Licensing Hotline: In Brief

Big Tent Entertainment and Barnes & Noble are teaming up for in-store boutiques and a gift-with-purchase promotion focused on Dick Bruna's Miffy & Friends, starting this month. Products featured include 15 Miffy & Friends book titles, plush and gift items.... Marc Brown Studios named Cinar the Canadian licensing agent for Arthur. Cinar produces the Arthur TV show.... Nelvana announced a five-day-a-week TV series based on The Berenstain Bears, which premiered in January on PBS Kids. Meanwhile, George Shrinks expanded from weekly to daily airings.... HBO Family will premiere a weekly animated series based on Stuart Little, produced by Sony Pictures Television, in March.... Tokyopop releases a manga series based on the Japanese-origin TV series Digimon, as well as Cine-Manga (full-color books in storyboard format) based on the Lizzie McGuire and Kim Possible TV series. All three properties are licensed by Disney.... Candlewick Press and RJM Licensing authorized Mudpuppy Press (a division of Galison) to produce puzzles and Genius Products to create music CDs and cassettes based on Guess How Much I Love You. Characters and text from the book will appear on a 2×3–foot floor puzzle.... Nickelodeon granted videogame rights to ActiVision for Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, which it is developing as a feature film with Paramount Pictures.... Scholastic publishes chapter, coloring, activity, picture and novelty books tied to the animated series Hamtaro, under license from ShoPro USA. Hamtaro launched on Cartoon Network in June 2002.... Sesame Workshop launched a three-month exclusive promotion with retail chain Mervyn's in support of Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat. A sweepstakes tied in to Chinese New Year.... Nick Jr. introduced Max & Ruby online three weeks prior to its January 6 TV premiere. The site featured an interview with Rosemary Wells.... Fremantle Media is in talks with publishers about a companion book to the second round of American Idol, which premiered in January. Last August, Bantam released a companion book for young adults tied to the first series.