Glitch Productions’ rise in the indie animation community
Founded in 2017 by the Lerdwichagul brothers in Sydney, Australia, Glitch Productions is an indie animation studio that, as they have described themselves, aims to change the way the west creates teen and young adult animation. And, so far, they’ve been doing a great job at that.
They have grown a lot since they were first founded, but they remain a self-funded, independent company. Which, in the animation industry, is a huge achievement. They have around four ongoing shows as of early June.
Some of their releases, in chronological order, have been Murder Drones, The Amazing Digital Circus, Knights of Guinivere, and their most recent, Gameoverse. They have had more releases before and during the ones I mentioned, but for now, we’ll be focusing on one: The Amazing Digital Circus.
Created by Gooseworx, The Amazing Digital Circus, as described by Glitch Productions themselves on their website, is “a surreal, psychological comedy about a bunch of cute cartoon characters that hate their lives and want to leave.” With its pilot released for free on YouTube in October 2023, the series blew up overnight. As of today, it’s the most viewed animation pilot on Youtube.
Some noteworthy stats are its over 600 million views (and counting) on YouTube, its multiple licenses in Hot Topic and Good Smile Company, their strong presence in Japan, their Annie Award nomination, and their release on Netflix (as well as their top 3 ranking on its first week of release) and, the most important… its near global release in cinemas for its last episode.
The Amazing Digital Circus is ending with only 9 episodes. Its 9th episode being the longest by far: an hour long. A whole movie. So, they surprised the fandom with a crazy announcement: an early release in cinemas (before its free access on YouTube)! They were met with some backlash, given that, at first, the screenings were very limited – but the fandom was able to get in contact with more of their local cinemas and expand the releases to be near global! They even came to Mexico, in both Cinemex and Cinepolis.
In conclusion, this is huge news for independent studios. This is a first for the indie animation industry, and it’s hopefully the first of many. If Glitch Studios is getting this far, what small company is next to rise? Will anyone ever be on par or even overthrow Disney one day? Who knows!
References
About | Glitch Productions. (s. f.). Glitch Productions. https://www.glitchprod.com/about
Wikipedia contributors. (2026, 3 junio). Glitch Productions. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glitch_Productions
The Amazing Digital Circus | Glitch Productions. (s. f.). Glitch Productions. https://www.glitchprod.com/digital-circus