Don’t be surprised if animators throughout Vancouver start chanting, “Everything is awesome.”
Animal Logic, the Australian studio that produced the animation for last year’s The Lego Movie, is expanding its presence to Vancouver as part of a three-picture with Warner Bros. Pictures.
The Lego Movie nabbed a 2015 Oscar nomination for best original song — “Everything is Awesome” — and production on the sequel is scheduled to start at the new Vancouver studio this coming January.
“For the past 15 years we have had a truly collaborative and highly successful relationship with our friends at Warner Bros., and we are excited to be taking our collaboration to the next level on the production of a terrific slate of films in Vancouver,” Animal Logic CEO Zareh Nalbandian said in a May 20 statement.
The expansion to B.C. won’t affect operations at the studio’s head office in Sydney, Australia, where it employs 500 people.
Animal Logic said in a press release the Australian studio would continue production on a Lego Batman feature and a Ninjago film.
Other than The Lego Sequel, the company did not reveal which films are included in the three-picture deal with Warner Bros.
In an email to Business in Vancouver, Animal Logic spokeswoman Lisa Santo-Buechler said the studio expects to hire 300 people in B.C. who will work in a 45,000-square-foot facility in Yaletown.
She added part of the reasons for opening an office in Vancouver was for its proximity to L.A.
