Huhu Studios

Huhu Studios was a New Zealand computer animation and digital production company founded in 1996. Based in the northern Auckland region, it developed family-friendly, educational and faith-based entertainment for television, home entertainment and feature films. Its work encompassed both animation production services and original projects developed through international co-productions.

The studio offered a production process spanning concept art, visual development, scripting, storyboarding and pre-visualization through character modeling, rigging, texturing, animation and lighting. Its capabilities also included pipeline development, music, sound and post-production layback, supporting projects from early creative development through finished delivery.

Animation production

During the 2000s and early 2010s, Huhu worked extensively as an outsourced CGI production studio. It supplied animation for Big Idea Entertainment's VeggieTales franchise between 2009 and 2015, contributing to more than a dozen direct-to-video titles. Its broader production history included Hermie and Friends, Turbo Dogs and Buzz and Poppy, alongside character modeling for the animated feature The Ten Commandments.

Original features and international co-production

In the mid-2010s, the company shifted toward original intellectual property and international feature production. Its collaboration with China Film Animation culminated in Mosley, a 2019 CGI fantasy feature directed by Kirby Atkins. The film was the first official animated feature co-production between New Zealand and China under their bilateral film treaty.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the company's production and distribution plans. A Chinese theatrical release scheduled for February 2020 was halted by cinema closures, while a later release attempt also faced pandemic restrictions. Border closures and suspended production plans further strained the business. Huhu Studios entered court-ordered liquidation in December 2022, ending its operations after more than two decades of animation production.