Everybody, put your pocket money away — you don't need to buy a chocolate bar to find a golden ticket, as Netflix is handing us all one right now. The streaming service announced on Nov. 27 that, in collaboration with the Roald Dahl Story Company, the streaming giant will be recreating your favourite childhood Dahl stories [1] like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda with "an exclusive new slate of original animated event series."
You've been able to watch a few of the film adaptations of Dahl's work on Netflix before, but these new series will be completely fresh. And, don't panic: although Netflix will extend far past the original pages of Dahl's books, the series will feature the characters and stories we've all grown to love over the years, making this a fun way to introduce our kids to the beloved tales [2].
"Our mission, which is purposefully lofty, is for as many children as possible around the world to experience the unique magic and positive message of Roald Dahl's stories," said Dahl's wife, Felicity. "This partnership with Netflix marks a significant move toward making that possible and is an incredibly exciting new chapter for the Roald Dahl Story Company. Roald would, I know, be thrilled."
Melissa Cobb, Vice President of Kids and Family Content at Netflix, added: "Immersing ourselves in the extraordinary worlds of Roald Dahl stories has been an honour and a massive amount of fun . . . We have great creative ambition to reimagine the journeys of so many treasured Dahl characters in fresh, contemporary ways with the highest quality animation and production values."
Check out a short teaser for the new series below, and get excited — production for the first series will begin in 2019! Although we'll wait patiently for these recreations, our inner children are screaming, "Don't care how, I want it now!"
Roald Dahl Reel
The list of titles in the agreement between Netflix and the Roald Dahl Story Company includes:
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- Matilda
- The BFG
- The Twits
- Charlie and the Great Glass Lift
- George's Marvellous Medicine
- Boy – Tales of Childhood
- Going Solo
- The Enormous Crocodile
- The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me
- Henry Sugar
- Billy and the Minpins
- The Magic Finger
- Esio Trot
- Dirty Beasts
- Rhyme Stew