New Form Digital and Vimeo Unveil Powerhouse Cast and Collaboration With the Jim Henson Company for 'Oscar's Hotel for Fantastical Creatures'

Santa Monica, California, July 21, 2015 (Newswire.com) - New Form Digital announced today a key creative collaboration with The Jim Henson Company and a star-studded cast for their new series Oscar’s Hotel for Fantastical Creatures that will appear on Vimeo On Demand on September 15.

Jim Henson’s Creature Shop™ brings the creatures from Oscar’s Hotel for Fantastical Creatures to life as creator PJ Liguori (aka KickThePJ) transports the audience to a surreal fantasy universe. When hotel owner Oscar suddenly leaves on unexpected cosmic council business, his nephew Oliver must become the new proprietor and his attempts to maintain order lead him to surreal adventures with its eccentric guests. There is truly never a quiet night at Oscar’s Hotel. The series is produced in association with The Jim Henson Company and Jim Henson’s Creature Shop worked closely with PJ to bring Liguori’s vision for the creatures to life from fantastical puppets, to elaborate key costume pieces and out-of-this-world prosthetics.

"PJ Liguori is a very unique storyteller. We're very proud to work with him and this amazing cast, in partnership with Jim Henson's Creature Shop, on Oscar's Hotel. The series embodies what New Form is all about - building creators' visions into premium scripted originals."

Kathleen Grace, Chief Creative Officer, New Form Digital

Digital and traditional talent featured in the series include Chris Kendall, Anna Akana, Mitchell Davis, Jake Roper, Grace Helbig, Mamrie Hart, Hannah Hart, Dan Howell, Phil Lester, Felix Kjellberg (PewDiePie), Marzia Bisognin, Jack Howard, Dean Dobbs , Carrie Fletcher, Meghan Rienks, TomSka, and Andrew Ableson, as well as Patrick Stewart, Alfred Molina and Elliott Gould. Along with some beloved characters from PJ’s earlier work and never-before-seen characters created for the series, the cast embodies the true heart and whimsy of Oscar’s Hotel. Featured characters include the Repossession Fish, voiced by Alfred Molina and Patrick Stewart, and Octochef played by Mamrie Hart [images available].

“PJ Liguori is a very unique storyteller. We’re very proud to work with him and this amazing cast, in partnership with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, on Oscar’s Hotel,” Kathleen Grace, Chief Creative Officer for New Form Digital. “The series embodies what New Form is all about – building creators’ visions into premium scripted originals.”

“PJ’s original creatures demonstrated a quirky and irreverent style, so it was a fun challenge to create new characters that would naturally fit and populate Oscar’s Hotel,” said Peter Brooke, Creative Supervisor of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.

“Vimeo is home to the world’s most innovative creators, empowered by an unprecedented creative freedom inherent to the platform,” Greg Clayman, General Manager, Audience Networks. “PJ’s Oscar’s Hotel elevates the status quo associated with internet video and we’re excited to see our collaboration with New Form, and now Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, come to life.”

About New Form Digital

New Form Digital is the only data-driven digital entertainment company solely focused on scripted, mobile-friendly content. With a network of high-profile talent, distributors and partners, New Form Digital takes a unique approach to storytelling for the social media generation. See its digital original series on global platforms near you and at newformdigital.com.

About The Jim Henson Company

The Jim Henson Company has remained an established leader in family entertainment for nearly 60 years and is recognized worldwide as an innovator in puppetry, animatronics, and digital animation. Best known as creators of the world famous Muppets, Henson has received over 50 Emmy Awards and nine Grammy Awards. Recent credits include the Emmy® nominated Sid the Science Kid, Dinosaur Train, and Pajanimals as well as the CG-animated preschool series Doozers. Features include The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, MirrorMask, and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day; and other television productions include Fraggle Rock, the sci-fi cult series Farscape, the reality competition Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Challenge, and Henson Alternative’s comedy news program, No, You Shut Up! currently airing on Fusion. www.henson.com,

About Jim Henson’s Creature Shop

Jim Henson’s Creature Shop™ provides performed digital visual effects, animatronic creatures, animation and soft puppets to the international film, television and advertising industries. Based in Los Angeles and New York with satellite shop capabilities internationally, the Shop is known for designing and building some of the world’s best-known characters including the Sesame Street puppets, the classic Muppets, the dinosaurs from Dinosaurs, the aliens from Farscape and the fantastical creatures from The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. Other feature credits include Where the Wild Things Are, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and Five Children and It. The shop is also known for its live performance work with artists like Cee Lo Green, Kanye West, Lady Gaga and Deadmau5.  www.creatureshop.com

About Vimeo

Vimeo® is the high-quality online video platform, inspiring the world to share and discover videos worth watching. Vimeo provides creators of all levels professional quality tools to share, publish or sell video — with no interruptive advertising. Vimeo has over 40 million registered members and a global monthly audience of over 160 million people, making it the largest, open transactional VOD platform worldwide. Founded in 2004 and based in New York City, Vimeo, LLC is an operating business of IAC (NASDAQ: IACI).