Animation has always been a genre of film that is loved and received by audiences of all ages. Having been born and developed for nearly a century, it has still maintained its position in the history of cinema. The success of animation movies relies mostly on dedicated studios in the world. Therefore, we are here today to appreciate them.
In no particular order, here are the 10 best animation studios in the world. They are here because of their contribution to the development of animation. Let’s get started!
The first name on the list is recognized as one of the best animation studios in the world of all time. And its name is Pixar animation studios. Pixar was co-founded by Steve Jobs – former CEO of the Apple company, and was acquired by the Walt Disney Company in 2006 for more than $7 billion. The studio is known for its 3D animation using computer generated imagery technology (CGI) designed with PhotoRealistic RenderMan. Pixar’s unique animation technique has greatly contributed to the creation of its high quality images.
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After the success with “Toy Story 1” in 1995, Pixar has consecutively achieved great figures in the box office as well as conquered the most demanding movie critics with quality movies such as Wall-e (2008), Up! (2009), Inside Out (2015) or Coco (2017). No wonder why Pixar is hailed as the best among all animation studios in the world.
Founded on October 16, 1923 by brothers Walt and Roy Disney. Disney went from a small animation studio to one of the best US animation studios, with 11 entertainment areas and 7 TV networks including ABC. Disney‘s headquarters is named as “Walt Disney Studios”, which is located in California, USA.
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Walt Disney Animation Studios can be said to be Disney’s most successful animation studio because it has created various masterpieces. Starting with the famous “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937), Walt Disney Animation Studios has made many other masterpieces in the next decades. The most famous ones are “Fantastic”, “Alice in the Wonderland”, “101 Dalmatians”, “The Little Mermaid”, “The Lion King”…etc. All of them have contributed to bringing Disney animation among the world’s best animation studios.
Besides the US, Japan is also considered as a land of animation movies with its outstanding anime movies. With nearly eight films on the list of the 15 best anime movies in Japan, without a doubt, animation studio Ghibli is arguably one of the best animation studios in the world.
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Speaking of Ghibli, animation lovers will immediately think of Hayao Miyazaki – co-founder of Ghibli. He is an excellent animation director not only in Japan but also in the world. “Spirited Away” is an animated film that earned him and the Ghibli studio the prestigious Oscars award for “Best Animated Feature” in 2003. With its significant success, Ghibli deserves to be recognized as one of the best Japanese animation studios.
The next name on the best animation studios list is actually among the world’s best animation companies. It is Dreamworks – the studio that has created countless great animation movies. DreamWorks SKG was co-founded by legendary directors Steven Spielberg with David Geffen, and Jeffrey Katzenberg in 1994 after Katzenberg left Disney to avoid a power struggle with his colleagues.
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Not only is it commercially famous for a series of excellent movies around the world, but DreamWorks studio is also known for many other prestigious awards: 22 Emmy Awards, 3 Oscars, dozens of Annie awards, and many other BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations. This explains why Dreamworks is considered among the greatest animation studios. Enjoy movie time with your family with Dreamworks Animation films.
Nickelodeon Animation Studio is seen as one of the most favorite animation studios in the world for being the creator of countless quality animation movies. Founded in 1977, Nickelodeon has created countless animated series, sitcoms, and movies. Many of them have become global figures. Up to now, Nickelodeon has become one of the two best animation companies in the US in producing programs for children and teenagers. Who have not watched the animation movies such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Winx Club, The Legend of Korra, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles…etc. It is understandable that Nickelodeon has a position among the best animation studios.
Warner Bro. Animation is a part of Warner Bros. company and is recognized among top rated animation studios in the world. Speaking of Warner Bros. Animation, many people will immediately think about the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies characters – famous figures in the animation world. The studio keeps on their success with the creation of various great animation movies, especially ones that related to Time Warner’s DC comics publications. The most famous series are Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series. Recently, with the releases of animation movies such as The Iron Giant and The LEGO movie, Warner Bros. Animation has shown the audience that they deserve to be one of the world’s best animation studios.
Cartoon Network Studios is one of the biggest animation companies in the world, which is located in Burbank, California – the same as Walt Disney Animation Studios. The studio tends to focus on creating original animated series for Cartoon Network. Besides Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network Studios is one of the two best animation studios in the U.S for children. The success of the studio started in 1994 when it was a division of Hanna-Barbera. At that time, the studio was responsible for producing famous programs such as The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. As time goes by, Cartoon Network Studio continues to show their credibility with excellent shows for children such as Ben 10, Adventure Time or Steven Universe…etc. Because of its achievement, the studio definitely has to be on the best animation movies collection.
Sony Pictures Animation may be the “youngest” in this best animation studios list with only 18 years old. However, the studio proves that it is capable of competing with other older studios. Sony Pictures Animation is an American animation studio and a subsidiary of Sony Pictures, established on May 9, 2002. Since 2006, the studio has produced quality animated movies, the most significant ones are the two movies of “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs”, “Arthur Christmas”, two “Hotel Transylvania” movies. Especially, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse – an animation movie of Sony Pictures Animation and Columbia Pictures, had achieved the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2018. With these successes only in nearly two decades, the studio has proved itself to be among the world’s best animation studios in the world.
Blue Sky Studios is one of the American best animation studios based in Greenwich, Connecticut that has been owned by 20th Century Studios since 1997. The studio was founded by Chris Wedge, Michael Ferraro, Carl Ludwig, Alison Brown, David Brown, Eugene Troubetzkoy. It formed in 1987 after MAGI, one of the visual effects studios that produced Tron (1982), closed. At the beginning, the studio worked on visual effects for commercials and movies before completely contributing to animation production in 2002 starting with the release of the first movie “Ice Age”.
Ice Age and Rio are the studio’s most successful franchises, while The Peanuts Movie is the highest-rated film. In 2013, Scrat, a character in the Ice Age franchise, became the studio’s mascot. It is reasonable to put Blue Sky Studios in this animation studios collection for its efforts and success.
To end the list of the top 10 best animation studios of all animation studios in the world, we have Illumination Entertainment – the creator of our most favorite animation movies ever such as Despicable Me (2010), The Minions (2015), the Lorax (2012), The Secret Life of Pets (2016) or Sing (2016). Illumination Entertainment is one of the best U.S animation studios based in California, owned by Universal Pictures since 2007. With only 13 years old, the studio is the youngest one on the list. However, it has shown that age is never a matter of the success it has achieved up till now. Everyone loves animation movies from Illumination Entertainment because of its meaningful stories and cute characters. Recently, the Minions from Despicable Me were chosen to be the mascot of the studio.