Victor Hugo Pictures Animation

Victor Hugo Pictures Animation (or simply Victor Hugo Animation) is an American animation studio owned by Victor Entertainment, Inc. through its wholly owned subsidiary Victor Studios. Founded on June 24, 1992, the studio creates animated feature films, short films, and television programs for Victor Hugo Pictures, and currently maintains its main feature animation studio in Hollywood, California, as well as a satellite studio in Los Angeles which produces animated television series and direct-to-video and occasional theatrical animated feature films.
The studio was originally formed as Victor Animation Studios in 1991 by some alumni of Blender Animation's former feature animation branch Blender Feature Animation, while Victor Cartoon Studios was formed to produce television series and direct-to-video films. In 2001, Victor Animation Studios took on its current name, Victor Hugo Pictures Animation after Victor Hugo Pictures merged the direct-to-video and television unit, also under the same name, with the feature animation unit.
Since 1992, Victor Hugo Pictures Animation has primarily focused upon the production of television and feature animation of other properties, notably including those related to its Salter Nantz Productions in-name-only unit and television series produced by Blender such as Sailor Moon and Drake and Penelope since 1991.
== History ==
=== 1992–97: Founding ===
The original Salter Nantz Productions cartoon studio was closed down by Victor Hugo Pictures Studios in 1973 due to the rising costs and declining returns of short subject production. However, before Victor Hugo Pictures restarted its animation division in 1992, Victor Hugo Pictures released its first three animated films, such as Cockroaches in 1987, Just a Regular Movie in 1989, and Back in Time in 1991.
In late 1991, Blender Animation co-founder Bram Moolenaar met with then-President of Victor Communtions David Snyder to discuss the creation of a feature animation division, an offer which Moolenaar immediately accepted. Victor Animation Studios was officially established on June 24, 1992 to produce theatrically released animated feature films to rival Disney's animated features. B.J. Wells was brought in to head the new division, which was set up in a building on the Victor Hugo Pictures lot. To build the talent base, Moolenaar brought over artists from Blender and its feature animation department, while Wells recruited some of the staff from Gingo Animation.
thumb|220x220px|The Victor Animation Studios logo from 1994 to 2001.
Meanwhile, Victor Cartoon Studios opened its doors in 1992 as a satellite studio in Los Angeles to produce television series and direct-to-video films for Victor Hugo Pictures. That same year, the studio produced its very first production, which is an animated television series based on Silver Slugger films airing on Fox Kids Release from 1992 to 1993. Some of Blender Feature Animation's artists in North Hollywood came to Victor Animation Studios in early 1995 when their first feature was in post-production, with the rest doing so in the following year when Blender Feature Animation was merged into VAS. In 1995, Victor Animation Studios announced a full slate of animated projects in development: Giselle (then titled True Love Kiss), an adaptation of Edith Nesbit The Enchanted Castle, I Hate Bad Guy (then titled Bad Guy Suck), and Galaxy Fight (which got later shelved).
=== 1998–2002: Initial success ===
The first of Victor Hugo Pictures's animated features was Giselle (1998), a romantic fantasy featuring the voice talents of Neve Campbell, Matthew McConaughey, and Kyra Sedgwick. Directed by Bram Moolenaar, Giselle received positive reviews from critics and was a success at the box office, which overpowered Dreamworks's fall release for that year, Antz. Giselle established Victor Hugo Pictures as Dreamworks's then-first major competitor in feature-film animation. Animation production for Giselle was primarily done at the new Victor Animation Studio, although much of the work was outsourced to animation studios around the world.
Also, I Hate Bad Guy (1998) was released the Same Year when Giselle (1998) was Released.
In 2000, its next film, Crab (2000), received mixed reviews and under-performed at the box office. In the same year, Blender's The Hot Wheels Movie, VAS's third animated feature, was released to critical and financial success; it grossed over $321 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing non-Disney animated film of the year as well as the seventh highest-grossing animated film of the year behind Rugrats in Paris: The Movie.
In 2001, the last two of Victor Animation Studios film was Galaxy Fight and Totally Superheroine!, Galaxy Fight had $539 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing non-Disney animated film of the year as well as the sixth highest-grossing animated film of the year behind Going Francisco, and Totally Superheroine! became the first highest-grossing animated film of the year ever, passing the mark set by Monsters, Inc., After these film, Victor Animation Studio was closed in 2001 and merged with Victor Hugo Pictures Animation.
The sixth (and first Victor Hugo Pictures Animation movie) animated feature from Victor Hugo Pictures Animation, The Enchanted Castle (2002), received a positive reception from critics and audiences but under-performed.
