Whatever came first – the chicken or the egg – is irrelevant to the international animation studio, Wind Sun Sky. The only question they need to answer is what kind of legacy will either leave to a generation of children today steeped in climate anxiety.

Future Chicken is the team’s attempt to answer that question “using culture and entertainment to inspire kids towards feeling they can take action and feel empowered to change their future.”

Future Chicken, its cast of supporting characters (including an Egg wearing turbo-powered flying pants, of course), and its “flywheel of content” is here to “counteract the subject’s doomism” by fostering in its audiences a sense of hope and positivity “grounded in evidence-based planet positive solutions happening today.”

It then presents all that in a neatly packaged, comical mixed-media series that in the second half of 2023 secured a major new deal with the mainstream broadcaster, CBC Kids.

“We’re absolutely thrilled to have CBC Kids as our partner,” says Catherine Winder, ceo, ep, and founder of Wind Sun Sky. “It is a tremendously helpful collaboration that supports us on our quest to reach our audience and build awareness of our new brand.”

CBC Kids will now be distributing Wind Sun Sky’s Future Chicken Today show and line-up of “planet protecting shorts” on both its traditional and digital platforms. The team is also in discussions around using its live animation pipeline to enable Potato (the Chicken) and Frittata (the egg) to do live events and speak to kids in classrooms.

“All of our stories and content have educational light takeaways around climate justice and steps that can be taken woven throughout,” continues Catherine. “The Future Chicken characters each communicate in a fun, entertaining, and positive way that provides organic, non-pressured learnings around how kids and families can make a difference.”

With a team of global creators, technologists, educators, and storytellers, Wind Sun Sky are currently in the process of developing a suite of learning resources not only for the series core audience of children but their caregivers, parents, and educators, too. Starting from next year, the studio will add a new, regular newsletter to its brace of content as yet another platform with which to engage. Each of the series’ characters will be assigned a subject expert. Bello the Mushroom will cover ‘cycles and circles’; Potato the Chicken will be the face of the ‘water’ content; food and food systems will star Worm the worm; clean energy will be led by Persa the catfish; and Frittata the flying egg will be the face of healthy communities learning material. It will approach all this with the signature humour and evidence-based positivity the Future Chicken is known for.

“By sharing the possibilities for a better future through these materials, we hope that Future Chicken can support parents in having conversations with their children about the climate, and support educators in utilising Future Chicken resources to enhance their teaching,” says Catherine. “The overriding message is that action, no matter how big or small, can have a significant impact on the future and kids are central to that.”

As an example, Wind Sun Sky has released a Holidays-themed short feature starring Worm through which the soil expert teaches some very insightful ‘dos and don’ts’ around cardboard recycling this festive season. The content is currently available to view via YouTube, where to date, Future Chicken’s content has reached the widest audiences.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eH-ryTXRWA[/embedyt]

That is, of course, alongside the Roblox platform where Potato and Frittata star in their own Obby (a type of game on the platform wildly popular with the target audience age bracket).

“It was important to us that kids could drop into the experience and immediately understand what they had to do,” explains Catherine. “That way we could introduce our new characters, and the micro-learnings that are fundamental to Future Chicken, in a manner that didn’t get in the way of fun.”

Designed not to be “intrusive” but to incorporate the learning of the small steps everyone can take into natural gameplay, the game has to date seen over 170,000 taps turned off to save water and windows closed to keep heat in; 120,000 apple cores placed in the compost rather than the trash; 85,000 light switches turned off; and over 80,000 TVs unplugged to save energy.

“If these small actions stick in the mind of players, then hopefully they will recall them after they’ve finished playing and at home will unplug that device, turn off the light, or think about food waste a little more.”

With online gaming via its website; IP presence via Roblox; a popular YouTube series now picked up by CBC Kids – Wind Sun Sky is in the throes of building a successful franchise. The team are also incredibly conscious they don’t just talk the talk but walk the walk… or do chickens strut? Either way, the operation will – in the New Year – be moving to a new, energy efficient office. On a day-to-day basis, Wind Sun Sky has also recently taken the opportunity to ‘implement server consolidation’ to run multiple virtual servers on a single physical machine (a move that reduces the number of physical servers needed, saving space and energy). The team is also replacing old tech with more energy-efficient servers and looking at the amount of media it stores and archives, with a view to de-duplicating and deleting unnecessary media.

Equally, the ethos is being carried into the studio’s plans for brand extension through licensing and, as a member of the Products of Change community, Wind Sun Sky is now presenting a challenge to the global licensing scene to work with it to produce ‘quality consumer products that do not result in a negative impact on the planet.’

“That’s not going to be easy,” admits Catherine. “However, by collaborating on products that are ethically made, sustainability-first, enduring, and useful, we believe we can create branded products that parents, guardians, and kids are proud to own.

“Licensing is a key part of our strategy going forward but we can only do it with partners who also believe in the mission of being ‘planet positive’, in attitude and in practice.”

In a few short years, Wind Sun Sky has established a strong, core audience for its Future Chicken IP which, with the support of its major broadcast partner in CBC Kids will only gather apace as we enter the New Year. As such, the team is not shy to talk about its “BIG” plans for the brand.

“At Wind Sun Sky, we recognise the importance of embracing new and evolving platforms in a fast-paced digital world. Not only will we continue with our ambitious YouTube short-form strategy, but we will be making a second season of the Future Chicken Today Show; more podcasts; another Roblox experience; and we have plans for an app at some point in the future,” says Catherine.

“However, and perhaps most exciting of all, is we are already in development with a Future Chicken CGI longform series. We’re ambitious, the Future Chicken mission is a multi-year endeavour and we are planning for a lot more content as we go into 2024 and beyond.

“Bringing Future Chicken to life on multiple platforms all at once has been such fun. And what makes this universe different from other eco-centric storyworlds is a huge dose of hilarity in a universe of future possibilities. Our Chicken can ask questions, our Tree can offer advice, our Fish expresses concern (and sometimes annoyance, she is very patient), and most of all our kids can demonstrate a game plan.”

And that, after all is said and done, is the most important question left to answer.