EXCLUSIVE: Brown Bag Films has launched Bad Pencil Animation, a new label that will make animated shows for grown-ups. Brown Bag is the Emmy-winning producer of Doc McStuffins and Bing among scores of animated shows for younger viewers. With Bad Pencil, it now also has an eye on older audiences with comedy, horror, drama, and action projects.

Bad Pencil Animation’s official debut is at this week’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival. The new banner will focus on service work, meaning it will bring the animation to life on older-skewing projects from third-party studios, prodcos and creators.

Creative leadership for Bad Pencil Animation will come from Brown Bag Films Executive Creative Director, Sanatan Suryavanshi, whose experience includes work on the Oscar-nominated The Breadwinner and the animated horror anthology Red Iron Road. He will report to Darragh O’Connell, the Co-Founder and Group Creative Director of Brown Bag Films.

“Bad Pencil Animation is about creating space for a different kind of storytelling within Brown Bag Films,” said Suryavanshi. “There’s an incredible opportunity right now to push into new creative territory – stories that can be darker, more offbeat or more tonally diverse – while building on the same level of craft and quality the studio is known for.”

Nicole Gibbs, VP, Studio Strategy at Brown Bag Films, will lead the sales effort for the new entity. Caitlin Friedman, EVP, Global Production, Brown Bag Films & Current, Scholastic Entertainment, will lead the strategic direction for the label.

Friedman said: “With Bad Pencil Animation, we’re deliberately widening the lens – creating a home for projects that speak to older audiences, new partners and new platforms. Across our studios, we have an incredible depth of artistic and technical talent with experience spanning a broad range of styles and genres, and this initiative allows us to more fully leverage that capability in support of clients in this growing animation market.”

The team is on the ground at Annecy this week as the animation fest kicks off.