Jul 5, 2015

Cartoon Network's Imagination Studio encourages children to create creative ideas

Cartoon Network is launching a worthwhile online initiative to help budding animators create their own cartoons - and some of the studio's most well known creators will participate in the program, offering creative advice to children.

Beginning this month, Cartoon Network will roll out its Imagination Studios initiative in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) to teach kids aged 6-12 the basics of animation and hopefully “inspire and celebrate [their] imagination and creativity,” according to a recent Cartoon Network announcement.

Imagination Studios will offer lessons and activities about drawing, coloring, storyboarding, special effects, music, voiceover, and animation, in an effort to give children the necessary toolset for developing their own ideas. Additionally, Cartoon Network creators like Rebecca Sugar (Steven Universe) and Ben Bocquelet (The Amazing World of Gumball) will offer guidance and tips on the platform.

“We often receive fan art and story ideas inspired by our shows, so we wanted to create a destination to encourage and facilitate all the amazing creativity stored in the minds of our young audiences,” said Patricia Hidalgo, svp and chief content & creative officer for Kids at Turner Broadcasting EMEA. “Cartoon Network Imagination Studios is a place where kids can learn, gain inspiration, have fun and, ultimately, be themselves; it promotes the value of being different and, in turn, creating something unique.”

Cartoon Network will also offer kids the opportunity to enter their finished work into consideration for Cartoon Network's Imagination Studios Awards, which so far is available to UK children and may be expanded to other regions. Some of those ideas may be “brought to life on air on Cartoon Network.”

In the UK, the Imagination Studios project is supported by the British Film Institute, which will help judge the awards competition and will host tie-in events at the BFI Southbank. The UK will also offer a specially-created “teacher toolkit” for primary school instructors to incorporate lessons centered around the theme of “friendship” into the UK national curriculum.