The Redemption of Sony Animation

Sony pictures animation the worst case of inconsistency since my sleep schedule have quite an interesting reputation compared to many of the other mainstream Animation Studios putting out films today basically a lot of their films are bad that's where that sentence ends but something seems to have changed recently and it's resulted in Sony animation going from the people who made Smurfs to Industry Trailblazers that have sent shockwaves through the industry of their recent movies things have been incredibly weird in the animation space for the last few years Disney and Pixar slowly falling off in the minds of most people DreamWorks are still the same as ever but people for some reason think they're on a Divine comeback just because of a mildly impressive winning streak the traditional aesthetic and style of 3D animated movies is Shifting to a more stylized Direction and the guys who made the Emoji Movie are currently industry Trailblazers pass me a cup the overwhelming Redemption Arc that Sony animation has been going through these last few years is nothing short of awe-inspiring and while they have had a few gems in the past movies like spider-verse Mitchells versus the machines and even some of their less noteworthy films like wish dragon and Vivo have ushered in a new level of quality that we simply haven't seen from them before and with their clear shift towards the novel and stunning concept of letting the filmmaker's film make the film were due for some very experimental interesting films in the future including some primarily aimed at adults which is a great thing for people who want more quality adult animation and a good thing for clout vultures on Twitter so they stop using the same four kids movies in a row next to a statement that has lost its original meaning seeing the Super Mario Bros movie next to spider versus comparable to the second plane so to celebrate the recent release of across the spider verse I wanted to take a look back for Sony animations history and previous films to find the hidden gems that no one talks about crush a few decomposing horses pinpoint their sudden rise and shift in Direction and making note of what the future has in store for this incredibly fascinating Studio change your dreams you know a studio really exudes quality and confidence when their debut film is open season but let's not get ahead of ourselves the first few years of Sony Pictures animations lifespan were incredibly bizarre green marks may be constantly experimenting with different movies that appeal to completely different people even when they're inconsistent there just seems to be something far more professional and competent about them releasing a few films aimed at children and then following it up with something more geared towards older kids and general audiences Sony animation were incredibly bizarre in the sense that their films geared specifically towards young children were just the purest form of unprocessed dogs and then they suddenly release some genuine gems that don't even feel like they're made by the same Studio again to use DreamWorks as a comparison while their films are very different to one another you can still usually tell they're made by Dreamworks I can't really explain it well but going from Open Season to Surf's Up is like going to a loud rundown circus that after torturing you for two hours suddenly serves you five star Cuisine Open Season has been talked about to nearby Oblivion at this point there's not even a horse here to beat it's just a very sad film I don't really know anyone who grew up with it or remembers it but it's one of those stereotypically crap animated movies that come to mind when film snobs cool animation at kids genre I don't really need to explain I think the trailer footage speaks for itself honestly and then the year after this film released they were graced with Surfs Up something so incredibly different in Tone's style and overall quality compared to open season but I genuinely forget they're made by the same Studio Not only was the animation really impressive for its time but the whole mockumentary style of the film made it such a unique experience while still containing plenty of Hearts it had a genuinely compelling soul and while the film isn't perfect I think it's a hidden gen that doesn't nearly get enough credit this proof that Sony animation had the ability to produce genuinely inventive fun and heartfelt animated movies without having to resort to Open Season 2. I'm gonna make a confession I have not watched the rest of the Open Season films in full because unlike most YouTubers I tend to value my mental health I get about 20 minutes into them usually Liam by that point I've seen what the film has to offer it's just the first film again but somehow more annoying and cheaply animated not worth my time at all but then after Open Season 2 we get cloudy with a chance of meatballs and it's like guys come on I'm not sure I need to introduce cloudy much at all because it's just a great film in general directed by Lord and Miller who I've been talking about a lot on this channel recently being the creators and writers of some of my favorite things ever like Clone High and spiderverse and they're wacky and fast pay sense of humor works perfectly of the noodle-like but exaggerated and silly animation