A World of Talent.One Mindset.
We recruit talent from all over the globe, but what makes a Reel FX’er … well, a Reel FX’er is not just a passion for animation, it's the stubborn insistence on having a blast doing it.
Our Humble History
In the year
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Some Reel Magic begins in Fort Worth, Texas!
We founded Reel FX (then called Reel Magic) in a Fort Worth, Texas garage (other companies started in garages include Amazon, Microsoft and Hewlett Packard – just sayin’!) with a rare (at the time) Autodesk Flame and the dream of becoming a top commercial shop, and maybe more.
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Big Storms Blow Reel FX into the Big D
The forces of the universe truly brought Reel FX to Dallas when a huge storm in Fort Worth almost destroyed our original massive Autodesk Flame as our employees tried to cover it with a tent. In need of a more element-proof location, we headed to Dallas with our first digs opening at Routh and McKinney Ave.
Chucked for life
Not to be contained by a garage (or a producer) Lifer and now EVP of Business Development, Chuck Peil joined our studio along with Reel FX Alumni legend Brandon Oldenburg (now creative director of Reel FX Sister Co - The Department of Wonder) - Image courtesy of a camera that is no longer made.
Bursting at the Creative Seams
And even though the "magic" has always remained, the studio changed its name from Reel Magic to Reel FX after two years. We put a LOT of emphasis on that FX part in our logo. We know, we know, we do animation.
Eternal Flame
Look at this artifact! Ever wondered why the circle flame logo was created? We had - at the time - the 6th Autodesk Flame in the world! Powered by the Onyx Reality Engine II, it paved the way for big business and was definitely worth the tent, and the logo. Other logos have tried to replace it but we always come back to the fire.
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Long Story Short (Form)
Our short form CG work, talent and technology in the form of the Flame immediately brought in big brand names like Target, Gatorade (this CG liquid spot) and Hasbro and agencies like Dieste & Tracy Locke as we doubled in size over just a couple of years.
Insightful Changes
Aware that the quickly growing studio would need a way to digitally manage our projects, we began in-house development of INSIGHT, our proprietary software program and pipeline, which still runs the studio’s projects, people, technology and most importantly vacation time and expense reports. When you become a Reel FX'er, you'll see what we mean!
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Success from the East to the West (End)
In need of more top creative talent to match our growth, we acquired West End Post and moved for the second time, ending up in the White Swan building in Dallas’ West End.
Rosy the Great
At the heart of Reel FX for almost 25 years, Rosy Parra joined our studio from West End Post and has managed client services for us, taking care of clients from around the globe since almost day one. If you know Reel FX you know Rosy.
The Long and Short of It
Fun fact: our long form work actually began with short form Hasbro work and collaboration with agency Tracy Locke as part of their creative process - ideating at the white paper stage. Peil and the team suggested GIJOE.com have a trailer that looked like a film. Hasbro loved the idea so much - they decided to make a 44 minute movie to distribute with toys called Spytroops.
The Story Behind The Story
If you’re younger than 40 you might not know about mailing things, or DVDs, but for the Hasbro project, we did both! Up against two big animation studios, and after working tirelessly on a pitch, a DVD was sent to Hasbro and … it did not work (doh!) … so while Hasbro was at lunch the studio arranged for a courier in California to pick up a new DVD player from Blockbuster Video - and install it at Hasbro to play the reel after they returned from lunch. We got the gig and it led to two full length DVDs including G.I. JOE: Valor Vs. Venom.
The Man & the Man in the Moon
Inspired by his gorgeous books, Reel FX alumni Brandon Oldenburg connected with famed children’s author William Joyce on the down low, conspiring and collaborating to create an animated short “The Man in the Moon” which became one of the most significant milestones in our studio’s history - you’re gonna see this one again!
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Hollywood is Calling … from Texas?
