International Rocketship Limited is an animation company founded by Marv Newland, known for creating short animated films. It was established in Canada after Newland moved there.
Newland began a career making animated motion pictures in Los Angeles with the creation of the short Bambi Meets Godzilla (1969). He then designed and animated television commercials until late 1970 when he moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
In late 1972, Newland moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He spent two years freelancing for local animated film production companies, as well as animation companies in Chicago and Los Angeles. In 1973, Newland created storyboards for the animated television series Barbapapa while at Toonder Studios in the Netherlands.
In 1973, Bambi Meets Godzilla was seen widely across the United States when it was paired with John Magnuson's Thank You Mask Man to be shown along with screenings of Philippe de Broca's feature film King of Hearts. The pairing was created by Randy Finley in Seattle with Specialty Films who distributed the package under the title "The King of Hearts and His Loyal Short Subjects".
In 1985, it was paired with the movie Godzilla 1985.
In 1975, Newland founded the animated film production company International Rocketship Limited in Vancouver, British Columbia.
At Rocketship he produced and directed numerous animated short films, including: Sing Beast Sing (1980), Anijam (1984), Hooray for Sandbox Land (1985), Black Hula (1988 - which later featured on an early episode of Liquid Television), Pink Komkommer (1991), and Fuv (1999) Beijing Flipbook (2003), Tete A Tete A Tete (2005), Postalolio (2008), CMYK (2010), Scratchy (2016), Katalog Of Flaws (2019). In 1979, Marv hired Gordon Stanfield Animation (GSA) and later, Gordon went on to bring more animation to Vancouver, British Columbia. The company also produced short animated films for other directors such as Danny Antonucci (Lupo the Butcher, 1987), and J. Falconer (Dog Brain, 1988). Newland also designed and directed the National Film Board of Canada vignette, Bill Miner (1978).
Rocketship also produced TV commercials, promos, and network IDs for clients like MTV, YTV, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., the Children's Television Workshop, Lifetime, HA! TV Comedy Network, TV Heaven 41, MuchMusic, and Locomotion, pilots for series, and two longer films: Gary Larson's Tales From the Far Side (1994), which won the Grand Prix at the Annecy International Animation Festival in 1996, and a sequel in 1996.
In 2001, Newland produced three animated films by two other directors; Friday Night Idiot Box by Bruce Wilson, and Explodium and My Friend Max by Peter MacAdams. Later projects have included Scratchy and POSTALOLIO (2008), a 2D animated film in which all of the drawings were hand-painted on postcards and sent through the international mail to the film's producer, Frederator Studios in New York City. All of these are International Rocketship Limited Productions.