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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 films are distributed worldwide by Sony Pictures Releasing under their Columbia Pictures label, and all direct-to-video films 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 Surf's Up, the Academy Award-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and the lowest of them all, The Emoji Movie. The Angry Birds Movie and Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway both had no involvement with the studio.

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 three sequels and a TV series. SPA has since signed Genndy Tartakovsky to a long-term deal with the studio to develop and direct original films.

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

Feature films

Released films

# Title Release date Co-production with Animation service
1 Open Season September 29, 2006 N/A Sony Pictures Imageworks
2 Surf's Up June 8, 2007
3 Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs September 18, 2009
4 The Smurfs July 29, 2011 The Kerner Entertainment Company
5 Arthur Christmas November 23, 2011 Aardman Animation
6 The Pirates! Band of Misfits April 27, 2012 Double Negative
7 Hotel Transylvania September 28, 2012 N/A Sony Pictures Imageworks
8 The Smurfs 2 July 31, 2013 The Kerner Entertainment Company
9 Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 September 27, 2013 N/A
10 Hotel Transylvania 2 September 25, 2015 LStar Capital
Media Rights Capital
11 Goosebumps 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
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 Media Rights Capital 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
20 The Mitchells vs. the Machines April 30, 2021 One Cool Films
Lord Miller Productions
Media Rights Capital
21 Wish Dragon June 11, 2021 Beijing Sparkle
Roll Media Corporation
Flagship Entertainment Group
Boss Collaboration
Base FX
22 Vivo August 6, 2021 Laurence Mark Productions Sony Pictures Imageworks
23 Hotel Transylvania: Transformania January 14, 2022 Amazon Studios
Media Rights Capital
24 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse June 2, 2023 Marvel Entertainment

Upcoming films

Title Release date Co-production with Animation service
Fixed TBA Warner Bros. Pictures
New Line Cinema
Renegade Animation
Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse TBA Marvel Entertainment Sony Pictures Imageworks

Films in development

Title Notes
Black Knight
K-Pop: Demon Hunters To be released exclusively on Netflix
Spider-Woman Co-production with Marvel Entertainment, Arad Productions and Pascal Pictures
Tao
Tut
Untitled Ghostbusters spin-off film Co-production with Ghost Corps
Untitled Matt Braly film

Direct-to-video films

# Title Release date Co-production with Animation service
1 Open Season 2 January 27, 2009 N/A Reel FX Animation Studios
2 Open Season 3 January 25, 2011
3 Open Season: Scared Silly March 8, 2016 Rainmaker Entertainment
4 Surf's Up 2: WaveMania January 17, 2017 WWE Studios

Short films

# Title Release date Distribution/co-production with Animation service 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 9, 2007 Sony Pictures Imageworks
Prana Studios
Surf's Up
5 The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol December 2, 2011 Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Sony Pictures Imageworks
Duck Studios
The Smurfs
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 Limited theatrical release
10 Earl Scouts October 11, 2013
11 Steve's First Bath January 28, 2014 Home video release
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 Columbia Pictures Lion Forge Animation The Angry Birds Movie 2 Theatrical release
16 Live Stream November 12, 2019 Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Sony Pictures Imageworks Home video release
17 Monster Pets April 9, 2021 Columbia Pictures Various films Theatrical release
18 Dog Cop 7: The Final Chapter December 14, 2021 Sony Pictures Home Entertainment The Mitchells vs. the Machines Home video release

Television series

# Title Premiere date End date Network
1 Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: The Series February 20, 2017 June 30, 2018 Cartoon Network
2 Hotel Transylvania: The Series June 25, 2017 October 29, 2020 Disney Channel
3 Agent Elvis March 17, 2023 Netflix
4 Young Love September 21, 2023 TBA Max
5 Open Season: Call of Nature 2024 Discovery Kids
Online Series
# Title Premiere date End date Network
1 Go Cartoons! November 7, 2017 April 10, 2018 Cartoon Network

Franchises

Titles Release dates Movies Shorts
Open Season 2006–present 4 1
Surf's Up 2007–2017 2 0
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2009–2018 2 4
The Smurfs 2011–2017 3 2
Hotel Transylvania 2012–2022 4 3
Goosebumps 2015–2018 2 0
The Angry Birds Movie 2016–2019 2 1
Peter Rabbit 2018–2021 2 1
Spider-Verse 2018–present 2 2
  • Note: Sony Pictures Animation was not involved in the first Angry Birds Movie or the second Peter Rabbit.

Trivia

  • This company has not yet made a G-rated feature production, a PG-13 rated feature production, or an R-rated feature production, as most 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

References

External links

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