Development Alert: Disney Silently Removes Possible Third Season Renewal Of Kiff With Fears Over A Possible Cancellation

Kiff is an animated musical comedy television series created by Lucy Heavens and Nic Smal and produced by Disney Television Animation in association with Titmouse, Inc. It is also one of their first animated features to have been created in South Africa.

Synopsis for Kiff

Set in Table Town, a mountainous island surrounded by animals and magical creatures, the series centers on the adventures of a young, optimistic and happy-go lucky anthropomorphic squirrel named Kiff, whose best intentions often lead to complete chaos, and her best friend Barry, a sweet and mellow rabbit. The two take the island by storm with their endless adventures and zest for life.

The first season premiered from  March 10, 2023 to February 10, 2024 and consisted of 30 episodes. Before the series premiered, Disney Channel had already announced production of a second season which is slated to launch in the coming months.

Earlier in the year, Disney Channel had axed majority of shows including Bunk'd, Raven’s Home and The Ghost And Molly McGee. With the likes of Pretty Freakin Scary and Hailey's On It that reportedly ended on a cliffhanger as the network has gone quiet on its status. 

Kiff appears to be caught in the crossfire as earlier reports on their Instagram page announced a third season would be coming soon. Interesting to note, during the Annecy presentation Big City Greens was the only confirmed renewal. 

Could it be possible that season 3 was actually mistaken for a season 2 as the post was mysteriously taken down? It should be noted that they said season 3 is "coming soon" instead of "renewed".

But then again nothing can be certain at this point as they are reviving Phineas And Ferb and that wasn't present in these strings of announcements. It's possible that they just wanted to divulge on what the media hasn't seen yet and so on.

Disney TV Announces New ‘Prep & Landing,’ ‘Moon Girl’ Shorts, ‘Kindergarten: The Musical,’ ‘Big City Greens’ S5 & Much More

Today, during the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Disney Branded Television (DBT) announced a lineup of new animated projects and shared first looks from its preschool and kids slate. The announcements were made by Ayo Davis, President of Disney Branded Television, alongside DBT animation leaders Meredith Roberts, EVP of Disney Television Animation; Alyssa Sapire, SVP of Development, Series and Strategy, Disney Junior; and Orion Ross, VP, International Animation.

Additionally, Disney Television Animation commemorated its illustrious 40-year anniversary at the festival with a special panel highlighting the studio’s dominance in kids’ animation over four decades — with beloved titles like Phineas and Ferb, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Monsters at Work, The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, Sofia the First and more — as well as current and future hits ranging from Kiff to Big City Greens, ZOMBIES: The Re-Animated Series, Hamster & Gretel and StuGo.

Disney Junior, Disney Television Animation and International Animation teams will feature several additional panels throughout the week, including one that highlights the power of storytelling through music and features Disney Junior’s Ariel, Kindergarten: The Musical, ZOMBIES: The Re-Animated Series, Kiff and Big City Greens, as well as a panel for the upcoming global series The Doomies.

“Disney Branded Television is proud of our four-decade legacy of creating magical and visually stunning animation beloved by young audiences around the world,” said Davis. “It’s a momentous year at Annecy, as we celebrate our studio’s milestone anniversary and showcase some of our most exciting new projects and creative talent that are ushering us into a new era of storytelling.”

Among the new Disney Junior and Disney Television Animation titles and first looks announced at Annecy are the following:

New Series & Specials

Prep & Landing: The Snowball Protocol (22-minute special)

Produced by: Disney Television Animation

Executive Producers: Kevin Deters and Stevie Wermers-Skelton

Story Editor/Co-Producer: Colleen Evanson

Producer: Melissa Kurtz

Director: Shane Zalvin

Writer: Hilary Helding

In this new installment of the Emmy-winning holiday specials, the high-tech team of elves from the elite unit known as Prep and Landing is back! When their holiday missions go awry, Wayne thinks he is in BIG trouble with Santa, which opens a vault of merry mishaps from the past. It’s going to be hard to dig their way out of the snowbank this time in Prep & Landing: The Snowball Protocol. The special will debut next year.

Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: Moon Girl’s Lab (Shorts)

Produced by: Disney Television Animation

Executive Producers: Laurence Fishburne, Helen Sugland and Steve Loter

Co-Executive Producers: Rodney Clouden and Pilar Flynn

Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: Moon Girl’s Lab is a new musical S.T.E.M.-focused short-form series in which Moon Girl is dropping knowledge and dropping bars as she uses the power of science to take down some serious baddies. Each of the eight shorts will feature a new song by Grammy Award winner Raphael Saadiq, who serves as executive music producer on the series, and a science theme, including adaptations, states of matter, plants, force and motion, light, echolocation and coding.

