Sony Pictures...Animation?

The Common Room Other Animation
#1

Is Sony Pictures Animation truly an animation studio, or not?

It’s useful to make some distinctions/assumptions before jumping in:

A production company coordinates financing and hires writers, directors, musicicans, and voice actors. Maybe it also has an editorial department, maybe not.

An effects studio hires itself out to production companies, for which it produces visual effects and/or animation.

An animation studio can range from hiring itself out for service to fulfilling its own production functions start to finish. Its staff can perform functions from editorial through all animation phases. In the CG-animation world, this would include all the design, modeling, rendering, rigging, animating, layout, effects animation, etc.

In the case of Open Season, Surf’s Up, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, the credits indicate that the animation was done by Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI). That leads to a question: What does Sony Pictures Animation (SPA) actually do? Unfortunately, SPA is not exactly forthcoming on its Web site, leading to speculation.

It’s likely that SPA is a production company that “outsources” its primary feature animation to SPI, an effects studio. Because it all happens under the Sony corporate umbrella, it looks like one big animation studio. But the lack of job announcements on SPA’s Web site is telling and leads to the idea that there are no in-house animators at SPA. Also, some of the other SPA projects reveal its need to work with outside animation studios. Hence, perhaps, SPA’s partnership with Aardman. According to IMDb, Open Season 2 was animated by Reel FX Creative Studios and SPI, Open Season 3 was all by Reel FX, and The Smurfs have been farmed out to Framestore and Tippett plus maybe some others.

So maybe Sony Pictures Animation is somewhat of a misnomer as it’s a production company, not an animation studio.

As for other players in the CG-animation game…

-Illumination and Vanguard are production companies that hire out to animation/effects studios; they are not animation studios.
-Aardman is an animation studio, but it seems to need a corporate partner to underwrite its CG-animation projects.
-Animal Logic and ILM are effects studios that can produce a CG-animated feature when hired to do so by a production company.
-Starz is an animation studio for hire, and many smaller animation studios like it are scattered around the globe in need of financing by production companies.
-Crest is a California-based production company that “outsources” to its animation studio in India, home of the corporate parent over both.

That would leave Pixar, BlueSky, WDAS, and DreamWorks as The Big Four CG-animation studios (and of course WDAS also does traditional animation). Maybe SPA still fits in as the fifth player in that group, or maybe it’s a different breed–a production company in animation studio’s clothing.

#2

Here’s an interesting article in its own right that also indicates Sony Pictures Animation’s lack of an animation pipeline:

hollywoodreporter.com/news/s … cits-55988

From the article…

Former Sony Pictures Animation head Yair Landau "said he experienced the visual effects side of the studio under pressure to shift animation production to Canada to exploit tax benefits and a local talent base, or to consider working with facilities in India and Mexico.

As an alternative to out-sourcing, however, he chose in-sourcing, or creating a pipeline on the web to make CGI animation."

Inter-company transactions within a corporation are typically cheaper for the recipient of service–it could be that Sony Pictures Imageworks produced animation for Sony Pictures Animation at cost recovery (or at least minimal profit tacked onto the pricetag). Also, apparently in search of what would prove most profitable, SPA has pursued several approaches to CG animation in features: the major theatrical release; the direct-to-video release (Open Season 2&3); the animation partner (Aardman); and the “CG-star” format (The Smurfs). It’s highly likely that cost-consciousness has figured into all these decisions. In particular, the CG-star format has historically proven to be the most profitable way to offer “animation” to audiences with minimal outlay, maximum profit (there are numbers to back that up). Animation is just plain expensive to produce, hence various workarounds.

By contrast, Pixar, Disney, BlueSky, and DreamWorks maintain their pipelines via huge box-office numbers and merchandising. Profits feed the pipelines, and the pipelines feed profits in a self-sustaining cycle.

Not that the differing approaches guarantee quality one way or the other. SPA has put out Surf’s Up, which is very worthy even beyond the utterly fantastic water animation and lighting, paradise in the tube fer sure. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a very enjoyable and finely crafted film, well deserving of its “hit” status.

So does it really matter whether Sony Pictures Animation is truly an animation studio? On the one hand, maybe it only matters if you’re an aspiring animator who needs to know which door to knock on, Sony Pictures Animation or Sony Pictures Imageworks. And maybe it doesn’t really matter what corporate convolutions happen behind the scenes in order for animators’ good work to make its way into theatres for audiences to enjoy. But SPA apparently lacks the luxury that the big animation studios enjoy in producing CG-animated features via a well-supported pipeline. It could be that the level of comfort and job security afforded animators in a pipeline serves the final films well. Also, there could be an element of discord between creative folks and management when cost-conscious decisionmaking trumps artistic considerations. So maybe the question of “animation studio or not” is less “what’s in a name” and more like understanding everything that goes into the animation we enjoy.

Or, as Syndrome might have put it, “If everyone’s an animation studio, no one’s an animation studio.”

#3

This article confirms that Sony Pictures Animation is a production company that “outsources” to effects studio Sony Pictures ImageWorks. It’s too bad that a bunch of talented animators are in a tough spot.

cartoonbrew.com/ideas-commen … works.html

From the article: “The 38 union employees of SPA do all the ‘pre-production’ work for Sony animated features. Storyboards, concept art, character design, etc. Once the movie is ready to start going into the actual shot production process, the ‘client’ (SPA) will then give the project to the ‘vendor’ (SPI) who will then make the finished project.”

This business model is increasingly prominent and international. The completely in-house “animation studios” still rule, but the Sony and Illumination approach is on the upswing. Even Pixar, DreamWorks, and Disney dabble in satellite effects/animation facilities outside the United States. Check back in a decade to see how it shakes out.

#4

I always considered them to be an animation studio. In fact, they are one of my favorites! I like a lot of their films no matter who animated it. To me, all that other stuff dosnt matter.

#5

Never really cared for Sony Pictures, with the exception of Cloudy.

#6

Additional points to ponder are whether or not Sony Pictures Animation’s business arrangements will allow it to continue as a viable operation…and whether or not mass audiences care. Cloudy is the best candidate for a successful SPA movie (taking into account box-office and critical response), but using general formulas for return on investment, it was not a huge success. It’s hard to see how The Pirates! or Hotel Transylvania will be highly profitable for Sony, and it would be no surprise if Smurfs 2 or Cloudy 2 ended up being the last SPA movie. Personally, that would be disappointing. To the majority of movie audiences, it might just be a “Meh.”

#7

I don’t think so it is so :angry:

#8

It’s noteworthy that Hotel Transylvania exceeded everyone’s expectations, including Sony’s, and is about to become SPA’s highest-grossing US release (it will pass The Smurfs during the coming week). It’s great to see SPA do well. Let them embrace sequels (there’s HT2 in the works after Smurfs 2 and 3 plus Cloudy 2) if it keeps their business going, but now the cool thing will be if a non-sequel like The Familiars sees the light of day.

So SPA joins Illumination Entertainment as a CG-animation production company that can hang in the respectable US box-office realm that the Big Four CG-animation studios inhabit.

#9

I like there animation studios. They’ve come out with some pretty good films (my favorite being cloudy with a chance of meatballs)

#10

Apparently, they have a Popeye movie slated for 2014.