Sean McLoughlin making animated sitcom Pleasure Beach with Disney
- Sean McLoughlin has created Pleasure Beach, an adult animated sitcom set in a faded seaside town
- The comic and his co-creator, animator Laurie Rowan, are developing the comedy about a buffoonish pier manager and his workshy deputy with Disney+ and Nexus Studios
- McLoughlin said that Pleasure Beach is "filled with jokes and looks incredible ... I can safely say that there won't be another show on the air that looks or feels like this one"
Sean McLoughlin is developing an adult animated sitcom with Disney, described as "a surreal workplace comedy with a wicked wit and a bold animated imagination".
Set in the faded, fictional seaside town of Branbourne, Pleasure Beach is a 12, 22-minute episode series that follows buffoonish pier manager Peter Gregg, as he cooks up fantastical schemes to entice the grandeur and tourists back to the town, with the help of his workshy Gen Z deputy Jean Grover.
Co-written by the comedian with director and former stand-up Laurie Rowan, the 3D, computer animated series is produced by Nexus Studios with support from Disney+, and is currently being pitched to potential European production partners.
Nexus made the Emmy-winning stop-motion animated comedy The House for Netflix last year, featuring the voices of Helena Bonham Carter, Susan Wokoma, Will Sharpe and Jarvis Cocker.
Australian, London-based stand-up turned screenwriter and novelist Brydie Lee-Kennedy has also contributed to the Pleasure Beach script, with Monica Heisey, the London-based Canadian, erstwhile stand-up turned novelist and writer of Sky's upcoming sitcom Smothered, acting as an early story consultant.
"Pleasure Beach is a majestic and ridiculous workplace sitcom about a passionate middle aged pier manager and his reluctant 25-year old protégé as they attempt to resurrect the fortunes of a forgotten tourist attraction" McLoughlin told British Comedy Guide. "It's filled with jokes and looks incredible."
"Me and Laurie are old friends and have worked together on a couple projects, but Pleasure Beach has always been the long-term goal for us. It's a show, and a world, that has lived with us for many years and we're so glad to have a studio in Nexus Studios as enthusiastic for it as we are.
"The team at Disney have been beyond supportive of our vision. All we ever wanted was a chance to make something like this in the UK, and from our first meeting they gave us the belief that we could do just that."
Pleasure Beach is one of five UK projects seeking additional European funding that was showcased at Cartoon Forum in Toulouse, France, earlier this week. And McLoughlin is guarded about the next steps in the sitcom's development.
"We can't reveal too much more about the show yet. We're currently navigating the world of European animation subsidies which is as sexy as it sounds" he said. "Animation is a slow process, particularly if you want to make something as rich and textured as we want to. But it will be worth the wait as I can safely say that there won't be another show on the air that looks or feels like this one."
One storyline in Pleasure Beach reportedly sees Peter building an attraction atop a beached whale, which then starts to develop sexual feelings towards him.
And Rowan told BCG that the animation "provides a fantastical backdrop to what is still an everyday working environment. We want to create an offbeat yet accessible ensemble sitcom that is first and foremost funny."
He added: "We want to show a world that is big, wilfully goofy and fun. With a setting such as Branbourne Pier where the struggle looks as large as its pink wobbly architecture, we've found a unique setting to indulge every idea we have. We're also so excited to take advantage of dynamic production processes to get naturalistic and nuanced physical performances we haven't seen yet in other animated comedies."
Other UK animations pitched at Cartoon Forum include the slapstick CBBC-backed sitcom Duck & Frog, a dialogue-free comedy about a long-suffering duck trying to lead a quiet life and his larger-than-life, eccentric frog flatmate. And The Wolfbjorns, a series for 7-10-year-olds about a family of Vikings struggling to adapt to the modern world, produced by BBC Studios Kids & Family Productions.