Ionart Studios Announces New Animated Originals ‘Ninja Cats’ & ‘poCats’

As part of its ongoing growth and global expansion goals, award-winning Budapest-based animation and VFX producer Ionart Studios announced the launch of new original animated content, alongside the debut of its dedicated Animation page. The studios’ in-house original animation development team operates parallel to its service work for global clients across short films, commercials and game cinematics.

The studio has just announced its newest original project, Ninja Cats, a feature-length CG action-comedy. A first-look trailer has launched timed to Animation Production Days (APD), running alongside FMX and ITFS in Stuttgart from April 23-26.

In Ninja Cats, a wise cat master of martial arts and his disciples join forces with a young recruit to thwart the plans of an ambitious city leader who aims to bring eternal daylight upon the land, which would threaten the life of nocturnal creatures and upset the natural balance. You can see the first trailer below.

Ninja Cats marks the first Ionart Original Production fully developed using Epic Games’ real-time tool Unreal Engine.

“Utilizing Unreal on this production really allowed us to advance our pipeline to continue creating innovative top-quality animation productions that the industry demands,” says Animation Director Csaba Bárdos. “We’re really excited to share our work on Ninja Cats with animation fans all over the world and develop more projects with Unreal.”

Releasing ahead of Ninja Cats — but keeping with the feline theme — is the Ionart Original Production poCats, a cartoon series aimed at younger audiences. Adapted from the children’s book Cipelő cicák written by Judit Berg and illustrated by Írisz Agócs, poCats features magical beanbag kittens named Kira, Pepe and Laurie, whose mischievousness leads them to various adventures and escapades. A preview of this family-friendly series is available on the new Ionart Animation page. poCats has been picked up for global distribution by Toon2Tango.

Leading Ionart’s animation division is Animation Director Csaba Bárdos who has spent more than 20 years in the industry. Bárdos started his career working as a background painter for Mr. Bean before becoming a 3D generalist on other series and feature films. As a director, he worked on the full-length animated feature Micropolis (2011) and made the award-winning short film Albert (2012) in addition to other projects.

Bárdos has been Ionart’s Animation Director for 10 years, being involved in several animation-based commercials as well as the studio’s original content. Additionally, he has directed game cinematics for such companies as THQ Nordic, Innogames, and Vertigo Games, along with supervising and producing animation for live action productions. He has a distinct fondness for developing family-friendly animation, and looks forward to continuing to grow the Ionart animation team and create more Ionart Originals utilizing the studio’s new Unreal pipeline.

ionartstudios.com/animation