Paper Dinosaurs Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
WITNESS THE DAWN OF A NEW AGE OF DINOSAURS… PAPER DINOSAURS!
A clever IP catches the attention of an internet entrepreneur on Kickstarter.com, who then launches a new company to build the IP into a children’s powerhouse brand!

DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
Monday, August 29, 2011 2:00pm

Paper Dinosaurs, a new children’s line of games, cartoons and merchandise, was announced today by the newly formed Paper Dinosaur Construction Co., with offices located in Burbank and Newport Beach, CA. Paper Dinosaurs is an all-new video game and cartoon property in development for over a year. Aimed squarely at the “Nick Jr.” crowd, Paper Dinosaurs is designed to appeal to the youngsters with bright, colorful and friendly characters, and is meant to entertain while reinforcing positive values and the importance of family and friends in the storylines.

“When I saw Paper Dinosaurs for the first time on Kickstarter.com, I knew it was special,” says Internet Entrepreneur Justin Hartfield. “The characters were immediately likable, and I knew that the kids would love them. It was a perfect fit for the kind of project I wanted to get behind next.”

“I knew Kickstarter.com would be the place I would find the right financial and production partner,” says Mark Butler, Emmy-award winning animator, and creator of Paper Dinosaurs. “It really came down to the wire! We had early some backers that had pledged a few hundred dollars, but it looked like we would come up short of our initial goal. Then, Justin stepped in, and in one fell swoop, put us over the finish line!”

Kickstarter.com attracted Hartfield’s attention to the project, but he was stunned by all the prior development work that had been completed by Butler prior to posting the project.

“I have been developing Paper Dinosaurs for a long time,” says Butler. “I actually came up with the concept years ago, but last year, we decided to get serious about producing it. Once all the characters were designed, and the scripts were complete, we recorded the first scratch track, and that’s when I knew we had a hit on our hands. It’s been so much fun from that point on!”

Paper Dinosaurs is a video game and cartoon series with an Arts and Crafts component. It’s a website portal to their paper world, where kids can watch the cartoons, play the games, and build and share their own Paper Dinosaurs! It’s the Paper DinoSTORE… with coloring books, cut-and-fold books, popup books, teeshirts, stickers and more. It’s the newest kid’s entertainment sensation. Everybody loves Paper Dinosaurs!

Created by Emmy-winning Animator Mark Butler, and Produced by Internet Entrepreneur Justin Hartfield, the Paper Dinosaur Construction Co. is now in full production on the first video game, as well as the cartoon series, with the first of 26x11 episodes to debut later this year. Also, the company announced the launch of their new game and cartoon enabled social networking website, coming soon.

The Paper Dinosaur Construction Co. is a new start-up, with Justin Hartfield as Chief Executive Officer, and Mark Butler as Chief Creative Officer. The other partners in the venture include Berny Herrera as VP Business Development, and James Magon as Senior Editor and Script Supervisor. James is a veteran cartoon scribe, with a number of successful series and movies under his belt, including Disney’s Chip n’ Dales Rescue Rangers, Duck Tales, Goof Troop, Secret of Nimh and Winnie the Pooh. The art and animation team brought together for this project include Adam “Mojo” Liebowitz, (Emmy-award winning animator on Star Trek: Voyager and Battlestar Galactica), Environment Lead Mychael Lederer, (Emmy-award winning animator for WB and Disney), and Interactive Art Director Mike Kelliher.

“Kids growing up in a Digital World need constant access to new content and apps,” says Justin Hartfield, CEO. “Paper Dinosaurs provides fun, family entertainment for children 2-5, and we will be in all digital delivery streams.”

“The mobile app market is $17.5 billion, with an estimated 10% of that market going towards children’s apps,” says Berny Herrera, VP Biz Dev. “Paper Dinosaurs are uniquely positioned to maximize our appeal in this space.”

“The art and animation style of Paper Dinosaurs is super fun and nostalgic, in a way unlike other cartoons and games,” says Mark Butler, CCO. “Every kid gets it immediately. You can play with your Paper Dinosaur in game, watch the cartoons, or build and collect them in the real world. Any which way you do it, playing with Paper Dinosaurs is fun :-) .”

For more information, please contact:
Paper Dinosaur Construction Co.
at 818.731.9327 or write info@paperdinosaurs.com
www.paperdinosaurs.com

Paper Dinosaurs just got Funded

Hi everybody! Am so excited to announce that as of 1:56 today, we have secured the funding for the video game! Our little project that could is picking up steam, that's for sure. We are hard at work the first game and cartoon now... we will post much more here, so keep your eyes peeled for Paper Dinosaurs! -- Mark

Paper Dinosaurs on Kickstarter.com

Hi all... I just posted the new Paper Dinosaurs Videogame Project on Kickstarter.com. So excited to finally get it posted. Kind of nervous, though... because nobody has donated yet! I don't know if that's normal or strange... I am definitely in new territory here. Well, I hope you will stop by and drop a dollar in the can! Hahaha :-)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paperdinosaurs/paper-dinosaurs-crazy-dino-player-video-game

Paper Dinosaurs Full Size Models

Pizza party at Muppet Labs last night! Allow me to introduce Rajeesh, a prehistoric sea turtle, and Spencer's best friend! Great job, Alex! As you can see, we made great progress on the others... 3 down, 3 to go!

Paper Dinosaurs Schwag Now Available

Hi everybody! You can now get your favorite Paper Dinosaurs schwag on Cafe Press, so get your baby that Rajeesh bib you have been waiting for :-)

http://www.cafepress.com/PaperDinosaurs

Meet the Dinosaurs, Part 2

Everybody Loves Paper Dinosaurs!

