Clockwork Zoo (formerly Octagon CSI), based in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

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

action-adventure An action-adventure game is a video game genre, video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Definition An action adventure game can be defined as a game with a mix of elements f ...

teen Adolescence () is a transitional stage of human Developmental biology, physical and psychological Human development (biology), development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age o ...

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

Caillou ''Caillou'' ( ; , stylized in lowercase) is an animated educational children's television series that aired on Teletoon (both English and French versions) with the first episode airing on the former channel on September 15, 1997 until the fou ...

co-produced with Loogaroo Animation Studio, and the

Cookie Jar Group The Cookie Jar Group, commonly known as simply Cookie Jar and formerly known as CINAR, was a Canadian animation studio, production company, media production and distribution company that existed from 1976 until it was folded into DHX Media, no ...

, '' Mr. Baby'' for

Xilam Xilam (also known as Xilam Animation) is a French animation studio which specializes in making 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 ...

, 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 Tele ...

series Florrie's Dragons, co-produced by

Wish Films Wish Films is an animation and live-action studio, established by Will Brenton and Iain Lauchlan in 2006. It is the successor to Tell-Tale Productions, which was formed in 1994, first producing live shows, and later went on to produce TV shows. ...

History

2005-2010: 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 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 Wibb ...

(Wish Films, UK).

2010-2011: Later career

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

with

Cookie Jar Entertainment The Cookie Jar Group, commonly known as simply Cookie Jar and formerly known as CINAR, was a Canadian animation studio, media production and distribution company that existed from 1976 until it was folded into DHX Media, now WildBrain, on Dec ...

(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

(UK) for initial broadcast on the

Disney Channel UK Disney Channel was a children's pay television channel that operated in the UK and Ireland from 1 October 1995 to 1 October 2020 as the variant of the namesake American television channel. It was owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company ...

. 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 Florrie's 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