Fox Animation Studios
Encyclopedia
Fox Animation Studios is an American animation
production company located in Phoenix, Arizona
and is a division of 20th Century Fox
. After the bankruptcy of Sullivan Bluth Studios
in Ireland in 1994, animators Don Bluth
and Gary Goldman
returned to the United States and were hired by 20th Century Fox's Bill Mechanic
to be the creative heads of the animation studio. Bill Mechanic
and John Matoian, President of Fox Family Films, also brought in Stephen Brain, Executive VP at Silver Pictures
, as Senior VP/General Manager to oversee the startup of the studio and run day-to-day operations of the division. The studio ultimately closed down in response to the 2000 financial failure of Titan A.E.
. However, Fox revived the Fox Animation Studios label in 2009. The first movie produced by the resurrected Fox Animation Studios was the film version of Fantastic Mr. Fox
(from Regency Enterprises
).
, which had phenomenal success in the 1990s with the releases of films such as Beauty and the Beast
(1991), Aladdin (1992) and The Lion King
(1994). Walt Disney Pictures veterans Bluth and Goldman came in 1994 to Fox from Sullivan Bluth Studios
, which had produced An American Tail
, The Land Before Time
, and both All Dogs Go To Heaven
and Rock-a-Doodle
, among other films.
Before Don Bluth came to Fox, Bluth released three animated features during the 1990s which were produced by outside studios - FernGully: The Last Rainforest
, Once Upon a Forest
, and The Pagemaster
, all of which did poorly at the box office. Even before, Fox distributed two Ralph Bakshi
features, Wizards
and Fire and Ice
, and Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure
by Richard Williams.
(2000) made only $9,376,845 in its opening weekend, with an estimated production budget of $75,000,000. Almost a year before the release of Titan A.E. 20th Century Fox laid off three hundred of the 380 people at the studio in order to "make films more efficiently" and in summer 2000 the studio was shut down. The last film set to be made was going to be an adaptation of Wayne Barlowe
's illustrated novel Barlowe's Inferno
and it was set to be done with near complete CGI.
Fox Animation Studios' only other productions were two direct-to-video
sequel
s to Anastasia and FernGully, Bartok the Magnificent
and FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue
. Bluth and Goldman were considered to produce Ice Age
as a cel animated film, but passed on the script.
David Mickey Evans director of The Sandlot
wrote a script titled The Fountain of Truth and was set to direct it, but the project was shelved.
announced the revival of the Fox Animation Studios label on July 30, 2009, which began with the release of Fantastic Mr. Fox
in November 2009. Their next animated features not to be produced by Blue Sky Studios
, Welcome to the Jungle
, Walking with Dinosaurs
and Mr. Men
, are currently in production.
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
production company located in Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
and is a division of 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
. After the bankruptcy of Sullivan Bluth Studios
Sullivan Bluth Studios
Sullivan Bluth Studios was an American animated film production company established in 1985 by animator Don Bluth. Bluth and several colleagues, all of whom were former Disney animators, left Disney in 1979 to form Don Bluth Productions, later known as the Bluth Group...
in Ireland in 1994, animators Don Bluth
Don Bluth
Donald Virgil "Don" Bluth is an American animator and independent studio owner. He is best known for his departure from The Walt Disney Company in 1979 and his subsequent directing of animated films such as The Secret of NIMH , An American Tail ,The Land Before Time , and All Dogs Go to Heaven ,...
and Gary Goldman
Gary Goldman
Gary Wayne Goldman is an American Film Producer, Director, Animator, Writer and voice actor, he is well known for working on films with Don Bluth like Anastasia, An American Tail and The Land Before Time...
returned to the United States and were hired by 20th Century Fox's Bill Mechanic
Bill Mechanic
Bill Mechanic was chairman and chief executive officer of Fox Filmed Entertainment from 1994 to 2000. He oversaw all operations of the studio including worldwide feature film production, marketing and distribution activities; as well as all worldwide operations for Fox Video, Fox Interactive,...
to be the creative heads of the animation studio. Bill Mechanic
Bill Mechanic
Bill Mechanic was chairman and chief executive officer of Fox Filmed Entertainment from 1994 to 2000. He oversaw all operations of the studio including worldwide feature film production, marketing and distribution activities; as well as all worldwide operations for Fox Video, Fox Interactive,...
and John Matoian, President of Fox Family Films, also brought in Stephen Brain, Executive VP at Silver Pictures
Silver Pictures
Silver Pictures is a film production company founded by Hollywood producer Joel Silver during 1985. All movies after Ricochet have been distributed by Warner Bros and its subsidiary New Line Cinema.-Films:-Television series:*Moonlight...
