Baobab Studios, the 10-time Emmy winning transmedia animation studio, has taken on a strategic investment from Naver Ventures, the U.S. venture arm of Korean tech giant NAVER – parent of WEBTOON Entertainment – to build out a new slate spanning Asia and North America.
First up is “Shine” (working title), an original fantasy adventure from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Erick Oh and webtoon author Madeleine Rosca. It launches as a digital webcomic on WEBTOON – where 75% of monthly active readers are Gen Z – paired with a print graphic novel from First Second Books, the Macmillan imprint; Baobab keeps the film, television, streaming, and gaming rights.
In the story, the balance between the human and spirit worlds shatters, and a half-human girl must cross the divide to save a futuristic Korea.
Oh, a former Pixar animator, earned a 2021 Oscar nomination for his short Opera and directed Baobab’s Annie-winning Namoo, which premiered at Tribeca in 2021. Rosca created the hit WEBTOON series “Rise From Ashes,” read by over 52 million people across 140 episodes; she was also the first non-Japanese creator to win Japan’s International Manga Award.
“Collaborating with a powerhouse like Naver fuels our biggest ambitions, and this partnership represents a true convergence of East and West by fusing Naver’s deep technology, content and distribution footprint across Asia with our Hollywood animation storytelling,” said Baobab CEO Maureen Fan.
“The most enduring entertainment franchises create value well beyond a single format, building audiences across animation, gaming, publishing, and interactive experiences,” said Naver Ventures general partner Yong Jung Park.
“Shine” is Baobab’s second graphic novel with First Second, following the cat-workplace comedy “Intercats.” On screen, the studio’s witch-anthology series Witchverse is in development at Disney+ – announced back in December 2021 – and is turning Intercats and “The Magic Paintbrush,” a multi-book series with Penguin Random House, into feature films. The studio also created Roblox experiences for its own “Momoguro” IP and picked up rights this past March to develop the Roblox games Natural Disaster Survival, Barry’s Prison Run, and Deepwoken into animated film and TV projects.
Based in Burlingame, California, the studio is led by Fan, CCO Eric Darnell (writer-director of the Madagascar films), co-CCO Osnat Shurer (Oscar-nominated producer of Moana), and CTO Larry Cutler; Disney, Comcast, and now Naver Ventures back the company, alongside an international investor base that includes Horizons, Shanghai Media Group, and HTC.
Source: Baobab Studios
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.