Through another Tracy Locke campaign for Texas Lottery, we met the Art Director from Spy Kids which was directed by none other than our hat-loving fellow Texan, Robert Rodriguez. We created some infamous Spy sizzle (our early 2000s sizzle packages were legendary) and hand delivered it to Robert and landed the VFX work for Spy Kids 2.
Nothing but Blue Skies - Part 1
Another animation now-legend, Chris Meledandri (Fox Animation/Blue Sky at the time), heard about our G.I. JOE project and asked for a copy to be sent just before Christmas and a meeting set for January. Peil, cautiously, didn’t want to send the full DVD and sent only a montage to the chagrin of Meledandri’s assistant.
Nothing but Blue Skies - Part 2
So, Peil was shocked when the first words out of Meledandri’s mouth at the January meeting were - “Great to meet you - I watched G.I. JOE at least 8 times over the holidays.” Turns out his kids got the toys/video for Hanukkah. He couldn’t believe what we had done for the budget. This led to our first ancillary work for a major studio: for the Robots and Ice Age brands and a key relationship, critical even today.
Shoot for the Moon
Let’s go back to The Man in the Moon (MITM) again … we started production on a shoestring budget and did our own miniatures because we didn't have enough rendering power to animated the entire short. It was never officially released - you can see it here - but became THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WE HAD EVER DONE - opening doors and eyes at Blue Sky, Pixar (eventually John Lassater), and DreamWorks Animation.
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Big Moves
With “The Man in the Moon” cooking, and a new creative force on our team in the form of now alumni creative director, Limbert Fabian, we opened a West Coast presence in Pasadena, CA. The new beach shack/shop was a home away from home for our Reel FX'ers meeting and doing projects with big California talent.
New Sheriff in Town
With a new investor on board to ramp up its animation development, a little more adult supervision was required. We found the right fit in the form of CEO Steve O’Brien who came to the studio (as many of our favorite people and projects did) as a friend of a friend!
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Building Deep Roots
With more work than it can handle - we were movin’ on up - or east - as we relocated our 80 casually dressed employees and their cargo pants to our longtime Deep Ellum digs (formerly the home of Mark Cuban’s Broadcast.com/Yahoo). Here we are on Day 1!
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Playing With the Big Dogs
As we continued jamming on commercial, gaming and entertainment projects, we really started to attract the attention of the big boys. This included the REALLY big boy - Disney. Good work never gets old – you just call it “classic”. You can check out the opening titles for Disney’s The Wild in our “Extra Goodies” section.
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Hitting the Big Time (Story time) Part 1
Our timeline is full of little moments with big shots that defined our studio’s growth. Paramount’s Head of Distribution Jim Tharp was no exception. To get his attention, the team sent a DVD and DVD player with a challenge to work together. He replied kindly, and asked if he could send the actual DVD player back as it was probably pricey. Peil traded the DVD player in exchange for an in person lunch. He was hooked. DVD player pictured for those of you born after 2000.
Hitting the Big Time (Story time) Part 2
The lunch with Tharp precipitated an email to DreamWorks’ Nick Lewin, Jeffery Katzenberg, and Ann Daly - encouraging a meet with “these Reel FX guys”. We started the vetting process with Ann to work with DWA on ancillary content - meanwhile - armed with the “Man In The Moon”(MITM) short and pitch materials - we looked to make it or sell it. In April 2007, the two hustles merged and Reel FX started a deal to sell MITM to DreamWorks Animation along with an ancillary work deal. It’s what brought Air Katzenberg to Dallas to enjoy the nap heard round the world (see below).
The Nap Heard Round The World
The magic of Insight was no match for the dark room and the soothing sounds of Reel FX alumni then COO Kyle Clark’s voice. In a legendary studio moment, Clark managed to send Jeffrey Katzenberg to napville, prompting an investor to congratulate him on putting “the Michael Jordan of animation”, to sleep. It earned Clark a permanent place in our Alumni Hall of Fame and spot on this timeline.
