Clockwork Zoo, (formerly Octagon CSI), based in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second larges ...

, South Africa, was South Africa's largest animation studio from 2005 until its closure in 2011. After creating the local

action-adventure The action-adventure genre is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Typically, pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve to complete a story ...

teen Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the te ...

show Urbo: The Adventures of Pax Afrika, the company produced the animation for several international television series, including the fifth season of

Caillou ''Caillou'' () is a Canadian educational children's television series which aired on Teletoon (both English and French versions), with its first episode airing on the former channel on September 15, 1997; it later moved to Treehouse TV, wi ...

co-produced with Loogaroo Animation Studio, and the

Cookie Jar Group Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc. (also known as Cookie Jar Group and originally known as CINAR; renamed as DHX Cookie Jar Inc. from 2012 until 2014, or simply just Cookie Jar) was a Canadian media (communication), media production and distribution ...

, ''

Mr. Baby ''Mr. Baby'' (also known as ''A Week with Mr. Baby'') (french: Monsieur Bébé) is a French adult animated 4-minute television series, that lasted 48 episodes, created by Marc du Pontavice and Carol-Ann Willering, produced at Xilam, conducted by ...

'' for

Xilam Xilam is a French production company that specializes in animated television series and feature films. Marc du Pontavice and his wife Alix founded it in 1999 as a replacement for the animation division of Gaumont Multimédia; though Gaumon ...

, and the

Playhouse Disney Playhouse Disney was a brand of programming blocks and international cable and satellite television channels that were owned by the Disney Channels Worldwide unit (now Disney Branded Television) of The Walt Disney Company's Disney–ABC Te ...

series Florrie's Dragons, co-produced by Wish Films.

History

2005-2008: Early Career

''Clockwork Zoo'' is Africa's largest animation studio and home to several of South Africa's most prolific storytellers and content creators. Starting in 2005 with URBO: The Adventures of Pax Afrika, the young animation division quickly grew to 30 people, producing 104 half-hour episodes. After a move from local to more international work and a change from Flash to Toon Boom as preferred medium, the studio worked on Mr Bebe (Xilam, France), Happy Valley (Dinamo, Wales) and storyboards for Wibbly Pig (Wish Films, UK).

2008-2011: Later Career

In 2010, Clockwork Zoo co-produced 26 season 5 half-hour episodes of

with Cookie Jar Entertainment (Canada), and Loogaroo Animation Studio (Canada) significantly raising the bar on previous seasons. The Caillou franchise has sold in every continent and made $40 million in sales so far. In 2010, the company co-produced Florrie's Dragons with Wish Films (UK) for initial broadcast on the Disney Channel UK. The 52 x 10 min series about a princess and her 6 pet dragons has gained a great deal of attention, and

were "thrilled" with the result. Clockwork Zoo provided development, design, script, storyboard, build, background, animatics, layout, animation and HD video post on Florries Dragons. The company closed in 2011 and many of the employees formed Sea Monster Entertainment.

Awards

The company won the prestigious 2010 Cape Film Commission Imbongi trophies in both Training & Development and Animation.

References

External links

*Clockwork Zo
Official Website
*Clockwork Zoo o
IMDb
*Clockwork Zoo o
AnimationSA
Companies based in Cape Town South African animation studios {{animation-studio-stub