ANIMATION RENAISSANCE FUELED BY TECH ADVANCES, NEW STORYTELLERS AND LOCAL CONTENT By CHRIS McGOWAN
TOP: Pixar’s Turning Red is a coming-of-age fantasy/comedy featuring 3D animation with anime influences, directed by Domee Shi. (Image courtesy of Pixar/Disney) OPPOSITE TOP TO BOTTOM: Twenty-seven years after Toy Story, Pixar used computer animation tools in Lightyear that were “vastly superior in terms of scale and complexity” to what was possible in 1995. (Image courtesy of Pixar/Disney) Emiko (Kylie Kuioka) in Paramount’s Blazing Samurai, animated by Cinesite. (Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures) Matt Groening (The Simpsons) created and co-developed Disenchantment, which was produced by Rough Draft Studios and the ULULU Company (Images courtesy of Netflix)
Animated features and series of all types and stripes are launching this year, thanks to growing global demand, an anime goldrush and the impact of the streamers. The diverse array of titles includes both high-grossing sequels of franchises that are mostly for children and fare for teens and/or adults that push the animation envelope in terms of content and style. Animated movies have already established themselves as a significant part of the movie business, having achieved formidable box office grosses. Four animation titles in the top 25 films released in the past four years have grossed over $1 billion dollars worldwide, led by Disney’s Incredibles 2 (2018), The Lion King (2019), Toy Story 4 (2019) and Frozen II (2019), according to Box Office Mojo. More than 50 animated titles have topped the $500 million mark. Animation has also established a strong streaming presence. “There has been an explosion of animation over the last few years in all areas and styles,” says David Prescott, Senior Vice President, Creative Production of DNEG Animation, which co-produced the Disney/20th Century Studios hit Ron’s Gone Wrong in 2021 and worked on Paramount’s Under the Boardwalk for this year and Alcon/Sony’s Garfield project for 2024. Kane Lee, Head of Content for Baobab Studios, comments that “there has been a real sea change in supply and demand for animation content, both in general and across genres.” According to Ingrid Johnston, Animal Logic Head of Production, “Right now, we have a great opportunity to see a wide range of animation styles and stories told in animation. Flee [the animated Danish docudrama] being nominated for this year’s Oscars is a great example of this. The success of films like [Sony’s] Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse are showing that audiences are engaged in different styles of animation. We have already seen an increase in the amount of animated content for adults, such as Love, Death + Robots, and filmmakers are seeing animation as a way of
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