The Guardians of Childhood
So what did The Man in the Moon become? You might have heard of this blockbuster! The animated short “The Man In the Moon” was reimagined as a more “expansive world” (Hollywood lingo) called The Guardians of Childhood. Realizing it had a monster property on our hands, we did our first big tinseltown deal and sold it to DreamWorks Animation. Mic drop.
Going Back to Cali
With studio work pouring in – the studio acquires West Coast VFX Commercial shop Radium to put down bigger roots in Hollywood/LA. Radium becomes the name of the entire commercial side of the business, while Reel FX continues to be the entertainment brand. Still following?
Sony Storytime
Trying hard to build a relationship with Sony Pictures Animation, our sales force was heavily courting the brass ( including Jenny Fulle, Andrea Miloro and Hannah Minghella) in those days. We had made some in-roads, they were also impressed with our G.I. JOE movies and TMITM short but hadn’t brought us work … yet. However, we closed the deal when a lively Dallas night out convinced them that Dallas wasn’t such a bad place to work, landing our first full-length CG theatrical feature, Open Season 2 (pictured).
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Pinch Us We’re Dreaming!
Having proven our ability to compete with the best - the ancillary deal with DreamWorks Animation allowed our studio to bring some characters and stories short form branded pieces for Activision, McDonald’s, Intel and more. One of the coolest was: Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Furious Five. Matching the look and animation of this beloved character was no easy feat and it caught some eyes!
Wild Rides
Separately but in parallel, we were calling on other studios including Starz, as well as Universal Studios who was working with Blur. The Simpsons Ride for Universal Studios was our first big “special attraction” came from an urgent call to collaborate. Fast forward years later - the first gig that Meledandri gave us after he left Fox/Blue Sky and started Illumination in 2007 was the Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem theme park ride. We also did rides for Ferrari and more over the years.
Doubling Down in Tinseltown
Doubling down on LA - we grabbed a new, swanky space in Santa Monica – twice as big as the first – it opened with a major Radium Reel FX shindig as the studio also completed our first feature length theatrical release (Ok, so it was only theatrical in Russia) Open Season 2 for Sony Pictures Animation directed by frequent collaborator, Matt O’Callaghan. Everyone needed a drink!
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Tales "from" The Black Freighter
Forget Kevin Bacon. More than six degrees combined in the unique project: Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter. Our team had made inroads with Warner Bros.’ Pres Chris Defaria who invited us on set of The Watchmen. His great impression of our animation chops led to RFX Alum/ATK PLN ECD Danny DelPurgatorio getting to direct this cool piece alongside Mike Smith. Freighter was produced by none other than our pal Brian McNulty who we knew through Spy Kids 2.
But Have You Seen It In 3D?
Remember when “Stereoscopic 3D” was a big deal? We sure do! After heartfelt pitches to Warner Bros head Chris Defaria (these characters inspired us all) who connected us to WBA’s Sam Register, we landed the unforgettable Looney Tunes Shorts. Starting with “Coyote Falls”, the six 3D stereoscopic shorts included beloved Looney Tunes characters Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner, Daffy, Elmer, Sylvester and Tweety. It also precipitated the need for our Ed Jones Memorial Screening Room - a primo 3D theater in the Dallas studio for clients and employees.
Building Rapport Behind the Scenes
Like most of our work, you could say SCOOB! (2020) shenanigans started way back in 2008 when Warner Bros.’ Chris Defaria (blown away by Freighter and the shorts) and Warner Bros. Animation’s Sam Register learned they could trust us with their incredible characters and brands. Their belief in our work helped secure our reputation with Warner Animation Group which led to SCOOB! years later.
Llamas, Dachshunds and Bears, Oh My!
As if the year wasn’t busy enough, we also landed our second CG animated full-length feature for Sony Pictures Animation, Open Season 3. Can you ever animate enough bears?
Giant Robots Take Deep Ellum!