while still telling a heartfelt story The Tale of this movie's production was crazy actually Lord and Miller were originally fired and replaced when The Replacements got fired and Lord and Miller were reinstated but it almost got fired again because they forgot to add a parental figure to the movie for an emotional hook it's a mess but it's a mess that paid off because the film was Sony animations the most critically and financially successful at the time resonating with audiences and teaching Lord and Miller the value of having an emotional story which assisted in many of their later works with Sony putting out gems like Surf's Up and cloudy in its first few years I can tolerate the sequels they kept making for Open Season because yeah it's back I clocked out after 20 minutes again these films couldn't have been making that much money could they the sequel to all director DVD but I can't find the sales figures anywhere either way these were the younger years of Sony animation they were just getting started and were evidently just experimenting a bit okay maybe a bit too much you know what was hesitant to include a lot of the live-action 3D hybrid movies in this video but I really hate The Smurfs of it I have so many memories of this movie too many in fact my school played it constantly when we had the rare chance to watch movies before summer break I remember being sick and it came on TV and I was too broken to grab the remote to change the channel I was forced to watch the movie while babysitting my cousins when I was 12. for a good lot of my childhood this movie was inescapable again imagine every live-action hybrid movie where cartoon characters enter reality and you have your movie there except this one wastes a lot of genuine Talent Gargamel is the only marginally humorous part of this and its Sequel and unlike Open Season I do understand why they made the sequel considering the wacky amount of money it made but it only makes Sony animations good movies stick out like a sore thumb they're so astronomically different in quality that they don't feel like they belong to the same Studio it felt like they were made by pure accident because the right people happen to align with the right projects and any other movie was just a lazy attempt at pleasing young kids Sony animation quickly gained a reputation for constantly creating unbearably awful kids films with little to no actual creative passion behind them just for the sake of making a quick Buck there just seemed to be an overall complete disregard for the quality of the movies in general now while we're on the topic of Sony being lazy and making bad films your mind may be pointed towards two films in particular that might counter that observation these two films are off for Christmas and pirates in an adventurous scientists I will use that title because I find it funny Americans thought children wouldn't see a movie about Pirates because it had the word scientists in the title that is incredibly silly these two films are the creation of artman animations one of my favorite Animation Studios of all time I'm not just saying that because I live in the same city they're based in although it does make me a little proud to be British for a change just a little they're one of the most critically and financially successful Studios that specialize in stop-motion animation creating many Classics like wallets and grommet Chicken Run and Sean the Sheep they're one of the most consistent studios I've ever seen which makes their partnership with Sony animation incredibly jarring basically argument are the people who created these movies not Sony Sony merely distributed these films like how DreamWorks distributed chicken run so I don't count these films when talking about Sony's track record of quality because if I did I'd hold them in much higher regard these two films are very very good Arthur Christmas breaks away from most people's expectations of artman as it's not animated in stop motion but no joke this is my favorite Christmas movie hands down there are very few Christmas films that fill this fresh and absolutely hilarious and the film in general is so touching and good-natured it melts my heart every time I watch it and it's easily one of artman's best and by technicality one of the best films to release under Sony pictures animation but I still don't count it as their work same goes for pirates which isn't nearly as good as R for Christmas but remains an incredibly entertaining film with Gorgeous stop-motion animation and ardman's signature sense of humor I wanted to get these two out of the way because despite them being among the best films on Sony's catalog it feels like cheating to count them when they're ardman's Creations I'm not gonna award points based on technicality especially because Sony's next film would not only lead one of their most iconic franchises but one of their most consistently entertaining series of films even if their overall quality isn't all that good Hotel Transylvania is a film I admittedly have a soft spot for being a huge fan of Genji tarkovsky's work and I adored the direction of this film in an incredibly zany animation in fast pacing if there's anything about Hotel Transylvania I can definitely say makes it fun for me to watch it's the quick animation and the gags that come from how exaggerated it is the