Sony Pictures Animation

Sony Pictures Animation is an American animation studio owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment through their Motion Picture Group division and founded on May 9, 2002. The studio is based in Los Angeles, California. Most of the studio's films — either theatrical or streaming-service exclusive — are distributed worldwide by Sony Pictures Releasing under their Columbia Pictures label or through Netflix, while all direct-to-video releases are released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. After the closure of the Screen Gems cartoon studio in 1946 and before the establishment of SPA, Columbia Pictures distributed a few animated films from 1959 to 2006 that were produced by outside studios. In 2001, Sony Pictures considered selling off its visual effects facility Sony Pictures Imageworks but after failing to find a suitable buyer, having been impressed with the CGI sequences of such films as Stuart Little 2 and being inspired by the critical acclaim and box office successes of DreamWorks' Shrek and Disney/Pixar's Monsters, Inc., SPI was reconfigured to become an animation studio. In May 2002, Sony Pictures Animation was established, and its goal was to develop characters, stories and movies with SPI taking over the digital production while maintaining its visual effects production.

1st Logo (September 29, 2006-December 2, 2011)

ImagesVideosLogo Variations

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  The finished product
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  The fallen letters
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  Alternate variant
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  Prototype variant

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  Surf's Up (2007): A flock of snowflakes fly by and reveal the completed logo, which is frozen and covered in snow. After a few seconds, it fades into the opening scene of the movie.
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  Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009): Transitioning from the Columbia Pictures logo's variant, the logo gets formed by clouds that reveal it and it's placed on a black background.
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  The Smurfs (2011): The logo is still on a white background while the text" SONY PICTURES" is slightly smaller.

Visuals: On a light blue background, some letters come towards the screen out of nowhere. As a "t" jumps forward, an "n" runs by, and an "o" rolls down, an "i" slides while an "a" spins around. Then the "i" comes back, trips, and loses its dot, as an "m" dodges it, hitting the "a". The dot bounces off an "a", and then hits the same "m" as before, the dot bounces between the two letters, and then it hits the "n", the same "a" as before, a "t", and then the dot bounces back and forth between the "n" and the "i" while the now dotless "i" tries to catch it. Then, an "o" rolls towards the screen, and all the letters bounce back and are revealed to be the letters in the word "animation", followed by the text "SONY PICTURES" dropping in above while the dotless "i" eventually gets its dot back. The entire text is in blue and is set in Futura. The logo slowly zooms out until all the letters fall down.

Variants:

• On short films, it is already formed; however, the camera zooms in slowly, and the word "animation" is missing the "o". Said letter then drops down and squeezes between "i" and "n" as it knocks both out, sending the dot on the "i" throwing itself to the left. The "m" crawls slightly left as the "n" spins and kicks the "i"'s dot back to where it belongs. The rest of the logo plays normally after that.
• A still version of the logo exists which is commonly used.
• On video games (except for the Xbox 360 game of Cloudy with the Chance of Meatballs and the video game version of The Smurfs, which uses the original version instead), it is already formed; however, the camera zooms out quickly, and the word "SONY PICTURES" fading in.
• A prototype version of the logo exists, where the background is blue instead of light blue.
• On Open Season 3 and The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol, the logo is sped up. When the animation is finished, it freezes instead of falling down at the end. On the latter, the animation plays at normal speed.
• An open matte version of this logo exists, which is seen on a 35mm uncropped film scan print of Open Season.

Technique: CGI from Sony Pictures Imageworks in association with Carey Conley and Matt Hartle from BLT & Associates.

Audio: A fast-paced jazzy fanfare composed by James Newton Howard. When the logo falls apart, a crowd is heard groaning.

Audio Variants:

• Mostly, the opening theme plays over it, which is used in the still variant.
• The short variant has the last few seconds of the music, with the first half carrying it from the Columbia Pictures logo.

Availability

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Media Title	Date of Release	Additional Notes
Open Season OSCA	September 29, 2006	Debut appearance
Boog and Elliot's Midnight Bun Run OSCA	January 30, 2007	Short film
Surf's Up OSCA	June 8, 2007	Custom variant
The Chubbchubbs Save Xmas OSCA	August 8, 2007	Short film
Open Season 2 OSCA	September 24, 2008
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs OSCA	September 18, 2009	Custom variant
Open Season 3 OSCA	January 25, 2011
The Smurfs OSCA	July 29, 2011
The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol OSCA	December 2, 2011	Final appearance Short film

2nd Logo (November 11, 2011-July 13, 2018)

ImagesVideosLogo Variations

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  Hotel Transylvania (2012) and Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015): Transitioning from the Columbia Pictures logo's variant, After the logo is complete, it's surrounded by mist, segueing into the opening of the movie. The trailers for both films feature the logo tinted in silver appearing from mist on a black background.
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  The Smurfs 2 (2013): After the logo is complete, a white Smurf hat falls down onto the first "A" in "Animation".
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  Open Season: Scared Silly (2015): The 2011 logo is black-and-white and appears from a flash of thunder.
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  Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018): Unlike the first two movies, the Columbia Pictures logo is omitted and the normal logo is used this time, although it's slightly brighter than usual. Instead of being surrounded by mist at the end, the logo fades out normally, and then the first scene of the movie fades in.

