Blue Zoo Turns 25!

Twenty-five years ago, Blue Zoo wasn't a sprawling animation studio with hundreds of people. It was an idea, scrawled on a scrap of paper in a student bar by three friends who knew how to animate but had no clue how to run a business. This isn't a story about a massive cash injection or a pre-packaged plan for success. It's the story of a studio built on passion, ingenuity, and a relentless focus on the people at its core.

The journey began with a leap of faith. With a little borrowed money from family friends, the founders, Adam, Oli, and Tom, scrounged together enough to buy the bare-bones tech they needed. They were a team of two animators and one producer, with no contacts and no experience. Their first big break came from a stroke of luck… a pivotal meeting with the BBC's Kay Benbow at their university degree show. This led to their first commission: animating Blue Cow for the launch of CBeebies.

This early challenge forged the studio’s foundational philosophy. With no money for a render farm, they had to invent creative workarounds, both visual and technical. This forced them to be super-agile, marrying artistic creativity with technical ingenuity to solve any problem. It also taught them a powerful lesson: you can deliver broadcast-quality work on a shoestring budget if you work smarter not harder.

In those early years, the team took on any work they could get their hands on, from TV ads to website design. This period was a crucial training ground. They also entered the industry at the perfect time as home PCs became powerful enough to handle CG, and the explosion of digital channels created a huge demand for content.

This era saw Blue Zoo take its first steps into creating its own intellectual property (IP) with a series called Those Scurvy Rascals. The deal taught them early lessons in creative financing and instilled a cautious, pragmatic approach to business. They learned to balance ambitious, large-scale projects with a steady flow of profitable work, a strategy that helped them survive while many other companies imploded.

Landing Get Squiggling with the BBC was a seminal moment that proved Blue Zoo could deliver high-quality, long-form series. This success built trust, leading to commissions for Kerwhizz and then Tree Fu Tom. But perhaps the most pivotal moment came with the Alphablocks story.

When the client couldn't pay, Blue Zoo made a gutsy decision: instead of abandoning the project, they took an equity position in the brand. This deep partnership and shared risk-taking was instrumental in securing a long-term commitment from the BBC for the brand. This experience proved their willingness to bet on properties they truly believed in.

Beyond their own projects, the founders also took on a bigger mission. They co-founded Animation UK, a group that successfully campaigned for the Animation Tax Relief, which has since created thousands of jobs and transformed the UK's animation industry. For this work, co-founder Oli was awarded an MBE.

The years that followed were a time of big swings and hard lessons. The studio successfully financed its original IP Digby Dragon with a new funding model. But they also suffered a painful seven-figure loss on a collapsed deal in China. Rather than retreating, they did the opposite, expanding their service with a full 2D animation studio and publicly stretching their creative muscles through their short-film program.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Blue Zoo was uniquely prepared. They had already been experimenting with a virtual pipeline, which allowed them to shift to 100% remote work almost seamlessly. This flexibility enabled them to take on major new projects like The Adventures of Paddington and It's Pony, doubling the company's size and proving their hybrid model worked at scale. This period significantly strengthened their financial position, setting the stage for their next chapter.

In recent years, the studio has been focused on formalizing its values and bringing the entire IP process in-house. Blue Zoo became a certified B Corporation, legally cementing its commitment to creating a positive impact on its team, the industry, and the planet. This commitment is also reflected in a more tangible way: they've been awarded "Best Place to Work in TV" for five consecutive years.

They’ve also brought their digital, app, and licensing capabilities in-house, creating a "closed-loop" system where they can take a project from an initial idea all the way to a global audience. The ability to experiment and refine these processes on their own successful IP, like Alphablocks and Numberblocks, de-risks the service for clients and gives them a powerful, direct connection to their audience.

As Blue Zoo stands at the 25-year mark, the strategic challenge is a familiar one: how to retain its lean and hungry agile culture while operating as a major studio with hundreds of people. The answer lies in their most important lesson: people are everything.

In an age where AI can generate animation, the studio’s true asset is the world-class human creativity, storytelling, and world-building of its team. Blue Zoo’s dream is to create a globally-loved, evergreen IP entirely from the ground up within its own ecosystem, and to continue using its platform to leave the animation industry in a better place than they found it.