A to Z of Animation Studios: S Is for Sony Pictures Animation
The studio that swings between game-changing and "wait, what?"
S is for Sony Pictures Animation
Founded: 2002, as Sony's animated film studio. Most of its films are made with Sony Pictures Imageworks, a visual effects and animation company.
The approach: Unpredictable. Sony has made some of the most daring animated films of the century, and some of the most forgettable.
Masterpieces
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009). It rains food. Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller made it fast, funny and full of cartoony energy.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018). REAL: it won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It mixed 3D animation with comic-book line work, dots and on-screen text, and it changed what animated movies could look like. "Anyone can wear the mask."
The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021). A family road trip during a robot uprising. Very funny, very sweet, with an unforgettable pug.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023). Every universe gets its own art style. A staggering amount of work on screen.
KPop Demon Hunters (2025). A K-pop girl group that secretly fights demons. REAL: it became one of Netflix's most-watched movies ever, and its songs topped music charts.
The misses
The Emoji Movie (2017). A movie about the apps on your phone. Critics were not kind.
Open Season (2006) and its sequels. Fine, and quickly forgotten.
Hotel Transylvania (2012). The first one is a lot of fun, thanks to director Genndy Tartakovsky's snappy animation. The sequels faded.
The Sony formula
When Sony takes risks with style, it changes the industry. When it plays it safe, people forget the movie by dinner. The lesson for the studio is the lesson for every artist: take the risk.
Honorable mention: Sunbow Entertainment
The '80s studio behind G.I. Joe, The Transformers and Jem and the Holograms. REAL: The Transformers: The Movie (1986) killed off Optimus Prime, and kids in theaters were so upset that the toy company brought him back later.
The lesson
Sony's best films all share one quality: a visual style nobody had seen before. In a crowded field, looking different is a superpower.
Up next
T is for TMS Entertainment.
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