Timeline-PMI/Sony Pictures Animation

Logo used since 2018

**Sony Pictures Animation** is an American animation studio owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment which was founded on May 9, 1993. The studio's films are distributed worldwide by Sony Pictures Releasing under their Columbia Pictures label (although ocasionally TriStar, and/or Alliance Films in Canada), while all direct-to-video releases are released by Columbia-TriStar Home Entertainment.

The first film produced by the studio, *Tam-Lin*, was released on Feburary 16, 1995, and their most recent film was *Leo*, released on November 21, 2023; their upcoming slate of films includes *Fixed,* and others on unspecified dates.

## History

### 1980's-1999

In 1988, Columbia Pictures's feature animation studio "Columbia Pictures Animation" was being rebranded after it's acquition of the latter. During this, 20th Century Fox came by and offered Columbia for their animation studio to create, and produce their own 2-D animated films, with 20th Century Fox Animation. They declined the offer to go ahead and rebrand to "Columbia Feature Animation Studios" which would later cause Fox's failed attempt at folding a company into Blue Sky.

By 1992, "Sony Pictures Animation Productions" was being set up, and on May 9, 1993, it was founded, which would defunct CFAS, their first film was released "Tam-Lin" on Feburary 16, 1995. After it's box office sucess, another film planned by the studio, "Astro Boy" started production in 1996, then released on April 3, 1998.

### 2000-2003

In 2000, SPAP, was renamed by removing "Productions" in the name, then in 2001, Sony was 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 folded into their animation studio.

Later on, SPA produced two short films, the Academy Award-winning *The ChubbChubbs!* and *Early Bloomer.* On its ninth anniversary on May 9, 2003, Sony Pictures Animation announced a full slate of animated projects in development: *Open Season*, a film adaptation of the PlayStation game Crash Bandicoot (though released much later, along with *Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs)*, *Surf's Up*, and a feature-length film version of *The ChubbChubbs!*.

### 2010-present

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.

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. They had previously announced their plans to produce adult content at the 2017 Annecy festival.

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.