For several years, producer Petter Lindblad at Snowcloud Films have been developing a new feature film together with director/writer Esben Toft Jacobsen. In the autumn of 2023 we were granted co-development support from Creative Europe MEDIA and support from the children's film commissioner at The Swedish Film Institute, which allowed us to really push the project forward.

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At the moment we are in advanced development of this animated adventure comedy for kids 5-9 and their families, created and written by Jacobsen. Snowcloud Films produce with Dutch Viking Film and Danish Nørlum Entertainment and Vi Glæder os Preben co-producing.

Nordisk Film & TV Fond interviewed us leading up to Cinekid, and you can read the full article HERE. You can also read it below.

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[The wonderful concept image we have shared here was made by Patrik Lindberg as part of the development. More visuals will come at Cinekid for those who join us there.]

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NFTVF gained access to the two projects set to be pitched at the gathering — the animated feature Millie and the Secret of the Crocodile and the animated series Puck.

Penned and directed by Esben Toft Jacobsen, Millie and the Secret of the Crocodile aims to captivate young viewers aged 5-9 and their families. The director’s previous credits include the animated features The Great Bear (Den kæmpestore bjørn) and Beyond Beyond (Resan til fjäderkungens rike), as well as Netflix’s first Scandi original The Rain, for which he worked as a creator and visual supervisor.

His new endeavour, budgeted at €3 million and combining 3D animation with painterly visuals, is now in advanced development and has received development backing from the Swedish Film Institute and Creative Europe MEDIA. Production financing is set to start in January 2025, with a tentative release date slated for Q1 2027.

The story revolves around Millie, an orphaned mouse who lives with a family of loving hedgehogs. She is afraid of everything, especially the crocodile that bit off her tail when she was a baby. Her only friend is Morten, the son of the hedgehog family. One day, their football ends up in the river, and when Morten tries to retrieve it, he falls in and is carried away. Terrified, Millie knows she has to find Morten. She sets out on a journey, accompanied by a frog named Archimedes. As they travel down the river, Millie struggles to find the courage she needs. With the help of an old turtle who possesses a magical courage stone, Millie finds the strength to face her fears. The river leads them to a lake where the crocodile has laid her eggs. She demands that all animals bring food and toys to ensure her children’s happiness — or face the consequences.

The production team includes delegate producer Petter Lindblad of Sweden’s Snowcloud Films, co-producer Marleen Slot of Dutch outfit Viking Film, co-producer Claus Toksvik Kjær and Elena Ø Alexa of Denmark’s Nørlum Entertainment, and the helmer himself, serving as a co-producer for Denmark’s Vi Glæder Os Preben. Key creatives are art director Thomas Ø Poulsen, senior character modeller Kristian Rydberg, script consultant Mieke de Jonge, and storyboard artist Gijs van der Lelij. Animation studios Dupp Film (Sweden) and Job, Joris & Marieke (Netherlands) are also attached to the project.

The team has already received several letters of interest and will be seeking pre-sales and financiers at Cinekid.

Zooming in on the project’s themes, they say: “Having worked primarily on animated projects for children, and now having kids of his own and seeing them grow up and tackle challenges in life, this story about courage was close to Toft Jacobsen’s heart. We all feel scared sometimes, and as a child, there are so many new things that can be frightening. We need to build up our courage to handle them, step by step.”

“The story of the small mouse Millie, who must face her greatest fears to save her foster brother Morten from a big crocodile terrorising their world, shows how she grows and rises to the occasion. In the end, she not only saves her brother, but also all the other captured animals — and even the crocodile, who had been terrorising the other animals because she was scared.”

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