Lupine's Stories - The preschool animated series on Rai Yoyo

Lupine's Stories - The preschool animated series on Rai Yoyo

Lupine's stories (Lupine's tales) is an animated series aimed at aged children preschool from 2 to 5 years, created by Xilam Animation in collaboration with Alibaba Group's Youku video streamer platform. The series consists of 78 episodes each lasting 7 minutes and was jointly created by Laura Muller (author of Mr Magoo and Zig & Sharko) and Nicolas Le Nevé (director of Oggy and the cockroaches). Muller also shares directing reins with Antoine Colomb, whose previous credits include Xilam's Moka.

The series uses a mix of 2D and 3D to create a unique pop-up book-like aesthetic - a technique adopted, according to Marc du Pontavice, head of Xilam Animation, to allow children to feel as if "they can imagine and create a whole world from a simple piece of paper ".

In Italy since January 2021 it has been broadcast every day on Rai Yoyo at 8.05, 12.00 and 15.15,

History

Lupine is a crafty cub and every day he jumps into a story and in a flash he becomes the pirate hero, wizard or prince

Lupine sneaks into classic stories and legends, assuming the identities of the heroes, convinced that he can do the same things just as well. The problem is that he is still an impatient and impulsive wolf, who doesn't put a stop to his enthusiasm and insists on doing things his way, always creating a terrible mess, but also managing to correct himself, learn from his mistakes and seal a happy ending as he travels through medieval Europe, Greek, Nordic myths and Asian stories.

The episodes of The Lupine Stories

1 - The emperor's vase

Once upon a time there was an old potter whose porcelains were famous for their quality and each year the emperor himself commissioned his best vase from him. The potter was very old so he asked his son to replace him

"You can count on me!" The son answered. Lupine sneaks into history, because he wants to go help the potter, to get to know the emperor.
He thus asks permission from Mr. Narrator, a voiceover who interacts with the character of Lupine, to whom he can give orders and recommendations.

In this case he agrees, as long as Lupine does not make disasters.
Lupine takes the place of the potter's son and goes to the emperor's palace. So he loads the pot on the mule, which knows the way well.
On the way, Lupine explores new paths and shortcuts, but the mule continues to walk the path he knows perfectly well.
The wise mule points out to Lupine that not all seemingly straightforward roads can easily lead to arrival.
Lupine doesn't listen to him and climbs over very smooth hills, which he finds amusing, even involving the mule. They soon realize that they are on the back of a dragon, which with its sway causes the vase to fall, which breaks.

Lupine is sorry for breaking the vase and not following the wise mule's advice. The mule, who knows the secrets of the master potter, advises Lupine how to fix the vase: he will have to use the clay extracted from the bottom of the rice fields. Lupine combines the shards of the vase with clay, which cooks thanks to the fire that comes out of the dragon's mouth.
Thus the vase is repaired, even if with the veins of the break, very visible.

Lupine is very happy and trembles with the desire to get to the Emperor, but the mule is very tired and decides to rest.
Lupine then asks the dragon for a flying pass to get to the Emperor, impatient for the arrival of his vase.
The emperor really likes the vase that is delivered to him and Lupine thanks his fellow adventurers the mule and the dragon without which he would not have been able to accomplish this feat.
Lupine honored his father and won the trust of the emperor and so he returned home and his head held high.
So the potter's son continued the family tradition, cooking clay pots by dragon fire.

2 - The magic maraca

Once upon a time, in the heart of the virgin forest, there was a village where farmers cut more and more trees to grow their plants.
But one day, suddenly seeds fell from the sky and gigantic carnivorous plants began to grow.
The inhabitants turn to the great chief, a wise woman who immediately realizes that the village has been attacked by Capoora, the great spirit of the forest.
The farmer decides to go to face the witch Capoora, when he is stopped by Lupine who takes his place.
The head of the village gives Lupine the sacred maraca of their ancestors, which is essential to face Capoora. To make it work it must be shaken three times, but it should only be used if it is strictly necessary.
Lupine, however, does not follow the advice and uses the magical power of the maraca, even for small difficulties such as climbing a small mountain, which makes the maraca smaller with each use.
Both when he encounters a carnivorous plant, or when he finds a secret passage inside the hollow of a tree, Lupine uses the magical power of the maraca which becomes very small.
Lupine arrives in the Capoora cave, which he thinks he can defeat thanks to the power of the maraca, which, however, having become tiny, produces only a small cloud, with a tiny lightning bolt completely harmless.
Caroora taunts him and produces a spell that makes many carnivorous plants appear, chasing Lupine.
Capoora shoots him his greatest magic: the giant flytrap carnivorous plant. Lupine manages to catch it before it hits the ground and therefore prevents it from opening from its watermelon-shaped shell.
Lupine manages to escape through a secret passage and take Capoora and his plants by surprise, throwing them at his own spell, which turns into a giant carnivorous plant, which imprisons them with its huge mouth.
Lupine asks Capoora why he attacked the village, so the forest spirit explains that he was only defending himself, because the villagers are cutting down all the trees in the forest.
Following the advice of wise farmer Lupine, the villagers agreed with Capoora to share the land.
Capoora planted beautiful trees in the plantations, the fields nourished the trees which in turn protected the crops from the scorching sun. The Capoora forest continued to thrive, just like the tomatoes.

