Animation industry artists as well as their supporters and toon lovers around the world wide web have been watching a rolling series of shakeups impact the artform over the past couple years. To help keep these communities informed, it was a no brainer to present information on current challenges using animation! Enter Jellybox Studios, an L.A.-headquartered outfit employing artists around the world which was tapped to create the buzzy Animation Workers Ignite shorts seen on TikTok, Instagram and X.
Describing itself as “a cute lil’ animation studio,” Jellybox specializes in shortform content for online platforms, leveraging over 20 years of animation experience to deliver soup to nuts production. To learn more about the studio whose work has sparked so much conversation in Toon Town, we recently caught up with studio Founder & President Gene Goldstein for an introduction to Jellybox’s array of web-first projects.
Animation Magazine: Can you give us a brief history of your studio?
Gene Goldstein: I launched the studio in 2023 as a means to create our first original webseries, called NOXP. After a successful Kickstarter helped us gain funding, we continued to do weekly releases for the past year, wrapping up the series right before Halloween! Over the past year, we’ve also been approached to help with numerous other animated web shorts and series, with our most notable work being the Animation Workers Ignited shorts. The success of those shorts has helped us grow and reach a bigger audience than we thought imaginable within our first year. It’s been a wild ride!
What would you say is your particular specialty?
Right now, we excel at short-form web content, and we’ve proven to be highly effective at doing consistent and engaging uploads.
Where are you based and how many employees do you have?
We’re scattered all around the world, though our core leadership team is based in sunny Los Angeles.
What are some of your most famous projects?
We’re best known for being the studio behind the incredibly successful AWI shorts! But we’re also known for our internal production NOXP, a comedic “micro-series” about a group of JRPG heroes that finished their epic quest and now must return to being normal people. We’ve also done work with other notable animation channels, like Alphabet Lore and Eggdog.
Can you tell us a bit more about the Animation Workers PSAs?
In late 2023, Michael Rianda approached us about making some shorts to raise awareness about the struggles of the animation industry, leading up to the (currently ongoing) negotiations with the AMPTP. We received funding from him and Alex Hirsch and with the help of Animation Workers Ignited to guide our messaging, we put together a team to produce the shorts on a monthly basis.
I share directing duties with Laura Serrano Miralles, with Sean Aitchision as our head writer and production supervisor, and Kasey Williams as our art director. Kasey was tasked with coming up with a minimal art style that could be easily animated, while also being visually appealing, and we looked to retro UPA or Jim Ward cartoons for inspiration. Kasey has done almost all of the design work, and she’s been loving seeing all the love for her work!
What has been the response to these shorts?
Astronomical. We hoped it would reach people outside of the animation industry, as public awareness was always the main goal, but we never expected this! The shorts have each accrued millions and millions of views across all social media, received hundreds of pieces of gorgeous fanart, and became a phenomenon. It’s been amazing to see how much people care about the animation industry and its current struggles, and we’re honored to be a part of that conversation!
What are your plans for the near future?
We’re looking into ways to continue doing more shorts in the AWI style, crowdfunding Season 2 of NOXP, as well as starting some new and exciting client projects! We’re growing quickly and we’re appreciative of anybody who wants to join the ride!
What would you like everyone to know about Jellybox?
We’re really hoping to keep expanding and taking on more projects in the months and years to come, to help prove that indie animation is the future, and take back the industry that we all love dearly.
Learn more about Jellybox at jellybox.studio.
Can you name all the brave toons on the front line?!
Help them and The Animation Guild fight back in the streaming wars by posting with #NoContractNoCartoons!
You can also follow, repost, and #StayTooned for more! pic.twitter.com/AWAzzGHWv6
— Animation Workers Ignited (@AWorkersIgnited) October 7, 2024
