I’m making a list of my favorite to least favorite well known animation studios, make your own too, and if you wnat, explain why you chose them.
Pixar Animation Studios: Do I HAVE to tell you why?
Blue Sky Studios: They have beautiful animation and mostly captivating stories.
Walt Disney Animation Studios: their classic animation is great, tehy have an amazing legacy, but lately they’ve been going down hill, Lasseter will save 'em!
Sony Pictures Animation Studios: I really like their style, but they don’t have a well enough etsablished library for me to judge them with well enough.
5)Warner Bros.: I like their classics, but the way the aggve up on animation is just stupid.
Aardman: I like they’re style, but teh stories, not so much.
DreamWorks: I’m disgusted at how they make everything for pure cash and no love of the art!! I do admire their animation and some of their movies, but overall, bleh.
8.) Vanguard Animation: Just horrible.
If you think I’m missing an important studio, tell me!
I agree that PIXAR is first, but I think Aardman deserves a bit more credit. As for Dreamworks, I say “Shark Tale, Shrek 3, Madagasgar 2, Monsters vs. Aliens…” need I say more?
It is sad, by the way, that Dreamworks claims Wallace and Grommit: Curse of the Were-rabbit and Flushed Away as their own…kinda like Disney took as much credit as possible for Toy Story and the other PIXAR films.
Just look on the Dreamworks Animation homepage! It’sall gimmicky and works rather poorly in comparison to PIXAR’s minimalistic yet sophisticated approach.
Blue Sky - I absolutely love Ice Age, and Horton was amazing
BONES - Fullmetal Alchemist and Wolf’s Rain… need I say more?
Studio Ghibli - Spirited Away, Totoro, Castle, Kiki, it’s all so beautiful!
Walt Disney Animation - Everything they did (until after Brother Bear) has been absolutely amazing, animation wise and story wise. Loses points for spitting out so many sequels, though.
Aardman Animations - Chicken Run and early Wallace and Grommit are hilarious! I haven’t seen enough of their recent stuff, though, to rate them any higher…
Klasky Cuspo - Who didn’t grow up on Rugrats and Rocket Power? Not exactly stunning animation, but great nonetheless. Dreamworks - Shrek was good, and Kung Fu Panda was (dare I say it) pandatastic! But the movies in between have been subpar…
Rough Draft Studios - Pre season 10 Simpsons and pre movie Futurama. Though, to be fair, they aren’t the ones making the stories.
Pixar (They’re batting 1.000. All nine of their films have been masterpieces.)
Aardman (Flushed Away was their only fault, IMO - mostly because that movie was heavily influenced by DreamWorks. Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit made it to my list of top films, and Chicken Run was brilliant.)
Disney (Some of their most recent work have been mediocre, but they’ve obviously made a lot of great movies)
Studio Ghibli (Okay I’ve only seen Spirited Away - but that film was so great that I couldn’t resist putting it in this list)
Aardman is pretty good, but they seem like a bit of a one-trick pony. They’re not as bad as Dreamworks or anything, but at the same time they haven’t done much to build up their reputation just yet.
The rest of the studios I don’t really differentiate between… I really liked Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit from Aardman, although Flushed Away was a bit eh, and Surf’s Up from Sony was excellent especially what you are used to with this popular medium. Haven’t seen Kung Fu Panda, but want to, just to see if Dreamworks has changed direction.
I actually would be happy if the other studios lifted their game. Nothing like a bit of competition to keep Pixar on their toes (even though they’ve shown that without any competition around, they still keep their standards high anyway). And even if a studio produced films that were as good as Pixar’s films (I couldn’t imagine it, apart from Studio Gihbli, but they’re more of niche market in Western countries, though) they still wouldn’t be like Pixar. But it would be great - anything that reflects well on 3D animation can only help Pixar in the long run.
