South Africa's leading animation studio, Triggerfish, is setting up its first international studio in Galway, creating 60 jobs and bringing a little bit of magic to Ireland in the process.
Set up in 1996, Triggerfish have animated the Oscar-nominated adaptation of Roald Dahl's Revolting Ryhmes, not to mention their animations of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's works, such as The Snail and the Whale, Zog, The Highway Rat and Stick Man.
Their first two feature films, Adventures in Zambezia and Khumba are still in the five highest-grossing South African feature films of all time, and they are currently producing Netflix's first original African animated TV series, Mama K's Team 4.
The company's CEO, Stuart Forrest spoke about their decision to come to Galway, saying: "To keep up with demand, we started outsourcing work to Irish animators in 2019 and were quickly won over by both the quality of the work and the dedication to the craft."
"We’re big fans of the likes of Cartoon Saloon and Giant, so are looking forward to helping grow Ireland as an animation hub producing some of the world’s best work.”
Their Irish operation will be headed up by their studio producer, Andy Wonnacott, much to the delight of his Irish wife. Speaking about the news, Wonnacott said "“It has a similar time zone to South Africa; is very well connected, with both flights and broadband connectivity; has a thriving creative community; offers loads of really fantastic business support. For us personally, Ireland is our second home, so it will be good to be back with family and friends.”
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