Pinocchio Oscars win helps stop-motion studio double in value
The studio behind the puppets for Guillermo del Toro’s reimagining of Pinocchio has more than doubled in value after winning an Oscar for its work.
Mackinnon and Saunders, which is based in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, helped clinch the Oscar for best animated feature with its creations at the 2023 ceremony.
The stop-motion animation for Netflix relied on dozens of characters constructed by the studio.
Mackinnon and Saunders was founded three decades ago and has previously brought to life beloved TV characters including Bob the Builder, Postman Pat and the new Clangers.
It has also worked with Hollywood directors Tim Burton on Mars Attacks!, Frankenweenie and Corpse Bride and with Wes Anderson on Fantastic Mr Fox.
Now, new accounts filed with Companies House show the firm’s net assets more than doubled from £607,315 to £1.27m in the year to 30, June 2024.
Mackinnon and Saunders is run by producers Chris Bowden and Glenn Holberton.
Bowden has produced more than 300 episodes of children’s and pre-school shows including Postman Pat, Roary the Racing Car and Fifi and the Flowertots.
Holberton is a BAFTA-nominated animation and puppetry producer and worked with Spitting Image in the 1990s.
He has produced film and TV content for the BBC, Channel 4, Universal Studios, Viacom and the BFI.
The accounts come after City PM reported in October last year that fellow stop-motion studio Aardman fell into the red during 2023.
The Bristol-headquartered business, which is the studio behind Wallace and Gromit, reported a pre-tax loss of £550,135 for the financial year.
The loss came after the studio posted a pre-tax profit of £1.5m in 2022.
At the time, Aardman said it fell to a pre-tax loss because of an “accounting adjustment” relating to an impairment of unrecouped costs on the Lloyd of the Flies series.
The company said that without the adjustment, it would have made a pre-tax profit of £1.6m.