Sony Pictures Animation Inc. is an American animation studio that is a subsidiary of Sony Pictures and division of their Motion Picture Group, founded on May 9, 2002. The studio works closely with Sony Pictures Imageworks, which handles digital production. All of its theatrical releases are currently distributed worldwide by Sony Pictures Releasing under their Columbia Pictures label, and all home video releases are distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The studio's movies and franchises include Open Season, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The Smurfs, Hotel Transylvania, the 2007 Oscar-nominated film Surf's Up, the Academy Award-winning film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and the lowest of them all, The Emoji Movie.
History
In 2001, Sony Pictures considered selling off its visual effects facility Sony Pictures Imageworks. After failing to find a suitable buyer, having been impressed with the CGI sequences created for Stuart Little 2, and seeing the box office success 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. 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. 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-CG animation.
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 version of the short film The ChubbChubbs!.
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, Neanderthals, written and produced by Jon Favreau, was cancelled sometime in 2008, 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 and is currently its most successful release. SPA's parent company Sony Pictures had partnered in 2007 with Aardman Animations to finance, co-produce and distribute feature films. 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, a TV series, and an upcoming fourth installment, which is slated for a 2021 release. SPA's latest releases are Smurfs: The Lost Village, the fully animated reboot to the live-action Smurfs films; The Emoji Movie, a computer-animated film based off emojis, and The Star, an animated comedy based on the Nativity of Jesus. SPA has since signed Genndy Tartakovsky to a long-term deal with the studio to develop and direct original films.
The studio is currently working on Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018), Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), and Vivo (2021). It has many other projects in development, including an robot apocalypse/road trip film titled Connected directed by Michael Rianda; an animated Ghostbusters film, and an untitled superhero film directed by Shannon Tindle, creator of Focus Features/Laika's Kubo and the Two Strings. Additionally, SPA has three currently untitled projects slated for 2020; the release dates are April 3, 2020, July 24, 2020 and September 25, 2020.
On November 3, 2014, the studio made a deal with Cartoon Hangover to create 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.
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.
The studio also currently has plans to produce adult animated content for digital platforms.
Filmography
Theatrical feature & direct-to-video films
Released films
| # | Title | Release date | Co-production with | Animation service(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Open Season | September 29, 2006 | N/A | Sony Pictures Imageworks |
| 2 | Surf's Up | June 8, 2007 | N/A | Sony Pictures Imageworks |
| 3 | Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs | September 18, 2009 | N/A | Sony Pictures Imageworks |
| 4 | The Smurfs | July 29, 2011 | The Kerner Entertainment Company | Sony Pictures Imageworks |
| 5 | Arthur Christmas | November 23, 2011 | Aardman Animation | Sony Pictures Imageworks |
| 6 | The Pirates! Band of Misfits | April 27, 2012 | Aardman Animation | Double Negative |
| 7 | Hotel Transylvania | September 28, 2012 | N/A | Sony Pictures Imageworks |
| 8 | The Smurfs 2 | July 31, 2013 | Universal Pictures and Universal Cartoon Studios | Sony Pictures Imageworks |
| 9 | Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 | September 27, 2013 | N/A | Sony Pictures Imageworks |
| 10 | Hotel Transylvania 2 | September 25, 2015 | LStar Capital
Media Rights Capital |
Sony Pictures Imageworks |
| 11 | October 16, 2015 | LStar Capital
Village Roadshow Pictures Original Film Scholastic Entertainment |
Moving Picture Company | |
| 12 | Smurfs: The Lost Village | April 7, 2017 | The Kerner Entertainment Company
LStar Capital Wanda Pictures |
Sony Pictures Imageworks |
| 13 | The Emoji Movie | July 28, 2017 | N/A | Sony Pictures Imageworks |
| 14 | The Star | November 17, 2017 | The Jim Henson Company
