Introduction
At Rocket Fox, we come up with a lot of cool stories. Some are picked up for pilots and are green-lit, while others are awaiting approval. And there are those that have been circulating through the vast marketplace for a long time, but haven’t yet managed to make it into the real world. This is a story of one such project.
In this article, you will see many designs, sketches, and descriptions. Not all graphics presented here made their way into the final bible. The pitch bible itself can be found at the link given at the end of this article. Download it to take a look at an exciting story accompanied by amazing graphics!
Before getting into the project, we would like to tell you a little about our studio, just in case you aren’t familiar with us.
Oh, and we forgot to mention an important thing: just because we publish our material, does not mean it can be used as a catalyst for new ideas. Our images, characters, and plots are protected by copyright reserved by Rocket Fox, Ltd.
Chapter 1 About Rocket Fox
Rocket Fox is an independent animation studio founded in 2015. For those who might not know, being “independent” means we make our own decisions. Some projects we are known for include The Om Nom Stories, Captain Kraken and His Crew, and a bunch of cool cartoons for toddlers, such as Magic Pik, Smart Plate (a must-see), and many more.
Our studio started out as a small, two-person company focused on the production of animated lightboxes and children’s cartoons. Ultimately though, we were driven by the desire to make cartoons that we would want not only to show our kids, but also to watch ourselves. We were quickly joined by the coolest and most daring people. And, in just two years, we became a team of 40. Today, our team may be a bit smaller, but the quality of our work has only improved. And, of course, we are developing new shows, some of which are just one step away from production. Others, like the one this story is about, are not quite there yet.
Chapter 2 Some background on the project
Almost three years have passed since the project was first pitched and all NDAs have now expired. From now on, everyone involved in the project can upload designs to the portfolio with a link to this page (and, eventually, to our website, which is currently under development and will be released shortly).The idea for this project came to our studio’s producer and art director in a taxi one day, when they were on their way back to the office from a very important, albeit not exactly successful, meeting. According to them, the taxi driver kept looking at them strangely in the rear-view mirror while they were discussing the concept of a sugar bowl that can turn into a human. The driver suddenly asked if a dumpling could turn into a human, too. To which, they said, “that’s crazy, completely impossible”. Since the taxi driver, there have been many highly talented artists and creative minds putting their ideas into this project. Even Jack Enyart, one of the creators of Duck Tales, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Toy Story, chipped in.
Looking back at the project now, we see its many inconsistencies and rough edges. But, none of this is as important as having that first spark; anything can be polished.
In 2018, the project was pitched to a few Russian TV channels, including Carousel, but none picked it up.
Chapter 3 Olivier Boulanger
Series tag line: “You are what you cook”
The story is about a young girl named Olivier who works in an enchanted café on Éclair Street, in the small town of N, called Sugar, Salt, and Pepper. With the help of food spirits and an ancient, magical recipe book, Olivier stands up against the evil chemist and technologist Mathilda with her high-tech restaurant, Matilda’s House. Matilda wants to lure visitors to her restaurant and destroy the Salt, Sugar, and Pepper café, which was passed down to our Olivier. But Olivier and her food spirits will undoubtedly prevail. The story is full of fascinating magical adventures, lots of treats, love, light, and the aromas of basil and fresh paprika!
This is Olivier – the girl with a boy’s name. She was named after her earliest ancestor and the first ever culinary artist: Olivier Boulanger. His “photo” is below.
Olivier is an orphan who lives with her evil aunt. One day, she finds out that, on Éclair Street in the town of N, is a restaurant that is rightfully hers. Without a moment’s hesitation, Olivier heads out in search of this restaurant, taking with her only her best friend, a pet chicken named Coco.
There were multiple designs of Olivier. The one of a green-haired girl is among the favorites. At various times, designs were developed by Polin Tsarev, Anna Bernal, Vladimir Gerasimov, and Ivan Korolev.
Initially, Olivier was a boy. But the project just wasn’t working out, and we couldn’t put a finger on why exactly that was. From the moment we decided to have the main character be a girl, the project came alive, the designs evolved, and the heroine’s story became clear. It was like magic.
The first episode opens with Olivier, who has transformed into a giant talking potato, running down Éclair Street to attracting customers to her cafe. Then we travel back in time, to when Olivier is still living with her evil aunt, and we witness her struggle.
The aunt threatens to cook Coco, but Olivier hides with her chicken in the attic. There, she finds strange letters claiming that… Wait, why am I telling you this? It’s all in the bible.
Anyway, Olivier runs away from her aunt and towards her destiny!
