About | The Grimmets Magic F

IMG_0502.JPG"The creator of The Grimmets Magic Forest sharing the story behind the enchanted adventure club."

John & Rowena Reign

About the Creator

John Reign

John Reign is the creator, writer, and director of The Grimmets Magic Forest, a magical world born from a simple belief: the stories children grow up with can help shape the people they become.

As a filmmaker and storyteller, John wanted to create more than colorful characters and exciting adventures. He envisioned a place where children could laugh, dream, explore, and imagine while discovering meaningful lessons about kindness, courage, friendship, compassion, curiosity, and believing in yourself.

That vision became The Grimmets Magic Forest — an ever-growing world filled with unforgettable characters, each with their own personality, challenges, and stories to tell. Whether it's Whiskers discovering that even the smallest among us can be a hero, Little Wing learning that being different doesn't make you less special, or Marina discovering that true beauty comes from the kindness within, every adventure is created with a purpose.

John approaches the Magic Forest with the heart of a filmmaker but also with the imagination of the child who still believes there might be something extraordinary waiting just beyond the trees.

His goal is to create the kind of entertainment that children ask to watch again — and parents feel good about letting them watch.

For John, The Grimmets Magic Forest isn't simply a collection of animated stories. It's a world he hopes children will grow to love, characters they will remember, and messages they may carry with them long after the story ends.

Because in the Magic Forest, being little never means you can't do something big — and a little kindness can sometimes be the greatest magic of all.

More than 30 years ago, I made up a story to comfort my oldest son at bedtime — a story about a Grimmet, a kind and magical little fellow with great big feet, who lives inside a tall tree deep in an enchanted forest, and who watches over children wherever they are.

As my family grew, so did the forest. One by one, my children began adding their own ideas — new friends, new hiding places, new adventures — until the Grimmets weren't just my stories anymore. They were our stories, told and retold at bedtime for years.

Eventually, I wrote the rhymes down and picked up my pencils to draw the friends I'd pictured for so long. Working with artist Arlene Kriebs, those first sketches grew into my published book, The Grimmets Magic Forest — and with my production company, Polestar Pictures, the forest grew again: into an animated series, music, games, and this Adventure Club, where families everywhere can step inside and play.

The heart of it has never changed. Kindness. Friendship. Curiosity. And a safe, happy place where every child is watched over — and believed in.

From my family's bedtime to yours... welcome to the Magic Forest.

— John Reign

It All Started as a Bedtime Story...

"The very first Grimmet — hand-drawn by John Reign, more than 30 years ago."

Little Wing, from John's original sketchbook."

"Bath time! An early sketch of the little mouse who would become Whiskers."

Meet the Partners

JEFF C BERRY
Senior Partner, Polestar Pictures
Executive Producer of The Grimmets' Magic Forest

Jeffrey C. Berry is an actor, producer, and senior partner at Polestar Pictures. Born July 17, 1962, in Flint, Michigan, Jeff came to filmmaking by way of a life spent in service: after earning a BS in Business Administration (Mott Community College and the University of Michigan) and spending eight years in restaurant management, he earned his EMT and paramedic licenses and built a career as a firefighter/paramedic — a job in which he helped save thousands of lives before retiring in 2020.

The stage had actually called first: Jeff starred in two school plays as a teenager, and he made his screen debut in 2000, fittingly playing a paramedic in the film Impact. Retirement opened the door to the career he'd always wanted. Beginning with the award-winning series Tale of Tails and the feature Mayberry Man (as Bob, the "It's Real Guy" — a role he reprised in Mayberry Man: The Series), Jeff quickly became a fixture of Michigan independent film, working repeatedly with Harley Wallen's Painted Creek Productions on Beneath Us All, Finding Nicole, Final Recovery, and Fathers. For Polestar Pictures, he appeared as Finn in Divorcing the Mob, directed by John Reign.

Jeff is as valuable behind the camera as in front of it. His credits include executive producer, co-producer, and associate producer, along with stunt driving, location scouting, extras coordination, assistant art direction, set dressing, and property master — and, drawing on his first career, he has served as COVID-19 officer and set medic on most of his productions. Films featuring Jeff have won festival honors including Best Feature Film, Best Ensemble Cast, Best Drama Feature, Best True Story, and Best Awareness Film. He is SAG-AFTRA eligible.

Off set, Jeff is a father of four, a longtime youth sports coach (girls' softball, boys' football and baseball), an avid skier and ballplayer, and an active charity volunteer.

MARK WEIS
Senior Partner, Polestar Pictures
Executive Producer of The Grimmets' Magic Forest

Mark Weis is a partner and executive producer at Polestar Pictures, where he works alongside founder and director John Reign. Weis came to filmmaking from the music business: he spent more than two decades in artist management, guiding the careers of domestic and international acts and earning a reputation for breaking young artists into the music scene worldwide. Music is also how the two partners met — Reign crossed paths with Weis through a band Weis was representing, and the creative partnership that followed has now spanned a decade of filmmaking.

Weis was recruited into the Polestar fold in the mid-2010s and quickly became central to the company's music-driven style of indie production, placing his artists' original music in Polestar projects and securing acting roles for talent he represented. His producing partnership with Reign runs through the heart of the Polestar library — Bullets for Jesus (2015), Snuff: Diary of a Serial Killer (2016), Blood Woods (2017), Brokedown (2018), the award-winning Finding Purpose: The Road to Redemption (2019), and Wine Creek (2021) — a run of gritty, music-infused independent features that built the studio's cult following. Before and alongside film, Weis created Tribute Wars, the international tribute-band competition that grew from a Facebook phenomenon into the television series Tribute Wars USA; as far back as 2006, the New York Post was profiling him as a Long Island talent manager booking top tribute acts such as the Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute Cold Shot, the Journey tribute Evolution, and the Elton John tribute Rocket Man.

Today Weis serves as one of the executive producers of Polestar's most ambitious undertaking, the gothic-horror trilogy Vampire Penance: The Atonement of John Wolf, acting as a public face of the production during its much-covered 2024 screen tests in Sharon, Pennsylvania. His path to the producer's chair was anything but conventional — before entertainment he served as a CEO in corporate America and played professional football — and he credits that background for the collaborative, "team-first" mentality he brings to every set.