Aardman Animations Limited is a British animation studio based in Bristol, England. It is known for films and television series made using stop-motion and clay animation techniques, particularly those featuring its plasticine characters from Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, and Morph. After some experimental computer-animated short films during the late 1990s, beginning with Owzat (1997), Aardman entered the computer animation market with Flushed Away (2006). As of February 2020, it had earned $1.1 billion worldwide, with an average $135.6 million per film.
Vantiva SA, formerly Technicolor SA, Thomson SARL, and Thomson Multimedia, is a French multinational corporation that provides creative services and technology products for the communication, media and entertainment industries. Vantiva's headquarters are located in Paris, France. Other main office locations include Norcross (USA), Rennes (France) Edegem (Belgium) Seoul, Beijing (China), Chennai (India), Memphis (USA).
Blue Sky Studios, Inc. was an American computer animation studio based in Greenwich, Connecticut. It was founded on February 22, 1987 by Chris Wedge, Michael Ferraro, Carl Ludwig, Alison Brown, David Brown, and Eugene Troubetzkoy after their employer, MAGI, one of the visual effects studios behind Tron, shut down. Using its in-house rendering software, the studio created visual effects for commercials and films before dedicating itself to animated film production. It produced 13 feature films, the first being Ice Age, released in 2002 by 20th Century Fox, and the final one being Spies in Disguise, released in 2019.
DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA) (also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios or simply DreamWorks) is an American animation studio owned by Universal Pictures, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a division of Comcast. The studio has released a total of 47 feature films as of December 2023, 45 of which were theatrically released. Their catalogue includes several of the highest-grossing animated films of all time, with Shrek 2 (2004) having been the highest at the time of its release. The studio's first film, Antz, was released on October 2, 1998, and its latest film was Trolls Band Together on November 17, 2023; their upcoming slate of films includes the Netflix original film Orion and the Dark on February 2, 2024, and the theatrical films Kung Fu Panda 4 on March 8, 2024, and The Wild Robot on September 20, 2024. Additionally, DreamWorks has reserved three release dates for animated films: January 31, 2025, August 1, 2025, and September 26, 2025.
China Film Group Corporation (CFGC), is the largest, most influential film enterprise in the People's Republic of China, owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party. According to Forbes, it is a state monopoly that all imported films have to work with. It also runs theaters and finances, produces, and distributes films. In 2014, the company was the largest film distributor in China, with 32.8% of the market.
The China–New Zealand relations, sometimes known as Sino–New Zealand relations, are the relations between China and New Zealand. New Zealand recognised the Republic of China after it lost the Chinese Civil War and retreated to Taiwan in 1949, but switched recognition to the People's Republic of China on 22 December 1972. Since then, economic, cultural, and political relations between the two countries have grown over the past four decades. China is New Zealand's largest trading partner in goods and second largest trading partner in services. In 2008, New Zealand became the first developed country to enter into a free trade agreement with China. In recent years, New Zealand's extensive economic relations with China have been complicated by its security ties to the United States.
Star Studios is an Indian motion picture production and distribution company. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Disney Star, part of the Disney International Operations segment of The Walt Disney Company. The studio produces Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and other South Asian language films through acquisitions, co-productions and in-house productions for worldwide distribution.
Paramount Animation is an American animation studio, serving as the animation division and label of Paramount Pictures, a subsidiary of Paramount Global. The division was founded on July 6, 2011, following the box office success of Paramount's own Rango and the end of their distribution deal with DreamWorks Animation in 2012.
Since the early 2000s, DreamWorks Animation, an American animation studio, owned by NBCUniversal, has had an involvement in the creation and theming of amusement park rides and attractions. This article details the ventures of DreamWorks Animation in amusement parks.
Zootopia is a 2016 American animated buddy cop action comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed by Byron Howard and Rich Moore, co-directed by Jared Bush, and produced by Clark Spencer, from a screenplay written by Bush and Phil Johnston, and a story by Howard, Moore, Bush, Johnston, Jim Reardon, Josie Trinidad, and Jennifer Lee. The film stars the voices of Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, Jenny Slate, Nate Torrence, Bonnie Hunt, Don Lake, Tommy Chong, J. K. Simmons, Octavia Spencer, Alan Tudyk, and Shakira. Taking place in the titular city where anthropomorphic mammals coexist, it tells a story of an unlikely partnership between a rabbit police officer and a red fox con artist as they uncover a criminal conspiracy involving the disappearance of predators.
