After a sinister organization starts kidnapping talking animals in the city, a stoic circus director teams up with a talking bear, a depressed clown, and a fiery magician to save their circus, but when old secrets come to light, the world they thought they knew comes crashing down.
This is the story of stoic circus director Ivan Loskudov and his crew: Ada the talking bear, fiery young magician Mathilde, and Otis, the charismatic talking owl. The ragged circus that is their livelihood is on the brink of bankruptcy, and the team needs to overcome dangerous challenges to save the circus.
What they don’t know is that a sinister organization in the city is actively working against them, as the circus is one of the few places where talking animals, or shengyin, are still tolerated. To fight these villains, Ivan and his friends must dig deep into their history and face truths that they tried to bury. Old secrets are uncovered that are rooted in the city:
The story takes place in the sprawling City of Tresore, amid the Industrial Revolution, mere decades after a violent conflict between humans and shengyin. In its heyday, Circus Starfal offered an escape from the city’s age-old struggles. The dazzling lights, bombastic acts, and near-magical stage were the talk of the town. However, the golden years ended abruptly when founder Gustav Loskudov, Ivan’s father, died performing his act as ‘Starfal’, the famous human cannonball.
The truth of what really happened all those years ago can no longer be ignored by Ivan and his crew when Elmer the depressed clown, former employee of the circus, returns. His questions about their common past seem to have everything to do with the threat the crew faces today.
“Bombastic” is an animated series, set in an alternative universe. It’s aimed at an adult audience (20-34). “Bombastic” explores themes like discrimination, mental illness, corruption and poverty, but it shouldn’t be jarring or overly complex for a young audience (12-18) to grasp. The look and feel of the show, with talking animals among the characters, make that possible.
However, “Bombastic” is aimed in the first place at this adult audience, because the themes it explores are darker and more mature than a typical children’s’ series would be, and are thoroughly explored. Secondly, while ‘talking animals’ are typically found in children’s stories, the idea of talking animals is treated in a new way in “Bombastic”. This story asks the question: what if animals could talk? How would that affect our society?
The talking animals in “Bombastic” are deeply rooted in the history of this alternate universe, and their mere existence is the source of conflict, mystery and story. The series’ style will contain elements from movies like Coco (2017), Klaus (2019), and Princess Mononoke (1997). It will be an interesting mix of backdrops, world design, and use of lighting and atmosphere from Klaus, character design and colors from Coco, and the way nature and dark themes are represented in Mononoke.
All in all, this will make “Bombastic” a series with an animated style that is diverse, borrowing from many different art styles. The color scheme will be broad and rich, while never being too colorful, reflecting the story’s changing moods.
What’s next?
We’ve been working on “Bombastic” for years now, and in our minds, the series is exciting and alive. Our work contains many more backgrounds, histories, characters, and details that we just couldn’t fit into this document, but we can’t wait to share them with the world. We would love to team up with parties that can help grow this idea into a TV series and go from text and ideas to lively animation and engaging stories.
To make this series a reality, at this point, we need a production company, an animation studio, and finances.
Interested? We would love to send you a more in depth version of this pitch.
info@motionpark.nl