The shorts will premiere Friday, June 28, on Disney Channel and Disney Channel YouTube. All eight shorts will be available on Disney+ the same day.

SuperKitties: Sup-Purr Adventures (Shorts)

Produced by: Sony Pictures Television – Kids in association with Disney Junior

Creator: Paula Rosenthal

Executive Producers: Sarah Mullervy, Kirk Van Wormer and Audu Paden

Supervising Producer: Bryan Korn

SuperKitties: Su-Purr Adventures is a new short-form series inspired by 2023’s No. 1 new preschool series, SuperKitties. It features Bitsy, Ginny, Sparks and Buddy as they showcase their superhero skills and kitty kindness that they use to work together as a team to make their town of Kittydale a great place to live.

The shorts will premiere Wednesday, August 7, on Disney Junior and Disney Channel and next day, Thursday, Aug. 8, on Disney+ and Disney Junior YouTube.

Series Renewal 

Big City Greens (Season 5)

Produced by: Disney Television Animation

Creators/Executive Producers: Chris and Shane Houghton

Executive Producer: Anna O’Brian

Co-Executive Producer: Stephen Sandoval

Producer: Michael Coughlin

Greenlit for a fifth season today, Big City Greens was the No. 2 most-watched kids animated series of 2023, with more than 2 billion hours watched across linear and streaming since it debuted in 2018.

The series follows the offbeat adventures of 10-year-old Cricket Green (voiced by Chris Houghton), a mischievous and optimistic country boy who moved to the big city with his wildly out-of-place family. The show is heavily influenced by the brothers’ childhood growing up in St. Johns, Michigan, a small rural town north of Lansing, also known as the mint capital of the world. Many of the characters are inspired by real-life family members and childhood townsfolk.

This summer also marks the premiere of Big City Greens the Movie: Spacecation, which will be screened at Annecy as part of the prestigious Le Pâquier lawn screening series. Additionally, Anna O’Brian, director of the movie, has joined the series for season five as executive producer.

First Look

Disney Junior’s Ariel

Produced by: Wild Canary in association with Disney Junior

Executive Producer: Lynne Southerland

An exclusive first-look clip from the highly anticipated new series Disney Junior’s Ariel was released today.

Inspired by the beloved story of The Little Mermaid, the series debuts Thursday, June 27, on Disney Junior in the U.S. with an initial batch of eight episodes available on Disney+ the following day, Friday, June 28.

The series follows 8-year-old mermaid princess Ariel as she and her friends embark on fun-filled, action-packed underwater adventures throughout their Caribbean-inspired fairy tale kingdom of Atlantica and beyond.

Kindergarten: The Musical

Produced by: Oddbot Entertainment in association with Disney Junior

Creators: Michelle Lewis and Charlton Pettus

Executive Producers: Tom Warburton, Michelle Lewis, Kay Hanley, Charlton Pettus and Dan Petty

Co-Executive Producer/Story Editor: Laurie Israel

The main title theme song — performed by Grammy Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated actress and singer Eva Noblezada (The Great Gatsby) — and key art for Disney Junior’s upcoming new series Kindergarten: The Musical was also released today.

The series follows five-year-old Berti, who, along with her new friends, is navigating all the exciting and emotional experiences that come with starting school for the very first time. Taking place in a kindergarten classroom at Porter Elementary, the series features fantastical Broadway-style song and dance numbers that help kids express their big feelings and provide a peek into their incredible imaginations. The series is set to debut on Disney Junior and Disney+ later this year.

StuGo

Produced by: Titmouse in association with Disney Channel

Creator/Executive Producer: Ryan Gillis

Co-Executive Producer: Sunil Hall

Story Editor: Craig Lewis

The main title theme song for StuGo was also released today. The series is set to premiere this fall on Disney Channel and Disney+.

The series follows six overambitious middle schoolers tricked into attending a fake academic summer camp by a mad scientist. Now they’re stuck for three months on a wild tropical island with mind-reading manatees, giant fighting fungi and fashion-forward mutants ― less academia than they’d hoped for but a lot more adventure.

The Doomies

Produced by: Xilam in association with Disney+

Co-Creator/Director: Andrés Fernandez

Co-Creator/Head Writer: Henry Gifford

Co-Creator/Art Director: Rémi Zaarour

An exclusive first look of Disney’s new spooky comedy animated series, The Doomies, was released today.

The chilling series follows best friends Bobby and Romy, who mistakenly open a gateway to the underworld and turn their sleepy coastal town into a hotspot for terrifying creatures of doom. As they try to cover up their mess, they get roped into an epic monster mystery, which will see them battle both literal and inner demons.