, as Senior VP/General Manager to oversee the startup of the studio and run day-to-day operations of the division. The studio ultimately closed down in response to the 2000 financial failure of Titan A.E.
Titan A.E.
Titan A.E. is an American animated post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman released in 2000. The title refers to the spacecraft that is central to the plot, with A.E. meaning "After Earth."...
. However, Fox revived the Fox Animation Studios label in 2009. The first movie produced by the resurrected Fox Animation Studios was the film version of Fantastic Mr. Fox
Fantastic Mr. Fox (film)
Fantastic Mr. Fox is a 2009 American stop-motion animated film based on the Roald Dahl children's novel of the same name. This story is about a fox who steals food each night from three mean and wealthy farmers. The farmers are fed up with Mr Fox's theft and try to kill him, so they dig their way...
(from Regency Enterprises
Regency Enterprises
Regency Enterprises is a Los Angeles-based film and television production company formed by Arnon Milchan and Joseph P. Grace. It was founded in 1982 as Embassy International Pictures, but the company name changed to avoid confusion with Norman Lear's Embassy Pictures . Its most successful film is...
).
Founding
The company was designed to compete with Walt Disney Feature AnimationWalt Disney Feature Animation
Walt Disney Animation Studios is an American animation studio headquartered in Burbank, California. The studio, founded in 1923 as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio by brothers Walt and Roy Disney, is the oldest subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
, which had phenomenal success in the 1990s with the releases of films such as Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)
Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirtieth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and the third film of the Disney Renaissance period...
(1991), Aladdin (1992) and The Lion King
The Lion King
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...
(1994). Walt Disney Pictures veterans Bluth and Goldman came in 1994 to Fox from Sullivan Bluth Studios
Sullivan Bluth Studios
Sullivan Bluth Studios was an American animated film production company established in 1985 by animator Don Bluth. Bluth and several colleagues, all of whom were former Disney animators, left Disney in 1979 to form Don Bluth Productions, later known as the Bluth Group...
, which had produced An American Tail
An American Tail
An American Tail is a 1986 American animated adventure film directed by Don Bluth and produced by Sullivan Bluth Studios and Amblin Entertainment. The film tells the story of Fievel Mouskewitz and his family as they immigrate from Russia to America for freedom. However, Fievel gets lost and must...
, The Land Before Time
The Land Before Time
The Land Before Time is a 1988 American animated adventure film directed and co-produced by Don Bluth , and executive-produced by Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Kathleen Kennedy, and Frank Marshall....
, and both All Dogs Go To Heaven
All Dogs Go to Heaven
All Dogs Go to Heaven is a 1989 Irish-English animated film directed and produced by Don Bluth and released by United Artists. The film tells the story of two dogs, Charlie B. Barkin and his loyal best friend Itchy Itchiford...
and Rock-a-Doodle
Rock-A-Doodle
Rock-a-Doodle is a 1992 American animated re-telling of Edmond Rostand's comedy, Chantecler. This film was directed by Don Bluth, produced by Goldcrest Films for The Samuel Goldwyn Company, and originally released in the United States on April 3, 1992.-Plot:Chanticleer is a proud rooster whose...
, among other films.
Before Don Bluth came to Fox, Bluth released three animated features during the 1990s which were produced by outside studios - FernGully: The Last Rainforest
FernGully: The Last Rainforest
FernGully: The Last Rainforest is a 1992 Australian-American animated film directed by Bill Kroyer, produced by Peter Faiman and Wayne Young, and written by Jim Cox based on a book of the same name by Diana Young. It is a film with a strong environmental theme...
, Once Upon a Forest
Once Upon a Forest
Once Upon a Forest is an animated film produced by Hanna-Barbera in association with HTV Cymru/Wales, Ltd. and released on June 18, 1993 by 20th Century Fox....
