Longtime animation operator Rick Mischel has acquired Yeti Farm Creative and relaunched the Canadian prodco as Artists Animation Studio. 

Installed as founder and CEO, Mischel tells Kidscreen that he was motivated to buy the studio by its reputation for producing high-quality 2D Harmony and hand-drawn animation, and also by its location in Kelowna, British Columbia—where the cost of living is more affordable for junior- and senior-level animation talent. 

Productions that come out of Kelowna also benefit from a total tax credit of 34.5%, says Mischel. (This breaks down between a 16% baseline credit for animation work done in British Columbia, plus a regional credit of 12.5% and a 6% credit for being outside of Vancouver’s core). 

Yeti Farm Creative has done service work on series such as Pete the Cat (Amazon Studios), Dorg Van Dango (Cartoon Saloon and WildBrain), D.N.Ace (Nelvana) and Beat Bugs (Netflix). 

And Artists Animation Studio will continue to offer these services for animated TV series, films, commercials and digital content. In the short term, it will focus on its strength in 2D animation, but the longer-term plan is to take on 2D/CG hybrid productions and work with the Unreal engine. 

This marks the first time that Mischel has owned a studio, although he has served as CEO at companies including Bardel Entertainment (Rick and Morty) and Mainframe Entertainment (Escape from Planet Earth) over the course of his 30-year career. He was also president and COO of The Harvey Entertainment Company (Casper the Friendly Ghost) and worked as an executive producer at Sony Pictures Animation (Hotel Transylvania: The Series). 

Yeti Farm co-founder Todd Ramsay will stay on at the new studio as head of animation, but CEO/co-founder Ashley Ramsay is departing. And Mischel has already hired Dan Christman (Agent Elvis, Invincible) as a supervising producer and Rachel Bepple (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) as a producer.