Last month, storyboard artist Christo Tandyo shared that he’s spent the last few months storyboarding a feature film at the popular anime production company Toei Animation, working alongside Stephanie Ma Stine (Kung-Fu Panda 4 co-director). He typed in a post dated July 16:
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“So the cat is out of its bag!! This past few months I got the opportunity to board for a feature at @toei_animation !! Can’t say much other than that!,” he posted on July 16. “Thankyou @storyduke for giving me this opportunity. Always a pleasure working with you. Learned a lot, made mistakes, learn again, and overall it was a lot of fun!“
Per LinkedIn, Stine is currently a writer and director at Toei Animation. She also mentors at Brainstorm School, where she mentored Tandyo in Story Development in the spring of 2025, and storyboarding in the fall of 2022 (link).
It’s unconfirmed whether this film’s primary market would be Japan. However, in recent years, Toei Animation has taken what it calls a “Hollywood-style” approach to film production, seeking more equal relationships with Hollywood through co-productions, and positioning its sales distribution subsidiaries operating in Europe, China, and North, Central, and South America to get in the mainstream global film market rather than stay in typical anime distribution networks (link).
Toei Animation also aims to be a one-stop animation business, creating more original IP through its ETERNA Animation label, and increasing CG capabilities through joint studio ventures and research and development.
The upcoming film Hypergalactic, directed by Shrek 2 and The Smurfs co-writer David N. Weiss, is an example of this Hollywood approach. The Japan-China-U.S. co-production is set to premiere in the U.S. later this year. An altered version for China has also been announced. CG animation studio Tenh Animation Magic is responsible for animation production and was formed in a partnership with Toei Animation, Sola Entertainment, and Galaxy Graphics—a subsidiary of Sammy Corporation (Telecom Animation Film, TMS Entertainment). Sola Digital Arts’ Joseph Chou and Sanzigen’s Hiroaki Matsuura sit on Tenh’s board of directors.
Source: Christo Tandyo’s Instagram, via Catsuka
© DreamWorks Animation © Eiichiro Oda / Shueisha, Toei Animation
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