Meet eight year old Ben, his boisterous little sister Lucy and Ben’s best friend Jaq. Three regular kids who one day bring to life a magical little toy called Boo and discover a gateway to a whole world of adventure hidden away in their attic.

‘My Friend Boo’ is a fun-filled animated series supported by the European Commission and is the first of its kind in Europe. The aim of the series is to help young viewers understand some of today’s most important world issues like energy, climate change, the environment, conservation and health. These are some of Europe’s most pressing issues but they are often too complicated and just too gigantic for young people to identify with or understand.

The series does not preach, and is based upon the research and support of independent international experts and feedback from focus groups of over 1500 children in six European countries. The goal is to use imagination, comedy, adventure and magic to help kids understand these really important issues. Boo, Ben, Jaq and Lucy also want to motivate children to become responsible citizens. In our nine episodes children can see that even with everyday gestures; they can also help make a difference to their worlds and the wider world around them – and their families and friends can too.

We hope Boo and his inspirational stories reach and motivate millions of European children. So to make this happen we are making the series available (in English) free of charge to European broadcasters and providing downloadable ‘Teaching packs’ for educators and schools.

The series is split into three strands, each of which has been produced by projects supported by European Commission programmes.

• Energy – which has been produced by the Young Energy Savers project,
• Water – which was put together by EcoAnimation,
• Healthy Living – which was devised by the ACTIVE project

For more information on these projects and to see the work that has gone into building each strand see www.animate-eu.com