Lionel Messi and Sony Music Entertainment have teamed up with Atlantis Animation of the Canary Islands to bring an animated series about the Argentine football megastar a few steps closer to reality. The deal sees Atlantis as a service company producing a trailer for the CG animated series inspired by Messi himself.
Sony Music’s Premium Content Division, producing in conjunction with Leo Messi Management, oversees the development and distribution of the series.
Atlantis Animation, based in Tenerife, is now in full production of the trailer. Catherine Macresy is in charge of producing the trailer.
Aiming at all audiences, the series will “immerse viewers in the epic adventures of a young Messi who overcomes mammoth challenges as he navigates the vibrant world of video games,” according to a written statement.
The soundtrack is provided by international artists and composers signed to the Sony Music Entertainment label, making for a complete audiovisual show.
Further content details are under wraps, but the plot setup, which places Messi in a video game world, seems to lay the foundations of an artistically ambitious project that works on multiple universe levels, such as the reality of young Messi and his adventures in a video. game universe. In this line, the partners describe the Thursday series as a “modern and innovative” series.
The announcement of Atlantis’ involvement also highlighted that the series is “dedicated to bringing the core values of sport and the lessons it embodies to the screen as it will follow the journey of one of the greatest athletes of all time.” “Messi’s passion for football will serve as the backdrop for moving and engaging content, highlighting the moral values that characterize the world icon,” the partners said.
The project underlines the relevance of animation for perhaps the most famous person in the world. “Since I was a kid I have always loved animated series and my kids are big fans of animated characters. Being able to participate in an animation project makes me happy, because it fulfills one of my dreams!” he was excited.
“I would like to thank Sony Music for participating in this project and we hope everyone will love the result, especially boys and girls.”
With Messi appearing to have decided on possibly the last football club in his sporting career, the series looks to play off his achievement as he is hailed as one, if not the greatest player in football history, to remain remarkably grounded
Atlantis Animation’s involvement in a series that powers one of the biggest IPs in the world marks the latest coup for the Canary Islands’ animation scene, one of the fastest growing in Europe, built in 2016 from a very small base.
The Messi pilot project joins an illustrious bevy of major IPs now animated from the Canary Islands, including ‘Arcane’, which has been – and is – being animated by Fortiche España at its Canary Islands studio in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria , which opened in October 2020.
Atlantis Animation, a French CG animation studio based in Tenerife, Canary Islands, became the first studio in the Canary Islands since 2019 to develop a full season of animation broadcasts on Disney Channel with the full CG TV series “Tara Duncan and the Spellbinders”. (2021).
The highest rated Disney Channel show on Disney Channel, kids 4-10, in April 2022, “Tara Duncan” was directed by ex-Ubisoft art and narrative director Dan Creteur, who brought an anime edge to the series. Creteur now works as an Atlantis Animation director.
Atlantis also contributed to “Miraculous Ladybug” Season 5, a series that won the 2023 Kidscreen Award for Best Animated Children’s Series.
“We are a service provider, but we try to be creative in everything we do,” said Raul Carbo, CEO of Atlantis Animation.
“Our idea is to go for very high-quality and high-quality projects. So Messi is definitely one of them, a global-scale project that is the next step for Atlantis, he added.