=== 2003–08: Conversion to computer animation ===
The studio's next film, Super Hedgehog (2003), received a positive reception from critics and audiences. However, A growing perception that hand-drawn animation was becoming outdated and falling out of fashion in favor of the increasing popularity of computer animation, so VHPA decided the same year to exit hand-drawn animation business after the next two of total seven hand-drawn films. VHPA's next feature Johnson and Friends Movie, released in 2004, received mixed reviews from critics and under-performed at the box office.
Upon the unsuccessful release of Lion, Tigers and Bears, Victor Hugo Pictures laid off most of the employees at the Animation Studio in Hollywood, downsizing it to one unit and beginning plans to move into fully computer animated films. A handful of employees were offered positions doing computer animation. Subsequently, on May 18, 2004, Victor Hugo Pictures Animation officially announced they were becoming a fully CGI studio, now with a staff of 528 people and began selling off all of its traditional animation equipment.
In 2005, Victor Hugo Pictures released its first fully in-house computer-animated feature film Big Friends to critical and commercial success. It grossed $736 million worldwide, becoming the fourth highest-grossing film of 2005. Big Friends established Victor Hugo Pictures Animation as the seventh studio after Pixar, Dreamworks Animation, Blender Animation, Gingo Animation, Blue Sky Studios and Universal Animation Studios to have launched a successful CGI franchise.
Totally Superheroine! 2 was the only Victor Hugo Pictures Animation to have Hand-Drawing instead of 3D, It was released on July 15, 2005 and grossed $52,864,428, becoming number one for the weekend of July 15-17, 2005. By the end of its theatrical run, it earned a total $427,843,406 worldwide.
In May 2006, Victor Hugo Pictures announced that it would be creating Big Friends: Jennifer to the Rescue, a 3-D ride at Victor Hugo Parks & Resorts locations in Orlando, Hollywood, Sentosa, and Osaka. The ride officially opened on July 12, 2007 in Orlando, in Hollywood on April 16, 2009, in Sentosa on April 19, 2011, and in Osaka on April 5, 2012. In September 2006, the studio released its second computer-animated film Jaguar, which had been in active development since 1998, to generally positive reviews and had grossed over $259 million worldwide at the box office.
In 2007, VHPA's ninth film and third computer-animated film Mr. Guy, in co-production with Blender Animation, was released to mixed reviews from critics. However, it was a box office success, earning $743 million worldwide. The studio's next feature and first sequel Big Friends 2 opened in 2008. It earned over $835 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing animated film of the year beating Finding Nemo and Shrek 2 and breaking a record as the most profitable film from Victor Hugo Pictures Animation.
===2009–present: Reorganization and continued success===
In March 2009, Animators at Hollywood worked on projects based at the Hollywood studio, but also assisted in projects based in the Los Angeles VHPA studio. Two months later, Victor Hugo Pictures Animation announced a deal with an up-and-coming animation studio named Big Bad Tomato, positioning it as Victor Studios’s family entertainment arm within its feature animation group consisting of Victor Hugo Pictures Animation. This meant Victor Hugo Pictures would be able to release as many as three animated films in a year divided between the two studios. Many felt this decision was made to help Victor Hugo Pictures to establish itself as a competitor to Universal and Disney's feature animation group, which consists of Pixar, Walt Disney Animation Studios and Universal Animation Studios.
Bram Moolenaar later explained that after the merger, to maintain the studios' separate identities and cultures (notwithstanding the fact of common ownership and common senior management), he and the Victor Hugo Pictures Animation executives "drew a hard line" that each studio was solely responsible for its own projects and would not be allowed to borrow personnel from or lend tasks out to the other; the rule ensures that each studio maintains "local ownership" of projects and "can be proud of its own work". Thus, for example, when Victor Hugo Pictures Animation had issues with Mistakes Can Happens (2012) and Big Bad Tomato with King Harkie (2013), "nobody bailed them out", and each studio was required "to solve the problem on its own", even when they knew there were personnel at the other studio who, theoretically, could have helped.
After Victor Hugo's deal with Big Bad Tomato, Victor Hugo Pictures Animation released its eleventh feature From Method to Madness, a CGI animated an romantic-comedy film that follows a women and a man who love each other. The film opened to a much bigger than expected $50 million opening, and ended up with $403 million worldwide. Peppers!, the studio's twelfth feature film, was released in 2010 and became a significant critical and commercial success, earning $615 million worldwide.
Totally Superheroine! 11⁄2, the studio's thirteenth feature film, was also released in 2010 and was a critical and commercial success, earning $552.6 million on a $30 million budget.
