potential partners, knowing that the film needed to come out while Bionicle was still looming large in the public consciousness. Lego's eventual partner was production entity Create TV & Film. With the initial partnership set up, Lego created some development assets and went round various animation studios to find one that would develop the film. They narrowed it down to two studios, one of which was Creative Capers Entertainment. Creative Capers convinced Lego to employ them after producing a well-received short animated segment featuring Lewa. Creative Caper's three principles, directors Terry Shakespeare and David Molina, and producer Sue Shakespear, all took up their respective roles for the film's production. The deal was reportedly worth $5 million. In a later interview, Shakespeare referred to the film's aesthetic as "primary colors that were coded to the areas", saying it had a "younger feel" when compared to its prequel. He also referred to the film as "very intimate, very organic". The film began full production in 2002. While most projects of its type took 18–24 months to complete, the development team completed the film in 13 months. The project's budget was later estimated as being between $3.5 to $5 million. In addition to Creative Capers, Taiwanese studio CGCG created most of the animation: at the time, overseas outsourcing was a rarity for CGI movies. By the end of production, the film ran to 77 minutes of raw footage. At this stage, 310 Studios was brought in to handle post production, which mostly entailed cutting the film's length down by 7 minutes. According to 310 Studios president Billy Jones, the hardest part of this was deciding which pieces needed to be cut, as they were impressed with everything that had been produced. 310 Studios also created the opening title and ending credit sequences. Lego also partnered with Miramax to distribute the film, along with developing a future full feature-length theatrical film. Miramax's then-parent Disney was also involved with some of the production and release of the film. Terry Shakespeare stated in a later interview that Disney may have recommended Lego to choose Creative Capers as animation partners because of their previous work with the company. Five different people were involved in the creation of the film's story and script: executive producer Bob Thompson, original Bionicle co-creators and writers Alastair Swinnerton and Martin Riber Andersen, and Hollywood writers Henry Gilroy and Greg Weisman. The script-writing