diff --git a/doc/api/next_api_changes/2018-10-02-AL-animation.rst b/doc/api/next_api_changes/2018-10-02-AL-animation.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..def91339751a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/api/next_api_changes/2018-10-02-AL-animation.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+Exception on failing animations changed
+```````````````````````````````````````
+
+Previously, subprocess failures in the animation framework would raise either
+in a `RuntimeError` or a `ValueError` depending on when the error occurred.
+They now raise a `subprocess.CalledProcessError` with attributes set as
+documented by the exception class.
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/animation.py b/lib/matplotlib/animation.py
index b3ed6da0e6a6..770c1a0f955e 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/animation.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/animation.py
@@ -364,22 +364,14 @@ def grab_frame(self, **savefig_kwargs):
         command that saves the figure.
         '''
         _log.debug('MovieWriter.grab_frame: Grabbing frame.')
-        try:
-            # re-adjust the figure size in case it has been changed by the
-            # user.  We must ensure that every frame is the same size or
-            # the movie will not save correctly.
-            self.fig.set_size_inches(self._w, self._h)
-            # Tell the figure to save its data to the sink, using the
-            # frame format and dpi.
-            self.fig.savefig(self._frame_sink(), format=self.frame_format,
-                             dpi=self.dpi, **savefig_kwargs)
-        except (RuntimeError, IOError) as e:
-            out, err = self._proc.communicate()
-            _log.info('MovieWriter -- Error running proc:\n%s\n%s', out, err)
-            raise IOError('Error saving animation to file (cause: {0}) '
-                          'Stdout: {1} StdError: {2}. It may help to re-run '
-                          'with logging level set to '
-                          'DEBUG.'.format(e, out, err))
+        # re-adjust the figure size in case it has been changed by the
+        # user.  We must ensure that every frame is the same size or
+        # the movie will not save correctly.
+        self.fig.set_size_inches(self._w, self._h)
+        # Tell the figure to save its data to the sink, using the
+        # frame format and dpi.
+        self.fig.savefig(self._frame_sink(), format=self.frame_format,
+                         dpi=self.dpi, **savefig_kwargs)
 
     def _frame_sink(self):
         '''Returns the place to which frames should be written.'''
@@ -396,15 +388,15 @@ def cleanup(self):
         # Use the encoding/errors that universal_newlines would use.
         out = TextIOWrapper(BytesIO(out)).read()
         err = TextIOWrapper(BytesIO(err)).read()
-        _log.debug("MovieWriter stdout:\n%s", out)
-        _log.debug("MovieWriter stderr:\n%s", err)
+        _log.log(
+            logging.WARNING if self._proc.returncode else logging.DEBUG,
+            "MovieWriter stdout:\n%s", out)
+        _log.log(
+            logging.WARNING if self._proc.returncode else logging.DEBUG,
+            "MovieWriter stderr:\n%s", err)
         if self._proc.returncode:
-            raise RuntimeError('Error creating movie, return code {}\n'
-                               'stdout:\n'
-                               '{}\n'
-                               'stderr:\n'
-                               '{}\n'
-                               .format(self._proc.returncode, out, err))
+            raise subprocess.CalledProcessError(
+                self._proc.returncode, self._proc.args, out, err)
 
     @classmethod
     def bin_path(cls):
@@ -511,17 +503,11 @@ def grab_frame(self, **savefig_kwargs):
         '''
         # Overloaded to explicitly close temp file.
         _log.debug('MovieWriter.grab_frame: Grabbing frame.')
-        try:
-            # Tell the figure to save its data to the sink, using the
-            # frame format and dpi.
-            with self._frame_sink() as myframesink:
-                self.fig.savefig(myframesink, format=self.frame_format,
-                                 dpi=self.dpi, **savefig_kwargs)
-
-        except RuntimeError:
-            out, err = self._proc.communicate()
-            _log.info('MovieWriter -- Error running proc:\n%s\n%s', out, err)
-            raise
+        # Tell the figure to save its data to the sink, using the
+        # frame format and dpi.
+        with self._frame_sink() as myframesink:
+            self.fig.savefig(myframesink, format=self.frame_format,
+                             dpi=self.dpi, **savefig_kwargs)
 
     def finish(self):
         # Call run here now that all frame grabbing is done. All temp files
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_animation.py b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_animation.py
index eff03936109b..a0cb521885fa 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_animation.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_animation.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import os
 from pathlib import Path
+import subprocess
 import sys
 
 import numpy as np
@@ -237,13 +238,10 @@ def test_cleanup_temporaries(method_name, tmpdir):
         assert list(Path(str(tmpdir)).iterdir()) == []
 
 
-# Currently, this fails with a ValueError after we try to communicate() twice
-# with the Popen.
-@pytest.mark.xfail
 @pytest.mark.skipif(os.name != "posix", reason="requires a POSIX OS")
 def test_failing_ffmpeg(tmpdir, monkeypatch):
     """
-    Test that we correctly raise an OSError when ffmpeg fails.
+    Test that we correctly raise a CalledProcessError when ffmpeg fails.
 
     To do so, mock ffmpeg using a simple executable shell script that
     succeeds when called with no arguments (so that it gets registered by
@@ -252,12 +250,12 @@ def test_failing_ffmpeg(tmpdir, monkeypatch):
     try:
         with tmpdir.as_cwd():
             monkeypatch.setenv("PATH", ".:" + os.environ["PATH"])
-            exe_path = Path(tmpdir, "ffmpeg")
+            exe_path = Path(str(tmpdir), "ffmpeg")
             exe_path.write_text("#!/bin/sh\n"
                                 "[[ $@ -eq 0 ]]\n")
             os.chmod(str(exe_path), 0o755)
             animation.writers.reset_available_writers()
-            with pytest.raises(OSError):
+            with pytest.raises(subprocess.CalledProcessError):
                 make_animation().save("test.mpeg")
     finally:
         animation.writers.reset_available_writers()