Paper Dinosaurs is an all-new video game and cartoon property we have been developing for over a year. Aimed squarely at the “Nick Jr.” crowd, Paper Dinosaurs is designed to appeal to the youngsters with bright, colorful and friendly characters, and is meant to entertain while reinforcing positive values and the importance of family and friends in the storylines. The idea first came up with my own kids, when they were about five. We were on an origami kick, making all sorts of animals, but all they wanted to do was build dinosaurs. They were fascinated with them, just as I was at their age. After we built a few, I looked down at the table, and I could just see them coming to life… walking and talking and singing and dancing. The boys and I acted out the parts, and we had a blast. Paper Dinosaurs was born at that very moment.

I wrote some notes, scribbled out a few sketches, and even modeled out some 3D dinos in an early version of Lightwave, but the software and tools to achieve the look I envisioned were a ways off. I knew that if we could achieve the look of stop-motion animation with advanced digital animation tools, we could create a unique look like no other cartoon. Using paper as the medium has a dual-purpose effect for me… I love the way it looks in the models and sets... but the fact that any kid with a scissors can cut out his or her own dinosaur and play along crosses the bridge from video games and cartoons into arts and crafts in a way I have never seen done before.

Over the years, Paper Dinosaurs percolated in my head. I knew it was a solid concept. Dinosaur properties are seemingly evergreen, with new dinosaur cartoons, shows, movies and video games coming out for every new generation of kids. The opportunity to put together quality storytelling that reinforces positive values in a vehicle that will captivate kids has become something of a quest for me… I really want Paper Dinosaurs to become a perennial favorite, much in the way the old Rankin-Bass Christmas shows have a spot in everyone’s heart.

So, exactly what is Paper Dinosaurs? It’s a cartoon and video game series with an Arts and Crafts component. It’s a website portal to their paper world, where kids can watch the cartoons, play the games, and build and share their own Paper Dinosaurs!

In the cartoon series, we meet all the Paper Dinosaurs… Spencer and Molly, Bart and Gert, Spikowski and Rajeesh and many more characters, as they sing, dance, and play with their friends and family down by the Big Lake. The entire set is made of paper… the water has paper animated ripples… the smoke off the volcano has paper animated smoke… everything down to the flowers are hand-built out of paper, and animated in the stop-motion style we call Papermation. At the beginning of each episode, we open the Paper Dinosaurs pop-up book, and as the first scene pops up, the Narrator sets up the story, and we transition into the cartoon. Each High-Def episode is 11 minutes in length. We are in production now on the pilot episode.

Our first Paper Dinosaurs video game is just a fun time waster… and a great way to introduce all the characters in the world. The second video game will be a virtual pet-style game, where you build your own Paper Dinos and have multi-player adventures with your friends. You can even print a pattern to cut out and fold your own Paper Dinosaur! We are in production now on the first game, which we hope to have completed by October.

On the website, you will find our video player and gamer’s lounge. You will also find the Paper Dinostore. Here, you can buy the real-world Paper Dinosaur products for purchase… Paper Dinosaur Cut and Fold Pattern Kits, Press and Fold Dino Paper Packs, Paper Dinosaur Pop-Up Storybooks, and, of course, Paper Dinosaur Teeshirts and Baby Clothes! We plan to launch the site in August.

Our team has been developing the brand for this last year… building the models, writing the scripts, developing the look, and basically having fun creating this world! Paper Dinosaurs is being directed and produced by me, Mark Butler (Emmy-winning animator, 3D artist and mad scientist), with the property being published by my Butler Digital Publishing imprint. As soon as I told him of the concept, Berny Herrera (formerly with Universal and CKA) joined the project to develop the business model, and then, finally, James Magon (longtime scribe for Disney and WB) came on to write the scripts and bring the Paper Dinosaurs world to life. Some of the other extremely talented artists who are now attached to the project include: Mychael Lederer-Morihisa (Emmy-winning animator for Disney and WB) on 3D and web dev, Adam “Mojo” Liebowitz (Emmy-winning animator on Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica) on 3D and rendering, Louie Paretta on Sound Design, and Alexandra Hughes on the full-size Dino Puppet Building and web dev. Definitely the Paper Dinosaurs dream team! We are looking to grow our team… over the next month we will be adding another animator, web developer and Unity 3D developer, so if you are interested in helping build Paper Dinosaurs, drop me a note!

Up to this point, the work put into Paper Dinosaurs has been self-financed by Berny, James and myself. The development has been completely part-time, as we all have day jobs. But, we all believe in it so much that we have continued to chip away at the stone, and we are very close to being ready to present the property to investors and studios, with the intention of finding the right financial and production partner that can help make Paper Dinosaurs a world-class children’s entertainment powerhouse brand.

Then, a few weeks ago, two things happened… the first was that I finished co-producing my first iPad game. I have worked on a number of games in the past, but the new Unity 3D game engine is amazing, and allowed us to complete the project in under 90 days.

The second thing was that a couple weeks ago, someone told me about Kickstarter.com. I knew instantly that this was the way to get Paper Dinosaurs funded, and build our fanbase! We need your help getting Paper Dinosaurs out to the world! Our plan is to bring two projects to Kickstarter.com, the first is:

Project #1: Paper Dinosaurs Crazy Dino Player v1
Category: Mindless Colorful Animated Entertainment
Platform: Website, Mac and PC, iPad & iPhone, Android
Appeals to Ages: 0-3

In this simple button masher, you select 1 of 4 Paper Dinosaurs and then simply click on them to make them burp, talk, sing, tell jokes, do silly tricks, or one of 50 other general amusements. Non-interface… any child can click anywhere and the Paper Dino does something cute, funny or adorable. Similar to the Spore Creature Creator.

The game is free, additional Dino Packs will be available for $tbd.

More to come when I get the Kickstarter page set up!