 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | 2D hand-drawn/CGIanimation |
| Predecessor | Don Bluth Entertainment |
| Founded | August 8, 1994; 31 years ago (1994-08-08)[1] |
| Founders | |
| Defunct | June 26, 2000; 25 years ago (2000-06-26) |
| Fate | Folded into20th Century Fox Animation |
| Successors | 20th Century Fox Animation Blue Sky Studios |
| Headquarters | 2747 E. Camelback Road,Phoenix, Arizona, Texas |
Key people |
|
| Products | Animatedfeatures |
Number of employees | 80 (2000) |
| Parent | 20th Century Fox Animation |
Fox Animation Studios was an American animation studio owned by20th Century Fox and located inPhoenix, Arizona. It was a subsidiary of20th Century Fox Animation and was established by animatorsDon Bluth andGary Goldman on August 8, 1994. It operated for six years, until the studio was shut down on June 26, 2000, ten days after the release of its final film,Titan A.E.. Most of the Fox Animation Studios library was later acquired byDisney (via20th Century Studios) on March 20, 2019.Anastasia (1997) is the studio's most critically praised and commercially successful film, as well as the most commercially successful film by Bluth.
After the financially unsuccessful release of theDon Bluth Entertainment-produced filmThumbelina on March 30, 1994, animatorsDon Bluth andGary Goldman were hired byBill Mechanic, then-chairman of20th Century Fox, to create a brand new Fox animation studio.[2] Mechanic andJohn Matoian, president ofFox Family Films, also brought in Stephen Brain (Executive VP atSilver Pictures) as Senior VP/General Manager to oversee the startup of the studio and run day-to-day operations of the division.
The company was designed to compete withWalt Disney Feature Animation (owned byThe Walt Disney Company – which would later acquire certain Fox assets in March 2019, including the rights to Fox Animation Studios' film library), which had phenomenal success during thelate 1980s and early 1990s with the releases of films such asThe Little Mermaid (1989),Beauty and the Beast (1991),Aladdin (1992) andThe Lion King (1994). Disney veterans Bluth and Goldman came in 1994 to Fox fromSullivan Bluth Studios, which had producedThe Secret of NIMH (1982),An American Tail (1986),The Land Before Time (1988), andAll Dogs Go to Heaven (1989), among other films.[2]
Before Bluth came to Fox, the studio distributed three animated features during the 1990s which were produced by outside studios –FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992),Once Upon a Forest (1993) andThe Pagemaster (1994), the last two of which were both commercial and critical failures. Even before, Fox distributedHugo the Hippo (1975) by William Feigenbaum andJózsef Gémes, twoRalph Bakshi features,Wizards (1977) andFire and Ice (1983), as well asRaggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure (1977) byRichard Williams. Also, Fox distributedAsterix Conquers America (1994) in France and the United Kingdom.
Fox Animation Studios did not achieve the same level of success as Disney's animated crop, due to increasingly stiff competition fromPixar andDreamWorks Animation with their computer-generated animated films and the declining revenues of the Disney Renaissance. The films useddigital ink and paint similar to Disney'sCAPS software, more specifically theToonz software program. The studio's first theatrical releaseAnastasia (1997) was a critical and box-office success (and was and still remains the most successful film by its directorDon Bluth), but their second and final theatrical releaseTitan A.E. (2000) got mixed reviews and was acostly flop, losing $100 million for 20th Century Fox.[3] Nearly a year before its closure, 20th Century Fox laid off 300 of the nearly 380 people who worked at the Phoenix studio[4] in order to "make films more efficiently".
On June 26, 2000, the studio was shut down after 6 years of operation as a result of the box office failure ofTitan A.E..[5][6][7] The film was set to be made would have been an adaptation ofWayne Barlowe's illustrated novelBarlowe's Inferno, and was set to be done entirely withcomputer animation, which would have made it 20th Century Fox's first fully computer animated film, predatingIce Age, which was released in 2002.[8] Another film they would have made wasThe Little Beauty King, an adult animated film directed bySteve Oedekerk, which would have been a satire of the films from theDisney Renaissance. It would predate DreamWorks'Shrek, which was released in 2001.[9]
Fox Animation Studios' only other productions were thePBS television seriesAdventures from the Book of Virtues (1996–2000) and thedirect-to-video spin-off toAnastasia,Bartok the Magnificent (1999), along with sub-contract work forDreamWorks Animation'sThe Prince of Egypt (1998).[10] Out of all the television shows, sequels and spin-offs based on Don Bluth properties,Bartok was the only one to actually have Bluth and Goldman as directors. The former headquarters for the studio sat unused and abandoned until it was torn down in 2017.[11] An apartment complex was built on the site in 2019. As of March 20, 2019, most of the studio's library is now currently owned byThe Walt Disney Company due to itsfinished acquisition of 21st Century Fox, with the exception ofThe Prince of Egypt, which is currently owned byUniversal Pictures viaDreamWorks Animation, andAdventures from the Book of Virtues, which is owned byPBS.
