Jim Ballantine has become the new Managing Director of Flying Bark Studio, the Australian animation studio of Studio 100. In this capacity, he succeeds the Belgian Eric Claeys, who left for Australia over a year ago to carry out a one-year reorganisation assignment. Eric Claeys did a fantastic job in Australia and the animation studio of Studio 100 is now fully up and running. For example, Flying Bark Studio is currently putting the finishing touches to ENYO, a cartoon series of 26 episodes in co-production with its Danish partner Funkhauser Films. The second series of the successful DIVE OLLY DIVE, a co-production with Mike Young Productions, is also nearing completion. (Dive Olly Dive is being broadcast in more than 50 countries, such as the USA, Canada, France, Brasil, Australia, Spain, Germany and many more)

Furthermore, the studio is hard at work on a full-length feature film in co-production with the French Alphanim studio, SANTA’S APPRENTICE, due for release Christmas 2010.

In January, a new 26-part series commissioned by ZDF will get underway, entitled THE WOODLIES, and new episodes of the highly successful series ZIGBY are planned (Zigby is broadcast by the BBC and many other channels, and in Belgium on vtmKzoom). But the showpiece of 2010 will be the relaunch of BLINKY BILL, the cartoon icon of Australia, with a full-length feature film and a series of 26 episodes.

In order to steer all these projects in the right and successful direction, Studio 100 looked for a suitable successor to Eric Claeys. And they found the right person - the celebrated American producer Jim Ballantine.

Jim has an impressive experience in the animation film sector and also has the necessary management skills. He has held various management positions at DISNEY and NICKELODEON. For Disney, he was the producer of Bambi 2 and Brother Bear 2 and collaborated on, among others, The Little Mermaid and The Rescuers Down Under. For Nickelodeon, he produced The Ren & Stimpy Show (nominated for an Emmy in 1993 and 1994). For the past two years, he was creative producer at Animation Lab in Israel.

Studio 100 is extremely proud that Jim Ballantine has agreed to manage Flying Bark Studio in Australia as from 4 January 2010.

With Jim at the helm, the Flemish production studio is fully confident that the course mapped out by Eric Claeys over the past year will be pursued in a very professional and constructive manner.