SamSam

SamSam is an animated superhero children's television series based on a character created by Serge Bloch and directed by Tanguy de Kermel in association with Bayard Presse. His son inspired him to base the program's eponymous character on him. The series has generally received positive reviews due to its great concept, animation, theme tune, tone, life lessons, quotes, and the main character himself.

As well as being a HD program, SamSam is also a comic that is printed in many of Bayard Presse's magazines such as Pomme D'Api (French) and StoryBox (English).

The series is produced using Autodesk 3ds Max 3D software.

Synopsis
The main character, SamSam, is considered the smallest superhero. He does not know properly how to use his powers. He flies his SamSaucer into space to deal with BeastlyBeard and his crew or King Marthial the 1st. He receives assistance from SamTeddy, SamMummy, SamDaddy, SweetPea, SuperJulie, and Megalactic. Even MuckyYuck sometimes.

Broadcast and viewership
SamSam has been shown on TV in many countries around the world and in many different languages, including English, French, Cantonese, Arabic, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian and Portuguese.

In the United Kingdom, SamSam was shown on Action Stations! (ITV4 and CITV) at 6am, on weekends in the Wakey! Wakey! and is now also being shown on Pop and Tiny Pop. It is also on ABC in Australia, on France 5 in Zouzous in France, and TV Tokyo at Japan, as well as being shown in Malaysia, Korea, Taiwan, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, the United States, Canada, Spain, Italy, Russia, Scandinavia, Iceland, Portugal, Poland, the UAE and Israel.

It has also been shown as in-flight entertainment on Air France.

SamSam has been viewed by a cumulative audience of 250 million worldwide. It has a strong European audience: – It airs on France 5 in Ludo, Gulli and Canal J, with a 32% viewing share among 4-10 year-olds. It has aired in the UK on ITV4, Citv, Pop and Tiny Pop and has been the 2nd best performing program at weekday breakfast on GMTV, the 2nd top commercial channel for kids programming, across all time in UK. In Italy, SamSam airs on Rai 2 and Boomerang with a market share of 36.6% among 4-14 year-olds. SamSam airs in Spain on Boomerang, Cartoon Network and TV3 with a viewing share of 34%, more than the channel's average.

In Norway, it was the most watched early morning programme among 2-5-year-olds, holding a 48.5% market share. In Denmark, SamSam airs on TV 2, holding a market share of 48.8%, more than twice the other youth programmes' market share in this block.

The English-language version of the theme song was written by Todd Michael Schultz and produced by Stephen Marston.

Director

 * Tanguy de Kermel

Writers

 * Alexandre Réverend (Series 1)
 * Didier Lejeune (Series 2)

Art direction

 * Eric Guillon

Music

 * Ange Ginozzi
 * Bruno Bartoli

SamSam through the years
SamSam has appeared in many forms of media, debuting in comics strips, magazines, and books back in January 2000.

Creation of SamSam
Serge Bloch was inspired to create the series by his son, and he loved Batman very much. Once, they made him a prop Batman costume out of cardboard. One time, Serge's friends came to dinner with them, and their son was dressed in a Batman superhero costume with plastic parts. This meeting of two "mini-Batmen" amazed and touched the creator. Soon after, he began sketching in a notebook, creating his own world, which takes place in the superhero universe. Another day, the editor Marie-Agnes Godard saw this notebook, and without her participation, SamSam would never have appeared. SamSam first appeared on the pages of the children's magazine "Pomme d' Api" in January 2000. SamSam has the traits of Serge's son. His name is Samuel, but the parents call him "SamSam." When the creator ran out of ideas, it was enough to watch the children. Some kind of problem at school or a quarrel with a friend, all these situations became a source of inspiration for Serge. This suggests that some of the events mentioned in the comics could be a slightly altered reality.

TV series
After the success of SamSam comic strips, magazines, and books (created by Serge Bloch), an animated TV series was developed based on the books with a total of 52 7-minute episodes. It went on from mid-2007 until early 2009. The series was immediately a success. In 2010, after the success of the first season, a second season was made for the series with a total of 39 8-minute episodes, bringing the total to 91 episodes overall. The TV series holds an average rating of 6.8/10 on IMDb to this day.

Merchandise
In 2009, after the success of the first season, merchandise based on SamSam was made. Such as: plush toys, figurines, condiments, board games, backpacks, T-shirts, sweaters, pajamas, shoes, activity books, books, lunchboxes, costumes, and school supplies based on the TV series. 14 licenses were sold at the time. Cutlery, DVD's, masks, and even armchairs were added to the merchandise line later on.

Cancelled video game
A video game based on the SamSam TV series for the Nintendo DS was going to be made, scheduling a release for somewhere in 2009, but it was never actually released. Only one rare booklet from 2009 states its existence.

Film
A film adaptation of the same name was released in France on 5 February 2020, directed by Tanguy de Kermel, and written by Valérie Magis as well as Jean Regnaud. It was produced by Folivari and distributed by StudioCanal.

However, the film only received a score of 20% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 4 negative reviews from critics.

Revival
A revival of the SamSam TV series (a third season ) was announced in 2018, during Cartoon Forum 2018, expected to have 52 11-minute. A teaser was released for the revival of the series in early July 2018. It was scheduled to release sometime in mid-2021, then delayed to somewhere in 2022 due to COVID-19. Now the series has been pushed to 2023, even possibly in 2024 at the latest.

As of June 6 of 2023, it has been confirmed that the 3rd season will be released in 2023. The season started airing on November 11th, 2023.