, and The Pagemaster
The Pagemaster
The Pagemaster is a 1994 adventure fantasy film starring Macaulay Culkin, Christopher Lloyd, Patrick Stewart, Whoopi Goldberg, Frank Welker, and Leonard Nimoy...
, all of which did poorly at the box office. Even before, Fox distributed two Ralph Bakshi
Ralph Bakshi
Ralph Bakshi is an Israeli-American director of animated and live-action films. In the 1970s, he established an alternative to mainstream animation through independent and adult-oriented productions. Between 1972 and 1992, he directed nine theatrically released feature films, five of which he wrote...
features, Wizards
Wizards (film)
Wizards is a 1977 American animated post-apocalyptic science fantasy film about the battle between two wizards, one representing the forces of magic and one representing the forces of industrial technology. It was written, produced, and directed by Ralph Bakshi...
and Fire and Ice
Fire and Ice (1983 film)
Fire and Ice is a 1983 animated film, a collaboration between Ralph Bakshi and Frank Frazetta, distributed by 20th Century Fox, which also distributed Bakshi's 1977 release, Wizards...
, and Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure
Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure
Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure is a 1977 American animated film directed by Richard Williams. It was produced by the Bobbs-Merrill Company, and released by 20th Century Fox...
by Richard Williams.
Productions and closure
The studio's films were not as successful as Disney's animated movies were. Only one of its two theatrical releases, Anastasia (1997), turned a profit. Its other theatrical release Titan A.E.Titan A.E.
Titan A.E. is an American animated post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman released in 2000. The title refers to the spacecraft that is central to the plot, with A.E. meaning "After Earth."...
(2000) made only $9,376,845 in its opening weekend, with an estimated production budget of $75,000,000. Almost a year before the release of Titan A.E. 20th Century Fox laid off three hundred of the 380 people at the studio in order to "make films more efficiently" and in summer 2000 the studio was shut down. The last film set to be made was going to be an adaptation of Wayne Barlowe
Wayne Barlowe
Wayne Douglas Barlowe is an American science fiction and fantasy painter. He has paintedover 300 book and magazine covers and illustrations for many major book publishers, as well as Life magazine, Time, and Newsweek...
's illustrated novel Barlowe's Inferno
Barlowe's Inferno
Barlowe's Inferno details artist/author Wayne Barlowe's imaginary journey to a unique and vivid depiction of Hell. A loose running narrative to the book's striking images explains that Barlowe has made an undisclosed deal in order to be taken on a tour of the Pit by Sargatanas, the Revealer of...
and it was set to be done with near complete CGI.
Fox Animation Studios' only other productions were two direct-to-video
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
s to Anastasia and FernGully, Bartok the Magnificent
Bartok the Magnificent
Bartok the Magnificent, also known as Bartok the Great, is a spin-off to the 1997 film Anastasia, which features Hank Azaria as the voice of Bartok. This film was released on VHS and DVD by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on November 16, 1999, and was re-released in 2005 along with Anastasia...
and FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue
FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue
FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue is a 1998 animated film, a direct-to-video sequel to FernGully: The Last Rainforest . It was directed by Phil Robinson & Dave Marshall and written by Chris Fink and Richard Tulloch....
. Bluth and Goldman were considered to produce Ice Age
Ice Age (film)
Ice Age is a 2002 American computer-animated film created by Blue Sky Studios and released by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Carlos Saldanha and Chris Wedge from a story by Michael J. Wilson. The story follows three Paleolithical mammals attempting to return a lost human baby to its parents...
as a cel animated film, but passed on the script.
David Mickey Evans director of The Sandlot
The Sandlot
The Sandlot is a 1993 American comedy-drama sports film about a group of young baseball players during the summer of 1962. The film was filmed in Utah and directed by David M. Evans...
wrote a script titled The Fountain of Truth and was set to direct it, but the project was shelved.
