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Morgan Francis began his animation journey spending summer holidays tucked under a desk in the Ink & Paint department at Halas & Batchelor Studios, where his mother painted cells and his stepfather animated on popular TV shows like The Addams Family, The Jackson 5, and The Osmonds.
His initial hands-on work involved painting rabbits for the film Watership Down (1978, Goldcrest Films), quickly advancing to painting hammers for Pink Floyd’s The Wall (1982, MGM). From there, he spent around a decade working in animated commercials as a freelance background artist, layout artist, assistant animator, animator, checker, and cameraman. Nearing burnout, he took a break to drive a truck from London to Cape Town, traveled the South Pacific, and worked as a gardener in Brisbane, Australia, before returning to animation.
He contributed to children’s TV series such as The Animals of Farthing Wood, Noah’s Island, Pond Life, and Wiggly Park (all for Telemagination), starting as a production coordinator, then production manager, and eventually technical director. At Telemagination, he managed the transition from film to digital production, aiding in the development and implementation of the Animo animation software, which became a leading production tool adopted by studios including Warner Bros, DreamWorks, and Nelvana.
Morgan served as technical director on two Oscar-nominated shorts, Jolly Roger (Mark Baker) and The Squire’s Tale (Studio AKA), both for Channel 4. He also produced The Lampies (52 x 11) for CBBC and acted as technical advisor on Mr Bean for ITV (Tiger Aspect/Richard Purdum Productions).
In 1998, Morgan founded Spider Eye, which quickly gained recognition in commercials and short films. In 2000, he was technical director on the Oscar and BAFTA-winning Father & Daughter (Michael Dudok De Wit), a poignant story about the bond between a father and daughter. His short film credits include the BAFTA and Annecy award-winning War Game (a 25-minute TV special for Illuminated Films/Channel 4), Family Ties – Dreams & Desires (a multi-award-winning short by Joanna Quinn for Beryl Productions/S4C), A Small Miracle (25-minute TV special for Grasshopper Productions/ITV), and The Canterbury Tales – The Squire’s Tale for S4C.
His TV series work includes Monkey Dust for TalkBack/BBC3, The Cramp Twins for TV Loonland/CBBC, Harry & His Bucketful of Dinosaurs for Collingwood O’Hare/Cartoon Network/Playhouse Disney, Horrid Henry for Novel/CITV, and Grizzly Tales for Honeycomb/Nickelodeon.
Between 2010 and 2013, Morgan developed and directed both series of Spider Eye’s own show Jungle Junction (92 x 11-minute episodes, plus 1 x 44-minute special) for Playhouse Disney/Disney Junior.
Recent projects include co-directing Moshi Monsters – The Movie (2014) for Mind Candy, which saw a wide theatrical release with Universal in over 400 cinemas. In 2015, he directed the Thomas the Tank Engine ‘Thomas Around the World’ motion comic series (21 x 3-minute episodes) for Mattel/Hit Entertainment’s YouTube channel, and served as Animation Director on Spot Bots (26 x 14-minute episodes) for CBeebies (2015/2016). From 2016 to 2017, he developed and directed The Happos Family TV series (20 x 2.5-minute episodes) for Turner/Boomerang, their first original show, and directed the Thomas & Yong Bao motion comic series (12 x 3-minute episodes) for Mattel/Hit Entertainment’s YouTube channel.
