Carl Reed, producer of the Academy Award-winning short Hair Love, has launched Composition Media — a diverse and forward-thinking animation studio with an innovative approach to making animated film and TV content for a global audience, with much of the content highlighting minority and underrepresented communities.
Reed’s St. Louis-based studio launches with a slate that includes two animated features and an animated kids TV series. The two movies are Bad Grandmas, co-produced alongside Steve Harvey’s East 112, and the previously announced Sky & Luna, a co-production with PoC Studios and Man of Action Entertainment.
“I am incredibly excited to finally unveil our animation studio and showcase the incredible work our team has been pouring their hearts and souls into,” said Reed, Founder & CEO of the new studio. “Our aim is to break the mold and elevate the art of animation by producing content that truly represents our audiences. But more than that, we want to push the boundaries of what animation can be. It’s time to move past the limitations of animation as just a genre and explore the limitless possibilities of this medium.”
Bad Grandmas is a 2D-animated adult-comedy film that follows a closely-knit group of unfiltered older ladies as they attempt to stay relevant as they age. They party, get Brazilian Butt Lifts, go to nightclubs and show how 65 is now the new 25. The movie is described as a cross between The Boondocks and The Golden Girls, and will feature a talented cast of comedians.
Created by Brandon Lee Anderson, who is represented by Joseph Adeife of Adeife & Rabii APC, and executive produced by Reed, Harvey and Brandon R. Williams, Bad Grandmas “celebrates the idea that it’s never too late to have fun and be young at heart.”
Sky & Luna represents the first movie in an eight-picture slate partnership Composition Media has with Labid Aziz’s PoC Studios. In the film, lonely 11-year-old Sky has finally found a new best friend who is out of this world … literally: Luna is a shapeshifting alien sent to Earth to explore the planet. Instead, she is hunted by a top-secret government organization tasked with eradicating extraterrestrial threats — an organization run by Sky’s own mother!
Sky & Luna will be directed by Man of Action’s Duncan Rouleau, with Patricia Villetto penning the screenplay, and is based on a story by Creation Station and Man of Action. Reed is producing the movie with Man of Action, Creation Station and PoC Studios’ Chief Creative Officer Andy Cosby.
On the TV front, Composition is adapting the popular and critically acclaimed board game Catapult Feud into an animated television series of the same title. The kids’ program centers on two feuding families, the Cunningfields and the Chauforts, who compete with catapults and conspiracies to conquer each other and rule the Kingdom. While the adults just can’t seem to get along, it’s not the end of the world (yet), because the next generation of Cunningfields and Chauforts have a plan to bring the peace…
Reed co-founded Lion Forge Comics in 2011, and later co-founded Lion Forge Animation in 2018, serving as its President and Chief Creative Officer. While with Lion Forge, Reed produced Matthew Cherry’s Hair Love, which won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short; Rise Up, Sing Out, an Annie Award and NAACP Image Award-nominated animated musical series featuring music by The Roots for Disney Junior/Disney+; and the Emmy-nominated animated musical series Rhymes Through Times, created by Nick Jr./Noggin and featuring music performed by Christopher Jackson (Hamilton).
As an organization that embraces and embodies disruption in the entertainment ecosystem, Composition Media presents universally themed stories to audiences looking for elevated content. Adopting a transmedia approach to seed and develop IP through collaboration with storytellers around the world, Composition Media brings fresh entertainment properties to audiences globally.
