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Skydance Animation Madrid Renames Pookoo to Swapped and Expands Ambitious Projects

Animation

Business Honor
03 October, 2025

Skydance Animation Madrid announces new film Swapped, future projects, and international growth.

Paramount-owned Skydance Animation Madrid is making big waves in the animation film industry. While at the fifth annual Iberseries & Platino Industria in Madrid, Spain, the studio announced some exciting news, including the renaming of its upcoming Netflix animation film Pookoo, which has since been retitled Swapped. The movie, directed by Nathan Greno (of Tangled fame), tells the story of two sworn enemies—a forest animal and a beautiful bird—who mysteriously exchange bodies and embark on an action-packed journey to rescue their forest.

The studio, which started its partnership with Madrid-based Ilion Studios in 2016-2017, has expanded significantly since it was acquired by Skydance Media. The animation division, which originally had 250 employees, now has 700 members, comprising a cosmopolitan group of international personnel from more than 30 nationalities. Skydance Animation Madrid is already developing several future projects, with Swapped being scheduled for release on Netflix in 2026.

Aside from Swapped, Skydance Animation Madrid is also making two other big titles, to be launched in 2026, and a few more in line to follow. One of those is a long-awaited Brad Bird-directed movie for Netflix, Ray Gunn, a sci-fi detective tale featuring a world populated by human beings and aliens. The dedication of the studio to creating high-quality animated movies can be seen, with efforts aimed at nurturing both local and international talent to achieve its lofty targets.

With John Lasseter leading it, Skydance Animation targets "triple-A" animation quality so that its productions are at the same high level one would see at Pixar. With the expanding talent base in Spain and increasing international presence, Skydance Animation Madrid is ready to make an even larger mark on the international animation scene.