Stop Motion, 2D and CG production from concept to final delivery.

Recent Productions

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  Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio

  A father's wish magically brings a wooden boy to life in Italy, giving him a chance to care for the child. However, the two of them have to struggle to find a place for themselves as Italy becomes embroiled in fascism.

  Mackinnon & Saunders were involved early on in the development stage of the film which was 15 years prior to its on screen release.

  Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio was created for Netflix with the lead creative cast included Shadow Machine, Mark Gustafason and Gary Ungar.

  
  

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  BooSnoo!

  From the creative mind of Julian Bashford, BooSnoo is a unique blend of calm and exploration providing the chance to reset. Follow a red ball take a journey through a fantastical machine, triggering art, music, creativity and wonderfully interesting things.

  A true collaboration feat with Studio Liddel, Andy Farago and the team at Mackinnon & Saunders, BooSnoo has proven to be successful with both adults, children and the team at Sky Kids.

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  The Mixmups

  Three playful pre-school friends, Pockets, Giggle, and Spin, who together are the Mixmups, use their magical wooden spoon and mixing box to 'Mix up the Magic' of play and imagination and transport themselves on a host of comical adventures.

  Over the course of six years, Mackinnon & Saunders worked together with the creator on developing the idea further and securing funds for the production.

  The puppets, props and sets were all created within Mackinnon & Saunders and filmed within our studio space.

  Now showing on Channel 5!

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  Numan Adverts

  We collaborated with Numan to produce several adverts featuring puppets that were made to look like action figures.

  Below is a link to one of the adverts:

  https://drive.google.com/file/...
  

  Find out more
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  The Sound Collector

  The Sound Collector' is about sound as heard through the ears of a small but very active little being called the Sound Collector, who has a passion for sound despite the fact that he is very hard of hearing. He spends his days discovering and using new sounds that he finds on his adventures, whether it's the blooping and popping of sea anemones, the hissing of the tide drawing back along a pebble beach, or the snores and snuffles of his best friend and pet Mole.

  The puppets, props and sets were all created within Mackinnon & Saunders and filmed within our studio space apart from the live action shoots that were out on location.

  Made with the support of the Young Audiences Content Fund through the BFI, Eagle vs Bat and the co-producers Enanimation in Turin, Italy.

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  The House

  The House is a 2022 British stop-motion animated anthology film written by Enda Walsh and telling different stories forming a trilogy spanning different worlds and characters but set inside the same house. Each story deals with themes of madness, wealth, and the pursuit of true happiness.

  Mackinnon & Saunders crafted the puppets, the props, and the majority of the sets. Then subsequently our studios were used to film it.

  The House was created for Netflix with the lead creative cast included Paloma Baeza, Emma De Swaef and Niki Lindroth von Bahr

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  Archie

  Based on the picture book creations of Domenica More Gordon, Archie is a short stop motion film that we produced for Young Films and the BBC. The puppets were made by needle felting over the armatures, which gives them a very appealing soft texture. Directed by Ainslie Henderson, the film won the Best of the Fest Award at the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival in 2019.

  Based on the picture book creations of Domenica More Gordon, Archie is a short stop motion film that we produced for Young Films and the BBC.

  The puppets were made by needle felting over the armatures, which gives them a very appealing soft texture.

  Directed by Ainslie Henderson, the film won the Best of the Fest Award at the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival in 2019.

  Find out more
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  Moon and Me

  We provided the stop motion elements for the 2019 CBeebies series Moon and Me. This extraordinary show combines live action puppetry shot in Atlanta, Georgia and stop motion animation produced by our Altrincham studio team. Developing the Moon Baby puppet was quite a challenge for the puppet workshop, not least because his head and his hairpiece needed to be able to light up! This was our first internally lit puppet and it needed extensive R&D to achieve the desired effect. Our ZBrush guru Glen Southern helped us with Moon Baby’s replacement heads, which were printed by 3D Print Bureau in Stoke. The internal unit which locates the head to the neck and houses the LEDs which make the head and hairpiece glow was printed on our in-house Form 2 printer. Created, directed and written by Andrew Davenport

  https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/moon-and-me

  We provided the stop motion elements for the 2019 CBeebies series Moon and Me. This extraordinary show combines live action puppetry shot in Atlanta, Georgia and stop motion animation produced by our Altrincham studio team.

  Developing the Moon Baby puppet was quite a challenge for the puppet workshop, not least because his head and his hairpiece needed to be able to light up! This was our first internally lit puppet and it needed extensive R&D to achieve the desired effect.

  Our ZBrush guru Glen Southern helped us with Moon Baby’s replacement heads, which were printed by 3D Print Bureau in Stoke.

  The internal unit which locates the head to the neck and houses the LEDs which make the head and hairpiece glow was printed on our in-house Form 2 printer.

  Created, directed and written by Andrew Davenport

  
  

  Find out more
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  Tim Burton Exhibition Promo

  To help promote a major exhibition of Tim Burton's work at the Museum of Modern Art New York, Mackinnon & Saunders produced a 30 second promo film designed by Tim Burton and featuring a stop motion robot and CGI balloons to spell out the MoMA initials. This blockbuster exhibition has since taken up residence at TIFF Toronto, ACMI Melbourne, LACMA Los Angeles, La Cinematheque Francaise, Paris, 

  Find out more
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  Fantastic Mr. Fox

  The urbane Mr Fox (voiced by the equally urbane George Clooney) cannot resist returning to his chicken-stealing past ways, and pulls his friends and family into a battle for survival against farmers Boggis, Bean and Bunce.

  Mackinnon & Saunders produced over 100 puppets for this film and faced the challenge of rediscovering and adapting techniques dating back to ‘King Kong’ in order to cover most of the cast in fur.

  Watch the trailer here!

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  Twirlywoos

  Get ready for a funny flight of discovery with the Twirlywoos (50 x 11’), a brand new comedy pre-school series for CBeebies, featuring the adorable antics of four, fruit tea-loving bird-like characters: Great BigHoo, Toodloo, Chickedy and Chick.

  Silly, fun and full of surprises, Twirlywoos is made by children’s TV specialists Ragdoll Productions and devised by Anne Wood (Teletubbies, In the Night Garden, The Adventures of Abney & Teal) and Steve Roberts (Dipdap) and is narrated by Linda Bassett.

  Combining stop frame animation and live action sequences set in the real world, the series uses fun and laughter to encourage pre-schoolers to think for themselves and gain confidence in their perceptions of the world.

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  Frankenstein's Cat

  Created by Curtis Jobling
  
  26 x 11-minute episodes of anarchic cartoon comedy aimed at audiences aged 5 – 8.
  
  Production technique: 2D digital
  
  A Mackinnon & Saunders Production.
  For further information contact Sara Mullock.
  sara@mackinnonandsaunders.com

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