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.

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With Toronto-based veteran toon-meister Nelvana leading the pack, a number of Canadian prodcos are developing animated feature films.

Nelvana reorganized its studios into four divisions – Animated Television Production, Domestic Production, 3D Animation Production and Feature Film Production – in an effort to support increased proprietary production volume. In 1997, 60 of the 69 hours the company produced was Nelvana library product, including a 90-minute feature.

With a penchant for established literary properties, international markets and coproducers, the feature animation division under supervising producer Merle Anne Ridley intends to produce at least one feature film per year, starting with Babar, King of the Elephants, which has a projected delivery date of November.

Currently in production with European coproduction partners Ellipse of France and Germany’s tmo, the us$4.18-million budgeted Babar is being directed by Ray Jafelice and is based on the children’s books of the late Jean de Brunhoff and son Laurent, who has been involved with the film as a consultant.

Ridley says a feature with the internationally known Babar character was a natural choice for Nelvana. ‘It was something we had already done as a series, and when you combine the fact that Babar is a timeless property and we had interested coproduction partners on a property we’re all familiar with, [we could do it] quite efficiently,’ says Ridley.

The coproduction arrangement on Babar has all parties pitching in with the production. tmo’s studio in Budapest is where the brunt of the animation and in-betweening on Babar is being done, with the key animation and layouts coming from Nelvana’s Toronto studio. Ellipse’s Paris studios will be responsible for the painting and compositing on computer which will then be rendered to film.

The post-production and music will be done in Toronto by Nelvana, with all the music and the six original songs coming from locals Tim and Tom Thorney at Great Big Music.

Next on Nelvana’s feature slate is Rupert, which will likely be a coproduction with the English publishers of the Rupert Annual, Daily Express. Currently at the script stage, being penned by Dale Schott, Rupert, like Babar, is an established European character that has already been produced as a series by Nelvana. Ridley says the production will probably be seeking another partner though nothing is lined up yet.

Another Nelvana project in development is the adult animated feature Barbarella, which Ridley says will be closer to the original French comic books than the ’60s live-action film of the same name.

‘We still want to have a pg or pa rating, but it will be skewed older and have suggestive elements within it,’ says Ridley, who believes there is a strong audience for adult-oriented animation in Europe and the potential for Barbarella to appeal to teen and adult North American audiences.

Nelvana co-owner Clive Smith, who directed the company’s sixth animated full-length feature, Pippi Longstocking, is also reportedly slated to direct Barbarella. As Nelvana looks to line up European copro partners, Ridley says several companies have expressed interest in the property.

Pippi, a coproduction with Sweden’s AB Svensk Filindustri and Iduna film/Trickompany Filmproductions of Germany, has just completed a u.s. and Canadian theatrical run.

On the cgi side of the toon feature equation is Vancouver’s Mainframe Entertainment, which after several successful forays into cgi series is developing two children’s feature-length projects.

Though details are hush hush, one of the projects is Sign of the Seahorse, based on the best-selling children’s book by Australian author Graeme Base. The richly illustrated book is about a family, a journey and the environment.

Partnering on the film is California-based Storyopolis, headed up by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen. Storyopolis owns the film rights to Sign of the Seahorse, which will also involve another coproduction partner yet to be finalized.

Also in development at Mainframe is another family-oriented 100% cgi film that remains untitled and which will also be a coproduction and could begin rendering before Sign of the Seahorse.

‘We’re the only digital animation house that isn’t linked to a studio right now, so everybody is coming to talk to us,’ says Mairi Welman, Mainframe’s director of communications. ‘It’s kind of a nice position to be in.’

Welman says both films could be produced entirely at Mainframe since the company is planning a move from its 39,000-square-foot facility to a space of between 65,000 and 80,000 square feet.

To produce a feature, Welman estimates the company would have to increase it’s staff of 220 by about 50%, and up its number of workstations proportionately. Mainframe has its own in-house software development team and currently uses Silicon Graphics workstations and Softimage software, but has recently been looking at other platforms including nt.

In Ottawa, former Lacewood Animation Studios owner and president Sheldon Wiseman has re-emerged with a new animation prodco, Amberwood Entertainment.

Recent Toronto startup company Camelot Pictures, headed by Joe Garwood, has made a minority investment in Amberwood and the companies are developing the animated feature St. George and the Dragon.

The film will be based on the stage musical written and composed by Jack Lenz and Mollie Yeomans, and the book by Mike Katrycz. The medieval tale’s world rights, other than live stage, were purchased by Camelot in October for a ‘mid-five-figure advance against a low six-figure sum,’ according to Garwood.

Down East in Halifax, where animation has yet to plant a firm foothold, Chris Zimmer’s Imagex is developing the animated feature The Last Dwarf with Ireland’s Brown Bag Films.

Bruce Robb is presently penning the script, which Zimmer says is at least six to eight months away from production. Imagex’s first animated project, Politoons, was done with Halifax’s Adner Animation, which will probably share the drawing duties with Brown Bag on The Last Dwarf.

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*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:

Bardel gets Dreamworks nod B10

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

Animation House, Lightbox both hit 15 B16, B21

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