3 - The Pumpkin Princess

Once upon a time in a distant distant kingdom, there was a prince and a princess who loved each other with all their hearts.
Just as they were about to get married, an evil witch appeared and turned the young princess into a pumpkin, for not being invited to the wedding.
Fortunately, the prince had inherited an ancient book of magic, capable of making many magical potions.
Lupine arrives and with the book of spells in hand, he asks Mr. Narrator for the possibility of replacing the prince, to experience this adventure firsthand.
Having the consent of the Narrator, Lupine transforms into the young prince and with the book of magic under his eyes, he begins to search for the spell to free the pumpkin princess.
Suddenly the book comes to life and advises Lupine to look for a rose from an enchanted rose garden, an apple as golden as the summer sun and a hair of an extraordinary creature.
Before the book can finish his speech, Lupine closes it and, full of enthusiasm, goes in search of the ingredients.
Lupine finds the enchanted rose garden, but is unable to collect the rose as it is loaded with prickly thorns. He then decides to pick a tulip in the nearby meadow.
The Narrator scolds him, because he is not following the recipe of the book, but Lupine does not care and goes to pick an apple.
Once again the Narrator scolds him, because the apple he will have to pick is the golden one, which is on the top of the tree.
Lupine decides to climb the tree, but failing to do so, he picks up the first red apple that happens to him.
For the fur of an extraordinary creature, Lupine collects many from all the animals on the farm: the donkey, the sheep and the rabbit ... someone will work.
After getting all the ingredients, Lupine goes to the kitchen with the princess and brews a potion to turn her back into a princess.
So throw everything in the pot. Once the greenish soup is made, he pours a few drops on the pumpkin, which turns into a horrible mushroom.
Despite all possible attempts, Lupine does nothing but transform the pumpkin into other hideous plants, like a large carnivorous plant chasing him.
The prince has no choice, he has to prepare the potion with the right ingredients.
Suddenly the witch arrives and, admiring that big carnivorous plant, compliments Lupine for the recipe.
Lupine then consults the magic book again and this time without haste he has the list of all the ingredients repeated.
Lupine manages to take the enchanted rose, as it broke away from the rose garden due to the witch's fight over it.
The golden apple, however, is taken by the witch aboard her broom. Lupine prince does not give up and jumping over a big mushroom, he manages to snatch the apple from the witch's hands.
He has only the last ingredient left, namely the hair of a dragon's nostril.
"You will never find the dragon, I hid it very very well!" replies the witch. But the loud snoring from behind a bush intrigues Lupine, who thus finds the sleeping dragon, from which he tears the hair of the nostril.
The dragon wakes up, gets mad and runs after him, but Lupine manages to prepare the potion in time and get rid of both the dragon and the witch.
He then pours it over the carnivorous plant, which thus returns to being the beautiful princess.
There was a wonderful wedding feast that was remembered forever by the inhabitants of the kingdom, except by the evil witch who was not invited.
With a promise to behave well, Lupine invites the evil witch to the wedding, much to the delight of the latter, who to thank the royal couple, prepares the largest cake the kingdom has ever seen.

Production

This is Xilam's first co-production with a Chinese company, coming in the wake of Manya Zhou's hiring in 2019 as the head of business development for China. Zhou is in charge of managing co-pro, distribution and L&M opportunities in the region.

Youku has been co-producing more animated content with international partners recently, including Stan Lee's new animated series Genius Brands' Superhero Kindergarten, and Little Luban animated series by Viacom International Media Networks.

The videos of Lupine's stories

The theme song of Lupine's stories
Les contes de Lupine | Clip | Le Preux Paysan and l'Esprit de la Forêt

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