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Cuppa Coffee Studios

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Cuppa Coffee Studios
FormerlyCuppa Coffee Animation (1992–2006)
IndustryAnimation
FoundedDecember 1992; 31 years ago (1992-12) in Toronto, Ontario
FounderAdam Shaheen
Bruce Alcock
HeadquartersToronto, Ontario, Canada
DivisionsCuppa Coffee Studios USA
Websitewww.cuppacoffee.com

Cuppa Coffee Studios (formerly known as Cuppa Coffee Animation) is a Canadian production company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario.[1] Cuppa Coffee was founded by Adam Shaheen and Bruce Alcock in 1992. It specializes in both stop-motion animation and 2D animation, winning over 150 international awards. Cuppa Coffee is currently developing live-action content through Cuppa Coffee USA.

History

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By late 1992, Adam Shaheen had worked on several editorial assignments, book jackets and CD covers, but he wanted to create a unique animation style mixing photographic, collage and illustration techniques. In December, he founded Cuppa Coffee Animation with Bruce Alcock, and Steve Hillman joined the company shortly after. Cuppa Coffee's first projects were network IDs and show opens for MuchMusic and a commercial for Fruity Pebbles. In March 1993, Cuppa Coffee was featured on Citytv's MediaTelevision program; the interview expanded a campaign for Molson's Black Ice which exhibited their unique mixed-media animation. Bruce Alcock moved to Chicago in 1995 to start Tricky Pictures, Backyard Productions' animation subsidiary. In February 1996, Cuppa Coffee began producing live-action, starting with three spots for Molson Ultra. In 1997, Cuppa Coffee launched Sargent York, a short-lived arm of the company that would work on longer-form content like "The Adventures of Sam Digital in the 21st Century", an award-winning short film for Nickelodeon. In the late 1990s, Cuppa Coffee produced the HBO Family series Crashbox and other shorter projects for the network, the CBS Christmas special Snowden's Christmas, and pilots for Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.

In 2001, Cuppa Coffee Animation started development on three series for children: Cinema Sue, Ted's Bed and Gordon Giraffe. The following year, Broadway Video Enterprises agreed to distribute the three series, but none of them went into production. In 2004, Cuppa Coffee launched Decaf Distribution as it started producing its own content. In 2005, the short series Bruno aired on Noggin and international Nickelodeon channels, and AWOL Animation agreed to distribute the short series Tigga and Togga and Bruno and the Banana Bunch, a long-form series based on the Bruno interstitials. Cuppa Coffee was also going to co-produce Captain Mack with Kickback Media, but the completed series was produced by Fireback Entertainment instead.

In September 2009, Gordon Ramsay signed a prime time animation deal with Cuppa Coffee Studios, who began working on the series Gordon Ramsay, At Your Service, which was never completed. In 2010, Cuppa Coffee Studios added 30 stages and 30,000 square feet to its Toronto studios. Cuppa Coffee launched Saucer Sound that year and Lemon Squeezy Interactive in 2011. After Cuppa Coffee developed other animated projects throughout the 2010s that never went into production, including a show based on Polybank Designs' Pets Rock licensing brand in 2017.[2] The studio opened Cuppa Coffee USA in 2018 and is developing live action dramas.

List of productions by Cuppa Coffee Studios

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Other work

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Title Year(s) Notes Client
French Kiss
The Wedge
Word Up		 1993 openings MuchMusic
Married Life 1995 opening Atlantis Films
Fast Track 1997 opening Alliance
Short Films by Short People 1997 "The Adventures of Sam Digital in the 21st Century" Nickelodeon
HBO Family 411
Who Knew?
Smart Mouth		 1999 interstitial series HBO Family
I Am Poem 1999 "Running" Nickelodeon
Existenz 1999 title sequence Alliance Atlantis
Random Play 1999 opening and bumpers VH1
Super Why! 1999 pilot Nick Jr. Productions
Exhale 2000 opening Oxygen
This Week in Baseball 2000 three "Mini Mel" interstitials Major League Baseball
I Was a Rat 2001 title sequence Catalyst Entertainment
Spider 2002 title design Artists Independent Network
True Outdoor Adventures 2002 opening ESPN
Zeyda and the Hitman 2004 title design Miracle Pictures
Going Down 2004 music video The Illuminati
The Newsroom 2005 "Learning to Fly"
Rapture 2006 music video Capitol Records
Eastern Promises 2007 title design Focus Features
Lewis Black's Root of All Evil 2008 opening Comedy Central
Less Than Kind 2008 opening Breakthrough Entertainment
Junk Raiders 2009 opening, bumpers, and show elements Proper TV
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia 2009 "A Very Sunny Christmas" FX Productions
From Spain with Love with Annie Sibonney 2011 animation and graphics Shaftesbury Films
A Dangerous Method 2011 title design Recorded Picture Company
Cosmopolis 2012 title design Prospero Pictures
Sesame Street 2010–2014 eight short sequences Sesame Workshop
Open Heart 2012 title design Urban Landscapes
Maps to the Stars 2014 title design Prospero Pictures
Killjoys 2016 opening Temple Street Productions
Jane the Virgin 2016 "Chapter Forty-Seven" (animated sequence) CBS Television Studios

Commercials

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References

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  1. ^ Pinto, Jordan (7 April 2016). "Cuppa Coffee launches 'Stories' division". Retrieved 2024-02-07.
  2. ^ "Cuppa Coffee Signs Development Deal for 'Pets Rock'". Animation World Network. Retrieved 2022-04-28.

Notes

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  1. ^ This was the studio's first television series.
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