Amblin Animation (formerly known as Amblimation) is the animation studio division of Amblin Partners. It was formed by Steven Spielberg in May 1989, following the success of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), due to his partnership with Warner Bros. Animation, and after he parted ways with Don Bluth, due to creative differences. It was formerly known as Amblimation before being renamed to its current name in 2004.
Its first animated film An American Tail: Fievel Goes West was released on November 22, 1991, and its latest release was Animaniacs on February 10, 2023; with their next release being Crystal Legacy on September 15, 2023.
History[]
Early founding (1989–1994)[]
In 1985, Steven Spielberg and Don Bluth started a partnership to produce animated feature films. The only two films that were made from the Spielberg-Bluth deal were An American Tail (1986) and The Land Before Time (1988). On January 20, 1987, the Warner Bros. Animation studio approached Spielberg to collaborate with Terry Semel and Warner Bros. head of licensing Dan Romanelli on Tiny Toons Adventures.
In 1988, Spielberg produced the live-action animated film Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), which was the top grossing motion picture of 1988. As a way to keep the movie's animators working, due to the closure of Richard Williams Animation, Spielberg formed Amblimation, a collaboration of Universal City Studios, Warner Bros. and Amblin Entertainment, whose offices were located in London.
In August 1989, Spielberg announced a full slate of animated projects in development: Tiny Toon Adventures, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, Balto, and a screen adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats.
More coming soon!
DreamWorks Animation and moving to Universal City (1994-2002)[]
Coming soon!
In 2000, Amblimation partnered with Venice-based visual effects company Blur Studio to provide animation for computer-animated feature films, beginning with Mystica, Amblin's first computer-animated feature. For then, the studio had the traditional animators working for their main hand-drawn animation department, and the computer animators worked on CG productions.
Moving to computer-animation, renaming and reorganization (2002-2015)[]
The studio's logo from 2004 to 2015
Coming soon!
Amblin's partnership with Blur Studio ended after the release of Mystica III, having Blur animated six out of eight computer animated films. The announcement was made before the film's release, on March 14, 2010, citing "creative differences". Steven Spielberg then replaced Blur with NextMotion Studio, the studio's in-house computer animation department that would produce CGI-animated films on their own starting with Wicked in 2012.
Amblin Partners era (2015-present)[]
Coming soon!
Process[]
While producing its hand-drawn animated features in-house, Amblin Animation also outsources the animation production of its computer-animated films to other studios in a similar fashion to Sony Pictures Animation and Warner Bros. Pictures Animation. Mystica, Metro Cone, Mystica II, Metro Cone 2, Magic Tree House and Mystica III were animated by Blur Studio; Monster House, Metro Cone 3: The Mystery to New York, Metro Cone Forever, The Young Prince, Miss Twenties and Men in Black: Invasion were animated by Sony Pictures Imageworks; and most of its post-2011 computer-animated films are animated by NextMotion Studio.
According to Steven Spielberg, each film will have their own unique style created by the filmmakers, which would be helped by outsourcing animation to different vendors.
Filmography[]
- Main article: List of Amblin Animation productions
Franchises[]
| Years | Title | Distributor | Movies | TV seasons |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986–1999 | An American Tail | Universal Pictures | 4 | 1 |
| 1988–2016 | The Land Before Time | 14 | 2 | |
| 1988–present | Who Framed Roger Rabbit | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | 1 | 0 |
| 1995–2004 | Balto | Universal Pictures | 3 | 0 |
| 2004–present | Mystica | 4 | TBD | |
| 2005–2018 | Metro Cone | Sony Pictures Releasing | 5 | TBD |
| 2009–2020 | Magic Tree House | Universal Pictures | 2 | TBD |
| 2017–2023 | Crystal | 3 | TBD | |
| 2020–present | Miss Twenties | Sony Pictures Releasing | 2 | 0 |