film does visual comedy extremely well for the most part and still tells a predictable but harmless story that clearly does have effort placed into it as a film overall it's not very strong but it's one I don't mind watching if I catch it on TV every now and then still though Hotel Transylvania remains a divisive series of films people are either on board exaggerated animation and comedy or they find it annoying and overstimulating didn't stop the movie from being successful though so that's a bonus unfortunately this era of Sony Pages animation would be the one to get them in their poor reputation people were aware of their previous films not being so great but it wasn't until this point in time where people realized oh shh this studio is not great 2013 saw the release of Smurfs 2 a film that was somehow worse than the original in almost every conceivable way devoid of any sort of charm again besides Gargamel and featuring some of the most unenthusiastic performances I've seen from talented actors since the live-action Mario Bros movie but it's not like anyone was really expecting this movie to be good it was more so an obligation by Sony because to this day the original is still their most profitable film at the box office but there was another Sony sequel in 2013 that being Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. and it was mid people are incredibly split on this one but to this day I just I just find this movie incredibly annoying you can really feel the absence of Lord and Miller here as while the story was created by them they were not involved with the screenplay nor the direction of this film whatsoever and it shows it retains the quick joke the exaggerated animation of the original but not only are the jokes not nearly as funny as a lot of them are just straight up irritating I found the film doesn't utilize its cast very well either with many characters just being completely sidelined the visuals are colorful and inventive but it lacks the heart and humor that made the original such a classic in my eyes then after this Sony would skip 2014 then return 2015 with a sequel to Hotel Transylvania which was uh fine but not nearly as memorable as the first in my opinion animation was obviously better and the jokes are still mostly entertaining but as a film it just sort of exists people are a lot less divided on this one and just think it kind of sucks and honestly I I say that however Goosebumps I had no idea this was technically a Sony pictures animation movie and it's more of a Sony animation movie than artman's movies so I'm gonna count it Goosebumps is not a mind-blowing film but it's an incredibly Charming one I'm naturally gonna like most things that involve Jack Black and what I haven't actually read many of the Goosebumps books this is a movie made with a lot of love for its source material and as a kid-friendly horror movie you can certainly do worse I have memories watching this one a few times in the past and I remember enjoying it a lot back then I can't say I don't enjoy it now still though Sony mentioned to crank out her hits every now and then isn't really saying much but most of what they've produced so far ranges from mediocre to hot garbage which is exemplified by their next eight movies this is really when Sony pictures animation we began receiving a lot of scathing critique there was just no person on Earth who would have predicted how mind-blowingly awful their output for the next few years was gonna be a complete tidal wave of sludge that kept swelling and swelling until it churned out some of the Studio's most memorable movies but not their most well received where to begin uh open season four why does this exist who actually knew what open season was in 2016 I need someone to tell me Well speaking of sequels to Old Sony animation movies there was a glimmer of hope in Surf's Up Too wave Mania what's that logo oh no you know you know you throw WWE into something like Scooby-Doo and it just ends up being funny you throw it into Surf's Up and you get a very depressing movie everything that was unique about the original Surf's Up the mockumentary style the conversations that felt so real the authenticity of its Story the detail animation everything that made the Surfs Up distinct and memorable has been washed out by a cheaply made Sequel and not only ruins the original characters but simply exists as a way to stroke the egos of the WWE there's also a scene where Vince McMahon dreams of sucking a fish with a straw and that is the last thing I want in my head before sleeping this for Sony's first movie of 2017 and this would end up being their worst year when it came to Quality there was a third Smurfs movie which simply due to being animated made it 100 times better than the live-action hybrids but was bogged down by an incredibly Bland story and for overall being incredibly boring which is not something I could say about live action movies 2017 was also see the release of the star a retelling of the Nativity Story that focuses on the animals who do quirky animal haha funny things and they do the slapstick thingy on the characters of this done to death story and I'm falling asleep just thinking about it if it wasn't the complete lack of effort in the visuals and animation that would have done it it would have been the fact that something about this film