Mark Thornton, a Canadian animator, designer and television director known for co-creating the series Grojband and his work on the long-running hit Total Drama, died April 30, just two months before his 56th birthday. According to his obituary, Thornton passed away following “a short and private battle against cancer.”
Born June 29, 1969, Thornton was raised in Kingston, Ontario in a tight-knit family who shared many memories and supported his creative spark. Gifted in music, handicrafts and performing, Thornton followed his passion for creativity into a career in animation. His early credits as a clean-up artist, in-betweener and assistant animator include the feature films Call of the Wild, All Dogs Go to Heaven 2, Space Jam, Anastasia, Titan AE and Osmosis Jones. He also worked as a designer for animation, props and characters on series such as Jacob Two-Two, 6Teen, Middlemost Post and the original Clone High.
As part of the team behind Fresh TV’s breakout reality TV spoof Total Drama, Thornton directed dozens of episodes as well as serving as a storyboard artist and prop designer. The studio launched Grojband, which Thornton co-created with his longtime friend and business partner Todd Kauffman, in 2013. The music-based coming-of-age series was produced with Thornton and Kauffman’s label, Neptoon Studios, and aired on Teletoon in Canada and Cartoon Network in the U.S.
Thornton’s other credits include Looped, Corner Gas Animated, Arctic Dogs, Stickin’ Around and the more recent Guru Studio preschool successes True and the Rainbow Kingdom and Pikwik Pack, which earned him and Kauffman nominations for the Canadian Screen Award for Best Direction – Animation in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Thornton is survived by Laura Traviss, his wife of 29 years; their two children, Emma and Michael; his parents Maureen and Rick; sister Karen Baird as well as her husband Will and their children; and many more family and friends who mourn him. Visit his memorial page and sign the digital guestbook on the Mount Pleasant Group website, which also has details of a planned celebration of life on August 2. Donations may be made in Thornton’s memory to the Canadian Cancer Society.
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