Panchita! The Girl with a Dancing Heart

Panchita! is a 5 minute animated short movie about a South American girl living on a favela with dreams of dancing.

Upon unearthing a magical old VCR, fate dictates that Panchita discovers her calling - to tap dance. Guided by an unexpected, supernatural friend, Mr. Bojangles - this new passion will connect her with the wide world as she transforms her very own surroundings.

This is not only an entertaining, family-driven story told through colorful, playful animation. Panchita’s tale was inspired by true stories of children and families that live in poor communities in South America. And TECHO , a youth-led non-profit organization that works to assess poor communities' needs, not only understands this reality so well, but they chose 25 years ago to do something about it and literally built a better future for these (now over 131K) families.

To raise awareness of the fact that over 200 million people live in poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean today, with no proper home, no potable water, sewage, or electricity access, TECHO paired with Unsaid Studio to transform this scenery into a classic story, made with time, love and most importantly: created for a good cause. The perfect way to touch the audience's (of any age!) hearts and minds and help TECHO fulfill its mission: to change that reality, and create system-changing solutions to end poverty and shape a future we all want to live in. We accepted the challenge! We are a design and motion company and an Ad agency and we’ve watched our space in digital media skew towards greed and consumption. In a world so worried about bored apes, swapping digital assets, and updating their smartphones, it’s easy to forget there are still places in the world where people struggle for basic necessities.

Panchita is an opportunity to re-capture some of our wide-eyed innocence, and inspire action! And while this is just the beginning of the project, our hearts are full, knowing we were not alone! Once we started spreading the news, some heavyweight technology companies hopped on board to sponsor our film. We are proud to have as partners, software key to the creation: Maxon, Wacom, and Syncsketch.