And here is her earliest ancestor, Olivier Boulanger himself:
Many centuries ago, there was no such thing as culinary art, and people didn’t care what they ate. One day, Olivier Boulanger came up with the idea to add a rosemary sprig to an ordinary vegetable soup, which made it as delicious as it was nutritious! At that very moment, the food spirits appeared before him and began teaching him all about the culinary arts. These food spirits would go on to teach all of Boulanger’s descendants.
Over the many centuries of the Boulanger bloodline, the food spirits replaced one another. Today, there are four remaining at the enchanted café. The youngest: Sugar, Salt, and Pepper. They can each transform into a sugar bowl, salt shaker, and pepper shaker.
Salt specializes in salads (her character, too, was a boy at first). She’s also...
Pepper is a meat and fish specialist. He’s cool.
Wise Pudding is an ancient spirit who only turns into a human in exceptional cases, and that’s when he reveals the real culinary magic. Upon seeing him, ingredients literally come to life and cook themselves!
There are other food spirits, who SSP (Sugar, Salt, and Pepper) can summon whenever necessary. When summoned, these other spirits share their recipes, but not without a price – they require some kind of sacrifice or gift. By the way, food spirits can’t stand humans. They only help them because they are bound by an ancient contract that forces them to.
Summoning looks somewhat like this:
And the cooking process looks like this:
But more often than not, it looks like this:
Matilda is an evil chemist who cooks food using all kinds of chemicals.
She owns a chain of restaurants called Matilda’s House. She dreams of destroying the Sugar, Salt, and Pepper café. She also has magical minions: the spirits of chemical food additives.
Coco the chicken
And, of course, there is Éclair Street. We wanted to create a beautiful European street that brings together restaurants with cuisines from around the world. It should have a wonderful atmosphere with summer terraces, where people are friendly and say hello to each other, read the morning newspapers, and have their coffee. The entire place should be filled with light, the clattering of dishes, and the sounds of multilingual conversations.
Illustrations of Éclair Street:
And, of course, the old café itself and the ancient recipe book:
So what is this project about?
We aspired to create a beautiful story about a young girl who has a purpose and a mission. When you are young, it often feels like you are out of place and like you have a greater calling. You wait for a miracle to come along that will completely change your life and take you in a totally different direction. Olivier’s character is like this, too. Sometimes we also dream of a destiny like Olivier’s, which makes us relate to her, want to follow her amazing journey, and root for her as she deals with the challenges she faces along the way.
Her fate will entail not only exciting adventures, but also some hard self-improvement work, some tough life problems to be solved, and a lot of misfortune and enemies. However, if she is true to herself and listens to her heart, she will undoubtedly prevail.
In season one, Olivier starts working in the café and learns the ancient culinary art of the food spirits. Her mission is to return the café to its former glory after it had been abandoned for some time and all the former customers were lost. To achieve this, Olivier will have to be inventive, resourceful, brave, and kind
She will get lessons and assignments from Wise Pudding, such as cooking Olivier Boulanger’s ancient stew over a fire in the woods, or learning how to buy the freshest produce at the market with only a penny. In one of the episodes, evil Matilda will cook a dish that strips all people in the town of N of their free will, turning them into zombies. And only the smell of a unique blend of spices concocted by Olivier will bring the people back to their senses.
At the end of season one, Olivier must undergo an initiation ceremony: an old oven that Olivier Boulanger used to cook his first dishes is still in the basement of the café. Olivier will have to make a tomato sauce in this oven following a recipe from the ancient cook book, with tomatoes bought for a penny, and use it to sign a contract with the food spirits. But to what end? This is the story for season two.
After signing the contract, Olivier becomes the rightful owner of the café. She becomes a culinary master, and from then on the food spirits are bound to serve her forever. They will make fun of her clumsiness no more. Moreover, she will gain magical powers: she will be able to bring kitchen utensils to life so they can help her cook. But this does not mean she will have won; there will still be much ahead of her. Many adventures, new heroes, culinary contests, fascinating discoveries, a journey to the land of the food spirits, and much more await.
We’ve uploaded this project here and will be happy to hear your feedback and ideas. Meanwhile, we are thinking of making it into a cool comic book.
Briefly about the pitch bible
For those who might not know, we will briefly explain what a pitch bible is.
A pitch bible is where any project, animated or not, begins. It is a document that contains a logline and a brief description of characters and the plot.
If you have an idea, you have to start with a pitch bible. It will help you objectively assess the viability of the project. Most importantly, if you want to show your idea to a producer, they will definitely ask you for a pitch bible.
The link to the SSP bible is here. It is not perfect, but you can use it as a reference to create your own bible. Go ahead and download!