MERCURY RISING

Mercury Filmworks’ Heath Kenny on how the studio has evolved over the last 25 years and where it’s headed next.

By Kristin Brzoznowski

Celebrating its 25th year in the animation industry, Mercury Filmworks has grown in a number of ways to position the studio where it is today. “We went from trying to prove to the industry that hand-drawn, really high-end animation could be done in Toon Boom’s Harmony to not only proving it, but going beyond that initial promise,” says Heath Kenny, chief content officer. “We’ve been able to push it beyond what anyone expected to be able to do with that software, which has given our community and the industry opportunities to do much more with 2D digital animation than what was expected.”

Mercury Filmworks remains an agile and collaborative partner, producing acclaimed content such as Hilda for Netflix. “We’ve established ourselves as not only creative, but incredibly reliable, very much well-rounded and mature partners that can take on complex, valuable problems for our clients and not only solve them, but solve them in a way that protects them from collaboration chaos,” Kenny says. “That reassurance for third-party service work is a badge of honor that we’re proud to wear.”

As that core business has expanded, Mercury Filmworks has built its originals strategy over the last two and a half years with projects such as Octicorn & Friends , Bunny McBee , A Mouse Called Julian , Tales of the Underwear Dragon and more. “We’ve embraced innovation and pushed into telling our own stories and inspiring our creators to step up and take a swing at creating their own characters and building the worlds they live in,” Kenny says.

“People are intrigued; they want to know more, and they want to collaborate with us,” he adds. “We’re building partnerships, and we continue to be trusted with book properties and originals from our community and beyond.”