It looks like Singapore’s CG animation industry has taken yet another major hit, after August 2023’s closure of Lucasfilm Singapore, this time, London-based Moonbug Entertainment is closing Singapore’s One Animation, just 18 months after its acquisition in 2022.
One Animation is best known for its global hit series Oddbods, targeted at preschoolers with its non-dialogue short-form comedy skits. Apart from broadcasting its episodes on the internet, it even went on Cartoon Network, Disney, Netflix, Nickelodeon and Tencent. Some of the studio’s other past works include Rob the Robot (2010) and Insectibles (2015).
According to Kidscreen, Moonbug’s move to shut down the Singapore-based animation studio was to focus its resources on pre and post-production while outsourcing the majority of the animation work to third parties.
“When Moonbug acquired One Animation in 2022, it not only acquired an incredible premium kids franchise in Oddbods, but also an incredible Singapore-based leadership team and production studio. At that time, the production capabilities not only supported Oddbods, but also provided third-party animation services for other media companies. As was always the plan, in order to focus resources entirely on Moonbug’s own franchises, we have scaled back the studio operations and wound down third-party services. Consistent with the majority of Moonbug’s production pipeline, most animation is now being outsourced. We are immensely grateful for the valuable contributions from the team, and the APAC region will remain a key market and priority for us in 2024,” says a Moonbug spokesperson.
Moonbug will continue to grow the Oddbods and its spinoff Minibods brand globally. Season 4 of Oddbods already launching this month. In the meantime, here’s a 1-hour compilation posted up recently on the official YouTube channel:
Yonk is a geek who is fortunate enough to have an equally geeky Star Wars fan for a wife, who owns a LEGO Millennium Falcon encased in a glass coffee table as their home’s centre-piece.
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Linette Lin
