Guru Studio’s Aim is True

For decades, cooler-headed Canada has helped lead the way in mindful programming and animation innovation. Its lauded studio Guru is carrying those goals forward, with the help of Pharrell Williams, in the fantastic new Netflix series, True and the Rainbow Kingdom. I conducted a mindmeld with head Guru, Frank Falcone, for Cartoon Brew.

Crafting A Show With Netflix: Guru Studio’s Frank Falcone On ‘True and the Rainbow Kingdom’

These days, Frank Falcone is a hard man to catch up with. The founder of Toronto-based Guru Studio has patiently grown his once-small animation studio into a 320-person machine producing a new show for Pharrell Williams and Netflix, along with at least four other shows in production.

Having so many shows in production at your studio is a good problem to have if you’re running an independent shop. “But in the same way, I wish it didn’t always pour when it rains,” Falcone breathlessly laughed, once we finally caught up by phone. “But that’s the balance in this business. We’ve been really busy for a long time, so it’s all good.”

The sweet irony is that Guru’s latest cgi attentions have been paid to the organic goodwill of True and the Rainbow Kingdom (10 x 22-minute), streaming now on Netflix. Its environmental sensibility and good-natured world-building — based on the inflatable installation art of Miami duo Friends With You — take pains to transmit a meditative education on a world going way too fast, too wrong.