In October 2013, Universal named former Universal Animation president Micheal Lee the new president of Victor Hugo Pictures Animation division; however, in March 2014, Lee resigned for personal reasons. In October 2014, Universal named another former Universal Animation president June Scheimer as the president of the feature animation studio.
In November 2016, Victor Hugo Pictures named former Disney Channel president Cree Paulsen as the executive vice president of the Victor Hugo Pictures Feature Animation Group.
On May 29, 2017 Victor Studios announced its intent to acquire competing studio Altantic Entertainment Group for $8.1 billion, making Altantic Entertainment Group a sister studio to Victor Hugo Pictures Animation and Blender Animation; the acquisition was later completed on September 22, 2017. Additionally, the television animation divisions of Victor Searchlight Pictures and Altantic Entertainment Group merged after Victor Searchlight Pictures completed its acquisition of Altantic Entertainment Group, but Victor Television Animation was resurrected as a separate entity.
On December 3, 2017, after their successful attempt at buying Altantic Entertainment Group, Victor Entertainment Inc. (the owner of Victor Hugo Pictures' parent company Victor Studios) sent a letter to Blender Animation and Victor Hugo Pictures Animation (which currently handles the Pre-2006 Blender Animation library), encouraging the two studios to merge back into one animation studio. Victor Studios's Victor Hugo Pictures already owns four animation studios: Victor Hugo Pictures Animation, Blender Animation, Big Bad Tomato and Altantic Entertainment Group. Five days later, Victor Studios reached a deal to buy Blender for $43.8 billion. Victor Hugo Pictures Animation' CEO Bram Moolenaar will once again oversee both Blender and Victor Hugo Pictures Animation following the completion of the merger. If approved by federal regulators, the merger would reunite Blender's properties under the same umbrella as Victor Hugo Pictures Animation, with the intention of treating the company similarly to Bad Robot as well as strengthening the relationship between Victor Hugo Pictures and Blender Animation. The deal has faced criticism for the possibility that Victor Hugo Pictures could operate too many animation studios to mimic that of The Malt Whisky Company (which owns Malt Whisky Animation Studios and Jixar) and focus too much on animated films. On January 18, 2018, the Department of Justice filing an antitrust lawsuit over the acquisition explaining, "it can cause a huge negative impact on the animation audience and cause less competition due to how big the deal is." On January 23, 2018, the merger agreement deadline was extended to Octoner 3, 2018, under a big vote of confidence.
On September 24, 2018, it was reported by the Los Angeles Times that Victor Studios had re-entered talks to acquire Blender and merge the studio into Victor Hugo Pictures Animation. Both Blender and Victor Studios stated that the merger would not affect any films in production prior to the deal (Benajmin, Creature, Team Hot Wheels, and Roy The Dragon), nor any 8-Ball get squished by the Moon Productions properties as well as any preexisting deals with other film studios for the time being, although Victor Studios said they would distribute future Blender Animatio projects under Victor Hugo Pictures Animation once the deals expired. The proposed deal would have Victor Hugo Pictures bring Blender back under the Victor Hugo Pictures umbrella and gain full control to the film rights of the post-2005 Blender library (excluding the Victor Hugo Pictures-distributed films) with films distributed by studios other than Victor Hugo Pictures having their distribution rights expire in 2021. However, the rights to the Rainy Days franchise as well as Mallomartian were reverted back to Blender immediately due to Victor Hugo Pictures's proposed acquistion by Malt Whisky Company.
On October 2, 2018, District Judge Kari J. Hall ruled in favor of Victor Studios, thus allowing the acquisition to go ahead with no conditions or remedies. Hall argued that the Department of Justice provided insufficient evidence that the proposed transaction would result in lessened competition. He also warned the government that attempting to obtain an appeal or stay on the ruling would be manifest unjust, as it would cause "certain irreparable harm to the defendants." Three days later, the merger closed with Blender officially becoming a subsidary of Victor Studios.
== Filmography ==
: Main article: List of Victor Hugo Pictures Animation productions
== Gallery ==
Coming soon!
== See also ==
* List of unproduced Victor Hugo Pictures animated projects
* List of animation studios owned by Victor Studios
* Blender Animation
* Big Bad Tomato
* Atlantic Entertainment Animation Studios
* Victor Digital Entertainment
* Victor Hugo Pictures Games
* VictorNext Games
Category:Companies
Category:Victor Hugo Pictures
Category:Victor Studios
Category:Victor Entertainment, Inc.
Category:Victor Hugo Pictures Animation