| Title | Release date | Directed by | Story by | Screenplay by | Produced by | Budget | Gross | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anastasia | November 21, 1997 | Don Bluth andGary Goldman | Eric Tuchman | Susan Gauthier, Bruce Graham,Bob Tzudiker, andNoni White | Don Bluth and Gary Goldman | $53 million[12] | $140 million[12] | 83% (58 reviews)[13] | 61[14] | co-production withFox Family Films |
| Bartok the Magnificent | November 16, 1999 | Jay Lacopo | $24.8 million[15] | — | — (3 reviews)[16] | — | Direct-to-video release, co-production with20th Century Fox Animation | |||
| Titan A.E. | June 16, 2000 | Hans Bauer and Randall McCormick | Ben Edlund,John August, andJoss Whedon | Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, andDavid Kirschner | $75–85 million[17][15] | $36.8 million[17] | 50% (103 reviews)[18] | 48[19] | co-production with20th Century Fox Animation andDavid Kirschner Productions | |
| Title | Release date | Studio(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adventures from the Book of Virtues | 1996–2000 | KCET Los Angeles PorchLight Entertainment | TV series; aired onPBS[20][21] |
| The Prince of Egypt | 1998 | DreamWorks Pictures DreamWorks Animation | additional final line animation[10] |
| Title | Notes |
|---|---|
| Betty of the Jungle | In 1995, animatorBill Kopp (creator ofFox Kids'Eek! the Cat) pitched an idea for an originaladult animated film calledBetty of the Jungle, in which he describes it as a sexyGeorge of the Jungle about jungle warrior woman Betty (set to be voiced byLoni Anderson) and her gun-carryingpoodle (set to be voiced byBruce Willis) who battle evil to protect their jungle village. However, after an animation test and conceptual artwork, Fox Animation declined to approve the project.[22][23] |
| Dracula | At one time, Fox Animation had planned to produce an adult animated musical adaptation ofDracula, described as a Disney styleRocky Horror Picture Show.[24] |
| Barlowe's Inferno | A computer-animated film based onWayne Barlowe's novel of the same name.[8] Was to be Fox Animation Studios' next film afterTitan A.E. and would have been 20th Century Fox's first fully computer-animated film, beforeIce Age. |
| Rhapsody | Fox Animation had intended to produce an animated film based on the first installment of theRhapsody trilogy byElizabeth Haydon. The story was to tell of a human girl named Rhapsody going on an epic quest with the warrior Achmed and aFirbolg named Grunthor.[25] |
| The Little Beauty King | An adult animated film directed bySteve Oedekerk, which would have been a satire of the films from theDisney Renaissance. It would predateShrek.[9] |
| Over the Hedge | Based onthe comic of the same name byMichael Fry and T. Lewis. Later picked up byDreamWorks Animation.[26] |
| Africa | An adult animated epic film set in Africa. Animator Will Makra posted concept art of the film later on.[27] |
| Fathom | In June 2000, the reports circulated that Fox was adapting the comic book seriesFathom.[28] |
| Ice Age | Fox Animation Studios was originally working on atraditionally animated action-orientedcomedy-drama film set in theIce age. Around the same time,Blue Sky Studios, a smallvisual effects studio inWhite Plains, New York, was bought out by Fox and reshaped into a full-fledgedCG animation film studio.[29] In light of this,Fox Animation headChris Meledandri and executive producer Steve Bannerman approached Forte with the proposition of developing the film as a computer-animated film, which Forte realized was "basically a no-brainer", according to her.[30] |
Bartok $24.8 million
Production begins with Fox Animation Studios in Phoenix.
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