New Animation Studio Debuts in Canada

VANCOUVER, February 13:
Aly Jetha and Shabnam Rezaei have launched the Canadian-based animation studio
Big Bad Boo Studios, and have tapped industry veteran Glen Kennedy, who has
worked for Cartoon Network and Walt Disney Television, among others, as the
company’s animation director.

The new studio is located
in Vancouver’s historic district of Yaletown. As the animation director at Big
Bad Boo Studios, Kennedy has recruited top ToonBoom Harmony artists to deliver
2-D animation that is as close to traditional animation as possible. Kennedy
was trained at Hanna-Barbera and most recently finished 26 episodes of Zula
Patrol for Zula USA and PBS. He
has an additional 17 years of industry experience, having worked for companies
like Cartoon Network, Walt Disney Television, Warner Bros. and Universal.

Big Bad Boo Studios is
currently working on 13 episodes of the show Mixed Nutz, from the company’s subsidiary Norooz Productions.
The show is about a group of 9-year-olds who come from different places and
aims to teach children about different cultures through the cartoon. Emmy
Award-winners who have signed on to work on the show include Randy Rogel,
Alfred Gimeno and Joe Banaszkiewicz.

In addition to
Mixed Nutz, Big Bad
Boo is working on Gone Bananas, another property of Norooz Productions.

“We found so many good
reasons to move to Canada,” said Jetha. “There is an enormous amount of
animation talent in British Columbia and the tax incentives in Canada make the
move very attractive. In addition, we gain a priceless amount of control by
having our own animation team. When we get extra work, we can also pass these
savings onto our clients and offer them a bilingual service facility that is in
the same or near-same time zone and just a short plane ride away.”

—By Irene Lew