Mercury Filmworks, established in 1997 by Clint Eland, is an independent Canadian-based animation studio specializing in Toon Boom Harmony and Adobe Flash. One of the most highly respected animation studios out there, Mercury Filmworks is considered among the cream of the crop, not just in Canada but worldwide.
They are most famous for their benchmark work in 2D puppet-rigged animation using the abovementioned software. Their animation for many shows has earned widespread praise for rivalling or even outstripping the quality that traditional hand-drawn animation can achieve. In particular, they are well-known for their award-winning work on shows from Disney Television Animation, beginning in 2010 with Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil and later going on to include the likes of Season 1 of Wander over Yonder, The Lion Guard, The Ghost and Molly McGee, season 1 of Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Tangled: The Series, Mickey Mouse (2013), and seasons 1-3 of Jake And The Neverland Pirates. They're also pretty popular for Netflix's animation division, with Centaurworld and Kid Cosmic counting among their work for the streaming service's animation studio.
That's not to say they haven't done a lot of equally groundbreaking work on domestically-produced cartoons as well; their work on Shaftesbury Films' Mischief City made it one of the first cartoons entirely done in one studio using the beta version of Toon Boom, while their involvement in Studio B Productions' D'Myna Leagues resulted in it being among the first cartoons to integrate 3D locations into a 2D series. They've also produced a few of their own original series, such as Toot & Puddle (their first one and the first ever show to use the advanced builds and rigging techniques now considered to be standard for anything done in Flash and Toon Boom), Atomic Puppet, the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie TV series, and perhaps most iconic of all, the enormously acclaimed Hilda — all of which are also partly excuses for Mercury Filmworks to show off their ability to create quality animation sequences.
Mercury Filmworks has also animated many films, both shorts and feature-length movies. Among their more notable works in this area, including their own series of original animated shorts and a celebratory animated short made specially for Canada's 150th anniversary
. They also did the animated sequences for the Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway ride at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida!
The studio is based in Ottawa, the capital of Canada, but was originally established in Vancouver, where they did a lot of their early work, particularly on shows by Studio B Productions (such as Class of the Titans and Yvon of the Yukon). In fact, the Ottawa headquarters actually started off as an auxiliary studio opened in 2000 by the original Vancouver studio, and was originally based in Toronto until relocating in 2004. They also have a business division in Lighthouse Studios, an Irish animation studio that they co-own with Ireland's equally acclaimed Cartoon Saloon and best known for animating Netflix's The Cuphead Show!.
Visit their website here.
Shows and films worked on by Mercury Filmworks:
- 6teen (seasons 1-2)
- Animated American
- Atomic Puppet
- The Bob's Burgers Movie (with Bento Box, Lighthouse Studios, Tonic DNA, Yeson Entertainment, Brilliant Pictures Group, Synergy Animation, Mighty Animation, Nørlum ApS, Golden Wolf and Dave Enterprises)
- My Butt Has a Fever short (with Anipix Studio)
- Centaurworld (Harmony animation services only, traditional animation services done by Red Dog Culture House.)
- Class of the Titans (digital ink & paint services; with Top Draw)
- Curious George (2006) (digital ink & paint services; with Warner Bros. Animation, Yowza! Animation, Toon City, Wang Film, Sunwoo Entertainment, Project Firefly, James Baxter Animation, July Films, Neomis Animation and FatCat Animation)
- Dark Oracle (animated sequences)
- D'Myna Leagues (digital ink & paint and 3D animation services; with Morning Sun for season 1 and Jiang Toon Animation for season 2)
- Fangbone! (pilot only)
- Fat Albert (ink & paint for animation sequence; with Warner Bros. Animation, Yeson Entertainment, Yowza! and FatCat)
- Fish Hooks
- Gerald McBoing-Boing (2005 reboot)
- The Ghost and Molly McGee
- Grossology (season 1 only)
- Guardians of the Galaxy (1 episode)List
- Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs (pre-production for season 2)
- Harvey Beaks (pilot only)
- Hilda (with Atomic Cartoons)
- If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (the 2015 Animated Adaptation)
- Jake And The Neverland Pirates (seasons 1-3)
- Jellystone!
