Netflix plans to acquire animation studio Animal Logic, known for making hits like Happy feet and The Lego Moviethe streaming company announced on Tuesday along with its earnings for the second quarter of 2022.
“Today we announced that we will be acquiring leading animation studio Animal Logic, with ~800 amazing people primarily in Sydney and Vancouver, which will help us accelerate the development of our animation production capabilities and reinforce our commitment to building a world-class animation studio Netflix wrote in its Q2 2022 shareholder letter (pdf).
The two companies are already partnering The Wizard’s Elephant (expected 2023) and Ron Howard’s first animated film, The Shrinking of Treehorn. The acquisition is expected to close this year, according to a press release.
Netflix has continued to build its animated programming, including a recently announced series based on Exploding kittens card game that is set for next year. But in May it cut 70 part-time jobs at its animation studio and abandoned some animation projects, Diversity reported.