Having honed their skills on a variety of genres of projects from commercials to all manner of long-form service work, and having worked all over the geographical and stylistic map, Canadian animation companies are flourishing.

Many animation shops are now expanding in size and capacity, taking on new forms of work and high-profile jobs, with many stepping up to the production plate as independent producers. Herewith, a sampling of some of Canada’s new cartoon coconspirators.

* * *

Veteran Vancouver service house Bardel Animation used its experience as a supplier to the 20th Century Fox feature Anastasia and Warner Bros. feature Space Jam as a springboard to become the only service company to supply Dreamworks skg’s new animated feature Prince of Egypt.

Bardel principal Delna Bhesania says her company has been increasing its production output to Dreamworks on a month-by-month basis since the summer.

About 30 animators – some imported from London and Toronto to augment experience – are dedicated to the Prince of Egypt job and the contract is expected to extend past next March.

The feature – about the story of Moses – will have a u.s. Thanksgiving ’98 opening.

As for the service work, Bardel has been mostly responsible for the incidental shots, but has been starting to do more a-shot scenes because of its high approval rate with its client, says Bhesania.

Specifically, Bardel is involved in reconstruction of animated figures, assistant animation, actual animation and cleanup.

Bardel’s other partner Barry Ward says the deal with Dreamworks is a significant development. ‘Because we are the only shop that Dreamworks is farming stuff out to, we have the unique opportunity to build a relationship,’ he explains. (Dreamworks is using animation staff at Fox at cost as part of a collaborative partnership between Dreamworks, Fox and Warners to keep their staff and compete with Disney.)

‘Dreamworks is a company that wants to out-Disney Disney,’ Ward adds.

The high-quality service work paves the way for Bardel to proceed with its indigenous projects, Ward adds. ‘It really gives us the credibility to be able to pull off our own work,’ he says.

Thorax, a television series about a trio of blood-sucking bugs, and Pig William, a whimsical, Walter-Mitty-esque series about a pig, out of Bardel-owned Boing Entertainment are moving to production financing stage with Toronto’s Cambium Film and Video Productions as a partner.

The Bardel owners also hope the successful relationship with Prince of Egypt will give the Vancouver company a leg up on the next Dreamworks animation project called Eldorado.

In other animation news at Bardel, the company has been contracted by Nelvana to do animation and assistant animation on the 13-episode series Stickin’ Around, about a group of kids drawn as stick figures.

*Also in this report:

Post/SFX showcase:

Collideascope injects hip B2

Gajdecki: body parts R us B4

Big Bang graduates from Dog’s World to Lost World B4

Lost Boy’s extraterrestrial experience B6

Spin in the series race B7

Animation shops to watch:

Dynomight’s Net direction B11

Sargent York kids’ 3-pack B12

Canuck evolves from studio flicks to in-house picks B13

Red Giant spawns series B14

Canadian prodcos plotting boffo toonflick projects B15

Animation House, Lightbox both hit 15 B16, B21

B.C. post shops winning more of the U.S. visual effects B18