'Puffin Rock And The New Friends' Opens In The UK in August

Here at AFA we are massive fans of Cartoon Saloon. The four-time Oscar-nominated studio based in Kilkenny, Ireland are responsible for some of the best animated features of recent years including Song of The Sea, Wolfwalkers and The Breadwinner. Now, less than a year from their last release My Father's Dragon, they are gearing up to release their next film.

Puffin Rock and The New Friends is a big-screen spin-off of their TV series, Puffin Rock. The film is co-produced by Northern Ireland's Dog Ears. This is the first animated feature to be (partially) produced in Northern Ireland.

Like the TV series, the movie will celebrate Ireland's magnificent natural environment with themes of friendship, belonging and courage. It will follow the familiar characters from the series Oona, Baba, May, and Mossy who will be joined by Isabelle, Phoenix, and Marvin, new arrivals on the island. When the last Little Egg disappears under mysterious circumstances, Oona and her new friends must race to bring the egg home before a big storm hits Puffin Rock and puts the entire island in danger.

The screenplay was written by Sara Daddy, who was head writer on the original series. The director was Jeremy Purcell. The film was produced by Paul Young, Tomm Moore, and Nora Twomey from Cartoon Saloon, and John McDaid and Fionnuala Deane from Dog Ears, with the support of Northern Ireland Screen, Screen Ireland, RTÉ, and BBC Alba.

If features the voices of Chris O'Dowd, Eva Whittaker, Amy Huberman, Geraldine Cole, Aaron MacGregor and Beth McCafferty.

The original Puffin Rock TV series was nominated for an international Emmy and has won two KidScreen Awards and a Royal Television Award.

Puffin Rock and The New Friends was released by Wildcard Distribution in Ireland on July 14. Vertigo Releasing will release the film in the UK on August 11. No US release has been cofirmed as yet.