Ape Escape Debuts on Sunday

Hawaii Film Partners’ animated series of 38 episodes of Ape Escape for Nickelodeon’s NickToons™ will premiere on the cable network on July 5th 2009 at 3:00 pm EDT & PDT. Subsequently, Ape Escape episodes will air each Sunday during the 3:00 pm time slot. Ape Escape was animated at Hawaii Film Partners’ animation facility in Hawaii Kai on O’ahu.

Based on Sony PlayStation’s popular 1999 interactive game of the same name, Ape Escape is executive produced by Rann Watumull, Gina Watumull, David Jackson, Shauna Shapiro Jackson; Fred Seibert and Kevin Kolde of the Frederator Studios; Rick Privman, and Yumiko Miyano of SONY. Konnie Kwak is the producer and Karl Toerge (Ratzafratz) is the supervising director. Music is composed by Mike Reagan. The title music is composed by David Jackson.

“This is an historic project in that it marks the first time a television program was animated in Hawaii for a national TV network,” says Rann Watumull of Hawaii Film Partners and one of Ape Escape’s executive producers. “We wanted to create a synergy between the interactive game and the animated episode series, and bring the Ape Escape characters to life in a very humorous and fun-filled program. We’ve specifically written the episodes for an audience ages 6-13 who have never played the game. Yet we also have made it entertainment that will be appealing to any age,” he concludes.

Hawaii Film Partners has financed the production of Ape Escape and has worldwide rights across all media with NickToonsâ„¢ being awarded the broadcast rights in the United States for a three-year period. Hawaii Film Partners teamed up with Showcase Entertainment to exclusively distribute Ape Escape in all international territories. The project is a co-production with Frederator Studios, one of the largest and most prolific independent animation studios. Some of their recent projects include The Fairly Odd Parents!, My Life as a Teenage Robotâ„¢ and Chalk Zone for Nickelodeon, and Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! for Nick Jr.

Rann and Gina Watumull are co-founders and senior executives at Hawaii Film Partners based in Honolulu. With the goal to help build a valuable and indigenous film industry in Hawaii, Hawaii Film Partners is dedicated to producing motion pictures and television productions on the Hawaiian Islands using local location services and personnel.

David Jackson and Shauna Shapiro Jackson are president and executive vice president respectively of Showcase Entertainment, a worldwide film distribution company, and are co-owners and senior executives of Hawaii Film Partners along with Rann and Gina Watumull. Goodsill, Anderson, Quinn & Stifel, Hawaii’s largest law firm also is a minority owner of Hawaii Film Partners.

Hawaii Film Partners recently completed production on the feature film “You May Not Kiss the Bride,” starring Rob Schneider, Dave Annable, Mena Suvari, Katharine McPhee, Vinnie Jones, Tia Carrere, Ken Davitian and Kevin Dunn. Their first project was the acclaimed and award-winning international hit television series for Discovery Kids, “Flight 29 Down” that is still airing in over 100 countries. Rounding out Hawaii Film Partners ambitious slate is the original animated television series “Guardians of the Power Masks” which marked an historic international partnership with the City of Changzhou in China and the Gagwon Information Multi-Media Corporation (GIMC) in South Korea. Production of the series is on-going in Hawaii Film Partners’ animation studio in Honolulu and at its partners’ studios in South Korea and in the People’s Republic of China.