Batty Berry Mackinnon Productions

Batty Berry Mackinnon Productions became: Mackinnon and Saunders.

Founded by Ian Mackinnon and Peter Saunders. They began working together in the 1980s at one of Europe’s largest animation companies, Cosgrove Hall Films. Pioneered new techniques in puppet making on productions such as the The Reluctant Dragon, The Fool of the World and The Wind in the Willows. Winning BAFTAs, and Emmys for their work.

At the start of the 1990s, Ian and Peter set up their business partnership. At the same time Ian produced The Sandman with colleagues Colin Batty and Paul Berry. This dramatic short film won many awards on the international festival circuit and received an Oscar nomination in 1993. The film is used in UK schools by the British Film Institute as an introduction to film language.

1995 saw the business expand internationally when director Tim Burton asked Mackinnon & Saunders to design and construct the Martian characters for the feature film Mars Attacks! M&S set up a design studio in Los Angeles to make animation puppets and life-size Martian characters for the film, and increased its Manchester-based team from 5 to 45 people.