Animation Studios

TOP 5 Animation Studios

     When it comes to one of the most widely recognized faces of the animation industry, there are so many cartoons to choose from that it becomes overwhelming. That’s why Disney has chosen to create two studios for its original animated content. Disney Television Animations, as you would guess, handles the small screen stories while another studio (to be discussed in detail later) handles the theatrical releases. 

     Founded in 1984, Disney Television Animation began as a risky investment to try to make cartoon shows a regularly recurring habit in children’s everyday lives. Until the 1980s, Disney had viewed the animation on television as low-budget and poor compared to motion pictures. With the intent to improve upon the quality with more money, Disney began airing series like The Wuzzles and Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears in 1985. Both series were a hit in the ratings and soon shows like DuckTales, Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers and TaleSpin followed. Big screen films would also get the small screen treatment with series like Aladdin and Timon and Pumbaa becoming television titles. 

     Airing original programs on the Disney Channel, Disney XD and Disney Junior, more recent successes have included Kim Possible, Gravity Falls and Phineas and Ferb. With viewership as high as ever, these toons have provided a counterpart to Disney’s long history of films, but they still fall short of some of the company’s other achievements. 

     Only fourteen years young, Sony Pictures Animation is new on the scene compared to some of the other studios on our list. It got its start in May 2002 after its owner Sony Pictures Entertainment sought to sell its visual effects subsidiary Sony Pictures Imageworks. When no interested buyers stepped up to the plate, the company was retooled to focus on animation. Within a year, a full lineup of cartoon features were being developed. Sony Pictures Animation would hone in on their expertise to establish the stories and characters for each motion picture while SPI would stay intact in order to take charge of the digital production tasks.

      Sony Pictures Animation’s first theatrical release Open Season would gross more than twice its production budget but fail to meet expectations critically with very mixed reviews calling the film more of a kid’s feature than something parents could enjoy. By the time the company’s second movie rolled around, the studio had become much more well-polished. Surf’s Up would be a welcome answer to another animated movie, Happy Feet. The movie would go on to receive critical acclaim and be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, though it would lose to the other talking penguin picture. Since 2006, Sony has released more hits such as both Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs films, Arthur Christmas and the two Hotel Transylvania features 

     Cartoon Network Studios is one of the most watched animated television studios alongside its number one competitor Nickelodeon (which we’ll discuss in detail later). We’ve already talked about their sister studio Williams Street and their many creative programs stretching the limits for adults, so it’s only right that we switch gears to focus more on the kid-friendly fare. It all began in 1994, when the company began as a division of the now defunct Hanna-Barbera, the creator of such notable shows as The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! At the time, the division was co-producing programs such as Dexter’s Laboratory, Johnny Bravo and The Powerpuff Girls. After Hanna-Barbera was folded into Warner Bros. Animation following the passing of William Hanna in 2001, Cartoon Network Studios took over the reins and it has been pumping out original content for Turner Broadcasting’s Cartoon Network channel ever since. 

      Beginning in 1990 as Games Animation, Nickelodeon hit it big from the get-go with original programs like Doug, Rugrats and The Ren and Stimpy Show. The television network dipped into live-action game shows too with Legends of the Hidden Temple and Figure It Out, but it was the animated series, given the name Nicktoons by the studio, that stood out as a testament to the quality of the channel among both kids and adults.

     We’ve already compiled a list of the very best shows in Nickelodeon’s illustrious history, including many of the best animated series the studio has offered. Of those series, a few that have stood out include SpongeBob SquarePants, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Invader Zim and Avatar: The Last Airbender. In the 1998, the company would make its first foray into cartoon features, releasing its theatrical film The Rugrats Movie.

     Hailing from Koganei, Tokyo in Japan, Studio Ghibli has not only the honor of being one of the most beloved producers of anime in the world, it’s also the company of co-founder and acclaimed director Hayao Miyazaki. If every family-friendly anime feature or Pixar movie of the last two decades has won over its audience with its heartfelt tales of virtue, it’s only because their creators have stood on the shoulders of giants like Miyazaki who have continually crafted some of the most imaginative and visually captivating pictures cinema has ever seen. It’s on those shoulders that Studio Ghibli’s reputation has rested and so far its founders haven't faltered.

     After the success of his 1984 film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Miyazaki launched Studio Ghibli on June 15, 1985 with producer Toshio Suzuki and fellow director Isao Takahata, who would later go on to direct Grave of the Fireflies for the company. While many companies were ran like businesses with an agenda, Ghibli always felt like a passion project between friends. Miyazaki and his allies would go on to release eight of the fifteen highest grossing anime films in Japanese history with notable movies such as My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, The Tale of Princess Kaguya and most recently When Marnie Was There.