20th Century Fox Animation (formerly Fox Animation Studios) is the animation division of the film studio 20th Century Fox, tasked for production feature-length animated film.
History
Before 20th Century Fox started its animation division, Fox released its first six animated films, such as Wizards, Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure (both released in 1977), Fire and Ice (released in 1983), FernGully: The Last Rainforest, Once Upon a Forest and The Pagemaster.
The division initially started in 1994 as Fox Family Films, as one of four film divisions of Twentieth Century Fox. It produced live-action films such as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995), Dunston Checks In (1996), Home Alone 3 (1997) and Ever After (1998). In 1998, following the success of Anastasia, the division was renamed to Fox Animation Studios, refocusing on animated feature films, including stop-motion, mixed media and digital production. Chris Meledandri remained as the president of the division, which was known by 1999 as 20th Century Fox Animation.
Fox Animation era
In 1998, following the success of Anastasia, the division was renamed to Fox Animation Studios, refocusing on animated feature films, including stop-motion, mixed media and digital production. The division's live action films in development at the time included Marvel Comics' Silver Surfer, the disaster film spoof Disaster Area, and Fantastic Voyage. Ever After (1998), a Cinderella adaptation, was the division's last live action film. At this time, there were several animated films on the company's development slate: Dark Town with Henry Selick, Chris Columbus and Sam Hamm, Santa Calls at Blue Sky, Thalia Ward (Alaina Gleen), Matt Groening (The Simpsons) projects, Steve Oedekerk and Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer). The Phoenix studio at the time was producing Planet Ice expected in 1999 and directed by Art Vitello and Anastasia producer/directors Don Bluth and Gary Goldman's then soon to be announced project. Chris Meledandri remained as the president of the division, which was known by 1999 as 20th Century Fox Animation.
20th Century Fox Animation vice president of physical production Chuck Richardson was sent in early December 1999 to Fox subsidiary Blue Sky Studios as general manager and senior vice president. Richardson was sent to prepare Blue Sky for feature animation production.
The Phoenix studio, which kept the Fox Animation Studios name, laid off 2/3 of its employee workforce in February 2000 before its closure in late June of that year. Fox Animation looked to produce films at Blue Sky and its Los Angeles headquarters.
On October 30, 2017, Morrison was named president of a new created 20th Century Fox division, Fox Family, which as a mandate similar to this company when it was called Fox Family Films. Andrea Miloro and Robert Baird were named co-president of Fox Animation the same day and would also have direct oversight of Blue Sky and over see the Locksmith Animation deal and grow Fox Animation with other partnerships and producer deals.
Disney era
On October 18, 2018, it was announced that 20th Century Fox Animation would be added alongside 20th Century Fox to the Walt Disney Studios following their acquisition, with co-presidents Andrea Miloro and Robert Baird retaining leadership while reporting to Walt Disney Studios Chairman, Alan Horn and Twentieth Century Fox vice chairman Emma Watts. On March 21, 2019, Disney announced that the Fox Animation label (including Blue Sky Studios) would be integrated as new units within the Walt Disney Studios with Co-Presidents Andrea Miloro and Robert Baird continuing to lead the studio reporting directly to Alan Horn.
List of movies
| # | Title | Release date | Distributor | Budget | Gross | RT | MC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mice Tales | April 20, 2001 | 20th Century Fox | $40 million | $201.2 million | 72% | 64 |
| 2 | Star Wars T.I.E | May 7, 2004 | $80 million | $525.8 million | 87% | 76 | |
| 3 | History Island | June 17, 2005 | $70 million | $89.8 million | 37% | 36 | |
| 4 | Puppet Pals | June 23, 2006 | $90 million | $662.2 million | 89% | 83 | |
| 5 | Kate & Chris | April 20, 2007 | $70 million | $512.2 million | 59% | 48 | |
| 6 | Wild Forest | September 12, 2008 | $60 million | $294.4 million | 29% | 26 | |
| 7 | Crystal | March 6, 2009 | $85 million | $505.6 million | 87% | 72 | |
| 8 | Puppet Pals 2 | January 29, 2010 | $100 million | $952.5 million | 78% | 71 | |
| 9 | Alaina Gleen | October 8, 2010 | $105 million | $523.9 million | 96% | 86 | |
| 10 | S.M.A.R.T: Family of Spies | December 9, 2011 | $110 million | $427.7 million | 71% | 64 | |
| 11 | Little Lily | April 20, 2012 | $120 million | $478.4 million | 51% | 46 | |
| 12 | Puppet Pals the Third | December 14, 2012 | $150 million | $629.9 million | 44% | 40 | |
| 13 | Alaina Gleen 2 | September 13, 2013 | $160 million | $959.5 million | 77% | 62 | |
| 14 | Fiesta! | July 31, 2015 | $125 million | $383.6 million | 44% | 51 | |
| 16 | Smileys: A Puppet Pals Story | April 8, 2016 | $170 million | $639.5 million | 64% | 52 | |
| 17 | Crystal: Coming of Darkness | October 7, 2016 | $175 million | $676.2 million | 88% | 86 | |
| 18 | Alaina Gleen: Imaginary Vacation | September 29, 2017 | $165 million | $891.8 million | 53% | 46 | |
| 19 | Kate & Chris: Back in Action | April 6, 2018 | $150 million | $362.4 million | 76% | 61 | |
| 20 | Puppet Pals: Forever After | September 21, 2018 | $200 million | $1.213 billion | 86% | 76 | |
| 20 | Crystal: The Rise of Darkness | September 13, 2019 | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | $150 million | $303.5 million | 91% | 70 |
Not produced, but released by Fox Animation under its label
Combines live-action with animation
Fox Animation Studios
- Main article(s): Fox Animation Studios
From 1994–2000, Fox operated Fox Animation Studios, a traditional animation studio which was started to compete with Walt Disney Animation Studios, which was experiencing great success at the time with films such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. The Fox studio, however, was not as successful. Their first feature Anastasia made nearly $140 million at the worldwide box office on a $53 million budget in 1997, but their third feature, Titan A.E., was a large financial loss, losing $100 million for 20th Century Fox in 2000. The lack of box office success, coupled with the rise of computer animation, led Fox to shut down the Fox Animation Studios.
