Jan 25, 2024

Emmy Award-winning "Rick and Morty" executive producer and former Sony executive Rick Michel establishes new Canadian studio

Veteran producer Rick Michel has acquired Canada's Yeti Farm Creative animation studio and is relaunching it under a new label called Artists Animation Studio.

Based in Kelowna, British Columbia, about a 4.5 hour drive east of Vancouver, the new studio will set up store in the former Yeti Farm facility, focusing primarily on 2D harmony and hand-drawn animation services for productions aimed at audiences of all ages and It will offer full-scale animation services.

An industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience, Michel served as CEO of Verdell Entertainment from 2018 to 2022, where he was part of the Emmy Award-winning team for Rick and Morty. Prior to that, he was an executive producer at Sony Pictures Animation, where he worked on "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" and the "Hotel Transylvania" animated TV series. He was also part of the team that launched Sony Pictures Imageworks in Vancouver, the studio behind the Oscar-winning "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" and the popular "Hotel Transylvania" and "Smurfs" series. Michel has also worked shifts at Technicolor, Mainframe Entertainment, and Harvey Entertainment Company.

In the release, Michel states:

Artist Animation Studios reflects my mission to provide a complete suite of animation services by artists committed to creative excellence and client satisfaction. It reflects this. Todd and Ashley have built a top-class animation studio and provided a solid platform to further expand our service capabilities.

Yeti Farm co-founder Todd Ramsey (Hotel Transylvania: The Series, Angry Birds) is head of animation at Artists Animation Studio According to Deadline, Yeti co-founder Ashley Ramsay is leaving the company to "pursue new opportunities."

Elsewhere, Dan Christmas ("Agent Elvis," "Invincible") will join the studio as supervising producer, as will Rachel Bepple ("My Little Pony," "Frog and Toad").

Of her early appointments, Michelle explains:

I am thrilled to be joining Todd, Dan, and Rachel, whose work I have long admired, along with the amazing creative talent based in Kelowna and British Columbia, on the studio's roster and I look forward to continuing to expand the scope of our projects globally.