The Man in the Moon was all about miniatures, but in 2009 we built big! Partnering with award winning sculptor, Brad Oldham, we won the Deep Ellum Gateway award with our concept for the “Traveling Man” sculptures - beautiful pieces to frame the gateway streets to our home in Deep Ellum with art that residents and visitors could interact with.
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One Giant Step
After years developing our own properties behind the scenes, Reel FX takes a big step with the acquisition of Jorge Gutierrez’s El Matador, the most famous Reel FX project you haven’t heard of yet.
Culture Club
With the studio growing like crazy in Dallas, events like Canvas for a Cause - a “kind of” annual art show, benefiting Children’s Medical Center, and Reel FX Gallery became traditions that gave our artists (and production staff) a chance to flex and show off their creative chops which extend to fine art, photography and even sculpture. Many pieces of the work from those shows still hang in Reel FX & alumni houses today!
Pitches Come and Go
Even with gifting DVD players, elaborate sizzle packages, and costumed Senior Management members, we didn’t win every pitch we made - only 99% of them. But we always gave it our all. 50 employees even donned capes and Hanes undies (over their clothes) to do a dance routine for a Captain Underpants pitch. It didn’t work - and we’re still trying to figure out why!
The Award for Best Award Goes to … Texas Avery
It wouldn’t be us if something we randomly saw in a North Dallas High School cabinet didn’t turn into a bronze version of one of the most unique and prestigious animation awards! Alum Brandon Oldenburg spotted the Fred “Texas” Avery accolade in 2007 and alongside AFI and DIFF we designed an award to give to the best in the animation biz. 2010 was peak Avery Award with Pete Docter accepting. Others included multi award and Oscar-winning filmmakers Brad Bird, Chris Wedge, Henry Selick, Dean Deblois & Chris Sanders, Glen Keane, Phil Lord & Chris Miller and voice actor June Foray.
On the rise
Remember Guardians of Childhood from 2007 that was also The Man in the Moon? It’s now Rise of the Guardians, because studios love changing) titles – and it gets a release date of November 2012.
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Chain Chain Chain … Chain of Title
Hecho in …Texas? After years of hiding its incredible style frames from everyone (except tours, friends, family, visitors and delivery guys), we announced Jorge Gutierrez’s visually stunning Day of the Dead-themed animated film, now called The Book of Life, because apparently, you can’t say “dead” in the title of children’s movie. Jorge and the development team including producer Brad Booker had landed Guillermo del Toro as producer and 20th Century Fox jumped on board. The film was scheduled to be released on October 10, 2014. Ole!
Hang On To Your Nuggets!
First called Turkeys, then Time Turkeys, our feathered film directed by Jimmy Hayward (Horton Hears a Who!) and produced by Scott Mosier (The Grinch) also gets a distributor and co-producer (Relativity Media), a release date (November 14, 2014), and a new name (cause you also apparently can’t call a film a “Turkey”).
Like REALLY HANG ON!
We busy! We had grown to close to 350 people between Dallas and Santa Monica from newbies to Academy Award-winning talent doing rides, movies, commercials, and winning Annies, VES Awards and more. It was all under control, all going great - and then Free Birds’ release date gets moved up an entire year! Back to work.
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Free Birds Premiere
We did it! FREE BIRDS premiered on November 1, 2013, starring Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson and Amy Poehler, and while we couldn’t avoid all the turkey jokes, we did agree with critic Stephen Schaefer who said: “Free Birds, an animated buddy comedy that evokes the daffiness of classic Chuck Jones cartoons, is no turkey.”
Ready for our close up
Although we often joke, our first feature was a huge, huge deal for the studio and artists. It landed CEO Steve O’Brien on the cover of DCEO with a headline “the next Pixar.” Although we’ve never wanted to be the next anything, only the first us, it was a moment where it felt, “We’d made it”. Free Birds went on to gross over $100 MM world wide.
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It was a good day/year.
