On Sunday evening, the entire state of Louisiana cheered when the Academy Award in the animated short film category went to Moonbot Studios for, “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore,” directed by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg.
“We created our film and our studio at the same time,” said Brandon Oldenburg, co-founder of Moonbot Studios and co-director on the “Morris Lessmore” film. “The short is a sort of gumbo of everything we love about film and animation and so is our studio.”
After the release of the short, Moonbot unveiled an interactive iPad App version of the story which has received worldwide praise and was named Best App of 2011 by App Magazine.
During an enthusiastic acceptance speech, Joyce gave a shout out to the team’s roots when he said, “We’re just, like, these swamp rats from Louisiana. Followed later by, “We’re just down there in Louisiana, where people just keep on trying and keep going.”
The story was covered in Inc. Magazine, with Moonbot lauded as, “the coolest start-up ever to win an Oscar.”
“We can’t emphasize enough how much the support of Louisiana Economic Development and the Shreveport community has helped to get Moonbot where it is in such a short time,” said Lampton Enochs, co-founder of Moonbot Studios and co-producer on the “Morris Lessmore” film. “With the support of State incentives and workforce training programs, we’ve been able to build a strong team of talented artists and storytellers and have far exceeded our expectations for what we could accomplish in our first months of business.”