Warner Bros. Pictures Animation (WBPA), formerly known as Warner Animation Group (WAG), is an American animation studio that serves as the feature film label of Warner Bros.' theatrical film production and distribution division, Warner Bros. Pictures. Established on January 7, 2013, by Jeff Robinov, the studio is the successor to the dissolved 2D traditional hand-drawn animation studio Warner Bros. Feature Animation, which shut down in 2004, and is also a sister to the regular Warner Bros. Animation studio.
China Film Animation is the animation division of China Film Group.
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run is a 2020 American live-action/animated adventure comedy film based on the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants. Written and directed by series co-developer and former writer Tim Hill, who co-wrote the story with Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, It is the third theatrical film based on the series, following the first in 2004 and second in 2015, and the first film in the franchise to be fully animated in stylized computer-generated imagery. The regular voice cast of the series reprise their respective roles from the series and the previous films and including new characters performed by Awkwafina, Snoop Dogg, Tiffany Haddish, Keanu Reeves, Danny Trejo, and Reggie Watts. The film follows the origin of how SpongeBob met Gary the Snail, and SpongeBob's quest to rescue his pet after he is kidnapped. The film is dedicated to creator Stephen Hillenburg, who died in 2018, and also served as an executive producer on the project.
Ron's Gone Wrong is a 2021 animated science fiction comedy film directed by Sarah Smith and Jean-Philippe Vine, co-directed by Octavio E. Rodriguez, and written by Peter Baynham and Smith. The film features the voice of Jack Dylan Grazer as Barney, a socially awkward middle-schooler who befriends a defective robot he names Ron, voiced by Zach Galifianakis. Barney must find a way to protect Ron, who comes under danger from corporate employees. Additional voices include Ed Helms, Justice Smith, Rob Delaney, Kylie Cantrall, Ricardo Hurtado, and Olivia Colman.
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania is a 2022 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation and released by Amazon Studios. The fourth and final installment in the Hotel Transylvania franchise and the sequel to Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018), the film was directed by Derek Drymon and Jennifer Kluska from a screenplay by Amos Vernon, Nunzio Randazzo and Genndy Tartakovsky. It stars the voices of Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kathryn Hahn, Jim Gaffigan, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key, Brian Hull, Fran Drescher, Brad Abrell, Asher Blinkoff, Tyler "Ninja" Blevins and Zoe Berri. In the film, Dracula and Johnny team up to find the ray's crystal in South America to turn themselves back into their old selves, before their transformations become permanent.
Mosley is a 2019 computer-animated fantasy adventure drama film produced by Huhu Studios. It was written and directed by Kirby Atkins who stars in the title role along with his young daughter Leah, playing the character of Rue. The film also stars Lucy Lawless, John Rhys-Davies, Temuera Morrison and Rhys Darby. The film was released in New Zealand on 10 October 2019 by Rialto Distribution. It is the first official New Zealand–Chinese co-production.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative effect on certain films in the early 2020s, mirroring its impacts across all arts sectors. Across the world, and to varying degrees, cinemas and movie theaters were closed, festivals were cancelled or postponed, and film releases were moved to future dates or delayed indefinitely. Due to cinemas and movie theaters closing, the global box office dropped by billions of dollars, streaming saw a significant increase in popularity, and the stock of film exhibitors dropped dramatically. Many blockbusters originally scheduled to be released by mid-March 2020 were postponed or canceled around the world, with film productions also being halted. This in turn created openings for independent cinema productions to receive wider exposure.
Spellbound is an upcoming animated musical fantasy film directed by Vicky Jenson from a screenplay by Linda Woolverton and the writing team of Lauren Hynek and Elizabeth Martin. It features music composed by Alan Menken, who also wrote the songs with longtime collaborator and lyricist Glenn Slater. Produced by Skydance Animation, the film features the voices of Rachel Zegler, Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem, John Lithgow, Jenifer Lewis, and Nathan Lane. Set in the world of magic known as Lumbria, the story follows Princess Ellian (Zegler), a young girl who must break the spell that has split her kingdom in two.
The global COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the New Zealand economy. New Zealand has a mixed economy – a free market with some state ownership and control. In mid-March 2020, the New Zealand Government imposed a four-tier alert level system, which placed much of the country's economy into lockdown with the exception of "essential services" such as supermarkets. Due to the success of the Government's elimination strategy, lockdown restrictions on various economic activities were progressively lifted between April and June 2020.
