanding of the more complex
issues concerning energy, climate change, water resources, natural resources etc.
Thus working with European children in this way is an investment for the future.
The project is relevant throughout Europe: children in the chosen target age
group are similar across Europe, broadly have the same interests, have not yet
developed a strong national identity and are also a ‘sponge’ for information. The
real challenge for the project is to produce a cartoon character that has a
common appeal across all European countries. common appeal across all European countries. The need for the project is supported both from an institutional point of view
through the work of the European Commission and also from a scientific point
of view through the work of bodies such as the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC).
Objectives
Eco-Animation aimed to engage European children between 5-8 years old with
simple environmental messages about the environment, sustainability and
climate change delivered through the popular medium of cartoons. The cartoon
animations planned to show that small actions (e.g. using less water, asking
where your food comes from, recycling, turning off switches etc) can improve
quality of life and our future. Eco-Animation aimed to help children adopt
environmentally sustainable behaviour and indirectly raise awareness among
adults by showing them that they can change the world with their own simple
actions. The specific objectives of Eco-Animation were to: Find out what messages work best with European children between 5-8
years old;
Directly engage with these children through a medium which they enjoy
watching; Indirectly reach their teachers and families to raise awareness on climate
change and sustainable use of water and natural resources.
The project partners aimed to develop the content of the programme, establish a
pedagogic evaluation committee to get feedback from children during
production, prepare a 24-minute animation and promote the project and the
prod ucts thr ou g h an i n t e g ra t ed c o m m u n i c a t i o n a n d d i s s e m i n a t i o n p l a n . The animated cartoon would be produced in English and translated into three
languages which cover the languages of the focus groups of children involved in
the pedagogic evaluation (Italian, Romanian and Portuguese). The final cartoon
would be distributed through European television channels and export
opportunities would be considered. The intention was to reach a target audience
of about 3.5 million children, teachers and parents across Europe. Results
The project developed a successful methodology, which combined the skills of
the partners, to produce three episodes of the ‘My Friend Boo’ cartoon series and
accompanying teaching packs. Initially, WWF advised on the theme of water
conservation and provided background notes for the animators and educators.
The first messages and the developing cartoon characters and storylines were
tested with children aged 5-8 in five EU countries. This part of the project was
coordinated by Explora, the children’s museum of Rome, with partner museums
in Ireland, Belgium, Poland and Bulgaria. Three questionnaires were evaluated to
test the children’s understanding of the issues and their enjoyment of the
cartoon. cartoon. A team of skilled animators worked to translate the messages into three
episodes of the ‘My Friend Boo’ cartoon series. Boo is a magic toy dog who takes
his friends on adventures to show them the consequences of pollution, water
shortage and waste. The kids meet a talkative vole called Victoria whose
riverbank home has been abandoned by animals and humans because a local
factory isn’t taking care of its waste; they visit Klexus to see if they can help to
save water on her planet, and they take a ride down a river bank to look at the
‘bigger picture’ where they see the damage that chemicals and dam-building can
have on local wildlife but also what we can do to make the world a better
place.The communication agency, Business Solutions Europa, co-ordinated the
project communication work and secured broadcasting deals with European TV
companies.
The methodology used for the project has worked well. The ‘My Friend Boo’
series (launched through the YES project) is innovative, as a whole new cartoon
series has been created with main characters and secondary characters. The
project partners would like to see My Friend Boo continue with new episodes on
di ffe rent them es s u p p o rt ed a n d s u pp o r t i n g n e w c o m m e r c i a l a v e n u e s .
The project has also demonstrated good cost-effectiveness. The three
ani mations pro d u ce d t h ro u g h Eco - An i m a t i o n b e n e f i t t e d f r o m s o m e o f t h e
start-up costs for My Friend Boo being covered by the YES project. Once a series
has been established future episodes can be produced on a relatively low budget,
and the dubbing into different languages is much easier using a cartoon medium.
