WildBrain has agreed a long-term CG pact with Mumbai-based EightyEight Pictures (also styled 88 Pictures), C21Media reported on 4 November, matching a 3 November company release carried on Newsfile. The structure keeps creative leadership in Canada while adding Indian CG capacity.
Key facts
- Multi-year CG production pact: WildBrain with EightyEight Pictures
- Creative lead and core production: WildBrain and House of Cool (Canada); EightyEight supplies CG execution in a shared pipeline
- Vancouver studio: new 47,000 sq ft home in Mount Pleasant planned for January 2027 (company release)
- Stephanie Betts, WildBrain chief content officer, on the record about creative control and capacity
- C21 attributes named WildBrain kids franchises and EightyEight series credits in its report (see body)
How the partnership is structured
The companies say they will work through shared workflows and integrated pipelines aimed at premium CG at greater scale. Creative leadership and core production functions stay with WildBrain and House of Cool; EightyEight adds execution capacity inside that pipeline, both C21 and the release state. WildBrain frames the pact as part of a wider push to make production more integrated and flexible for premium and digital-first animation, while keeping full pre-production through post in-house for CG and 2D across its studios.
The company release dates the Vancouver move to January 2027 and places the 47,000-square-foot facility in Mount Pleasant. C21 reported the same floor area and a January move without naming the year.
House of Cool remains inside the creative stack under the deal as described by both the release and C21: the Canadian banner keeps filmmaking oversight while EightyEight plugs into the CG pipeline rather than taking over development. No series titles, episode orders or fee splits were disclosed with the announcement.
Betts on creative control
Stephanie Betts, WildBrain’s chief content officer, said teams at WildBrain and House of Cool “will continue to lead the creative vision, filmmaking and production oversight of our projects,” and that a partner sharing “respect for artistry and quality” brings “greater capacity, more flexibility and the support to bring increasingly ambitious stories to the screen,” per C21. She added that the model should open opportunities across WildBrain, House of Cool and EightyEight as demand grows for premium animation that balances craft and efficiency.
C21 identifies WildBrain as the home of several long-running kids franchises, naming among them Strawberry Shortcake and Inspector Gadget, and points to EightyEight’s credited work on DreamWorks and Lucasfilm-linked series such as Trollhunters and Star Wars: Visions. The full franchise and credit lists in that report are attributed, not independently re-verified title by title here.
The Canada–India production story sits with other recent FilmBunch money and capacity pieces such as Cinemark’s Q3 results, EloElo’s $80m Series C and California’s proposed $1bn film and TV tax-credit expansion. More coverage is under Money & Policy.
Our reading
For commissioners the structure keeps Canadian creative control while adding India-based CG bandwidth ahead of a larger Vancouver floorplate in early 2027. The next evidence is which WildBrain or client series is first announced against the shared pipeline, and whether the Mount Pleasant move lands on the stated January window.
Sources
- C21Media, WildBrain strikes CG animation production partnership with EightyEight Pictures (4 November 2026; Betts quote, franchises, EightyEight credits, Vancouver sq ft)
- WildBrain company release via Newsfile, 3 November 2026 (Vancouver Mount Pleasant move January 2027; 47,000 sq ft)
- AnimationXpress, WildBrain–EightyEight CG pact (4 November 2026; corroboration)