- Jimmy Two-Shoes (season 1 solo; season 2 with Elliott Animation)
- Joseph: King of Dreams (additional paint services for Bardel Entertainment; with Wang Film, Tama Productions, Starburst Animation, Fil-Cartoons, Character Builders, Heart of Texas, Spaff Animation, Studio Bihou, DKP Studios, Canuck Creations, Golden Bell, Baku Productions, Giant Productions, Design Office MECHAMAN, VirtualMagic Animation, Blue Sunflower, Mukuo Studio, Red Rover Studios, Dynomight Cartoons, Big Fish Animation, New Vision International, Hits for Less, Ray Pang Effects and Wild Horse Animation Group)
- Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil
- Kid Cosmic
- Krypto the Superdog (digital ink & paint and compositing for Top Draw and Studio B Productions, with Dong Woo Animation, Lotto and Starburst)
- Legend of the Three Caballeros (with Six Point Harness and Atomic Cartoons)
- The Lion Guard
- The Little Bear Movie (additional production facility with Hanho Heung-Up)
- Little Witch (unsold pilot)
- Looney Tunes: Back in Action (Digital Paint services; with Yowza!, Digital Domain, Hydraulx, Pixel Magic and others)
- Maggie and the Ferocious Beast (additional production facility for season 3, with Animation Service (HK))
- Mega Babies (additional ink & paint services; with Ji-Reh Animation, Toon-Us-In and PiP Animation Services)
- Mickey Mouse
- Mike the Knight (additional production facility for season 3)
- Mischief City
- Ned's Newt (digital ink & paint and effects for Studio B; with RG Prince Films, Canuck Creations and Pictor Entertainment)
- The New Woody Woodpecker Show (season 2; digital ink & paint services for Studio B, with Sunwoo and Big Star)
- Once Upon a Studio (additional animation services, uncredited, with Creative Capers and Yowza! Animation)
- Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero (season 1 only)
- Pickle and Peanut (pilot only)
- The Powerpuff Girls Movie (additional 2D composite and visual effects; with Rough Draft Studios, VirtualMagic Animation and Savage Frog!)
- Producing Parker (with Philippine Animation Studio Inc.)
- Rainbow Fish (additional production facility, with Toon-Us-In and Boomstone Animation)
- Rescue Heroes (additional production facility for seasons 2-3, with AKOM, Boomstone Animation and Side Show Entertainment)
- Ruby Gloom (additional animation services)
- Shred Force (Pilot)
- Star vs. the Forces of Evil (season 1 only) (5 episodes solo)List (8 episodes with Toon City)List
- Stella and Sam
- Tangled: The Series (Season 1 and Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure for season 2)
- Team Hot Wheels: The Origin of Awesome
- Thunderbeards
- The Tigger Movie ("Someone Like Me" sequence only)
- Toot & Puddle
- Undergrads (digital ink & paint services; with MyPlan Animation and Funbag Animation)
- Wander over Yonder (season 1 only)
- Wayside (additional production facility for season 1, with Starburst and PiP; season 2 solo)
- What About Mimi? (digital ink & paint services; with Hong Ying for seasons 1-2 and Dong Woo Animation for season 3)
- Weird Years
- Wilbur (animated storybook segments only; the main portion of the show was puppetry)
- World of Quest (season 1 only)
- Yvon of the Yukon (digital ink & paint services; with Hong Ying for season 1, Dong Woo for season 2 and Top Draw for season 3)
Tropes associated with Mercury Filmworks:
- Production Posse: Has been used by Disney Television Animation a lot since 2010, with Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Wander Over Yonder, Mickey Mouse, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Kick Buttowski, Penn Zero, The Lion Guard, the Tangled animated series, and The Ghost and Molly McGee going to them.
