Toronto and Winnipeg-based Tangent Animation, which was working on multiple feature projects for Netflix, has shuttered unexpectedly with potentially up to 400 staff laid off between the studio’s two locations, Cartoon Brew reports. The seven-year-old, Blender-based studio is behind Spanish-Canadian doggy tale Ozzy (2016) and Chinese-Canadian sci-fi adventure Next Gen, which stirred buzz in 2018 when it sparked a bidding war at Cannes and was picked up by Netflix for $30 million.
CB’s sources say that Tangent had completed its work on its next big project, Netflix Original Maya and the Three — a nine-part family fantasy-adventure set in ancient Mesoamerica, due out this fall. Series creator, director and exec producer Jorge R. Gutierrez (The Book of Life) responded to the news on Twitter: “This is heartbreaking. I wholeheartedly adored working with all the brilliant and ridiculously talented artists, artisans and producers at Tangent. What they accomplished with Maya and the Three is EPIC. I’m jealous of future directors that will be lucky to create with them.”
Tangent had also been tapped by the streamer to deliver the Chinese legend-inspired action-comedy The Monkey King (2023) from director Anthony Stacchi (The Boxtrolls), exec producer Stephen Chow (Mermaid) and producer Peilin Chou (Over the Moon), and Paul McCartney’s musical kids’ book adaptation High in the Clouds (Netflix/Gaumont). Netflix was reportedly dissatisfied with the work being done on these projects.
The studio is also tied to Tangent Labs, backing its asset/production management software LoUPE, and Tangent Interactive. Tangent Animation was inducted into the Academy Software Foundation just days ago, announcing it was open sourcing its in-house USD render engine Blackbird.
The company has not yet issued a statement.
[Source: Cartoon Brew]
