Sony Pictures Animation

Sony Pictures Animation Inc. is an American animation studio owned by Sony Entertainment's Sony Pictures Entertainment through their Motion Picture Group division and founded on May 9, 2002. The studio's films are distributed worldwide by Sony Pictures Releasing under their Columbia Pictures label, while all feature films are released by Columbia Pictures.

Sony Pictures Animation Inc.
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryComputer animated film industry
FoundedMay 9, 2002 (2002-05-09)
Headquarters
9050 West Washington Boulevard, Culver City, California
,
U.S.
Key people
Kristine Belson (president)[1]
Pam Marsden (head of production)[2]
ProductsTheatrical animated short films
Theatrical animated feature films
Television animated series
Number of employees
255 (2018)[2]
ParentSony Pictures Entertainment
(Sony)
WebsiteOfficial website

The first film produced by Sony Pictures Animation, Open Season, was released on September 29, 2006. Its latest release was The Angry Birds Movie 2 on August 13, 2019, with their next confirmed scheduled release set to be Vivo on June 4, 2021.

History

In 2001, Sony Pictures considered selling off its visual effects facility Sony Pictures Imageworks but after failing to find a suitable buyer, having been impressed with the CGI sequences of Stuart Little 2 and seeing the box office successes of DreamWorks Animation's Shrek and Disney/Pixar's Monsters, Inc., SPI was reconfigured to become an animation studio. Astro Boy, which had been in development at Sony since 1997 as a live-action film, was set to be SPI's first all-CGI film, but never made it to fruition.[3] On May 9, 2002, Sony Pictures Animation was established to develop characters, stories and movies with SPI taking over the digital production while maintaining its visual effects production.[4] Meanwhile, SPI produced two short films, the Academy Award-winning The ChubbChubbs! and Early Bloomer, as a result of testing its strengths and weaknesses in producing all-CGI animation.[5]

On its first anniversary on May 9, 2003, Sony Pictures Animation announced a full slate of animated projects in development: Open Season, an adaptation of a Celtic folk ballad Tam Lin, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Surf's Up, and a feature-length film version of The ChubbChubbs!.[6]

Its first feature film was Open Season, released in September 2006, which became Sony's second-highest-grossing home entertainment film in 2007 and spawned three direct-to-video sequels. Its second feature film, Surf's Up was released in June 2007, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and won two Annie Awards. A motion-captured animated film titled Neanderthals[7] and written and produced by Jon Favreau, was cancelled sometime in 2008[8] after four years in development. SPA's first 3D movie since the IMAX 3D release of Open Season, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, was released in September 2009 and was nominated for four Annie Awards, including Best Animated Feature. The Smurfs (2011) was the studio's first CGI/live-action hybrid. SPA's parent company Sony Pictures had partnered in 2007 with Aardman Animations to finance, co-produce and distribute feature films.[9] Together, they produced two films: Arthur Christmas (2011), and The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012), which was SPA's first stop-motion film. In September 2012, SPA released Hotel Transylvania, which grossed over $350 million worldwide and launched a successful franchise with two sequels and a TV series. Two sequels are released in 2013: The Smurfs 2 and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. SPA's latest releases are Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, an animated superhero film based on the Spider-Man comics and featuring the Miles Morales incarnation of the character, and The Angry Birds Movie 2, a sequel to the 2016 film The Angry Birds Movie produced by Rovio Animation. SPA has since signed Genndy Tartakovsky to a long-term deal with the studio to develop and direct original films.[10]

On November 3, 2014, the studio collaborated with Frederator Studios' Cartoon Hangover on GO! Cartoons, an incubator series consisting of 12 short films, with at least one short film being developed into a series. The short films were funded by SPA, with the additional goal of attracting new talent for the studio.[11][12]

As of June 2020, the studio is working on The Mitchells vs. the Machines, a robot apocalypse/road trip film written and directed by Michael Rianda and Jeff Rowe while produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller,[13][14] the musical film, Lin-Manuel Miranda's Vivo, which marks Sony Pictures Animation's first musical film, and Hotel Transylvania 4 (2021), and a sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2022). It has many other projects in development, including an animated Ghostbusters spin-off film,[15][16] two Genndy Tartakovsky projects: an R-rated comedy titled Fixed and Black Knight,[17] Bubble, a co-production with Point Grey Pictures based on the podcast of the same name,[18] Tao, a China-set science-fiction adventure film directed by The Lego Movie 2 story artist Emily Dean,[19] and Tut, an afro-futuristic coming-of-age story set in ancient Egypt directed by Hair Love creator Matthew A. Cherry.[20] In June 2019, Sony Pictures Animation announced that they had launched an "International" division headed by Aron Warner at the 2019 Annecy International Animated Film Festival, with Wish Dragon set to be the division's first film. The same day, they also announced an "Alternative" division aimed at producing adult animated content, headed by Katie Baron and Kevin Noel. In addition to Tartakovsky's films Black Knight and Fixed, the division's TV shows are set to include The Boondocks, a reboot of the original TV series that originally aired on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block from 2005 to 2014; Superbago, a co-production with Stoopid Buddy Stoodios that was originally greenlit as a feature film; and Hungry Ghosts, a series based on the Dark Horse graphic novel by Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose.[21] They had previously announced their plans to produce adult content at the 2017 Annecy festival.[13]

