Reel FX Animation was founded in 1993 by Dale Carman and David Needham as
Reel Magic in Fort Worth, Texas. The studio was the sixth to purchase an
Autodesk Flame system. In 1995, the company moved to Dallas and changed its name to
Reel FX Creative Studios. Reel FX purchased West End Post, and in 1999, moved to the White Swan building in the West End. In 2005, the studio moved its headquarters east a couple of miles to Deep Ellum. The company opened a second location in Pasadena, California, and in 2008 merged with VFX-studio Radium and opened a studio in Santa Monica. In 2017, Reel FX opened its first studio outside the United States in Montreal, Canada. The studio would eventually add artists in Toronto and Vancouver as well.
Films and releases In 1999, the studio produced its first short film,
The Man In The Moon. Based on William Joyce's
Guardians of Childhood and co-directed by Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg. The short film became the first Reel FX Original (now called Inventions), and in 2007, was optioned to DreamWorks Animation where it ultimately became
Rise of the Guardians, directed by Peter Ramsey. In October 2012,
The Hollywood Reporter revealed Reel FX's connection to the 2012 feature film. In December 2010, Reel FX produced an untitled
3D film with producer
Andrew Adamson and
Cirque du Soleil. In January 2012,
Paramount Pictures announced that it had acquired worldwide rights to the film, now titled
Worlds Away directed by Adamson and executive-produced by
James Cameron. First called
Turkeys, and opened in 2013 under
Free Birds, the film was directed by
Jimmy Hayward and starred
Owen Wilson,
Woody Harrelson, and
Amy Poehler. Its release landed Reel FX's CEO Steve O’Brien the front page of D CEO Magazine in their May–June edition of that year. Following the release of
The Book of Life, Reel FX assisted on
Rock Dog (Summit Entertainment, Huayi Brothers) and
UglyDolls (STX Entertainment) while developing its next feature. Released in 2021,
Rumble is based on Rob Harrell's graphic novel
Monster on the Hill and adapted for the screen by Matt Lieberman and Etan Cohen. In 2022, Reel FX released their original animated series
Super Giant Robot Brothers!, with
Netflix Animation. Directed by
Mark Andrews (
Brave), the episodic series was created using a custom-built real-time production pipeline with
Epic Games’
Unreal Engine, the first animated series to be rendered entirely in a video game engine. ==Filmography==