Sony Pictures Animation

For a long time I wasn’t a fan of CG animation. I thought it lacked emotion, the movement was wooden, the graphics terrible and unfortunately every few years the films looked tired and out of date with exception to very few. The storylines were fantastic but unfortunately many CG films weren’t standing up to the level of quality we had come to expect from Disney/Pixar. In recent years this has all changed and I’m happy to say that I enjoy CG films; and after 5 years films such as Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs are still withstanding the test of time. Although graphics are still significantly improving Sony has found a way to create consistently great films. One of the problems with CG had been the need to create characters that look exactly like humans, and this is where the graphics and animation suffered immensely. By creating more cartoony and stylized characters Sony have been able to remedy this problem and create memorable characters that the audience like and can relate to. 

I have always liked Sony’s feature animations from their very first film Open Season, up to their latest film Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 and I am very excited about their upcoming films including Popeye, Hotel Transylvania 2 and Kazorn & The Unicorn (although the idea behind this of a barbarian and a unicorn on a quest to save the world sounds very bizarre). The studio boasts top directors, animators and artists with lots of previous experience form companies such as Hanna-Barbera, Warner Bros and Cartoon Network. Perhaps the combined talents of artists from a 2D animation background, mixed in with CG artists could be the reason why Sony Pictures Animation has become so successful. The animation within the films now resembles a lot of the squash and stretch techniques used within 2D animation, along with quick over the top movements and in places boneless flailing ligaments. These 2D techniques are used expertly and make the film more fun and comedic because of the over the top action. This is something that I definitely need to start exploiting in my own animations to try and really bring my characters to life.

Not only has the animation and design of CG features been significantly improved by Sony’s, they have also managed to produce numerous family comedies that appeal to all ages. The storylines and scripting behind many of Sony’s animations has lead them to create numerous successful films with genuinely funny scenes. Comedy is a very hard element to create and whether it’s the way they exploit the subject matter so well (such as Wayne the werewolf’s hunger for sheep in Hotel Transylvania), or the way they so often fulfill the audiences circle of expectation in such unexpected ways (such as how Flint has to puff up his cheeks to kiss Sam Sparks in Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs), Sony are definitely doing something right. To read more about Sony Pictures Animation and have a look at some of their work visit http://www.sonypicturesanimation.com.