‘The School of the Magical Animals’ Added to Global Screen’s AFM Lineup (EXCLUSIVE)
Munich-based world sales company Global Screen has picked up worldwide distribution rights to adventure movie “The School of the Magical Animals,” based on the bestselling kids’ book series by Margit Auer. Global Screen will present a teaser trailer and begin presales on the movie at the upcoming American Film Market.
The live-action film with CGI animated animals, produced on a budget of almost Euros 10 million ($11.7 million), is about an unusual school where the children receive a magical animal as a companion. It centers on the new girl Ida, who goes from being an outsider to the star student thanks to her magical animal, the talking fox Rabbat.
“The School of the Magical Animals” is one of the most successful children’s and young people’s book series with more than 4.8 million copies sold in German-speaking countries. The story was translated into more than 20 languages and published in such territories as China, Japan, South Korea, all of Eastern Europe, the Nordic region, Israel, Turkey, Greece, The Netherlands, Spain and Portugal.
The film is directed by Gregor Schnitzler (“The Cloud”), and the animation director is Tomer Eshed (Lumatic Animation & VFX). The producers are Kordes & Kordes Film Süd (“Four Minutes”), and co-producing are Wega Film (Vienna) and Leonine, who will also release the film theatrically in Germany in February 2021.
The film centers on Ida, who has had to move to another town and is now the “new girl” at the Winterstein School. She has a hard time in the new class: the bitchy Helene makes sure that Ida has scant chance of making any friends, and there is only one place left for her on the first day of school – next to the outsider Benni.
One day, her teacher introduces the children to Mortimer Morrison who travels the world looking for “magical animals.” Each of these animals is destined to become a child’s soul mate. Of all people, newcomer Ida and outsider Benni are the first in the class to have magical companions.
From now on, Benni has the ancient, wise turtle Henrietta at his side and Ida the cunning fox Rabbat. When objects keep disappearing at school, the children and the magical animals have to stick together to solve the mystery of the school thief.
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