‘Dog Man’ Animation Studio Jellyfish Pictures Suspends Operations Amid Financial Struggles
The great meltdown continues in the animation and vfx industries, and there is no end in sight. Just weeks after Technicolor shut down all of its studios, including MPC and Mikros Animation, another major studio is in crisis.
Jellyfish Pictures, the U.K. studio that most recentlyy produced the animation for Dreamworks Animation’s Dog Man, has suspended all operations and is looking to either sell or in need of significant investment. The company’s animation studios were located in Sheffield, U.K., and Mumbai, India.
It is not immediately clear how many workers have been affected in the U.K. and India by this halt in operations. It is also unclear if the worker salaries for the month of March will be paid.
A sign of the studio’s dire situation is the fact that they’ve put their London office space up for sale.
The company, which was founded in 2001, released a statement on Tuesday explaining that its financial situation has deterioriated due to covid and Hollywood’s dual writer and actor strikes. The complete statement is printed below:
Like so many other companies operating across the vfx, animation and wider creative industries, we’ve been battling hard in the face of strong headwinds over the past twelve months. The long-tail impact of Covid, coupled with rising costs and the fall-out from the writer and actor strikes, have had a profound effect on our business.
Over recent months, we’ve been working closely with our key stakeholders to find a path forward, including exploring all options for sale and investment, with the aim of putting in place a strong financial platform upon which we can build. While we continue to engage in these discussions and explore our options, we have today taken legal steps to protect the position of the business while we strive to find a way forward.
We have so much to be proud of. We’ve worked on fantastic, ground-breaking projects with brilliant partners. And we want to thank our amazingly talented award-winning teams who day in, day out, strive to push creative boundaries with their innovative thinking and skill.
Jellyfish, which launched in 2001, started as a vfx studio but had more recently moved into feature animation production, producing the animation for Dreamworks Animation’s Spirit Untamed, Dog Man, and part of The Bad Guys and The Boss Baby: Family Business, as well as Netflix Animation’s upcoming The Twits.
The studio was also a vfx service provider on numerous series, including high-profile titles like Black Mirror, The Book of Boba Fett, Gangs of London, and Watchmen, as well as features like Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City and Solo: A Star Wars Story.