Visuals: On a white background, the company name in a wacky font (with "Sony Pictures" in Doctor Soos) zooms out and bounces letter-by-letter, similar to the previous logo. They stop when they reach the middle position. An arc is visible in "Animation", separating the blue into two shades.

Alternate Descriptive Video Description: Over white, blue animated letters scurry into a logo: Sony Pictures Animation.

Variants:

• A still version of the logo exists just like the previous logo.
• On The Emoji Movie, the logo is still, tinted light purple, and instead of fading to black like usual, it fades into a space background that starts the movie.
• On TV shows, the logo is in warp-speed and zooms out, making it look open-matted. Sometimes, this variant is shortened without the zooming.
• On The Star and Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (albeit a variant), since the Columbia Pictures logo doesn't appear in these films, the Sony logo transitions to this logo.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: Cartoony sound effects from each of the letters, which vary depending on the film.

Audio Variants:

• On Arthur Christmas, a cartoonish orchestral theme ending with a synth drone is heard, which is an excerpt from the film's score, composed by Harry Gregson-Williams. The music takes place after the Columbia Pictures logo (in which the torch lady's torch glows white).
• In some cases, the opening/closing theme of the movie/show plays over the logo, especially the still variant (as in The Pirates! Bands of Misfits).
• On Open Season: Scared Silly, the logo begins with a thunder sound effect while the opening theme plays over the logo.
• On Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2017), a joyful fanfare is heard.
• On the animatic of the cancelled Popeye film, it is silent, then ocean sounds are heard after.

Availability

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Media Title	Date of Release	Additional Notes
Arthur Christmas OSCA	November 11, 2011	Debut appearance
The Pirates! Band of Misfits (The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!) OSCA	March 28, 2012
So You Want to Be a Pirate! OSCA	August 28, 2012	Short film
Hotel Transylvania OSCA	September 28, 2012	Custom variant
Goodnight Mr. Foot OSCA	October 26, 2012	Short film
The Smurfs 2 OSCA	July 31, 2013	Custom variant
The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow OSCA	September 10, 2013	Short film
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 OSCA	September 27, 2013
Super Manny OSCA	October 2, 2013	Short film
Earl Scouts OSCA	October 9, 2013	Short film
Attack of the 50-Foot Gummi Bear OSCA	January 28, 2014	Short film
Steve's First Bath OSCA	January 28, 2014	Short film
Hotel Transylvania 2 OSCA	September 25, 2015	Custom variant
Open Season: Scared Silly OSCA	December 18, 2015	Custom variant
Surf's Up 2: WaveMania OSCA	January 17, 2017
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs OSCA	February 20, 2017 - June 30, 2018	Television series
Smurfs: The Lost Village OSCA	April 7, 2017
Hotel Transylvania: The Series OSCA	June 25, 2017 - June 25, 2018	Television series Season 1 only
The Emoji Movie OSCA	July 28, 2017
Puppy! OSCA	July 28, 2017	Short film
Go! Cartoons OSCA	November 7, 2017 - April 10, 2018	YouTube series
The Star OSCA	November 17, 2017
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation OSCA	July 13, 2018	Final appearance

3rd Logo (October 16, 2015-October 12, 2018)

ImagesVideos

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Visuals: On a black background, a backlight illuminates some letters. A blue-tinted spotlight then flies over and reveals the text from the previous logo with its shadows bending in response to the light as it dims. It then fades into full color and the spotlight disappears while it slowly animates.

Variants:

• On Peter Rabbit, preceding from the Sony logo, the text fades in as it moves forward and shines briefly up to the letter "a", where the shine becomes a very bright light, which fades into the Columbia Pictures logo.
• On Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, the text is light purple.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: The opening theme of the movie.

