This month, there is a brilliant new series, premiering on Cartoon Network: The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe.
In a nutshell, the show follows the epic adventures of Prince Ivandoe, on the greatest adventure of his life as he embarks on a quest through The Five Kingdoms to Eagle Mountain for the legendary ‘Golden Feather’ – said to grant one’s true heart’s desire. Read more about The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe here.
But first, keep reading – the team at UKMums.TV had the opportunity to chat with Christian Bøving-Andersen and Eva Lee Wallberg the creators and directors of The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe.
For those parents who aren’t yet familiar with The Heroic Quest Of The Valiant Prince Ivandoe, can you briefly outline the premise of the show?
Christian: It’s about a young buck who is a prince, and his loyal squire and best friend Bert, who go on an exciting quest for the legendary “Golden Feather”. They travel across many different lands along the way.
Where did your inspiration come from for The Heroic Quest Of The Valiant Prince Ivandoe?
Eva: We had come together to think of new ideas, but we were getting a little stuck. Then we thought, “What would we like to see?”, and we came up with our ultimate show, incorporating all the things that we loved like adventure. We brought all of this together, drawing inspiration from well-known sources that we love, including Lord of the Rings and Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail.
Christian: We wanted it to be silly but also exciting and fun for families to watch. Plus we wanted an element of “epicness”, magic and fairytale – with funny creatures. We wanted to create something that we would enjoy when we were of that age.
The Heroic Quest Of The Valiant Prince Ivandoe is full of fun, outlandish characters, in an exciting new world comprising five magical kingdoms. Can you talk to us about world building. For example, what came first – the character concepts or the different kingdoms?
Eva: For us, we start with the characters. A lot of these stories are very character driven. So we like to start with these silly characters that will be a good adversary to Ivandoe and Bert. And then we can start to build these little kingdoms and worlds around them.
Christian: Absolutely! It’s important for us to begin with developing these fun and silly characters who will have a good dynamic with Ivandoe, allowing all these funny things to happen. And the story will develop from there.
Eva: As soon as we have a voice for the characters, we’re writing. We’re exploring how the character speaks, what’s special about what they do. It’s a lot of work and reworking after that. But that’s how we create our stories.
And what did the process of bringing everything together look like behind the scenes?
Christian: First we develop the personalities of the characters and the stories, writing the scripts. Then we design them, figuring out how they’re going to look. And we consider how we can tell the story visually.
Then our big, amazing team, which is full of talented artists will animate and design everything, and paint the backgrounds. And there are also sounds and music to create on top of that, as well as voicing and special effects.
It’s a big, long process, that involved a lot of people.
The animation style has a lot of depth and feels fresh. Can you share some details around how you achieve this but also what led you to create the show in this style – what do you hope to achieve with the style?
Eva: We ended up having these five cartoon style, silly characters, and then we had these grained, tactile-looking, serious, and detailed backgrounds. The idea was that Ivandoe was a child, who was going into this big, serious world. And everything he would do and how he would come across would be amplified by this serious, real world around him. That’s the thought process behind why we decided to style it in this way.
Christian: It’s Ivandoe’s first time out in the world – he’s exploring it for the first time. So we wanted to convey how he was out of his element.
Who is your key target audience for the show?
Christian: We wanted to make a show for kids of all ages, which was something that could be watched and enjoyed by the whole family.
Describe The Heroic Quest Of The Valiant Prince Ivandoe in just three words.
Eva: Friendship, Silly, Questy
Christian: I would use the same!
Tell us why The Heroic Quest Of The Valiant Prince Ivandoe is likely to appeal to kids.
Eva: It has a lot of exciting and fun elements – some familiar and some unfamiliar. At the core we have two characters that are quite silly and fun. And children are able to explore this exciting new world with them. I think this is all very exciting and fun.
Christian: For us, the humour was always very important – we wanted it to be silly and funny. But we also wanted there to be a lot of action and drama, with fairytale creatures and magic – all of this exciting stuff. All these elements combined we felt made for a show we would have loved to have watched as children and we hope other kids will feel the same.
And what will parents like about the show? (For example, what are its key teachings?)
Christian: We hope they’ll also enjoy the humour, but it’s also about the message of believing in yourself. Ivandoe isn’t your perfect hero – he has his flaws. But he always believes in himself, no matter what others say. His friend Bert also believes in Ivandoe, and they help each other. So it’s also about the power of friendship and believing in yourself.
Do you have a favourite storyline? If so, tell us about it!
Eva: It’s hard to choose, but one of my favorite stories is the origin story. It’s the one about how Bert and Ivandoe first met and who they were before. It’s super fun and looks at where everything first began.
What’s to come for The Heroic Quest of The Valiant Prince Ivandoe?
Christian: It’s now premiering across Europe. So that’s very exciting and we’re very much looking forward to families discovering the show. And we hope to create more! More adventures with Ivandoe, and more episodes!
Watch The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe now, exclusively on Cartoon Network.
Cartoon Network is available to watch via Sky 601, Virgin Media 704 and NOW.