Franklin Entertainment Walden Media Affirm Films |
Cinesite Studios |
| 15 | Peter Rabbit | February 9, 2018 | Olive Bridge Entertainment
2.0 Entertainment Screen Australia Screen NSW |
Animal Logic |
| 16 | Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation | July 13, 2018 | N/A | Sony Pictures Imageworks |
| 17 | Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween | October 12, 2018 | Original Film Scholastic Entertainment Silvertongue Films | Moving Picture Company |
| 18 | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse | December 14, 2018 | Marvel Entertainment | Sony Pictures Imageworks |
| 19 | The Angry Birds Movie 2 | August 14, 2019 | Rovio Entertainment | Sony Pictures Imageworks |
Upcoming films
| # | Title | Release date | Co-production with | Animation service(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | Connected | 2020 | Lord Miller Productions Media Rights Capital | Sony Pictures Imageworks |
| 21 | Wish Dragon | 2020 | Beijing Sparkle
Roll Media Corporation Flagship Entertainment Group Boss Collaboration |
Base FX |
| 22 | Vivo | June 4, 2021 | Laurence Mark Productions | Sony Pictures Imageworks |
| 23 | Hotel Transylvania 4 | August 6, 2021 | Media Rights Capital
Perfect World Pictures |
Sony Pictures Imageworks |
| 26 | Untitled Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse sequel | October 7, 2022 | Marvel Entertainment | Sony Pictures Imageworks |
Films in development
| Title |
|---|
| Harold and the Purple Crayon |
| Medusa |
| Popeye |
| Ghostbusters |
| The Dreamstone |
| Untitled Jon Saunders film |
Direct-to-video films
| # | Title | Release date | Co-production with | Animation service(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Open Season 2 | September 24, 2008 | N/A | Reel FX Animation Studios |
| 2 | Open Season 3 | January 25, 2011 | N/A |
Reel FX Animation Studios |
| 3 | Open Season: Scared Silly | March 8, 2016 | N/A | Rainmaker Entertainment |
| 4 | Surf's Up 2: WaveMania | January 17, 2017 | WWE Studios | Rainmaker Entertainment |
Short films
| # | Title | Release date | Distribution/co-production with | Animation service(s) | Release with | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The ChubbChubbs! | July 3, 2002 | Columbia Pictures | Sony Pictures Imageworks | Men in Black II | Theatrical release |
| 2 | Early Bloomer | May 9, 2003 | Daddy Day Care | |||
| 3 | Boog and Elliot's Midnight Bun Run | January 30, 2007 | Open Season | Home video release | ||
| 4 | The ChubbChubbs Save Xmas | October 8, 2007 | Sony Pictures Imageworks Prana Studios |
Surf's Up | Theatrical release | |
| 5 | The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol | December 2, 2011 | Sony Pictures Home Entertainment | Sony Pictures Imageworks Duck Studios |
The Smurfs | Home video release |
| 6 | So You Want to Be a Pirate! | August 28, 2012 | Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Aardman Animations |
N/A | The Pirates! Band of Misfits | |
| 7 | Goodnight, Mr. Foot | October 26, 2012 | Sony Pictures Home Entertainment | Rough Draft Studios | Hotel Transylvania | Limited theatrical release |
| 8 | The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow | September 10, 2013 | Sony Pictures Imageworks Duck Studios |
The Smurfs 2 | Home video release | |
| 9 | Super Manny | October 2, 2013 | Sony Pictures Imageworks 6 Point Harness |
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 | ||
| 10 | Earl Scouts | October 11, 2013 | ||||
| 11 | Steve's First Bath | January 28, 2014 | ||||
| 12 | Attack of the 50-Foot Gummi Bear | 6 Point Harness | ||||
| 13 | Puppy! | July 28, 2017 | Columbia Pictures | Sony Pictures Imageworks | The Emoji Movie | Theatrical release |
| 14 | Flopsy Turvy | March 30, 2018 | Sony Pictures Home Entertainment | Animal Logic | Peter Rabbit | Limited theatrical release |
| 15 | Hair Love | August 14, 2019 | Sony Pictures Home Entertainment | Lion Forge Animation | The Angry Birds Movie 2 | Theatrical release |
Television series
| # | Title | Premiere date | End date | Network |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: The Series | February 20, 2017 | present | Cartoon Network |
| 2 | Hotel Transylvania: The Series | June 25, 2017 | Disney Channel | |
| 3 | Ghostbusters: Ecto Force | TBA | TBA | TBA |
Trivia
- This company has not yet made a G-rated production, as every one of its feature-length films so far has been rated PG by the MPAA (as of the short films Boog and Elliot's Midnight Bun Run and The ChubbChubbs Save Xmas), due to stricter reasons.
Logos
