Larry Schwarz

TV Kids
Weekly, May 6, 2008

CEO

Animation
Collective

With a staff
of about 160 people, Animation Collective is the largest animation studio in
New York. The company has built up a solid reputation as a work-for-hire
outfit, working on productions like Speed Racer: The Next Generation, and is also busy developing and
distributing its own shows, all created and executive produced by the company’s
CEO, Larry Schwarz. “We really focus on creating, producing and selling our own
stuff, which is a little bit different from other studios,” says Schwarz.

Among the
company’s proprietary productions is Three Delivery, for Nicktoons, YTV and the BBC, about
teenage heroes who use extreme biking and kung fu to protect a magic cookbook
from an evil sorcerer set on destroying Chinatown and the world. “We just sold
it to Canal+ in France and Nick Australia,” Schwarz says.

Also on the
slate is season four of Thumb Wrestling Federation: TWF, whose broadcast partners include
Nicktoons, the BBC and Cartoon Network Asia, while Latin American deals are being
handled by Televix Entertainment.

Selling his
own properties has been a rewarding experience, Schwarz notes. “You really do
understand what the broadcasters want. Each meeting for us is a focus group and
I think that’s a real advantage we have.”

Schwarz adds
that since all of Animation Collective’s proprietary shows are pre-sold—most
before there’s a script in place—broadcasters have an opportunity to
provide feedback as the series is being developed. “So what they are getting is
almost the level of creative input that they would get with a show that they’re
funding, either making in house or doing as a co-pro, but they’re paying the
price of an acquisition.”

Selling shows
on the international market is a relatively new turn in Schwarz’s career, but he
is not new to the kids’ business. Prior to founding Animation Collective,
Schwarz set up Rumpus, a multimedia children’s entertainment company that
operated the websites Rumpus.com and Zeeks.com. Rumpus.com was, Schwarz says,
operated like an online kids’ network, delivering animated and live-action
shows as well as interactive entertainment. Although Rumpus was “a victim of
the Internet bust,” Schwarz says, the opportunity gave him plenty of experience
in “creating and producing content inexpensively.”

The years
leading Rumpus also gave Schwarz an understanding of the importance of
new-media content for kids. Indeed, one of Animation Collective’s biggest hits,
Thumb Wrestling Federation, was initially conceived as a made-for-mobile property before
being scooped up by Nicktoons in the U.S.

Schwarz notes
that TWF is also
indicative of the breadth of styles Animation Collective is able to work in. “We
really don’t have a studio style. We work in Flash, we work in CG, we do live
action. We focus on great stories with characters that the kids care about.”

That variety
in style is seen in Animation Collective’s upcoming slate of shows currently
being pitched to broadcasters, which includes the tween animated series Jolly
Rabbit and HTDT, and the slightly older-skewing
live-action show Black Dawn.

—By
Mansha Daswani