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 largest ...

, South Africa, was South Africa's largest animation studio from 2005 until its closure in 2011. After creating the local action-adventure teen show Urbo: The Adventures of Pax Afrika, the company produced the animation for several international television series, including the fifth season of Caillou co-produced with Loogaroo Animation Studio, and the Cookie Jar Group, ''

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 Gaumont ...

, 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 Televis ...

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 ''Mister'', usually written in its contracted form ''Mr.'' or ''Mr'', is a commonly used English honorific for men without a higher honorific, or professional title, or any of various designations of office. The title 'Mr' derived from earlier ...

(Xilam, France), Happy Valley (Dinamo, Wales) and storyboards for

Wibbly Pig Wibbly Pig is the title character of a series of picture books for young children, written and illustrated by English author and illustrator Mick Inkpen. The series includes titles such as ''Wibbly Pig Likes Bananas'' () and ''Is It Bedtime Wibbl ...

(Wish Films, UK).

2008-2011: Later Career

In 2010, Clockwork Zoo co-produced 26 season 5 half-hour episodes of Caillou 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 ''Florrie's Dragons'' () is a children's animated television series that was produced by Wish Films and Clockwork Zoo and animated by Studio 100 Animation. The series is based on a children's book named ''Dear Dragon''. The series was created by A ...

with Wish Films (UK) for initial broadcast on the

Disney Channel UK Disney Channel was a British and Irish television kids channel owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company (UK) Ltd. It was aired from 1 October 1995, to 30 September 2020. A one-hour timeshift service called Disney Channel +1 was available o ...

. 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