Revival
20th Century Fox20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
announced the revival of the Fox Animation Studios label on July 30, 2009, which began with the release of Fantastic Mr. Fox
Fantastic Mr. Fox (film)
Fantastic Mr. Fox is a 2009 American stop-motion animated film based on the Roald Dahl children's novel of the same name. This story is about a fox who steals food each night from three mean and wealthy farmers. The farmers are fed up with Mr Fox's theft and try to kill him, so they dig their way...
in November 2009. Their next animated features not to be produced by Blue Sky Studios
Blue Sky Studios
Blue Sky Studios is an American CGI-animation studio which specializes in high-resolution, computer-generated character animation and rendering. It is owned by 20th Century Fox and located in Greenwich, Connecticut...
, Welcome to the Jungle
Welcome To The Jungle (film)
Welcome to the Jungle is a 2007 American horror film directed by Jonathan Hensleigh and starring Sandy Gardiner, Callard Harris, Nickolas Richey and Veronica Sywak.-Plot:...
, Walking with Dinosaurs
Walking with Dinosaurs
Walking with Dinosaurs is a six-part documentary television miniseries that was produced by BBC, narrated by Kenneth Branagh, and first aired in the United Kingdom, in 1999. The series was subsequently aired in North America on the Discovery Channel in 2000, with Branagh's voice replaced with that...
and Mr. Men
Mr. Men
Mr. Men is a series of 49 children's books by Roger Hargreaves commencing in 1971. Two of these books were not published in English. The series features characters with names such as Mr. Tickle and Mr. Happy who have personalities based on their names...
, are currently in production.
Feature films
- AnastasiaAnastasia (1997 film)Anastasia is a 1997 American animated musical film produced and directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. It was the first feature film to be released by Fox Animation Studios....
(1997) - FernGully 2: The Magical RescueFernGully 2: The Magical RescueFernGully 2: The Magical Rescue is a 1998 animated film, a direct-to-video sequel to FernGully: The Last Rainforest . It was directed by Phil Robinson & Dave Marshall and written by Chris Fink and Richard Tulloch....
(Direct-to-video) (1998) - Bartok the MagnificentBartok the MagnificentBartok the Magnificent, also known as Bartok the Great, is a spin-off to the 1997 film Anastasia, which features Hank Azaria as the voice of Bartok. This film was released on VHS and DVD by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on November 16, 1999, and was re-released in 2005 along with Anastasia...
(Direct-to-video) (1999) - Titan A.E.Titan A.E.Titan A.E. is an American animated post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman released in 2000. The title refers to the spacecraft that is central to the plot, with A.E. meaning "After Earth."...
(2000) - Fantastic Mr. FoxFantastic Mr. Fox (film)Fantastic Mr. Fox is a 2009 American stop-motion animated film based on the Roald Dahl children's novel of the same name. This story is about a fox who steals food each night from three mean and wealthy farmers. The farmers are fed up with Mr Fox's theft and try to kill him, so they dig their way...
(2009) - Diary of a Wimpy KidDiary of a Wimpy Kid (film)Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a 2010 American comedy film directed by Thor Freudenthal and based on Jeff Kinney's book of the same name. The film was released on March 19, 2010. It was released on DVD, iTunes, and Blu-ray on August 3, 2010.-Plot:...
(2010) (animated sequences only) - Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick RulesDiary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (film)Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules is a 2011 comedy film based on Jeff Kinney's book of the same name. The film stars Zachary Gordon and Devon Bostick. Robert Capron, Rachael Harris, Steve Zahn, and Peyton List also have prominent roles...
(2011) (animated sequences only)
Upcoming films
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog DaysDiary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog DaysDiary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days is a realistic fiction novel written by American author and cartoonist Jeff Kinney, the fourth book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series It was released on October 12, 2009 in the USA and October 13, 2009 in Canada....
(2012) (animated sequences only) - Walking with Dinosaurs (2013)
- Welcome to the JungleWelcome To The Jungle (film)Welcome to the Jungle is a 2007 American horror film directed by Jonathan Hensleigh and starring Sandy Gardiner, Callard Harris, Nickolas Richey and Veronica Sywak.-Plot:...
(TBA) - Mr. MenMr. MenMr. Men is a series of 49 children's books by Roger Hargreaves commencing in 1971. Two of these books were not published in English. The series features characters with names such as Mr. Tickle and Mr. Happy who have personalities based on their names...
(TBA)