Availability

Edit Table

Media Title	Date of Release	Additional Notes
Goosebumps OSCA	October 16, 2015	Debut appearance
Peter Rabbit OSCA	February 9, 2018
Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween OSCA	October 12, 2018	Final appearance

4th Logo (December 14, 2018-)

ImagesVideosLogo Variations

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  Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018): The logo constantly glitches and then after a few seconds, it zooms out.
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  The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019): After the camera zooms through the Sony logo, there is a blue gradient background with Red the bird's feathers scattered across the floor. Suddenly, a red version of the Sony Pictures Animation logo falls down, causing the screen to shake briefly and the feathers are sent into the air, before descending slowly until one covers up the screen and transitions to black, before the Rovio Animation logo plays.
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  The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021, Netflix): The logo illuminates on a blue background of doodles of the characters, before exploding outward and becoming "Katie-visioned" in 2D with multiple sockpuppets and animated characters around the logo.
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  Vivo (2021, Netflix): Transitioning from the Columbia variant on a multicolored retro-like city, the Sony Pictures Animation text drops down and positions itself, as the logo becomes full color on a black background. Then the screen zooms in and transitions into the second "A" in "ANIMATION", seguing into the opening sequence. Just like the prototype version of the logo, the text is bluer.
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  Agent Elvis (2023, TV series): The logo is red with a slight anaglyph effect on a black background, and "ANIMATION" appears as a dotted outline. It animates like the standard logo, and once it's complete, a reflection can be seen below it.
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  Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023): Very similar to the first film's variant, but the normal logo is used (the background is still black, however) and it glitches differently. A graffiti drawing of the logo, the variant from The Angry Birds Movie 2, and the variant from The Mitchells vs. The Machines, as well as the variant from Agent Elvis (which at the time had yet to be released) can all be seen for a split-second during the glitching. After a few seconds, the logo quickly backs away to make way for the Pascal Pictures logo.
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  The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story (2023, short): The normal logo with the black background from the previous is used, except that it completely glitches throughout the logo animation. When the logo is formed, a few portions of the logo glitch. When the logo flickers out, it completely glitches again.
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  Fixed (2025, Netflix): The logo plays as usual with the 2021 Sony transition, except after the SPA logo lights up, Bull (voiced by Adam DeVine) peeks out from it.
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  GOAT (2026): The logo gradually appears in a black background, with the words, now in orange, cutting in to the tune of the Vineland Thorns' chant, "Roots Run Deep", as the name slowly zooms in. As the chant repeats, the background lights up as well, revealing it to be a stadium, with lights and spotlights turning on to the tune of the chant. The logo gradually darkens before the background also fades out, and the chant fades out.

Visuals: On a black background, the text (with "SONY PICTURES" in Brandon Grotesque Bold and "ANIMATION" in Arbotek Ultra) flickers and illuminates like a neon sign on a dark blue background. After a few seconds, the text flickers out back into darkness.

Trivia: Two unused concept variants are found on Michael Daniels' website.

Variants:

• A prototype version appeared on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse where the text is more blue (similar to the previous two logos) and the background is black.
• On The Angry Birds Movie 2 (as a custom variant) and some Netflix exclusive films like Wish Dragon, KPop Demon Hunters, and Fixed (all of which do not have the Columbia Pictures logo on those films), as well as TV shows from the company, the Sony Entertainment logo transitions to it.
  • Starting with KPop Demon Hunters, the 2021 Sony transition is used.
• Sometimes, the print logo appears on a white background.
  • An animated version exists, where the texts slide in from each other, ala the Buena Vista International logo.

Technique: CGI, done at Devastudios.

Audio: None or the opening theme of the movie.

Audio Variants:

• On the final season of Hotel Transylvania: The Series, the closing theme of the show is heard.
• The TV version just uses the corporate Sony ding.

Availability

Edit Table

Media Title	Date of Release	Additional Notes
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse OSCA	December 14, 2018	Debut appearance Custom variant
Spider-Ham: Caught in a Ham OSCA	March 19, 2019	Short film
The Angry Birds Movie 2 OSCA	August 14, 2019	Custom variant
Hair Love OSCA	August 14, 2019	Short film
Hotel Transylvania: The Series OSCA	October 8, 2019 - October 29, 2020	Television series Season 2 only
Monster Pets OSCA	April 3, 2021	Short film
The Mitchells vs. the Machines OSCA	April 30, 2021	Custom variant
Wish Dragon OSCA	June 11, 2021
Vivo OSCA	August 6, 2021	Custom variant
Dog Cop 7: The Final Chapter OSCA	December 14, 2021	Short film
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania OSCA	January 14, 2022	Custom variant
Agent Elvis OSCA	March 17, 2023	Netflix series
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse OSCA	June 2, 2023	Custom variant
Open Season: Call of Nature OSCA	November 3, 2023 - May 31, 2024	Television series
The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story OSCA	March 27, 2024	Short film
KPop Demon Hunters OSCA	June 20, 2025
Fixed OSCA	August 13, 2025	Custom variant
GOAT OSCA	February 13, 2026	Custom variant