| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Media, Television Production |
| Founded | 1 April 1998[1][2] |
| Founder | Jackie Cockle Brian Little Joe Dembinski |
| Defunct | 2011 |
| Headquarters | Manchester, England, UK |
Key people | Jackie Cockle Brian Little Joe Dembinski |
| Products | Children's Television, Stop motion |
| Total assets | $1,119 million |
Number of employees | 67 (2007) |
| Parent | HIT Entertainment |
| Website | web |
HOT Animation was a British stop motion animation, 2D cel animation & computer animation studio, established on 1 April 1998 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 British-Swiss animated series about a family of penguins, was recreated with great success in 2003.
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. The studio closed sometime before HIT was purchased by Mattel in 2012.
List of Productions
TV
- Brambly Hedge (1998-1999, Season 2 only)
- Bob the Builder (1998–2009, Seasons 1-16 only)
- Rubbadubbers (2003–2005)
- Pingu (2003–2006, Seasons 5-6 only)
Feature-Length Specials
- Bob the Builder: A Christmas to Remember (2001)
- Bob the Builder: The Knights of Can-A-Lot (2003)
- Bob the Builder: Snowed Under - The Bobblesburg Winter Games (2004)
- Bob the Builder - Project Build it: When Bob Became A Builder (2005)
- Bob the Builder - Project Build it: Built to Be Wild (2005)
- Bob the Builder - Project Build it: Scrambler to the Rescue (2007)
- Bob the Builder - Project Build it: Race to the Finish (2008)
Direct-to-Home Video
- Bob the Builder: On Site (2007–2009)
- Truck Teamwork (2009)
Music Videos
- Can We Fix It? (2000)
- Mambo No. 5 (2001)
- Big Fish, Little Fish (2008)
Other
- Dinosaur Roar (1999, pilot for HIT Entertainment)
- Gina and Stella (2001, short film)
- Bitziboos (2004, pilot for HIT Entertainment)
- Life on Mars (2007, Camberwick Green parody sequence for Series 2: Episode 5)