According to Kristine Belson, president of SPA, the studio produces films on a 1:1 development-to-production ratio, meaning that the studio puts films into development as much as it places films in production, unlike other animation studios.[13]

Process

In a similar fashion to Warner Animation Group and Paramount Animation, the studio outsources their films to other animation companies and visual effects studios, with the majority of their films being animated by Sony Pictures Imageworks (its sister company). Some films, such as Arthur Christmas and The Pirates! Band of Misfits were acquired by Sony Pictures Animation to be released under their banner while others, such as Goosebumps and Peter Rabbit, were made with involvement from the studio.

Franchises
Sony Pictures Animation franchises
Titles Films Release dates TV Seasons
Open Season 4 2006 – 2015 1
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 2009 – 2018 2
Smurfs 3 2011 – 2017 0
Hotel Transylvania 3 2012 – present 2
Goosebumps 2 2015 – 2018 0

Filmography
Main article: List of Sony Pictures Animation productions

See also

References
  1. "Kristine Belson Named New President of Sony Pictures Animation". The Hollywood Reporter. January 27, 2015. Retrieved January 27, 2015.
  2. "Sony Pictures Animation Promotes Pam Marsden to Head of Production". Variety. March 14, 2017. Retrieved December 19, 2018.
  3. Brodesser, Claude (December 9, 2001). "Sony finds Rx for its f/x". Variety. Retrieved September 1, 2011.
  4. "Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment Establishes Feature Animation Unit; Animation Executives Sandra Rabins and Penney Finkelman Cox Named to Top Posts" (Press release). May 9, 2002. Archived from the original on October 14, 2012. Retrieved August 1, 2011.
  5. Raugust, Karen (May 30, 2006). "The Value of Shorts". Animation World Network. Archived from the original on October 17, 2012. Retrieved July 22, 2011.
  6. "Sony Pictures Animation Announces Projects for Directors Jill Culton, Anthony Stacchi, Roger Allers, Brenda Chapman and the Brizzi Brothers Cox Named to Top Posts" (Press release). May 9, 2003. Archived from the original on October 14, 2012. Retrieved August 1, 2011.
  7. Adler, Shawn (January 9, 2008). "Jon Favreau Gets Animated For 'Neanderthals'". MTV. Archived from the original on January 10, 2008. Retrieved August 1, 2011.
  8. Serrano, Armand (April 19, 2010). "Neanderthals". Armand Serrano Blog. Retrieved August 1, 2011.
  9. "Gromit animators sign Sony deal". BBC News. April 2, 2007. Retrieved November 7, 2010.
  10. Sony Pictures Animation (July 11, 2012). "Genndy Tartakovsky Signs Overall Deal with Sony Pictures Animation". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
  11. Milligan, Mercedes (November 3, 2014). "Sony Partners with Cartoon Hangover to Find New Talent". Animation Magazine. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
  12. Milligan, Mercedes (November 7, 2017). "Sony Animation & Cartoon Hangover Launch 1st Incubator Film 'The Summoning'". Animation Magazine. Retrieved November 28, 2017.
  13. "Annecy: Kristine Belson on Sony Pictures Animation's upcoming slate". Variety Magazine. June 15, 2017. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  14. "Sony Pictures Animation". Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  15. Sneider, Jeff (October 1, 2015). "'Ghostbusters' Animated Movie in the Works at Sony Pictures Animation". The Wrap. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  16. Takao (August 7, 2017). "Ghostbusters: Ecto Force postponed for new film". ToonBarn. Archived from the original on August 10, 2017. Retrieved September 2, 2017.
  17. N'Duka, Amanda (July 25, 2018). "'Hotel Transylvania' Helmer Genndy Tartakovsky Sets New Projects At Sony Pictures Animation". Deadline. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
  18. Kroll, Justin (May 1, 2020). "Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg Turning 'Bubble' Podcast Into Animated Adult Feature with Matt Tolmach at Sony (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  19. Zahed, Ramin (June 20, 2019). "Emily Dean Making Feature Directorial Debut with Sony's 'Tao'". Animation Magazine. Retrieved October 14, 2020.
  20. Donnelly, Matt (October 14, 2020). "Oscar Winner Matthew A. Cherry's Debut Feature 'Tut' in the Works at Sony Pictures Animation (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved October 14, 2020.
  21. Hopewell, John (June 12, 2019). "Sony Pictures Animation Links to Tencent, Sets New 'Boondocks,' Tartakovsky Duo". Variety. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
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