Woodblock is a fast-growing Berlin-based animation studio that has gone from creating acclaimed shorts to stunning visual shows at Sphere in Las Vegas, and now aims to wow new audiences with an ambitious line-up of sci-fi and horror-fantasy series that showcase the company’s unique style.
The studio was founded in 2013 by six friends who studied at the German Film Academy Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg, home to the world-renowned Animation Institute. The studio, which now has 50 studios, has worked with the likes of Greenpeace, Disney, Netflix, Apple, Nike and Adidas, and now also has teams in Ludwigsburg and Los Angeles.
Illenium will launch its “Odyssey” concert series at Sphere in March.
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Woodblock is one of the few independent European studios to create content for Sphere’s 360-degree screens, creating 80 minutes of sci-fi-inspired visuals for electronic music artist Anyma’s “The End of Genesys” show, which will be held at the venue in 2024. The company is also preparing animated visuals for its second Sphere project, an immersive “Odyssey” concert series with electronic dance music star Illenium Kicking. Closed in March.
Anyma’s “The End of Genesys” show at Sphere
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While the Woodblock team enjoys the experience of working in immersive spaces, they are also keen to explore more traditional and original animated storytelling on big and small screens, CEO Ilija Brunck and CCO and Director Fabian Pit Pross told Variety.
The company has partnered with Berlin-based production and distribution group DCM for one of its latest projects, “The Dark World,” a globe-trotting fantasy horror series from Moritz Mohr, the German writer and director behind the bloody Sam Raimi-produced 2023 Bill Skarsgård action film “The Boy Kills World.”
The series follows a teenage boy who forms an unlikely alliance with a fairy queen from Celtic folklore to search for evil mythical creatures around the world, including the Yeti, Baba Yaga, and Lady Dracula. Not to destroy them, but to save them from impending destruction.
The idea for “The Dark World” was born at DCM, and once Woodblock joined the project, the team co-developed the storyline and key characters with Moll and screenwriters Jan Cronauer and Benjamin Kararick.
Woodblock will be working with major animation studios around the world to animate episodes featuring creatures from different countries and regions. For example, a Polish studio will animate an episode focusing on the Slavic forest witch Baba Yaga, while an American studio will animate Mrs. Dracula, who lives in the United States, in this story.
“We have an incredible lineup of the best animation studios in the world to animate the episodes,” Blank said. “France comes in, then Denmark comes in. Baba Yaga is Poland. There’s a South African creature and a Japanese creature. That’s the basic concept.”
Atz said: DCM partner Christophe Daniel said: “Dark The idea for “World” has been around for a while, but it wasn’t until we found Woodblock that we had the right partner and the right momentum to make it happen. Exploring the world of animation, especially the emerging field of adult animation, is incredibly exciting, as animation is the perfect medium for this project and offers almost endless creative possibilities.
The show is an original property using public domain IP, which makes it particularly interesting, Blank said. “This has a built-in audience because people love those creatures. There’s obviously a lot of potential to build intellectual property.” That point, he notes, could make the show particularly attractive to buyers, especially for high-end productions.
“Blue Marble”
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Woodblock’s upcoming new shows also include “Blue Marble” and “Space Probe Force.”
“Blue Marble” is a story set in a future Earth where the population has decreased, and a girl who has been living on only nutritional blocks and her robot partner discover an old cookbook and develop a passion for cooking. Together, they travel the world in search of hard-to-find ingredients for new recipes. This is an adventure show, Blank said. For example, you will have to climb a volcano in search of black lava salt or dive into the sea in search of kelp.
Created by Woodblock Creative Director Helen Hyun Choi, “Blue Marble” is a family-friendly show that “centers on food,” Blank added, highlighting the huge potential of transmedia. “We’re thinking about a cookbook or cooking show on YouTube, combined with an animated series.”
“Space Exploration Unit”
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Offering a more satirical approach is “Space Probe Force,” created by woodcut creative director Tom Weber. The film follows a crew of human space explorers as they travel through the galaxy in search of planets to conquer and colonize, from the perspective of the planet’s alien inhabitants.
The new series, written and directed by Woodblock co-founder Jan Bitzer, follows last year’s well-received animated short “Bye Bear,” about a robot who dreams of becoming a bear.
“Goodbye Kuma-san”
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For Blank, he says series and movies are the “primary medium” and where Woodblock promotes and develops original projects.
Woodblock will be participating in this year’s European Film Market at the Berlinale. It will host the new EFM Animation Days Showcase and the EFM Beyond initiative, which focuses on cross-media storytelling for independent IP, bridging film, animation, gaming, and augmented reality.
Blank will be one of two speakers at the EFM Beyond workshop “How to Game Engine” to be held on February 14th at the EFM Producers Hub in Gropius Bau, Berlin, where he will discuss the increasingly important role of game engines in the animation field.
