Mexico City-based Ánima Estudios is expanding into young adult and adult-skewing animation with a new division that already has its first project lined up.
El Santos is a 2D-animated comedy adventure about a luchador wrestler who fights against evil forces while trying to woo one of his colleagues. The series format is still in the works, but it will have 22-minute episodes. El Santos is based on Mexican illustrators José Trinidad Camacho and José Ignacio Solórzano’s comic strip of the same name. Ánima is already in talks with broadcasters about the adaptation, says COO and co-founder José C. García de Letona (pictured).
This isn’t the first time Ánima has gotten into the ring with the El Santos brand. In 2012, the studio produced the El Santos vs la Tetona Mendoza feature film. The adaptation also joins a growing number of projects for kids and families that are inspired by lucha libre (Mexican freestyle wrestling) from other studios.
Ánima has also dipped its toes into tween and teen-skewing content before. In 2020, it launched a joint venture with Touché Films to produce new original animated content based on Touché’s Enchufe.tv brand. Ánima also partnered Chilean animation studio Lunes to co-produce a new teen-skewing sitcom based on the LatAm comic strip Condorito.
The studio has been building up its slate of YA projects because there’s an increased demand from broadcasters and platforms for older-skewing content, says García de Letona. It’s also launching the new division so it can more easily hire new talent.
“With a new division we can even tap live-action creators who have ideas that can work well in animation but haven’t expanded into that market yet,” he says.
Ánima has made a name for itself in the kids space with its the preschool brand Cleo & Cuquin on YouTube and co-pro Brave Bunnies with Glowberry. The studio also co-produced Space in Chickens in Space for Disney, and Legend Quest: Masters of Myth for Netflix.
Now, it’s starting a new chapter in its growth and the plan is to line up many new films and series for older demos, says Garcia de Letona.
“We want to provide the content that broadcasters are looking for with our own Latin flavour that can work globally,” he says. “We’ve built up connections with global players, and producers internationally and now it’s time to really push into young adult content with new projects.”