{"id":3241,"date":"2018-05-30T14:09:43","date_gmt":"2018-05-30T14:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2018\/05\/30\/atomic-cartoons-goes-boom\/"},"modified":"2020-10-29T22:00:37","modified_gmt":"2020-10-29T22:00:37","slug":"atomic-cartoons-goes-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2018\/05\/30\/atomic-cartoons-goes-boom\/","title":{"rendered":"ATOMIC CARTOONS GOES BOOM"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite incredible growth \u2013 25 employees in 2011 to more than 400 now \u2013 Atomic remains an artist-driven company<\/strong><\/em><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

There\u2019s rapid growth, and then there\u2019s the growth that Atomic Cartoons has experienced in the last several years, which to adequately illustrate would probably require some kind of slickly animated time-lapse sequence whipped up by one of the company\u2019s award-winning artists.<\/p>\n

The Vancouver-based animation firm \u2013 which was acquired by Thunderbird Pictures in 2015 and will celebrate its 20th<\/sup>anniversary in 2019 \u2013 grew from 25 employees in 2011 to more than 400 in 2018. The staggering pace of growth required them to move from their long-time Mount Pleasant digs into a sprawling space across the alley once occupied by Kit & Ace (the official opening in March was\u00a0attended by Premier John Horgan<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Atomic\u2019s rapid expansion has occurred in step with growth within the local animation industry. The Vancouver Economic Commission reports that Vancouver is now the number one visual effects and animation cluster in the world; more than 10,000 artists are employed at roughly 60 VFX and animation houses.<\/p>\n

Despite its eye-popping growth, Atomic Cartoons has no intention of growing indiscriminately, according to its president, Jennifer McCarron. Atomic is all about playing the long game.<\/div>\n

\u201cWe spend a lot of time talking about how we preserve Atomic\u2019s culture as we grow, and we actually say no to a lot of work now because we feel like we\u2019re at a place now that it\u2019s manageable,\u201d says McCarron, who noted that the company turned down $20 million in work in December alone. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to take on work that we can\u2019t execute. It\u2019s hard saying no, but we have to be sure that we can execute on it. It\u2019s not about space; it\u2019s really the talent, because we put such a premium on people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atomic Cartoons was founded by a quartet of artists in 1999. The company quickly established itself as an artist-driven boutique firm specializing in 2D animation with their original projects\u00a0Atomic Betty<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Pirate Express<\/em>. McCarron \u2013 an animation veteran who was VP of production at Rainmaker Entertainment \u2013 joined Atomic in 2011, when the company was eager to deep-dive into the world of computer-generated animation.<\/p>\n

McCarron says she was initially drawn to Atomic by its culture, which dates back to the company\u2019s founding and begins and ends with a focus on the artists. \u201cThey really value the people and the art,\u201d says McCarron \u2013 a rare quality in an industry with a high turnover of employees. \u201cWe spend a lot of time worrying and caring about career progression, because we really want people to stay at Atomic, and build a career,\u201d says McCarron.<\/p>\n

This is why McCarron and other members of the Atomic leadership team spend one hour each day meeting with artists to talk with them about their career goals. \u201cI always say, \u2018If you can see it, you can be it,\u2019 and that\u2019s what we talk about in the one-on-ones,\u201d says McCarron. \u201c\u2018What do you want to be? Where do you see yourself in five years? How can we make that happen?\u2019 Our people are our stars.\u201d<\/p>\n

To find those stars, Atomic works closely with all of the local post-secondary institutions, and has recently expanded its outreach efforts into high schools to \u201cget people thinking that this could be a career for them,\u201d says McCarron.<\/p>\n

Beyond its confluence of stars, Atomic\u2019s recent growth can also be attributed to \u201can exploding need for content now for companies like Netflix, Amazon, Apple, and Disney Streaming,\u201d adds McCarron. \u201cWe\u2019ve been uniquely positioned, because we do high-quality work because of the people who work here, to capitalize on that, and also sell our own content, which has been a change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atomic\u2019s lengthy filmography includes\u00a0Max & Ruby<\/em>,\u00a0Little Charmers<\/em>,\u00a0Babar and the Adventures of Badou<\/em>,\u00a0Transformers: Rescue Bots<\/em>,\u00a0Marvel Super Hero Adventures<\/em>, and a series of shorts for Mattel and Mojang based on the\u00a0Minecraft\u00a0<\/em>video game. Its original work includes\u00a0Beat Bug<\/em>s, an award-winning series inspired by the music of The Beatles, and \u2013 coming to Netflix in 2019 \u2013\u00a0The Last Kids on Earth<\/em>, a serialized animated adventure-comedy based on Max Brallier\u2019s New York Times bestselling book series.<\/p>\n

\"Atomic<\/p>\n

\u201cVancouver is shifting, and it\u2019s really exciting,\u201d says McCarron. \u201cTraditionally, it was a real service town, and now, because of the talent, we\u2019re being seen as creators. That is a big seismic shift. Traditionally you\u2019d get the [intellectual property] out of Los Angeles and then execute upon it, but now we\u2019re being trusted to create the IP and then deliver on it. It\u2019s been a hard shift, but I\u2019ve seen the fruits of that labour with every studio in town. We\u2019re trying to cultivate storytellers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow @atomiccartoons<\/a>\u00a0and visit\u00a0www.atomiccartoons.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sabrina Furminger \/ Vancouver Courier<\/em><\/p>\n

Original Post:\u00a0http:\/\/vancourier.com\/entertainment\/atomic-cartoons-goes-boom-1.23319316\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite incredible growth \u2013 25 employees in 2011 to more than 400 now \u2013 Atomic remains an artist-driven company   There\u2019s rapid growth, and then there\u2019s the growth that Atomic Cartoons has experienced in the last several years, which to adequately illustrate would probably require some kind of slickly animated time-lapse sequence whipped up by … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,53],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nATOMIC CARTOONS GOES BOOM - Thunderbird Entertainment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2018\/05\/30\/atomic-cartoons-goes-boom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ATOMIC CARTOONS GOES BOOM - 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