Production company World War Seven (WW7) has announced a significant expansion of its creative roster, bringing on board the renowned stop-motion and animation powerhouse Starburns Industries as its new exclusive partner for animation and stop-motion projects. The official partnership follows a successful creative collaboration between the two entities on a high-profile holiday commercial campaign for the pet food brand Chewy, titled "A Holiday Dream."
During the production of the Chewy campaign, which expertly fused Starburns’ signature ability to construct meticulously detailed, charming animated universes with WW7’s distinctive comedic sensibilities, the two companies recognized a profound creative synergy. Both studios discovered a shared appreciation for artistic work that walks the line between visually stunning and wonderfully eccentric in equal measure. This mutual admiration and seamless working relationship ultimately paved the way for a formal partnership, uniting two distinct forces in the commercial and entertainment production landscapes.
Starburns Industries has long cultivated a stellar reputation within the entertainment industry for crafting content that is simultaneously funny, melancholy, bizarre, and visually arresting—frequently managing to evoke all of those competing emotions within a single frame. The studio’s animation production operations are spearheaded by a seasoned leadership team consisting of Co-Founder James Fino, Vice President of Development Chris Callison, and Head of Production Alyssa Choate Rusche. Over the past fifteen years, the studio’s footprint on television and film has been ubiquitous, with their distinct artistic thumbprints appearing on screens across the globe, often late at night.
The studio is widely celebrated for its contributions to a wave of cult-hit Adult Swim animated series that helped redefine modern adult animation, including "Rick and Morty," "Moral Orel," and "Mary Shelley’s Frankenhole." Furthermore, Starburns achieved critical acclaim for its work on the Oscar-nominated stop-motion feature film "Anomalisa," which was co-directed by legendary filmmaker Charlie Kaufman and Starburns Co-Founder Duke Johnson. Their portfolio extends far beyond these foundational milestones into contemporary television and digital media.
Among their extensive credits, Starburns crafted the meticulously detailed, vintage-styled stop-motion sequence featured in the latest season of Apple TV’s acclaimed thriller series "Severance." Their television footprint also includes the Emmy Award-winning stop-motion Christmas special for Sony and NBC’s comedy series "Community," famously titled "Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas," as well as the show’s inventive "GI Jeff" animated episode. Their diverse production history further encompasses HBO’s animated series "Animals," the innovative live-action and animation hybrid "HarmonQuest" for VRV, Hulu’s critically praised comedy "Pen15," and Viceland’s docu-series "Party Legends."
Looking ahead, Starburns is deeply immersed in active production on several major upcoming ventures. Notably, the studio is leading the charge on the ambitious hybrid feature film "Lincoln In The Bardo," which seamlessly integrates traditional stop-motion techniques with live-action filmmaking. The star-studded project features Tom Hanks in the title role as President Abraham Lincoln, alongside an extraordinary ensemble cast that includes Meryl Streep, Willem Dafoe, Colman Domingo, Bill Hader, Peter Dinklage, and Tom Waits. In addition to their long-form narrative and television work, Starburns has driven the conceptualization and execution of animated elements for high-profile brand collaborations with major companies such as Instacart, Asics, and the NFL, delivering memorable commercial spots that stand out in crowded media landscapes.
Across its diverse portfolio, Starburns utilizes a wide spectrum of animation mediums to bring stories to life. Their capabilities span traditional stop-motion, 2D hand-drawn animation, digital techniques, and computer-generated imagery, allowing the studio to tailor a unique artistic style that best matches the specific tone, narrative requirements, and emotional feel of each individual project. A core philosophy of the studio involves pairing seasoned animation veterans with up-and-coming artistic talent. This intergenerational collaboration ensures that tried-and-true, legacy techniques coexist harmoniously with brand-new digital and mechanical innovations. In practice, the studio assembles a compact, highly skilled crew tailored to the unique demands of every creative idea, executing complex technical feats with an appearance of absolute ease—a philosophy and workflow that closely mirrors that of their new partners at WW7.
Reflecting on the newly minted partnership, James Fino of Starburns Industries shared his enthusiasm for the collaboration and the natural alignment between the two companies. When our teams met in person for the first time, it was immediately clear that WW7 and Starburns were founded upon the exact same principles: an unwavering dedication to high-quality production, a vast spectrum of approaches to storytelling, and a slightly off-kilter sensibility, Fino noted. Because the two organizations had known each other professionally for years prior to the partnership, the eventual opportunity to collaborate did not come with any surprises regarding how well their workflows would mesh. Describing the union as a natural fit, Fino expressed excitement that the two companies had formally found one another.
Sloane Skala, Managing Director and Partner at WW7, echoed those sentiments with palpable enthusiasm, describing the collaboration as an almost surreal professional milestone. Skala remarked that the partnership felt akin to wishing on a star and having Starburns materialize, humorously crediting either the holiday magic surrounding their initial joint venture or the uncanny alignment of their professional tastes and artistic philosophies. Acknowledging that the team at WW7 had been genuine, long-standing admirers of Starburns’ body of work long before their initial introduction, Skala admitted to experiencing a bit of starstruck excitement during their earliest planning meetings. Beyond their technical mastery and recognized status as masters of their craft, Skala emphasized that the individuals running Starburns are exceptionally kind, wonderful, and special people. Expressing profound excitement about welcoming the studio into the broader WW7 family, Skala emphasized an eager anticipation for the imaginative, magical, and wonderfully strange worlds the two entities will build together in the future.
