History of Sony Pictures Animation Part 2

The first movie to be released after Kristine Belson joined SPA was Hotel Transylvania 2, released September 2015. In this film, Mavis and Johnny (the human boy that Mavis falls in love with in the original film) have a child: A half human/half vampire hybrid named Denis. While Mavis and Johnny go on vacation, Drac has to babysit Denis, and tries to scare him so he can turn into a bat like a vampire. The movie got mixed reviews, but this time better (56% compared to 44% on Rotten Tomatoes), and grossed over 474 million dollars at the box-office. The movie even won the KCA for Favorite Animated Movie over Inside Out and The Peanuts Movie! Perhaps it was because of the introduction of Kakie, a parody of Cookie Monster from Sesame Street, that kids got intrigued in.

The next movie I'll talk about technically isn't from Sony Pictures Animation, but still had involvement of ImageWorks.

In 2016, Sony Pictures Animation took a break, but ImageWorks was still tasked on working on two other animated movies that year for other companies. Since we're going to talk about The Angry Birds Movie 2, we have to talk about The Angry Birds Movie 1, first. Based on the successful mobile video games, the premise of the movie is simple: Pigs invade Bird Island, steal their eggs, and the birds have to fight back. Outside of being 3D while the video games are 2D, The Angry Birds Movie is also notable on changing the birds' designs so they can walk and emote more naturally. The pigs were also redesigned, but otherwise look the same as their game counterparts.

The movie got mixed reviews, but managed to earn over 350 million dollars at the box-office.

In 2017, SPA released three films in a single year. Their first was Smurfs: The Lost Village, released in April. In 2013 or so, after plans for a Smurfs 3 was scrapped, Sony went back to Square 1 and started development on a reboot, instead. Disney and DreamWorks veteran Kelly Asburry was hired as director, and the result was a movie that stays truer to its source material, both story-wise and visually, but got rather harsh reviews from critics. It was also Sony Pictures Animation's first flop since Surf's Up, because it had to compete against Beauty and the Beast and The Boss Baby at the box-office.

In July, Sony released their worst-reviewed film to date, The Emoji Movie. It was about a Meh Emoji named Gene, an Emoji who has several emotions. When he screws up on his first day, Gene travels across Alex's cellphone with Hi-5 and Jailbreak to find a way to fix him. As many said before, The Emoji Movie is a pandering and unengaging character-for-character knockoff of Wreck-it Ralph, Inside Out, and The LEGO Movie. Gene is a copy of Ralph, Hi-5 (the hand Emoji) is a copy of Bing-Bong (Riley's imaginary friend in Inside Out), Jailbreak is a copy of both Vanellope and Wyldstyle (the Elizabeth Banks character from The LEGO Movie), Smiler is a copy of Lord Business (the Will Farrell villain from The LEGO Movie), and even Alex shares some similarities to Riley Anderson. Despite negative reviews, The Emoji Movie managed to earn over 200 million dollars at the box-office, but won four Razzies: Worst Picture, Worst Screenplay, Worst Screen Combo, and Worst Director.

In November, Sony teamed up with The Jim Henson Company and Walden Media (the company behind Chronicles of Narnia, Bridge to Terabithia, Charlotte's Web, and Dora and the Lost City of Gold, among other films) to create a Christian film, The Star. It tells the story of Bo, a donkey who dreams of a life beyond the grain mill. One day, he finds the courage to break free and teams up with a lamb named Ruth and a dove named Dave with lofty expectations. Along with three wisecracking camels and some eccentric stable animals, Bo and his friends follow a star in the sky on the adventure of their dreams, and become part of the greatest story ever told. Rather than being animated at Sony Pictures ImageWorks, The Star was animated at CineSite in Montreal. While the movie had to compete against Coco, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle at the box-office, The Star got mixed reviews and managed to get the Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song.

In July 2018, Drac and the gang returned for an all-new movie with Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation. In this movie, Drac, Mavis, Johnny, Denis, and the rest of the monster gang go on a cruise ship, unaware that the captain wants to kill every monster on Earth by luring them to the Kraken! Once again, Hotel T 3 got mixed to positive reviews from critics and earned over 528 million dollars at the box-office. It was the second highest-grossing animated movie of 2018, only behind Incredibles 2. As I am typing this, there's rumors of a fourth Hotel T movie in development.

In December of that year, SPA released what is perhaps their best film, and the best animated movie of 2018, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. This was one of the most experimental CG animated films in years, with a limited frame rate, no motion blurs on the characters, and a 2.5D look only imagined previously in short films. I actually reviewed this movie back in January 2019, and my review can be viewed in the link below.

https://asateriale.blogspot.com/2019/01/movie-review-spider-man-into-spider.html
Spider-Verse got great reviews, earned over 375 million dollars at the box-office, and won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. It was ImageWorks's first Oscar win in over a decade, and the movie greenlit a sequel and rumors for spinoff films and a TV series!

In August 2019, Red, Chuck, Bomb, and the rest of the flock returned for another adventure with The Angry Birds Movie 2. In this movie, the Birds and the Pigs have to put their differences aside to stop the purple eagle Zeta from destroying both their islands. While the movie didn't do as well as the first film financially ($147 million on a $65 million budget), Angry Birds 2 got better reviews than the original. As I am typing this, this movie is Sony Pictures Animation's most recent film.
As for what's next for Sony Pictures Animation, their next movie will be Connected. The movie will be about a dysfunctional family embarking on a road trip while having to save the world from evil robots. The movie will (hopefully) relate to audiences on how people start using their cellphones more often, ruining family moments.

Connected was originally supposed to be released this September, but because of the Corona Virus outbreak, it will instead be released in October. I might see this movie in theaters because it (once again, hopefully) will be Sony's first animated movie since Smurfs: The Lost Village to have a female protagonist.

Also in development is a movie that Sony's been developing for quite a few years now, Vivo. However, I won't talk about it until January 1st, 2021, when I talk about animated movies that will be released that year.

Well, that concludes the history of Sony Pictures Animation. Next on my movie review schedule will be Niki Caro's Mulan. It will be released on September 4th, but it won't be released in theaters in most territories. Instead, it will be released on Disney+, but you have to pay 30 dollars if you want to watch it. Hopefully, more information will be revealed as the date claws closer.