THE BOOK OF LIFE’s one of a kind visuals, story and team picked up steam, and we announced the voice talent line up of our dreams, including Ice Cube, Channing Tatum, Zoe Saldana, Diego Luna, Christina Applegate, Kate del Castillo and Ron Perlman
Humans in costume? Sounds about right!
Nothing like Comic Con especially for fan art and appreciation of art driven properties. Getting to do Comic Con panels with Jorge Gutierrez and the incredible voice talent and Guillermo were some days we won’t forget. The costumed masses were the least unusual to us. Have you ever seen a Reel FX Halloween? We put Comic Con to shame.
Moro Del Toro
It’s only fitting that our big debut in virtual reality was also at Comic Con and for a Guillermo del Toro film! Our VR experience for Pacific Rim was a hit, with Legendary Pictures CMO Emily Castel commenting. “Reel FX was a fantastic partner and their VR team did a terrific job at bringing the transportive universe of Pacific Rim to life.”
Tequila Time
With the power of 20th Century Fox behind us, The Book of Life premiered internationally with events in Mexico City, Dallas and Los Angeles.
Award Season
We began an awards campaign for THE BOOK OF LIFE in late 2014, our first as a studio. Up against some big contenders like DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon 2, we were amazed to see the industry loved BOL just as much as we did. We racked up ANNIE and VES Nominations, PGA and Critics Choice nods too, but nothing could have prepared us for waking up to a GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINATION in December 2014. A studio milestone to be sure!
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Nose to the grindstone
With all the buzz around The BOOK OF LIFE, it was time to move full steam ahead with new projects - some of which had been cooking for years. A friend of our producer/development exec Brad Booker named Rob Harrell brought his children’s book MONSTER ON THE HILL (another name change coming, we warn you) to Reel FX in 2013 and it was finally time to share that news with the world.
Reel Success in Virtual Reality
After the success of 2014’s Pacific Rim VR for Legendary Pictures, VR became a huge focus of our business and our newly and creatively named REEL FX VR (now Flight School Studio) division tackled premiere VR projects for American Express, Porsche, U.S. Air Force, Hunger Games and more.
Paw Print
What would eventually become SCOOB! gets its tail wagging at Reel FX in 2015. We helped our long time Warner friends develop the look over the next few years as their story shaped up. We were super excited to get our paws on these Hannah Barbera characters and be part of the process.
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Under a Rock
We made a feature film called ROCK DOG.
In the VR Spotlight
We also brought Jorge Gutierrez’’s new animation project “Son of Jaguar” to life in VR through the Google Spotlight Series. The piece put viewers inside the POV of a Mexican wrestler who on the Day of the Dead comes to visit his family.
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Oh Canada
With glowing hearts and expanding budgets, we realized that Montreal was the next natural expansion for Reel FX. With an incredible amount of creative and production talent in the area, we opened a cool creative space in the Nordelec.
Hooray for Hollywood
After nine years in Santa Monica it was time for a change of beautiful scenery. We packed up and headed east to Hollywood with our growing animation business to be closer to clients and the studios.
Time for us to Fly
Finished with the storied Moonbot chapter in their lives, Reel FX alumni including Brandon Oldenburg and Limbert Fabian returned to Texas and launched Flight School Studio as our VR/AR division, and multi-platform content sister studio to take all things interactive to the moon and beyond.
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A Monster Project with Paramount
We found a new partner in Paramount Animation which announced at CinemaCon that it was co-producing MONSTER ON THE HILL with us and revealed more details about the project which was set to be directed by Bradley Raymond with a screenplay by Matt Lieberman and Etan Cohen and released in 2020.
So ugly it’s cute
STX Entertainment was looking for the perfect partner to bring the iconic UGLY DOLLS brand to life in CG. (Raises hand). So we got to work on this adorable film featuring the voices of Kelly Clarkson, Janelle Monae, Nick Jonas and Pitbull among others which was released a year later in 2019.