Shari Redstone, Paramount End Talks With Skydance

After months of negotiations, Paramount‘s controlling shareholder Shari Redstone has broken off merger talks with David Ellison‘s Skydance, according to the WSJ.

The two sides have been deep in discussions during and after a one-month exclusive negotiating period in April and Redstone at one point had favored the deal, which would have paid her a premium, and kept the businesses together, at least initially. The transaction was for Skydance to acquire Redstone’s family holding company NAI, which controls Paramount, and then see Par and Skydance merge.

As of this weekend talks were intense but there were a few major sticking points, one said to be over which party party would assume legal liabilities in the case of shareholders lawsuits.

Paramount Global stockholders vocally disliked the deal from the start and threatened to sue. Skydance, backed by Larry Ellison and Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital, revised the deal several times to sweetened the pot for them, but they still weren’t enamored.

Meanwhile, a few other bidders had emerged to acquire Shari Redstone’s controlling stake in a deal that would be a change of control of the publicly traded company, but not a merger. Producer Steven Paul put together a group of deep-pocketed investors and is interested. And former Universal chief Edgar Bronfman, Jr., backed by Bain Capital, is also looking at a deal.

Why MultiChoice Won't Let You Choose Your Own DStv Channels Much Less Sports?

During the month, Canal+ Group's CEO was interviewed by News24 about the impending outcome awaiting MultiChoice. He mentioned that there aren't any plans to launch a SuperSport package or let consumers choose channels as it had been proven to fail.

This comes after the board had given them approval over remaining shares on MultiChoice. As the companies are working on a possible restructure to present to local legislation.

DStv is known to over 100 channels that consist of sports, movies, drama series, reality shows, cartoons and news. From our understanding, a majority of audiences can only watch a select amount of entertainment at such a short time. 

They would be The Super Mario Movie at 14:30 on M-Net Movies 1 followed by Along Came Love at 16:00 on TLNovelas. Only the average viewer can watch 1 channel on a daily basis while others can view daytime repeats with more available to browse on DStv Catch Up.

As much as some would hope that DStv could give them the option to pay for select channels that is physically impossible. Firstly, they do offer a range of channels each with a price tag and the costs for a divided offering wouldn't cover other portions of the platform. 

Look at it from a viewer's standpoint, someone could be paying R20 for only kids channels compared to another paying R550 for sports. As mentioned, they all come at a price and its more about what comes into a channel than the quantity of outlets. 

Sports has proven to be the most expensive within DStv some are hoping that if the rate is at R300 that it would be positioned like that in 5 years. When it's never going to be the case as there continues to be a demand for such within MultiChoice's stable. 

SuperSport is home to variety of sports which is more than what any broadcaster in the world can carry. You can take away Premier League but imagine once paying R300 through DStv and now having to pay additional fees on top of DStv when Apple TV+ gets exclusivity. 

When Saada says it is going fail he means it look at Top TV (now StarSat) which was an unbundled DStv that were at a point of bankruptcy and possible liquidation. Fast forward to eMedia Investments' endeavors whose EDGE offering has merged with eVOD. 

MultiChoice Is Believed To Be Exiting Pay-TV (DStv And GOtv) In Favor Of VOD (Showmax), Insurance, Namola And Other Home Services

Not long ago, Canal+ had been granted permission to acquire remaining shares in MultiChoice after owning at least 45% of the company. They are still awaiting approval from various parties with talks of a restructure currently underway. 

Earlier in the year, Canal+ had mentioned that they intend to keep MultiChoice on the JSE but are looking to get their own local listing. This was sort of a hint that MultiChoice could be spun off with some assets under French management. 

One of the most notable guesses within this scenario is that Canal+ will most likely get MultiChoice's pay-tv license and this would include DStv alongside various linear channels. This would be managed alongside a BEE partner as required by law.

Other assets which would also be managed would include MultiChoice Studios and SuperSportBET as these are basic pillars of that offering. Then the other portion would have Showmax, DStv Glass, Namola and other home services. 

Canal+ Group's revenue had gone up and that is due to their continued investment into the African market. One of the reasons they want to explore getting local investors onto their other businesses in Europe. 

MultiChoice in general had seen a loss in consumption and also TV channels including FOX, ITV Choice, Disney XD and BBC First. All of these were part of streamlining attempts with the exit of M-Net's Me and 1Magic almost seeming like a farewell. 

Their endeavors with 1Max is probably a countdown to what DStv consumers are probably gonna miss out. They were rumours of them trying to separate DStv from Showmax and with the demise of M-Net's secondary offering it was probably due to that.

Maybe Canal+ has another vision for the DStv platform and this one the Me and 1Magic part of it doesn't exist. Or maybe this endeavor goes beyond Canal+ and more onto M-Net as they had restructured their offering several times during their run.