Olive Jar Animation was an animation studio located in Boston, Massachusetts. It was established in 1984 by Mark d'Oliveira and Bill Jarcho, which met each other while attending Emerson College, and collaborated on a short animated film called "The Taming", which won them a Junior Oscar. MTV was impressed with the short and commissioned the two to create a series of network IDs for them. Originally the company started out in a garage, primarily doing claymation. But by 1987, 15 people were working at the company on two or three projects at once.
In 1989, d'Oliveira left the company and was replaced by Larry Pensack. The same applied to Jarcho who was also replaced by Fred MacDonald as creative director of the studio.
In the mid-90s, Olive Jar upgraded its stop motion department and re-established an internship program with the Rhode Island School of Design. The company opened a Los Angeles office in December 1999 to house both stage and production space.
However, Red Sky Interactive acquired Olive Jar and discontinued the Olive Jar name. The company was then acquired by Agency.com and the company ceased operations for good afterward.
Shows and films worked on by Olive Jar:
- A Steven Wright Special (animation)
- Between the Lions (multiple segments)
- Cartoon Network Groovies (1 short)List
- The Critic (1 episode)List
- Francis & Bob's Neighborhood
- The Incredible Hulk Coaster (queue animation)
- NFL Films Presents (opening)
- Nickelodeon Shorts and Interstitials (Inside Out Boy shorts)
- Riders in the Sky (gila monster sequences)
- Pee-wee's Playhouse (Penny segments)
- Things Never Seen
- What A Cartoon! Show (1 short)List
- What's On Your Plate PSAs for McDonald's
- Plus
a bunch of commercials.
Tropes associated with Olive Jar:
- Animation Bump: Their stop motion work is quite impressive for its time.
- Production Posse: Not just MTV commissioned them to make IDs for their network, its sister channels Nickelodeon (alongside its block Nick Jr.) and VH1 also commissioned them to make IDs as well.
- Stop Motion: What they are best known for.