gives the vibe of something you'd find in a bargain bin at little for like two pounds and the top 2017 off there was the film that would forever leave a mark on Sony pictures animation and would grant them a stigma that they have not been able to fully wash out to this day hello I remember the collective cultural outrage that the Emoji Movie generated like it was yesterday it's hard to believe this film came out six years ago but God I don't think some people remember just how hilariously overwhelming the hate for this film was before it even released its mere existence was a meme every corner of the internet just sort of pointed and laughed at the mere concept of it and the film releasing just after the peak of commentary channels on YouTube only served to create more outrage over its stupid concept and plots which resulted in more people praying for its downfall and making fun of it at every turn and when the movie released it just confirmed what everyone was thinking the Emoji movie is something you can't really cover anymore not because it's been done a million times over because the film just reviews itself it's Baby's First review every flow with it is painfully obvious to any human above the age of seven it's universally considered one of the worst movies of all time for a reason it's a soulless corporate product it's mere concept is Corporate evil and after it was released Sony pictures animation was used anonymously land bash there by pretty much everyone they were viewed as the company that made the Emoji Movie and to people that knew them beforehand the worst mainstream Animation Studio by a long shot and it began to hurt more when you just looked at their backlog of canceled projects I think all of us know about the canceled Popeye movie and no it was not canceled in favor of the Emoji movie but the brief Glimpse we've got of what candy tarkovsky had made was incredibly impressive and faithful to the spirit of the original Popeye and the leaked animatic we got last year showed the insane amount of potential this film had artman was already working on a sequel to The Pirates title and adventure of cowboys so it Sony pulled the plug because the first movie didn't make enough money internationally despite being a box office success Laura and force was going to direct the Medusa movie which we also have a leaked pencil test animation for all of these films that had the potential to be great were unfortunately canceled and while they were not casting in favor of the bad film Sony had made the realization that we were on the verge of greatness so many times only the full short made people incredibly bitter it was at this point that many people had given up hope on Sony pictures animation with the upcoming release of the live-action hybrid Peter Rabbit movie and a new Hotel Transylvania sequel not doing the many favors in the eyes of the average consumer but then some people remembered Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were allegedly in talks of creating an animated Spider-Man movie for Sony Pictures not only that but it was going to be based off a dance slot slider vs comic book storyline and would be centered on a different protagonist from Peter Parker that being Miles Morales the idea of Phil Lord and Chris Miller working on a Spider-Man movie was enticing but could something that great really come from the studio well in late 2017 we got a glimpse and it blew people's minds 2018 rolled around and as usual Sony was releasing the expected schlock Pete's rabbit was a movie that released Hotel free was fine but not very memorable and goosebumps 2 was astoundingly worse compared to the first movie but no one really cared about these honestly because most people's attention when it came to Sony animation was placed on into the spider-verse The More Trailers we got the more insane this movie looked visually there was nothing like it the jokes in the trailers weren't cringe inducing the action scenes looked incredible and the more we got the scene of it the more it seemed like this movie wasn't going to be some half-assed effort to release an animated Spider-Man flick for a quick Buck this is going to be an honest-to-god Spider-Man movie with the hearts and soul that makes the best Spider-Man stories work while offering its own commentary on the Spider-Man character and Spider-Man stories a lot was writing on this movie and it paid off what can I say about spider-verse that hasn't been said I literally just talked about it last week I've already talked about it a lot this year but into this spider-verse wasn't just a good movie it was a damn near Masterpiece it was a passion-filled love letter to both fans of Spider-Man and animation in general the story was Swift carrying a freshness to it in the face of expected Spider-Man cliches offering its own take and spin on the franchise and its characters while telling a compelling story that ties into what makes Spider-Man such a lovable and iconic character it wasn't annoyingly childish to the point of brain Mash like moshe's Sony's catalog this was a full movie that anyone and I mean anyone could hop into and enjoy and this is all without talking about how the movie looks animated movies are combine 2D and 3D before but never to The Artful extent that spider-verse did blending several different art styles and animation techniques