Sony Pictures Animation

**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*.

## Historyedit | edit source

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 of 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 *Vivo* (2021), *Hotel Transylvania: Transformania* (2021), and *Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2* (2022). It has many other projects in development, including an animated *Ghostbusters* film, and an untitled superhero film directed by Shannon Tindle, creator of Focus Features/Laika's *Kubo and the Two Strings*.

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.

## Filmographyedit | edit source

### Feature filmsedit | edit source

1. Open Season (2006)
2. Monster House (2006)
3. Surf's Up (2007)
4. Planet 51 (2008)
5. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009)
6. Open Season 2 (2010)
7. Alpha and Omega (2010)
8. The Smurfs (2011)
9. Arthur Christmas (2011)
10. The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012)
11. Surf's Up 2 (2012)
12. Hotel Transylvania (2012)
13. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013)
14. Free Birds (2013)
15. Pixels (2014)
16. The Smurfs 2 (2014)
17. Alpha and Omega 2 (2014)
18. Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015)
19. Goosebumps (2015)
20. Open Season 3 (2016)
21. The Angry Birds Movie (2016)
22. Surf's Up 3: WaveMania (2017)
23. Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017)
24. The Emoji Movie (2017)
25. The Star (2017)
26. Peter Rabbit (2018)
27. Alpha and Omega 3: Journey to Bear Kingdom (2018)
28. Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018)
29. Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (2018)
30. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 3 (2018)
31. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
32. Men in Black: International (2019)
33. The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019)
34. The Emoji Movie 2: Rise of the Internet (2020)
35. The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2020)
36. Wish Dragon (2021)
37. Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway (2021)

### Upcoming films

1. Hotel Transylvania: Transformania (2021)
2. Vivo (2022)
3. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2 (2022)
4. Goosebumps 3: Horror World (2022)
5. Chickenhare (2022)
6. Fixed (2023)
7. Bubble (2024)
8. Black Knight (2024)
9. Pixels 2 (2025)
10. Untitled Ghostbusters spin-off film (2025)
11. Stuart Little (reboot) (2025)
12. K-Pop Demon Hunters (2026)
13. Chuck's Choice (2027)
14. Tao (2027)
15. The Emoji Movie 3: the Third (2028)
16. Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese (2028)
17. Tut (2029)

### Telvision

#### Specials

1. Surf's Up: The Christmas Adventure (2011)
2. Open Season: Cheerful Holiday (2012)
3. The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol (2012)
4. Alpha and Omega: A Howl-iday Adventure (2013)
5. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Christmas (2014)
6. Surf's Up: Valentine's Day to You (2014)
7. Open Season: Scared Silly (2015)
8. Hotel Transylvania: Spooky Christmas (2015)
9. The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow (2015)
10. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Easter (2016)
11. Alpha and Omega: Legend of the Saw Tooth Cave (2016)
12. Goosebumps: The Werewolf of Fever Swamp (2017)
13. Hotel Transylvania: Easter Spectacular (2019)
14. Angry Birds Easter (2020)

#### Series

1. Open Season: The Series (2011-2014)
2. Surf's Up: The Series (2013-2016)
3. Alpha and Omega: The Series (2015-2017)
4. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: The Series (2017-2018)
5. Hotel Transylvania: The Series (2017-2020)
6. Angry Birds on the Run (2018-2020)
7. Angry Birds MarkerSpace (2019-2020)
8. Angry Birds Slingshot Stories (2020)
9. Angry Birds Bubble Trouble (2021-present)
10. The Smurfs (2021-present)

## Franchises

 Surf's Up
 Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
 Alpha and Omega
 The Smurfs
 Hotel Transylvania
 Pixels
 Goosebumps
 Angry Birds
 The Emoji Movie
 Peter Rabbit
 Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse