Hollywood’s secret weapon is an independent animation studio called Titmouse

There’s a powerhouse in the entertainment industry that remains unknown to many casual cartoon viewers — it’s called Titmouse Animation.

As mainstream theatrical animation is digging itself out of a rut and facing the looming threat of artificial intelligence, Titmouse — which is set to celebrate its 25th anniversary next year — is hitting its stride. The independent production company has worked with almost every major Hollywood studio to create one-of-a-kind, diverse animated content. 

Even if you haven’t heard the name, you’ve probably seen Titmouse’s work. Early on, the studio made the main title sequence for Nickelodeon’s “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” produced several animated sequences for NBC’s “Community” and did the cinematics for “Guitar Hero” games. More recently, Titmouse’s work can be seen on Netflix‘s “Big Mouth,” Amazon Prime Video’s “The Legend of Vox Machina” and “Star Trek: Lower Decks” on Paramount+.

“It’s cool, you know, [and] it’s weird being independent,” said Chris Prynoski, co-owner of Titmouse. “I like it. It’s kind of like being a giant freelancer.”

Most major Hollywood studios have an in-house animation studio — sometimes more than one, in the case of Disney and Universal — but for certain projects, working with a third party is necessary. This could be because the in-house team doesn’t have the bandwidth to work on these projects or because a third party, such as Titmouse, has a special area of expertise that the studio needs.

For example, Titmouse was called on by Universal to produce the 2D animation for a scene in 2023’s “Trolls Band Together” in which the trolls are briefly transported into a trippy, psychedelic world.

In the early days, Prynoski said, the studio wasn’t as discerning about what projects it worked on, as it was establishing itself in the industry. 

“Now, luckily, we’ve got a track record and a reputation, so the hustle isn’t the same as it used to be,” he said. 

Titmouse’s prestige in the industry means the studio can be more selective about the work it takes on from other companies and that it can take big swings on in-house projects. It also means that more studios and creatives are seeking the company out.

“I like being able to say ‘no’ to stuff,” Prynoski said.

Since 2000, Titmouse has grown from a company of two to a company that employees around 1,100 people.

Founded by Chris and Shannon Prynoski, Titmouse started as a T-shirt company, but as freelance animation work kept coming their way, the couple transitioned it to a full-blown animation company. Chris Prynoski had previously worked at MTV on “Daria” and “Beavis and Butt-Head” and left his job at Cartoon Network to launch Titmouse.

“The Prynoskis made this courageous business decision for no reason other than the fact that they could (and because nobody was buying their T‐shirts, but television and film studios kept giving them money to make cartoons),” the company’s site says.

The decision also stemmed, in part, from Prynoski’s desire to develop an office culture based on creativity, experimentation and fun. He said that while he was at MTV Animation, he was surrounded by “a bunch of weirdo, misfit artists,” but when he transitioned to more mainstream animation studios, the work was much more curated and employees were restricted in their roles.

At Titmouse, Prynoski wanted workers to have more freedom to explore a variety of different positions within the company. 

“I was over at Warner Bros. for a long time,” said Ben Kalina, chief operating officer at Titmouse. “I learned a lot at Warner Bros., but there wasn’t a variety of things that you could do there. You know, Warner Bros. is so developed, they’ve been around forever, so, you come in and you have one role and make a certain type of show. And when you’re in the early phases of your career, it’s a little frustrating sometimes to always [do] the same thing and not explore and experiment.”

Kalina celebrated 16 years with Titmouse this year and worked his way through the ranks from production manager to producer to head of production before landing his current role.

“I remember that interview,” Prynoski added. “I was like, ‘Why do you want to leave Warner Bros. to come here?’ Because at the time we were a considerably smaller studio. And he was like, ‘I see that you’re innovating and taking chances, you know, trying out new pipelines and stuff.'”

This mentality has not only attracted creatives, it’s attracted studios to Titmouse, as well.

“When we were looking at animation studios, Chris [Prynoski] made it really clear that Titmouse wanted to get into prime-time-style adult animation and that their No. 1 priority as a studio was simply making cool, great-looking shows,” said Andrew Goldberg, co-creator of Netflix’s “Big Mouth.”

Titmouse’s repertoire runs the gamut from traditional 2D animation to 3D and from child-friendly fare to raunchy adult comedies. It’s worked with Disney Jr. and Apple TV+ on shows like “T.O.T.S.” and “Harriet the Spy” as well as for Comedy Central and Max for “Digman” and “Scavengers Reign.”

The company was also tapped by Sony to help with sequences in “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” including animations of Miles Morales’ sketchbook and flashbacks of the villainous Spot.

“We try to do shows that we can find something that we can be good at, you know, something that we see a spark of something that is interesting to us,” Prynoski said. “We don’t really have a house style, but we have, like, a house sensibility. Even though the visual design might not look exactly the same, and the genre might be very different, there seems to be something that people can identify in our shows.”

And a trip to Titmouse’s Los Angeles headquarters shows the studio’s commitment to creativity and diversity. Nearly every square inch of the Burbank location is covered in some sort of art. Floor-to-ceiling murals take up wide swaths of the three-story building, Ghanaian-style movie posters of Titmouse projects line hallways, and each stairwell is equipped with dozens of paint markers for workers to pepper the wall with their own designs.

While deadlines are important at Titmouse, the company’s leaders said they want to foster an environment that permits spontaneity and encourages employees to express themselves and stretch their imaginations. 

Shannon Prynoski, Chris’ partner in business and life, even launched “5 Second Day.” It’s become an annual tradition in which studio employees have a paid day off to produce their own, personal animated shorts — although these days, not all of the shorts are confined to the five-second time constraint.

The completed shorts are screened in cities where Titmouse has offices: Los Angeles, New York City and Vancouver, Canada. In some cases, those projects have later been developed into television series. One short became the show “Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart” on Cartoon Network, for example. This year, Titmouse has partnered with movie theater chain Cinemark to showcase “The Best of 5 Second Animation Day” at select cinemas on Sept. 20.

As Titmouse heads toward its milestone anniversary, Chris Prynoski said he hopes to see the company continue to grow outward and produce more of its own intellectual property, not just partner with established studios.

But ultimately, “We just want to keep making cool cartoons,” Prynoski said.

Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of Universal Studios and CNBC.