together to create a unique viewing experience and it didn't just not conform to the expected visuals an animated movie was supposed to have at the time but broke past them with such an impressive attention to detail making every single scene pop Sony had made good movies in the past but after all the sludge they had churned out over the past few years with almost no artistic passion or love for the medium of Animation or the power of animated storytelling spider-verse was the movie they needed and while the movie had a decent box office run its impact wouldn't be felt until after it opened out for a while the film received unanimous critical praise and is widely considered one of the greatest animated movies ever made the style of Animation the spider-verse had helped to break boundaries and would later be something other animated movies would adopt in their own style and for the first time ever Sony pictures animation were industry Trailblazers allowing for more creative freedom when it came to animated visuals blending 2D animation and 3D together seamlessly to create an array of unique Aesthetics using similar techniques that helped create more visually striking animation and jaw-dropping scenery and while this may have been coincidental spider-verse started an odd winning streak that Sony had never received before Sony animation's next movie after this was Angry Birds 2 oddly enough they never made the first film they just had the rights to make the sequel apparently but despite it being a video game movie and not really being particularly great it had a lot of energy and some great comedy which made for a solid and fun film being one of the only video game adaptations at the time to not be universally hated by critics then in 2021 we saw the release of the Mitchells versus the machines a movie made by a lot of of people who worked on spider-verse that continued to push the limits of 3D animation not nearly to the extent that spider-verse did but managed to create a visually distinct and gorgeous looking film they'd still had a fun and heartwarming story people began noticing too that Sony animation's output was getting a lot better of these back-to-back releases receiving decent to great reviews wish dragon and Vivo weren't exactly blowing anyone's minds but as decent family-friendly fun they still had far more effort and love poured into them more than any of these movies did the only outlier to all of this was the fourth Hotel Transylvania film which received an unceremonious release on streaming services in January 2022 and no one really remembers it happened and with the recent release of across the spider-verse and the incredible critical receptions received as well as a surprising success at the box office making a quarter of what the original movie had made in its entire run in just a weekend Sony pictures animation is an incredibly good spot at the moment and it's one they clearly haven't ignored spider vs success seems to have given Sony animation a newfound sense of confidence of them green lighting adult animated movies being directed by gendi tarkovsky such as fixed as well as opening the doors for PG-13 animated releases too like the upcoming Black Knights again being directed by Gandy tarkovsky and this isn't even mentioning the spite of her spin-off that's currently in the works as well as an animated Ghostbusters movie and with beyond the spider verse hopefully releasing next year I think it's safe to say that Sony pictures animation has kinda redeemed themselves in the eyes of many not every film they're going to release from this point forward will be a guaranteed hit but they're showing a willingness to experiment and take risks now while still putting off much higher quality films than they used to that most people can sit down and comfortably enjoy you know instead of quickly requesting a lobotomy the future looks pretty darn bright for Sony animation and it's incredible how far they've come in such a short amount of time just five years ago they were viewed as the bottom of the barrel a bad joke that only produced creatively hindered and obnoxious garbage but this new direction towards allowing more creative freedom on the parts of the animators and allowing for more mature storytelling in their movies is Paving the way from more studios in the industry that follow in their footsteps and break free from the mold that most animated flicks are stuck in with their unwilling this to be different and to try out new things for the first time ever Sony pictures animation is currently on top of the industry of its output and I very much anticipate every project they've currently got in store [Music] [Music]

Channel: Cartoonshi シ

Views: 451,967

Keywords: Sony, Sony Pictures Animation, Spider-Man, Into the Spider-Verse, Across the Spider-Verse, Beyond the Spider-Verse, Hotel Transylvania, The Emoji Movie, Open Season, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, cartoon, cartoons, Cartoonshi, animation, film, entertainment, comedy, review, critique, video essay, stop, looking, at, my, tags, Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, Genndy Tartakovsky, Samurai Jack, Miles Morales, Surf's Up, The Smurfs, memes, The Mitchell's Vs The Machines

Id: vLySKb8cakg

Length: 21min 38sec (1298 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 10 2023