Animation Continues to Bust Out

... all over. In different formats and directions.

Redwood City-based Baobab Studios closed a $25 million Series B round of funding, bringing the total raised to date by the startup to $31 million and placing the studio among the most highly-funded content startups to emerge with a focus on VR animation.

The startup made Invasion!, a short story about a cute bunny attacked by hapless aliens. The property is already becoming a full-length traditional film to be produced by Roth Kirschenbaum Films. Baobab also announced a second episode in the series called Asteroids!, due out next year.

The funding round is being led by Horizons Ventures with 20th Century Fox, Evolution Media Partners (backed by TPG and CAA), China’s Shanghai Media Group, Youku Global Media Fund and LDV Partners. They join the original investors, Comcast Ventures, HTC and Samsung. ...

The money will be used to develop more animated movies and add to the 20 people currently working at the company. ...

Many fine entertainment conglomerates consider Virtual Reality "the next BIG thing," and why not? Lots of company's are getting into it. (Third Floor, Inc., for one. Until recently, Third Floor was known as a pre-viz house, but now it's branching out to other endeavors).

As a business magazine named Fortune notes:

... Hollywood movie studios, animators, and screenwriters are also looking to create virtual reality films in which users can interact with their environments and even alter the story based on their decisions. ...

“We are on the cusp of a storytelling revolution with this medium, and VR gives filmmakers the opportunity to develop immersive experiences and take audiences into the story like never before,” Mike Dunn, president of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, said. ...

Of course, VR could end up being 3-D: more a flash in the pan than anything else. Let's meet here again in five years, see how it went.