World War Seven Welcomes Starburns Industries to its Roster of Directors

Nov. 11, 2026

World War Seven has found the missing piece in its roster: Starburns Industries, who join as WW7’s new partner for stop-motion and animation projects. Starburns and WW7 recently joined forces on Chewy’s holiday campaign, “A Holiday Dream,” blending Starburns’ ability to create highly detailed, charming animated worlds imbued with WW7’s comedic sensibilities. While making this project, WW7 and Starburns discovered a shared love for work that is both beautiful and weird in equal measure, which led them to make this partnership official.

Starburns has built a reputation for work that is funny, sad, strange, and beautiful, sometimes all in the same frame. Co-Founder James Fino, VP of Development Chris Callison, and Head of Production Alyssa Choate Rusche run the studio’s animation production and anyone who has watched television in the last 15 years has seen their work (possibly at 2 a.m.). Starburns is known for creating cult-hit Adult Swim series like Rick and Morty, Moral Orel, Mary Shelley’s Frankenhole, and the Oscar-nominated animated stop-motion feature Anomalisa, directed by Charlie Kaufman and Starburns Co-Founder, Duke Johnson. 

Beyond these early trailblazers, Starburns also created the vintage styled stop motion segment for the latest season of Apple TV’s Severance, the Emmy-winning Christmas special for Sony and NBC’s  Community, “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas,” as well as the show’s “GI Jeff” animated episode. Other Starburns credits include HBO’s Animals, VRV’s live-action animated hybrid, HarmonQuest, Hulu’s Pen15, and Viceland’s Party Legends, 

They are currently in production on the upcoming hybrid feature Lincoln In The Bardo, which combines stop-motion and live-action, and stars Tom Hanks as President Lincoln, along with Meryl Streep, Willem Dafoe, Colman Domingo, Bill Hader, Peter Dinklage, and Tom Waits. Starburns has also led the charge on the animated elements for brand collaborations with Instacart, Asics, and the NFL, among many other commercial spots. 

Across its portfolio, Starburns works in a wide array of animated mediums – including stop-motion, 2D hand-drawn, digital and CG animation creating unique styles that best fit the tone and feel of each project. Animation veterans are paired with up-and-coming artists, so that tried-and-true techniques and brand-new ones can happily coexist. In other words, they assemble a small, highly skilled army around every idea, and then they make it look effortless. Just one of the many things Starburns and WW7 have in common.

James Fino of Starburns Industries says of their teaming up:

"When we met in person for the first time, it was immediately clear that WW7 and Starburns founded their companies with the same love of high-quality production, vast spectrum of approaches to storytelling, and slightly off-kilter sensibilities. We'd known each other for years, so when we finally had the opportunity to collaborate, we weren’t shocked by how well we meshed. Our companies are a natural fit, and we’re thrilled to have found each other."

 

Sloane Skala, WW7 Managing Director and Partner remarked:

"I feel like we wished on a star and then Starburns appeared. Maybe we will chalk it up to the Christmas magic surrounding our first venture together, or the fact that our tastes and philosophies are so similar. We were genuinely huge fans of Starburns’ work for years before meeting them – to be honest, I felt like I was meeting celebrities when we first sat down with them, I geeked out pretty hard. Turns out that in addition to being masters of their craft, they happen to be lovely, wonderful, special people too. I could not be more excited to bring them into the WW7 family, and can’t wait to see the magical and weird worlds we get to make together."