- Anastasia (1997)
- Bartok the Magnificent (1999, direct-to-video)
- Titan A.E. (2000)
Blue Sky Studios
- Main article(s): Blue Sky Studios
Since 1997, Fox owns Blue Sky Studios, a computer animation company known for the Ice Age franchise. Fox has had much more success with this studio, and the box office receipts of their films are competitive with those of Pixar and DreamWorks. On March 21, 2019, Blue Sky Studios was integrated as a separate unit within Walt Disney Studios, but they will still report to Fox Animation presidents Andrea Miloro and Robert Baird. They have released twelve feature films, numerous short films and television specials. Major feature films include:
| # | Title | Release date | Distributor | Budget | Gross | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ice Age | March 15, 2002 | 20th Century Fox | $59 million | $383 million | 77% | 60 |
| 2 | Robots | March 11, 2005 | $75 million | $260 million | 64% | 64 | |
| 3 | Ice Age: The Meltdown | March 31, 2006 | $80 million | $660 million | 57% | 58 | |
| 4 | Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! | March 14, 2008 | $85 million | $297 million | 79% | 71 | |
| 5 | Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs | July 1, 2009 | $90 million | $886 million | 46% | 50 | |
| 6 | Rio | April 15, 2011 | $484 million | 72% | 63 | ||
| 7 | Ice Age: Continental Drift | July 13, 2012 | $95 million | $877 million | 38% | 49 | |
| 8 | Epic | May 24, 2013 | $93 million | $268 million | 64% | 52 | |
| 9 | Rio 2 | April 11, 2014 | $103 million | $500 million | 46% | 49 | |
| 10 | The Peanuts Movie | November 6, 2015 | $99 million | $246 million | 87% | 67 | |
| 11 | Ice Age: Collision Course | July 22, 2016 | $105 million | $408 million | 17% | 34 | |
| 12 | Ferdinand | December 15, 2017 | $111 million | $296 million | 72% | 58 | |
| Upcoming | |||||||
| 13 | Spies in Disguise | December 25, 2019 | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA |
| 14 | Nimona | January 14, 2022 | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | |
Co-productions
| # | Title | Release date | Co-production with | Distributor | Budget | Gross | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jose Maldonaldo: Bigger, Longer & Uncut[S] | March 21, 2003 | Maldonaldo Studios Klasky Csupo Film Roman |
20th Century Fox | $60 million | $353.2 million | 88% | 73 |
| 2 | The Alaina Gleen Movie | September 17, 2004 | Thalia Ward Productions Film Roman Rough Draft Feature Animation |
$70 million | $288.6 million | 62% | 56 | |
| 3 | The Simpsons Movie | July 27, 2007 | Gracie Films Film Roman Rough Draft Studios |
$75 million | $527.1 million | 88% | 80 | |
| 4 | Fantastic Mr. Fox | November 13, 2009 | American Empirical Pictures | $40 million | $46.5 million | 92% | 83 | |
| 5 | The Book of Life | October 17, 2014 | Reel FX | $50 million | $99.8 million | 82% | 67 | |
| 6 | Toon Party[S] | December 9, 2016 | Frenzy Animation Warner Bros. Pictures Rovio Entertainment Walt Disney Pictures The LEGO Group Gracie Films |
$90 million | $590.9 million | 90% | 80 | |
| Upcoming | ||||||||
| 7 | Jose Maldonaldo: Hero Out of the City[S] | April 3, 2020 | Maldonaldo Studios Film Roman Rough Draft Studios Mikros Image Reel FX |
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA |
| 8 | Ron's Gone Wrong | November 6, 2020 | Locksmith Animation | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | |
In development
- Mutts (TBA)
- Mr. Men Little Miss
- The Littlest Bigfoot (TBA)
- Zita the Spacegirl (TBA)
- The Girl Who Drank the Moon (TBA)
- Momotaro (TBA)
- Puff, the Magic Dragon[S] (TBA)
- Untitled Family Guy film[S] (TBA)
- A Tale of Momentum & Inertia (TBA)
- Puppet Pals 5 (TBA)
- With Kind Regards from Kindergarten (TBA)
- The Witch Boy (TBA)
- The Simpsons Movie 2 (TBA)
- Bolivar (TBA)
Other
- FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue (1998)
- Monkeybone[S] (2001) (co-production by 1492 Pictures)
- Kung Pow: Enter the Fist[S] (2002) (co-production by O Entertainment)
- Isle of Dogs (2018)
S Combines live-action with animation
