Paramount Animation

**Paramount Animation** is an American animation studio. It is the animation division for Paramount Pictures and also serves as the releasing banner for other animated films based on ViacomCBS properties. Paramount created the division on July 6, 2011.

## Background

In July 2011, in the wake of critical and box office success of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies' animated feature, *Rango*, and Paramount's departure of DreamWorks Animation upon completion of their distribution contract with *Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted* and *Rise of the Guardians* in 2012, Paramount announced the formation of a new division, devoted to the creation of animated productions.

## History

### Brad Grey era (2011–2017)

In October 2011, Paramount named a former president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, David Stainton, Paramount Animation president. In February 2012, Stainton resigned for personal reasons, with Paramount Film Group's president, Adam Goodman, to directly oversee the studio. Paramount also announced that *The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water*, a standalone sequel to 2004's *The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie* and based on popular Nickelodeon TV show, *SpongeBob SquarePants*, is the studio's first film and would be released in 2014.

In August 2012, *Variety* reported that Paramount Animation was in the process of starting the development of several animated films with budgets of around US$100 million.

On July 31, 2013, Paramount Animation announced that they were developing a new live-action/animated franchise in the Transformers series's vein, which was titled *Monster Trucks*. Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger wrote the script, Chris Wedge (director of 2002's *Ice Age*) directed it, and Mary Parent produced it, with an initial release date set for May 29, 2015.

The studio's first film, *The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water*, on February 6, 2015, to positive reviews and was a box office success, grossing over $325 million worldwide and becoming the fifth highest-grossing animated film of 2015. That same month, Paramount fired Adam Goodman due to the studio's thin-film slate and Goodman greenlighting box office bombs at the studio. Paramount announced another SpongeBob film later that year.

In the summer of 2015, Paramount Pictures participated in a bidding war against Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures Animation to produce *The Emoji Movie*, based on a script by Tony Leondis and Eric Siegel. Sony won the bidding war in July and released the film in 2017. The studio's head Bob Bacon also left Paramount Animation that summer.

In June 2015, Paramount revealed that Spain's Ilion Animation Studios (the studio behind 2009's *Planet 51*) won a bidding war against other animation studios to produce a 3D animated tentpole film for Paramount Animation, which was already in production since 2014. In November 2015, Paramount Animation officially announced the project as *Amusement Park* (later renamed *Wonder Park*) with former Pixar animator Dylan Brown helming. The studio also announced *Monster Trucks*, *The Little Prince*, *Sherlock Gnomes*, and the third *SpongeBob* film.

On May 4, 2016, Paramount Pictures announced that they had signed a deal with UK-based Locksmith Animation to co-develop and co-produce three original animated projects under the Paramount Animation (with animation produced by DNEG).

The studio's second film, *Monster Trucks*, was released to mixed reviews and became a box office failure, grossing $64.5 million on a $125 million budget and losing the studio $120 million.

In March 2017, Skydance Media formed a multi-year partnership with Ilion Animation Studios. In July, Skydance announced its first two animated feature films — *Luck* and *Spellbound* — distributed by Paramount Pictures as part of their deal with Skydance. On October 10, 2017, Paramount hired Bill Damaschke to head the division as president of animation and family entertainment. But on January 14, 2019, Paramount Animation CEO Mireille Soria announced that they would no longer work with Skydance Animation because of their partnership with John Lasseter while Paramount will release *Luck* and *Spellbound* but not under the Paramount Animation brand.

### Jim Gianopulos era (2017–present)

In April 2017, Paramount ended its deal with Locksmith Animation when Jim Gianopulos replaced paramount chairman and CEO Brad Grey. The latter decided that their projects did not fit in with Paramount's other upcoming releases. Locksmith formed a multi-year production deal with 20th Century Fox four months later.

In July 2017, Paramount Pictures named former DreamWorks Animation co-president Mireille Soria as the studio president.

The studio released its third film, *Sherlock Gnomes*, on March 23, 2018, and became a critical and financial disappointment, grossing $90.3 million on a $59 million budget.

In April 2018, Paramount Pictures named former Blue Sky Studios and Nickelodeon Movies producer Ramsey Naito as the studio's executive vice president.

The studio's fourth film, *Wonder Park*, was released on March 15, 2019. It received mixed reviews, and it became a box office flop, grossing only $119.6 million worldwide on a budget of less than $100 million.

The studio's current film, *The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run*, theatrically released only in Canada on August 14, 2020, with a 2021 release in the United States on CBS All Access and a November 5, 2020 release internationally on Netflix due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film received mixed reviews from critics and only grossed $4.4 million worldwide with a $60 million budget.

## Logo

Initially, Paramount Animation never had an on-screen logo for their first four features. They just used the standard Paramount Pictures logo.

On September 19, 2019, Paramount Animation introduced a new animated logo featuring a character nicknamed "Star Skipper." When Mireille Soria came to Paramount Animation, one of the first goals set by Jim Gianopulos was to make a logo for the division. The crew wanted to put a female character in the logo because the studio's team is mostly female, and according to Soria, it captures "the magic" of the division. Christopher Zibach, the lead visual development artist and art director of *Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie*, designed the logo and Star Skipper with ATK PLN and Reel FX Creative Studios animating it. This logo debuted in front of *The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run* in 2020. The logo's fanfare is the same as the standard Paramount Pictures logo, composed by Michael Giacchino.

## Process

Like Warner Animation Group and Sony Pictures Animation, the studio outsources animation production to other animation studios. *Rumble* was developed outside of Paramount Animation by Reel FX, but the studio acquired the film's rights and is co-producing it.

Paramount Animation will not have an in-house animation style. According to Mireille Soria, each film will have its unique style created by the filmmakers, which would be helped by outsourcing animation to different vendors.

## Filmography

### Feature films

All films are distributed by Paramount Pictures.

### Television series

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Combines live-action with animation
2. ↑ Released theatrically only in Canada
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Not produced, but released by Paramount Animation under its label

## Reception

### Critical and public reception

 *Monster Trucks* | 32%
 *Sherlock Gnomes* | 27%
 *Wonder Park* | 34%
 *The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run* | 70%

## Accolades

### Golden Raspberry Awards

 Worst Screen Combo
 His fast-fading film career | *Sherlock Gnomes* | Nominated

## See also

* List of Paramount Pictures theatrical animated feature films