Triggerfish Animation Studios

Triggerfish Animation Studios
Industry
Founded 1996
Headquarters Cape Town, South Africa, South Africa
Key people
  • Stuart Forrest (CEO)
  • Anthony Silverston (writer & director)
  • James Middleton (technical producer)
  • Jean-Michel Koenig (CFO)
  • Mike Buckland (animation producer)
Website triggerfishstudios.com

Triggerfish Animation Studios, or simply Triggerfish, is a computer-animated film studio based in Cape Town, South Africa. The studio is best known for its animated feature films Adventures in Zambezia[1] (2012), and Khumba (2013).

History

Triggerfish was established in 1996 by Jacquie Trowell and Emma Kaye in Cape Town, South Africa.[2] As a stop-frame animation studio, it produced multiple commercials for South African ad agencies. From 1998 through 2008, Triggerfish produced animation for Sesame Workshop for the South African version of Sesame Street, Takalani Sesame, as well as the US domestic and international versions of the pre-school kids' program.

Stuart Forrest joined as a junior animator in 2002 to work on Takalani Sesame for seasons two and three. In 2004, Forrest and James Middleton became partners in Triggerfish and in 2005 became the sole partners when the original founders left the company. Triggerfish produced very little work until 2007 when Anthony Silverston joined as creative director, and Mike Buckland joined as head of production. At the same time, the company moved away from stop-frame animation and relaunched as a computer animation studio.

In 2008, Triggerfish created a 30-minute short entitled The Rise and Fall of Tony the Frog. The short was produced by Ambient Animation in Cape Town[3] for Isaac Entertainment.

Feature Films

From 2006, the team began to shift focus to motion pictures by writing their first script Adventures in Zambezia, with US-based rights company Wonderful Works. The script went into production in 2009 and was released in 2012. In 2010, the studio started production on Khumba which started its worldwide release in Q3 2013. Triggerfish are now working in their third feature provisionally called Here Be Monsters, which is slated for release in 2016. The studio is planning a fourth film, entitled Seal Team, to be released in 2017.[4]

Filmography

Feature films

Released films
# Title Release date Budget Gross RT MC
1 Adventures in Zambezia July 3, 2012 $20,000,000 $34,428,345 17% N/A
2 Khumba October 25, 2013 $20,000,000 $20,949,000 47% 41
Upcoming films
Title Release date Ref(s)
Here Be Monsters 2016 [5]
Seal Team 2017 [4]

Awards

Adventures in Zambezia

Khumba

Prior to its release, Khumba screened in competition at Annecy International Animation Festival 2013 and was in the Official Selection of Durban International Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival 2013.

Upcoming projects

The studio released the computer-animated film, Khumba, in South Africa on 25 October 2013. In March 2013, Triggerfish announced that they will produce an a 3rd feature film called Here Be Monsters that tells the story of a girl and a sea monster with magical powers, set for release in 2016. A fourth film, Seal Team, is a story that pits Cape Fur Seals against Great White sharks.[4]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Teo Kermeliotis (April 22, 2012). "Zambezia 3D animation puts South Africa film in the picture". CNN. Retrieved April 23, 2012.
  2. ↑ Mfonobong Nsehe (October 1, 2012). "Meet The Man Behind Triggerfish". Forbes. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
  3. ↑ http://www.animationsa.org/article/milestone-south-african-animation
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Szalai, Georg (November 15, 2013). "South African Animation Studio Triggerfish Gets Funding, Plans Action-Comedy 'Seal Team' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter.
  5. ↑ "SOUTH AFRICA’S TRIGGERFISH ANIMATION STUDIOS SIGNS WITH WME". Triggerfish. 30 April 2014. Retrieved 30 April 2014.

External links