Tinseltown Animation, LLC (simply known as Tinseltown) is an American animation studio headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Founded by animator Kristian Madson, who previously worked at Hanna-Barbera, on February 5, 1986, the studio has been owned by the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment, since 2008. Tinseltown creates animated feature films, short films, and television series, and is best known for the franchises MetroToons, A Starlet in Hollywood, Imagine, Mythical, and Magiway. Although the studio also made traditionally animated films in the past, all of their films now use computer animation. Its first film, The MetroToons Movie, was released on July 30, 1993, and its most recent film was MetroToons: Comeback Quest on September 22, 2023; their upcoming slate of films includes Magiway: The Last Magic in 2024.
The studio has also produced several short films. On March 4, 2008, Time Warner Inc. (now known as WarnerMedia) acquired Tinseltown Animation for $3.3 billion, making it a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Pictures as an acquisition for the animation studio.
Films produced by Tinseltown Animation were originally distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing through Columbia Pictures from 1993 to 1996. New Line Cinema distributed its releases from 1998 through 2007. All Tinseltown films from 2009 onward have been released through Warner Bros. Pictures, which also owns most of the rights to its back catalogue.
History[]
Founding (1986–1991)[]
Tinseltown Animation was founded in 1986 as Kristian's Tinseltown Studios by Kristian Madson who left Hanna-Barbera as she wanted to realize their dream of producing their own cartoons.
Tinseltown had produced a Saturday morning animated television series MetroToons, which ran on the syndication from 1988 to 1990 and then on the Fox network as part of its Fox Kids block from 1990 to 1997. Created by Kristian Madson and produced by Carolina Zavala, the series is a variety show, with short skits featuring a large cast of cartoon characters. Philip F. Fox has been Tinseltown's mascot since the character's introduction in 1988.
In 1991, Madson thought that she didn't just want her company to only produce MetroToons related products, and said that she would want to "develop out of the box". Kristian's Tinseltown Studios was renamed to Tinseltown Animation so that she can give a brand name for the studio's productions. The studio introduced a new crop of animated series to audiences, in particular The Forest Animals, Rock n' Stella and A Starlet in Hollywood.
Partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment (1991–1997)[]
After the major success of MetroToons, the studio was approached by Sony Pictures Entertainment, who would ultimately become its first feature film partner, to produce an animated feature film based off the series, In June 1992, Tinseltown Animation and Sony Pictures announced that their companies were teaming up to co-finance and distribute The MetroToons Movie. Kristian Madson, the creator of the series, approached herself to direct of the film in her directorial debut, and brought Who Framed Roger Rabbit writers Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman to write the script.
On July 30, 1993, The MetroToons Movie was released under the Columbia Pictures label and received mixed reviews. Despite the film was a slight box office disappointment to Sony, by only grossing $127 million on a $30 million budget, the film was still considered a moderate success, convincing Sony to continue their partnership with Tinseltown Animation to make more animated features at the time. Tinseltown Animation had established a new animation department reserved for their feature films, starting with their second animated film, The Cry of the Wolf. Tinseltown hired traditional animators to produce the animation for their feature films.
On 1993, it was announced that Tinseltown will start production animated feature based on the 1990 children's book, The Cry of the Wolf. The film was released on September 8, 1995, received positive reviews and was a box office success, grossing $213 million on a $45 million budget. This motivated both Sony and Tinseltown to extend their deal and it set high hopes for their future collaborations.
On the same year, Tinseltown had expanded their feature animation department for computer-animation. At the time, the computer-generated imagery was used for special effects for some of their films (such as Protect 99 and Epic MetroToons). For then, the studio had the traditional animators working for their main hand-drawn animation department, and the computer animators worked on CG productions.
On September 20, 1996, Tinseltown released their third and final collaboration with Sony Pictures titled Sensational Cruise. The film clearly did not perform as well as The Cry of the Wolf, by receiving mixed reviews and was a box office failure, by only grossing $70 million on a $50 million budget. The poor performance of Sensational Cruise has strongly disappointed Sony, prompting the studio to end their partnership with Tinseltown Animation.
Partnership with New Line Cinema (1997–2008)[]
According to a Los Angeles Times report, Tinseltown Animation was in talks with Paramount Pictures to distribute its upcoming feature films. The report also mentioned a possibility where Paramount would handle the United States distribution while Universal Pictures would handle the international distribution, the deal however was declined by Tinseltown Animation.
In January 1997, Tinseltown signed a twelve-year deal with New Line Cinema to finance, co-produce, and distribute feature films. On March 27, 1998, Tinseltown released their first film made in partnership with New Line titled The Lost Density, the film widespread critical acclaim, with critics praising the story, animation and music. The film was also successful at the box office, grossing $195.3 million on a $47 million budget, making it Tinseltown's first box office success since The Cry of the Wolf. The next year, Tinseltown purchased Sony's distribution rights to its pre-1997 library, and since then, Tinseltown Animation's then-distribution partner New Line Cinema has distributed the library on their behalf until 2008, in which their parent company Warner Bros. Pictures has assumed these responsibilities.
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Warner Bros. era (2008–present)[]
Disagreements between Kristian Madson and New Line Cinema founders Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne caused the negotiations to cease in 2006, with Madson declaring that Tinseltown was actively seeking partners other than New Line. Despite this announcement and several talks with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Sony Pictures, and 20th Century Fox, Tinseltown did not enter negotiations with other distributors. After a lengthy hiatus, on September 28, 2007, it was announced that New Line Cinema's parent company Time Warner Inc. agreed to acquire Tinseltown Animation. for $3.3 billion in cash and stock; the acquisition was completed six months later on March 8, 2008.
However, New Line was merged with Warner Bros. Pictures in the same year after the box office disappointment of The Golden Compass (2007), thus meaning that Tinseltown has become a division of Warner Bros. Pictures. Tinseltown Animation's last film distributed by New Line Cinema was My Sweet Fantasy (2007), and their first film distributed by Warner Bros. was Spiritual Kingdom (2009).
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Logo[]
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Distribution[]
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Productions[]
- Main article: List of Tinseltown Animation productions
Trivia[]
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