Jam Filled Toronto

**Jam Filled Toronto** (formerly known as **DKP Studios**, **StarzAnimation Toronto** and **Arc Productions** during their time on Thomas & Friends) is a CGI and visual effects company based in Toronto, Canada who animated Thomas & Friends from the seventeenth series onwards. They took over from Nitrogen Studios.

On 1 August 2016, Arc announced that they were filing for bankruptcy and locked out over 500 employees. Following their closure, Jam Filled Entertainment acquired the business and hired most of Arc's former employees, and the business reopened as "Jam Filled Toronto" on 22 August 2016.

In December 2019, Jam Filled Toronto announced that Series 24 would be their final animated series for the show, with Mattel confirming they will be switching animation studios. It is currently unknown which studio will succeed them.

## Staff

### Arc Productions

David Baas directed the seventeenth series; David Stoten directed the first ten episodes of the eighteenth series and Don Spencer directed its remainder and The Adventure Begins. Robert Anderson produced the seventeenth series and the first half of the eighteenth series, with Brian Lynch taking over as producer from the second half of the eighteenth series. King of the Railway and Tale of the Brave were directed by Rob Silvestri and produced by Brian Lynch, the latter being co-produced with Robert Anderson. Jennifer Hill produced The Adventure Beginsand the nineteenth series. Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure was produced by Jennfier Hill and directed by David Stoten. Dianna Basso took over for Don Spencer as director and co-directed the nineteenth series with him and David Stoten. The twentieth series was directed by Dianna Basso and produced by Robert Anderson and Tracy Blagdon with Lynda Craigmyle and Jane Sobol acting as supervising producers. The Great Race was directed by David Stoten and produced by Robert Anderson with Lynda Craigmyle and Jane Sobol acting as supervising producers. Kallan Kagan was an executive producer from the seventeenth series to The Great Race for Arc. Marianne Culbert was an executive producer for The Great Race.

Stephen Gallop, Jeff Young and Steven Hecht formerly served as executive producers for Arc.

### Jam Filled

Tracy Blagdon produced Journey Beyond Sodor and the twenty-first series, as well as all productions ever since.

David Stoten was a director while Dianna Basso continued working on the company. Basso solely directs the television episodes while Stoten solely directed the specials until he migrated to the UK to work for Mattel as head writer. Joey So also directs the double-length episodes.

Kyle Mac Dougall, Phil LaFrance, and Jamie LeClaire (the executive team at Jam Filled) took over as executive producers for the twentieth series onwards.

## Other works

Arc has provided the animation for the films "Gnomeo & Juliet" and "Everyone's Hero" and visual effects for films like "Dolphin Tale". The company also helped Big Idea with animating the episodes of VeggieTales from 2004 through 2007, their second feature film "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie", and the remaining episodes of "3-2-1 Penguins!" prior to the bankruptcy. They also provided the animation for "9", directed by Shane Acker who was to direct The Adventures of Thomas. They also worked on the television series', "Elena of Avalor", "Trollhunters", "Tarzan and Jane" "Rusty Rivets", "The Loud House" and "DC Super Hero Girls".

## Trivia

* The animation software Arc/Jam Filled uses for Thomas & Friends is Maya.