Plan of ATK
Our award-winning commercial division relaunched as strategic creative group ATK PLN. The focus was next level VFX, design, production and interactive media for short form clients.
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Movin’ on up! (Dallas Edition)
It’s always hard to move on but it was time, after more than a decade in Deep Ellum, we decided to move west to our new (and current) downtown Harwood location on the 27th floor. It was the 4th move for the studio and our first studio with true skyline views.
Movin’ on up! (Montreal Edition)
Our presence in Montreal was getting massive, and with several animated features in various stages of production we needed additional space and snagged almost 55,000 square feet of space on three different floors to accommodate our expanding Canadian crew.
Back to the Outback
In late 2019, we began production on BACK TO THE OUTBACK, our first project feature for Netflix, with partner Netflix Animation.
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SCOOB!
Our studio has always been passionate about classic animated characters so getting to work on SCOOB! including Scooby, Shaggy and the gang had been a dream. All the hard work of the past five years paid off and in true “Reel FX” form, we also helped them with marketing materials and experiences to accompany the film.
The New Normal
When the Covid-19 pandemic happened, we, like the rest of the world, changed forever! Thanks to staying on top of technology, and our proprietary software, INSIGHT, we moved quickly into a fully remote workflow, even with three animated feature films in various stages of production.
A Bromance Begins
In early 2020 we set up our first animated episodic series called Brobots with Netflix. It was created by long-time collaborators Victor Maldonado and Alfredo Torres. And after all, because it’s a Reel FX Original animated project, the title was changed to Super Giant Robot Brothers.
Pitches Come and Go Pt 2
We were up for another great animated feature in the form of The Monkey King for Netflix, and all seemed to be going great until … they decided to go with another studio since they had recently awarded us Back to the Outback. But don’t worry, sometimes when pitches go ... they come right on back! Stay tuned for more The Monkey King news!
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Double Feature
December 2021 is one of the biggest months in our studio’s history when two projects that we’d been working on for years (our original RUMBLE, with Paramount and BACK TO THE OUTBACK for Netflix) were released within five days of each other!
Ready to Rumble!
After five long years and only one name change (whew!), our little MONSTER ON THE HILL was all grown up and was released as RUMBLE on Paramount Plus starring Will Arnett and Tony Danza.
First Annual Pitch Fest
In our Pitchfest competition, we asked our entire team to pitch us their movie ideas. The winner would then work with our Originals team on the development of it. Congratulations to Karine Ntihinyuka, production team member, who wowed us with her incredible idea. Stay tuned for more!
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Short and sweet
Originals come in many shapes and sizes and we were thrilled to support the vision of VFX Supervisor and now Writer/Director Augusto Schillaci as he created the stunning animated short, LA CALESITA, a beautifully animated and deeply personal Argentinian story.
Reel Time
Pushing the boundaries of technology, Reel FX created a real-time motion capture pipeline based in Unreal Engine to create Super Giant Robot Brothers! The show was made possible, in part, by a grant from EPIC Games, and debuted on Netflix in August 2022.
Department of Wonder
After years of development at Reel FX, Department of Wonder, a location-based, immersive, mixed reality experience, will open Spring 2022 with its first Texas venue near Houston. DOW is the passion project of long-time Reel FXers Kyle Clark, Brandon Oldenburg, Limbert Fabian and Taylor Williams and we can’t wait to see their vision come to life.
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🎵 Our Pipeline has a First Name 🎵
After 3 years, numerous shorts, and a 10-episode animated series about two super giant robot brothers, we decided that our proprietary real-time animation pipeline needed a name. Something that represented speed and flexibility - like a REFLEX... That’s it! Reel FX -> Reflex. It has been a part of us this whole time.
The Monkey King reigned supreme!
In collaboration with our friends at Netflix Animation, we brought to life the famous character from the chinese classic Journey to The West under the direction of Tony Stacchi.
The Ole “About Us” Paragraph
