‘Kid Cosmic’ Studio Mercury Filmworks Launches Shorts Program

Amid a broader push into original content, Mercury Filmworks has started an in-house shorts program.

The Ottawa-based studio describes the initiative as follows: “Mercury Shorts is a new endeavor by Mercury Filmworks, providing our artists with the opportunity to work closely with our development team to create their own animated short utilizing the support and development of our studio.”

The program has launched with four micro-shorts, each directed by a Mercury animator: Rebecca Kartzmark, Shane Plante, Melissa Lyn, and Naomi Edwards.

Mercury is a multi-Emmy-winning studio best known for its service work. Its credits including Netflix’s Hilda and Kid Cosmic, and many shows for Disney Television Animation, such as the Mickey Mouse shorts and Tangled: The Series.

Last November, it announced that it had started developing original series, with a view to producing one per year. Some of those, it said, will be based on ideas originating within the studio — such as BloopyMerps (which Plante co-created). Mercury later revealed that it was working on its first original feature, an adaptation of Peter Ricq’s graphic novel Once Our Land.

Image at top: “Shroud” by Naomi Edwards