Final Frontier has launched a new retro-toon-inspired animated short film Tick-Tock! Let’s Dream Together! to promote the sci-fi/fantasy video game Honkai: Star Rail, from Chinese developer/publisher MiHoYo (Honkai Impact 3rd, Genshin Impact). The global animation and film prodco teamed up with Appetit Studio in Lyon, France, and tapped Goya Award-winning Spanish animation director Salvador Simó (Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles, Dragonkeeper) to create a mad-cap “Rubber Hose” adventure.
The game’s storyline follows the amnesiac Trailblazer traveling across worlds on the Astral Rail, resolving disasters caused by the Stellaron. The story of Tick-Tock! unfold on Penacony, the fourth world on this tour, and unfolds as a fictitious tourism promo for the magical planet, guided by the charismatic NPC Clock Boy. The host unveils Penacony’s must-see destinations, such as The Dreamville Hotel, the Oti Mall and Clock Studios Theme Park.
“We brought in Salvador Simó — with an outstanding background in features and short films and his latest experience directing Dragonkeeper, a co-production between China and Spain — being the perfect fit culturally, process-wise, and in terms of storytelling, too. To execute his vision, we worked with Appetit Studio, our sister company in Lyon, France,” notes Juan Manuel Freire, Executive Producer at Final Frontier. “Due to the complexity of the animation, we knew they would be the perfect studio to achieve this ’40s cartoon style. The execution level has been challenging, and the client was seeking a short film that could showcase state-of-the-art quality.
“… [Then we] have the MiHoYo team, with their unique culture and process; after working for the Chinese market for seven years, we knew how to manage the culture and process and make this intercontinental set up work. They are a great video game developer with high standards, that also helped us push ourselves further.”
Freire executive produced the project for Final Frontier alongside Eric Zheng, Gabriel Murgue and Gus Karam; Xiao Liu exec produced for MiHoYo. Appetit was the production services studio. The Tick-Tock! creative team included visual development artist Charlotte Cousquer, character designer Océane Payan and background designers Diego Cambrian, Alexane Rich, Charlotte Cousquer and Edouard Pitula. Iman Kaguirova and Desi Garrido Romero handled storyboard and animatic duties for the project, which was animated by Louis Holmes, Lae Appollonia, Florian Perron, Fernando Corrales Linares, Julien Marret, Peter Lowey, Lise Legiers, Mario Serrano and Océane Payan.
Simó is a film director and scriptwriter, known for Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles (2018), which premiered and was awarded at the Animation Is Film festival in L.A., and went on to win Best European Animated Feature Film from the European Film Awards and Best Animation Film at the 34th Goya Awards as well as shortlist honors from the Academy Awards in 2019. That same year, Simó was awarded the Cartoon Tribute as Best European Director at Cartoon Movie. He recently premiered his latest animated feature film, Dragonkeeper, the largest Spanish-Chinese co-production, based on the novel by Carole Wilkinson, opening the 27th Malaga Festival. Viva Pictures released Dragonkeepers in the U.S. last month and will offer the film on DVD in August.
With offices in Los Angeles, Madrid, Shanghai, Singapore and Buenos Aires, Final Frontier has helped create a number of notable campaign shorts through its partnerships with top brands, including the Doritos Rainbow shor Dia de los Muertos (with Landia Mexico, Zombie Studio and agency Slap Global) and their last video game project, Naraka: Bladepoint – Crimson & Winter (with Le Cube).
The studio has also provided production services for TV and film including Adult Swim’s Common Side Effects, Disney’s Descendants: The Royal Wedding and Alberto Vázquez’s Unicorn Wars. Original IP in the works include Beca & the All-Phone, Gilgamesh City, The Harriets and animated biopic Maradona.
