Hot Animation

HOT Animation was a British stop motion animation, 2D cel animation & computer animation studio, established in 1997 by Jackie Cockle, Brian Little, and Joe Dembinski.

Their worldwide success followed with Bob the Builder, a show for pre-school children about a builder and his talking machines. In 2000, the theme tune was released as a single, Can We Fix It? with an accompanying promo produced at HOT, which beat Kylie Minogue's "Please Stay", Eminem's Stan and Westlife's "What Makes a Man" to become the Christmas number-one single.

The company then made a reboot of Brambly Hedge, a series of 30-minute specials based on the illustrated books for children by Jill Barklem, and Rubbadubbers, a series about bath toys that come alive. Pingu, a Swiss series about a family of penguins, was recreated with great success in 2002/3. The company also provided CGI effects for seasons 8-12 of Thomas & Friends.

HOT ceased to produce the main series of Bob the Builder after 2007 when the studio announced jobs would be cut, and opted to produce a direct to DVD series called Bob the Builder: On Site, using stop-motion from Bob's World and live action from real world construction sites.

HIT Entertainment continued producing Bob the Builder with Los Angeles based Sabella Dern Entertainment.

HOT's status today is unknown as it hasn't produced any new material since 2009, assuming that the studio has likely been shut down or exists as an in-name-only unit of HIT Entertainment.

List of Productions

References