Three middle-schoolers find an enchanted friendship journal that grants them magic, and use it to look after the people around them.
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Marie Lum· @puccanoodles · 133K followers
Storyboard artist · Craig of the Creek, Infinity Train, Lackadaisy, Disney TVA
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Watch Marie pitch the show (90 seconds)Marie on camera, over her boards and designs · to be filmed
COMING SOON
Stage 1 of 4 · opens at launch
The Blueprint
This stage pins down the whole pilot before a frame is animated. Final script, character designs, backgrounds, and a fully timed animatic you can watch start to finish.
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The show
the journal and the trio ✧
The world
2 or 3 sentences from Marie. The town, the journal's rules, what magic costs.
The trio
Name 1One line from Marie
Name 2One line from Marie
LinhA Deaf character who signs in both ASL and Vietnamese Sign Language. Deaf consultants are on the production. Full line from Marie
Tone & the vision
Mid-2000s magical-girl warmth, made by people who grew up on it. Marie's comps, plus whether the pilot is the goal or the first step toward a series. This shapes Page 4.
Character sheets (from Marie's art pack)
Board sequence (from Marie's art pack)
The creator
you might know this one ✧
Marie Lum is a storyboard artist and animator. Her credits include Craig of the Creek, Infinity Train, Lackadaisy, and Disney TV Animation, and 133,000 people follow her work every day.
You may already know this show. In 2023, 1,584 people pledged nearly $97,000 to make Pen Pals Forever on Kickstarter. That was short of the all-or-nothing goal, so every backer was charged nothing and the pilot was never made. The audience was real. The love was real. The model just wasn't built for animation. This relaunch works differently. Same show, same creator, and a funding model shaped like the actual work.
The plan
every page is a real deliverable ✧
Last time, this pilot was one $147,500 wall, and $97,000 of support hit it and bounced. This time there is no wall. There are pages. Each one pays for something real, unlocks the next, and has a goal this audience can actually clear. Tap a page to see inside.
1
The Blueprint
Pre-production
OPENS AT LAUNCH⌄
Funds: final script polish, character and background design, storyboards, and a fully timed animatic. That's the whole pilot as moving storyboards with scratch dialogue.
You get, when this page is greenlit
The complete animatic to watch, plus the character design pack. You'll see the whole story works before a cent goes to animation.
2
First Magic
Proof-of-concept
AWAITING GREENLIGHT⌄
Funds: one fully animated, colored, effects-complete minute. The transformation sequence, the show's signature shot.
You get, when this page is greenlit
The finished 60-second transformation, the piece that shows the world exactly how the series looks and moves.
3
Voices & Score
Sound
AWAITING GREENLIGHT⌄
Funds: full voice cast (including ASL / Vietnamese Sign Language consulting for Linh), original music, and sound design across the pilot.
You get, when this page is greenlit
The animatic with its real voices and score laid in. This is when the pilot starts to feel alive.
4
The Pilot
Full animation
AWAITING GREENLIGHT⌄
Funds: animation, color, and compositing of every remaining minute of the pilot.
You get, when this page is greenlit
The finished pilot. The whole episode, start to end. And if page 4 never funds, you still keep pages 1 through 3. Nobody leaves with nothing.
Where page 1 actually goes
No mystery, no hidden markup. This is how page 1's budget splits, and what it doesn't buy. Every goal, line by line, publishes at launch.
Character design34%
Storyboards30%
Animatic edit19%
Backgrounds12%
Platform (5%)5%
Here's the part most campaigns hide. At this style, a finished minute of animation runs $8k to $15k. Page 1 makes zero finished minutes. It makes the plan, on purpose. You fund the map before the trip.
What you'll get
planned rewards, final at launch ✦
$10Pen Pal
Your name in the pilot credits
Backers-only production updates
$25Journal Keeper
Everything before, plus
Watch each page the moment it's delivered, before the public
$50Inner Circle
Everything before, plus
Private Discord with the crew
Process livestreams & working files
$100Co-Conspirator
Everything before, plus
Vote on a shop sign in the town
Name a background character
$250Guardian
Everything before, plus
Your OC drawn into a crowd scene by the crew
Every reward is intangible on purpose. Physical merch eats budget and months of fulfillment time. Access, credit, and a real say go further, and they're what fans actually want.