1 - Pixar. The gold standard. Wouldn’t be on this board if they weren’t my favorite. 2 - Aardman.Love their stuff; I don’t count Flushed Away as that had Dreamworks’ corporate hands all over it. I just like Brit wit. 3 - Studio Ghibli. I love Miyazaki. Hard to decide between this and Aardman at #2. Personally I like Aardman’s humor a notch better, so this is purely on tastes. 4 - Disney Animation Studios. They lost some magic since Hercules, but even then I never really “hated” their movies… Well, except “Home on the Range” and “Chicken Little.” Looks like they are getting back into the swing of things. Bolt looks good, and I’m excited for The Princess and the Frog and Rapunzel. 5 - Blue Sky. They are called “Pixar-East” for a reason. Good story tellers for the most part (not a big fan of Ice Age 2 and Robots though) 6 - DreamWorks Animation. Best movies have been Kung Fu Panda and Over The Hedge. Shrek is a bit overrated, I thought the sequels were terrible. They’d rank higher than Blue Sky to me if only they didn’t produce such garbage like Madagascar and Shark Tale. 7 - Sony. Surf’s Up was good. Other than that. yawn
I’ll only list my top five, since there’s quite a few animation studios out there and I wouldn’t want to list them all…
1. Pixar Animation Studios - Zip. Period. Case closed. No… doubt… about it. 2. Walt Disney Studios - As far downhill as they have gone over the years, my love for their productions of the golden era still remain deeply implanted in my heart. 3. Studio Ghibli - My sister and I have loved their films since we were kids, and we’ll never stop loving them… 4. Blue Sky Studios - They seem to have lived up to their potential over the years, what with the success of both Ice Age films and Horton Hears a Who! Besides Pixar and Studio Ghibli, they’re the only other animation studio I trust to make decent films. 5. DreamWorks Animation - Despite the fact that a good percentage of their junk is, well, junk, my sister and I do appreciate their crazy sense of humor and crude jokes. I think we’d actually feel pretty comfortable working there for those reasons alone. Not to mention, they have made several note-worthy features in the past, and Kung Fu Panda exceeded all my expectations…
Aardman’s productions are great family treats, as well. I’d probably put them in the top ten… if I made a top ten list. (heheh)
it’s different in terms of 2d & 3d - for 3d, disney is HORRRIBLEE, but for 2d, the best.
disney (seeing as they practically invented the ‘animated film’)
pixar (again, they practically invented 3d animated films)…then again. it’s all about james baxter animation now ;p
(ohmigosh, on googling him HE’S FROM MY HOMETOWN. HOW WEIRD, and oddly cool!)
studio ghibli / studio 4°C / madhouse studios
whoever the /hell/ made the triplets of belleville. diaphana films?
upa - atleast i adore their old school stuff.
dreamworks…but only kung fu panda i hope they continue to redeem themselves.
…meh, the rest most of the other CG animated films i see are ‘meh’ at most. obviously i am spoilt by pixar.
After the turn of the new millennium, Disney hit a major speed bump they continue to struggle rolling over, but when I stop to look at the big picture… …they are DISNEY. I was raised by Disney. I grew up with Disney. I made my career choice because of Disney. I want to live at Disney World. Gosh, I’m currently hunting for particular Disney DVDs to revive memories. Disney ruled my childhood.
Then again, Pixar is the king of story. Their work is original and never disappointing. I wouldn’t be here at Pixar Planet if I didn’t worship them.
My top 3 animation studios are:
1. Disney/Pixar - I honestly couldn’t bring myself to rank one above the other. We have a love triangle thang goin’ on. 2. Warner Bros. -Looney Tunes, Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Cats Don’t Dance, The Iron Giant, etc. They were once Disney’s major competitor for many reasons. 3. Hanna-Barberra - Nobody listed them? Aww. These cartoon titans deserve recognition.
Studio Ghibli wins my honorable mention. I have been fast becoming a fan of their films.
Okay, I was momentarily living in the past, but my point is…the mediocre animation of today always makes me wonder, Whatever happened to the good stuff?
1. Disney/Pixar: Disney for their early 2D movies and Pixar… because well, it is PIXAR! I think the name alone can stand for their brilliance in animation and storytelling.
2. Blue Sky: They have some good storytelling abilities and I really enjoyed Ice Age and Horton.
3. Warner Bros. Love Loony Tunes!
4. Aardman: Really like their claymation style. Wallace and Gromit are great and I seem to be one of the few… if not the only one here who enjoyed Flushed Away. I know it wasn’t pure Aardman and had Dreamworks all over it, but I found it entertaining none the less.
5. Hanna-Barberrra: Along with WB, it brings back memories of childhood… back when I actually like the cartoons they showed on TV!
6. Dreamworks: Have to put them in. If they keep working at the level of Kung Fu Panda, things should be getting better for them. I really enjoyed that and Over the Hedge. The Shreks are alright, but I agree that they are a bit over-rated.
Pixar-any of their movies rank top 10
Aardman-Big fan of Wallace and Gromit
Dreamworks-only Madagascar, Over the Hedge
Disney-lots of fairy tales and stuff (really like Meet the robinsons and Bolt though)
Sheerwood (procidential films)-Facing the Giants and Fireproof were fantastic!
before Vangaurd Animation
