The Scottish studio Eyebolls has created a short film to celebrate the collaboration between Magic: The Gathering and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The piece combines hand-drawn 2D animation with live actors. The premise shows the Turtles in a real environment, helping in the development of their own cards. Executive producer Rhona Drummond explained that the studio's hybrid capability was key to ensuring neither franchise dominated the other.
How the balance between animation and live action was achieved 🎬
Eyebolls opted for an uncommon technical approach: integrating traditional hand-drawn animation with flesh-and-blood actors. This process required careful on-set filming with reference marks for the animated characters. The animators worked frame by frame so that the Turtles' movements matched the real lighting and perspective. The result prevents one visual style from overshadowing the other, maintaining the identity of each franchise without resorting to massive digital effects.
Because yes, the Turtles also play Magic 🐢
Seeing Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo in a real studio designing cards is as absurd as it is logical. Because of course, if anyone knows about combos and strategies, it's four mutant turtles raised by a ninja rat. The short film naturally assumes that these sewer heroes have time to plan their decks between pizzas. Perhaps the most surprising thing is that they don't try to sell you a Pizza Hut expansion.