Get Schooled - Ninja Style!

Get Schooled - Ninja Style!

Kids Can't Wait For Class to Begin With Debut of New Animated Comedy Shuriken School Premiering Sunday, August 20

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Nickelodeon will present a unique blend of Japanese and European animation design to viewers this August with new series Shuriken School, a quirky comedy with a martial arts twist about a boy's adventures at Ninja school. Shuriken School will debut on Nickelodeon Sunday, August 20 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (ET/PT), with new episodes following each week in the series regular timeslot, Sundays at 11:30 a.m. The original animated comedy series was created by Emilio and Jesus Gallego and co-produced by Xilam Animation and Zinkia Entertainment.

Shuriken School's unique design creates a stand-out animation style with intensive use of digital 2-D animation, combining all the detail of high- quality illustration with exciting action sequences. The series tells the story of 10-year-old Eizan Kaburagi's rite of passage in his first year at Ninja school.

"When we first saw Shuriken School we knew instantly that its hilarious sensibility and sharp animation style would enhance what we have in our programming library," said Tom Ascheim, Executive Vice President & General Manager, Nickelodeon Television. "We wanted to bring something fresh to our Sunday morning line-up, and along with Kappa Mikey, Shuriken fits the bill."

"We are delighted that Shuriken School has found a home on the number one network for kids," said Marc du Pontavice, Chairman, Xilam Animation. "With its unique visual design, it is a fun, non-stop adventure that kids and animation fans of all ages will love."

Shuriken School takes place in the fictional town of Tokirohama, a melting pot of eastern and western cultures. In many ways Eizan is a normal kid with big dreams, hopes and ambitions. He hangs out with his best friends Jimmy B. and Okuni; they pick conflicts with kids from the rival school, Katana, and have fun and drum up mischief. However, Shuriken is not a normal type of school. It is a crazy place where the implausible and improbable happen: children learn how to melt into the walls, fly over rooftops, disappear in a cloud of smoke and move as stealthily as an invisible cat. Teaching methods at the school are unorthodox and absurd things can and do happen.

In the premiere episode "Winning Ninja," Eizan has to help his dad make rice balls for the Tokirohama Bonanza Weekend, but as a result, he's so tired he fails his school exercises. To motivate him, Okuni secretly signs him up for the bonanza's Martial Arts Festival Competition. The organizer is the leading Ninja Equipment supplier for all schools--Mister No. When Mr. No bumps into Kita, one of his old classmates, he sneers at her and says her career has led her to teach in the most "rundown Ninja school in town" -- Shuriken. Kita bets him that Shuriken will win the competition, but the stakes are high. If Shuriken loses, Mr. No wants all the school's overdue payments to be settled at once. In other words, Shuriken's survival is in Eizan's hands.

The second episode, "Catnap Burglar," debuts on August 27 and begins when Bakufu, the famous Ninja master, literally drops out of the sky and offers to teach at Shuriken School. The Principal doesn't dare refuse, but Bakufu's fee is exorbitant. While the Principal attempts to come up with moneymaking schemes, a mysterious thief starts stealing things from the students! Eizan, Jimmy and Okuni investigate. Their prime suspect is Bakufu, because these incidents surprisingly coincide with his appearance at the school.

Xilam is an audio-visual and multi-media production company launched by Marc du Pontavice after acquiring the assets of Gaumont Multimedia. Xilam -- today a European leader in top quality animation -- creates, produces and distributes animated content for the international market, in various formats: TV, film, and merchandising. Xilam has produced internationally successful animated series for TV including Oggy and the Cockroaches, Ratz, The New Adventures of Lucky Luke and Space Goofs (aka Home to Rent). The company has been listed on the Euronext since February 7th 2002 (Eurolist compartment C - Code ISIN FR0004034072).

Madrid-based Zinkia Entertainment is a creative factory producing audiovisual content, focusing on animation and cinematic documentaries as well as interactive content for on line communities, consoles and multi-player mobile games. Since the company was established in 2001, Zinkia's projects include POCOYO (52 x 7 minutes), a 3D animated pre-school series, co-produced with Granada International, in association with Granada Kids and Cosgrove Hall for UK broadcaster ITV; a multiplayer football mobile phone game, sponsored by Coca-Cola Spain, Copa Coca-Cola Mobile and mobile phone games Word Hunter and Wireless West. Zinkia is also developing a video console game for Shuriken School.

Nickelodeon, now in its 27th year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books, magazines and feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television network is seen in more than 90 million households and has been the number-one-rated basic cable network for eleven consecutive years. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NYSE:VIA)(NYSE:and)(NYSE:VIA.B).

Source: Nickelodeon

CONTACT: Nicole Parker, +1-818-736-3613, nicole.parker@nick.com

Web site: http://www.nick.com/

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