Moreover, the cartoon series can easily be transferred to other countries and
even other cultures as the messages are relatively simply and are global. For
example, with a grant under the EuropeAid programme 'Broadcasting the EU',
nine episodes have been dubbed into Macedonian and Albanian along with
teaching packs, potentially reaching 10 million households. The project has
already secured broadcasting rights in Vietnam and has plans to secure deals in
Canada and the US.
By the end of the project broadcasting deals had been secured in 19 countries, in
17 languages, reaching a potential audience of 25 million households. The
project has well exceeded its initial targets to reach 3 million children, half a
million adults (parents etc) and 800 teachers. However, 443 children were
directly involved in focus groups (less than the 500 planned). A post-project
communication plan will continue to seek broadcasting deals with other EU
countries and throughout the world.
Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report
and After-LIFE Communication Plan (see "Read more" section). Top
Environmental issues addressed:
Themes
Information - Governance - Environmental training - Capacity building
Services & Commerce - Education and Cultural activities
Climate change Mitigation - GHG reduction in non EU ETS sectors
Keywords
environmental education‚ environmentally responsible behaviour‚ information
system‚ climate change mitigation Natura 2000 sites
Not applicable
Top
Beneficiaries:
Coordinator
Type of organisation
Description
Partners
Business Solutions Europa Limited
SME Small and medium sized enterprise
Business Solutions Europa is a projects and
communication agency with offices in Belgium
and the United Kingdom. It advises and helps
organisations secure funding for
communication work in the field of energy and
sustainable development. For this project its
three partners were the WWF European Policy
Office, Griffilms Ltd (an animation company
based in Wales) and EXPLORA (a not-for-profit
museum designed for children in Italy). WWF European Policy Office Griffilms Ltd,
United Kingdom EXPLORA, Italy Top
Administrative data:
Project reference
Duration
Total budget
EU contribution
Project location
Top
LIFE07 INF/UK/000950
01-JAN-2009 to 31-MAR -2011
541,092.00 €
258,371.00 €
Read more:
Brochure
Leaflet
Leaflet
Project web site
Project web site - 2
Publication: After-LIFE
Communication Plan
Publication: Case study
Publication: Case study
Publication: Case study
Publication: Layman report
Slides Presentation
Video link
Video link
Video link
Video link
Video link
Video link
Video link
Video link
Video link
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Video link
Top
Title: Leaflet presenting the project (2.112 KB)
Year: 2011 No of pages: 17 Title: "TV Countries Audience Share" (76 KB)
Year: 2011 No of pages: 2 Title: Project's flyers Author: Business
Solutions Europa Year: 2010 No of pages: 5 Project's website
Link to the Teaching packs
Title: After-LIFE Communication Plan
Year: 2011 No of pages: 4 Title: "Final report 1st questionnaire" (416 KB)
Year: 2009 Editor: Explora, Children’s Museum
of Rome No of pages: 12 Title: "Final report 2nd questionnaire" (249 KB)
Year: 2009 Editor: Explora, Children’s Museum
of Rome No of pages: 22 Title: "Final report 3rd questionnaire" (685 KB)
Editor: Explora, Children’s Museum of Rome No
of pages: 26 Title: "Every drop of water we use counts for
today and for the future" (2.1 MB) Year: 2011
No of pages: 17 Title: "Sustainable use of natural resources:
Water" (1.69MB) Year: 2013 Editor: WWF No of
pages: 30 "Rozlewiska Wiktorii" (8')
"Victoria's wetlands" (in Bulgarian) (8')
"La palude di Victoria" (8')
"The big picture" (8')
"Victoria's moerasland" (8')
"Victoria's wetlands" (8')
"To tylko woda" (8')
"Het is maar water" (8')
"È solo acqua" (8')
"It's only water!" (in Bulgarian) (8')
"It's only water!" (8')
"Szersza perspektywa" (8')
Link to My Friend Boo's video clip
"Una prospettiva globale" (8')
"The big picture" (in Bulgarian) (8')
"Het totaalbeeld" (8')
Project description Environmental issues Beneficiaries Administrative data R e a d m o r e