The protagonist of the story enters a cafe, buys coffee, water, a snack and heads to the nearest beach. He eats and drinks, enjoying the beautiful day, and falls asleep in a sun lounger as the waves slowly wash his junk into the sea. When he wakes up hungry, he drives to the nearest sushi restaurant. But as he prepares to enjoy the first bite, he sees a piece of plastic in the center of his roll.

In the end credits of an episode of the show “Save Your Planet”, I hear my daughter say in shock: “I never thought we could eat plastic from the sea. Of course, I wouldn’t throw away plastic, but now I have another reason.” As for this little one, the Thassos Kochira series (produced by nurbs productions) has achieved its goal. Save Your Planet, the first animated 3D series produced in Greece, consists of twenty two-minute episodes and is aimed at children and adults. A few days ago it started showing on ERT2 and is available on ERTflix digital platform.

Through tasteful, endearing and easily recognizable (especially for children) animated films and imaginative stories, the series touches on some of the most important environmental issues of our time, such as single-use plastic, water, food and energy waste, etc. . “Environmental issues, the need to save energy, limiting the waste of the Earth’s resources are very important issues of international importance, and I personally – and as the father of an eight-year-old child – touch and motivate me a lot,” Tasos Kotsiras tells me.

The idea for the series came to him at the onset of the economic crisis, he recalls, when the projects he did as a 3D animator for major production companies were limited and he had enough free time, inspiration and passion to realize his dream. his is to create something of his own. And the Save Your Planet series is all his own, he worked on it himself from start to finish. “That’s why I made a lot of mistakes,” he tells me. “I made the two-minute format when no one needed it and I had no idea how to promote my series.”

However, it has made it to some of the world’s major animation festivals, such as Annecy in France (known as the animated “Oscars”) and the Golden Panda Awards in China, and is already being broadcast by broadcasters and streaming platforms around the world. world (Europe, Asia, America). Unusual a few years ago, the format has now become extremely popular. “People watch content from mobile devices and YouTube, so they are used to and want to see short materials,” he notes.

In addition to Save Your Planet, the Save Your Planet Baby series is also available for preschoolers, as well as two children’s books titled Kids on a Mission to Save Marine Life and Kids on a Mission to Save the Planet But Starting with Their Own at home”.