‘Doc McStuffins’ Animation Studio Brown Bag Films Sets Sights on Grown-Ups

Brown Bag Films, the animation studio best known for preschool shows like Daniel Tiger‘s Neighborhood and Doc McStuffins, is setting its sights on the adult animation market.

The company announced the launch of Bad Pencil Animation, which will focus on adult animated series and films, Monday at the Annecy Animation Festival (a sample reel of the studio’s work is here). The new label will focus on service work to support clients and creators in bringing projects that target older audiences to fruition.

“Bad Pencil Animation is about creating space for a different kind of storytelling within Brown Bag Films,” said Sanatan Suryavanshi, the executive creative director for Brown Bag Films. He will also lead creative for Bad Pencil. “There’s an incredible opportunity right now to push into new creative territory — stories that can be darker, more offbeat or more tonally diverse — while building on the same level of craft and quality the studio is known for. We already have the talent, craft and pipeline across our studios to support this kind of work at scale, across both 2D and CG, and Bad Pencil gives us a focused way to help our clients bring these stories to screen.”

Suryavanshi will report to Brown Bag co-founder and group creative director Darragh O’Connell. Nicole Gibbs, vp studio strategy, will lead sales. Caitlin Friedman, executive vp global production for Brown Bag and executive vp current for the company’s parent, Scholastic, will oversee Bad Pencil’s strategic direction.

Bad Pencil will provide “a home for projects that speak to older audiences, new partners and new platforms,” said Friedman. “Across our studios, we have an incredible depth of artistic and technical talent with experience spanning a broad range of styles and genres, and this initiative allows us to more fully leverage that capability in support of clients in this growing animation market.”

Brown Bag Films has studios in Toronto, Dublin and Bali. The company is part of Scholastic; its Toronto studio operates as a business unit of 9 Story Media Group.