Skydance Animation

Skydance Animation, LLC

File:Skydance Animation New Logo.png
Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Animation Motion pictures
Founded	March 16, 2017 (2017-03-16)
Headquarters	Santa Monica, California, United States
Key people	Holly Edwards (President) John Lasseter (Head of Animation)
Number of employees	900 (2022)
Parent	Skydance Media
Divisions	Skydance Animation Madrid Skydance Animation Los Angeles Skydance Animation Connecticut
Website	skydance.com/animation

Skydance Animation, LLC is an American animation studio that is a division of Skydance Media, founded on March 16, 2017. The studio is located in Los Angeles with offices in Connecticut and Madrid, Spain; the Madrid branch was originally Ilion Animation Studios.

Skydance Animation's first film Luck was released on August 5, 2022 on Apple TV+. Its next film is Spellbound, followed by two projects in the works, Pookoo and Ray Gunn.

History

File:Skydance Animation.svg

Logo from 2017 to 2020

In March 2017, Skydance Media formed an animation division and a multi-year partnership with Madrid, Spain-based animation studio Ilion Animation Studios. In July, it announced its first two films, Split, for a release in 2019, and Luck. On October 10, 2017, Bill Damaschke was hired to head the division as president of animation and family entertainment, and Luck was given a release date of March 19, 2021. In April 2018, Luck was greenlit by Paramount Animation chief Mireille Soria.

Skydance Animation signed on directors Alessandro Carloni (Kung Fu Panda 3) to direct Luck, Vicky Jenson (Shrek) to direct Spellbound), and Nathan Greno (Tangled) to write and direct Pookoo (formerly known as Powerless). Peggy Holmes (Secret of the Wings and The Pirate Fairy) was later announced as new director of Luck, replacing Carloni who left over creative differences.

In January 2019, Skydance Animation hired former Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios CCO John Lasseter as Head of Animation, supplanting Damaschke. This decision was met with disapproval from some contributors to various Skydance projects, owing to prior allegations of sexual misconduct against Lasseter during his time with Pixar. Soria announced that the team at Paramount Animation would no longer work with Skydance due to the hiring of Lasseter. Luck and Spellbound were still going to be released by Skydance Media's collaborator Paramount Pictures without Paramount Animation, as part of Skydance Media's deal with Paramount. until Apple TV+ acquired the distribution rights to both films in February 2021 as part of a larger pact with Skydance Animation. Apple Original Films would replace Paramount for both Luck and Spellbound. Conversely, Damaschke stated that many people "[...] had strong feelings and felt like it was the right thing to do [...] and were excited to get to work with him" and it was "[...] definitely not a black-and-white situation." Emma Thompson was to voice a character in Luck but left the project after Lasseter was hired. Jane Fonda was cast as The Dragon in Luck.

Holly Edwards, who previously served as Skydance Animation's Head of Production, was promoted to the position of president at Skydance Animation.

On April 2, 2020, composer Alan Menken revealed that he was working alongside Lasseter on a project for the studio, which was later announced to be Spellbound. Skydance formally acquired Ilion Animation Studios and rebranded it as Skydance Animation Madrid in April 2020. On July 30, the studio named Shane Prigmore for the newly created position of Senior Vice President of Development for Animation, in which he will oversee the creative development of all feature films and television series. On December 16, 2020, Apple TV+ entered talks to take over the distribution rights to the films Luck and Spellbound. More recently, Apple signed an overall deal with Skydance Animation which included animated films and television series. This includes a television adaptation of the novel The Search for WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi. The series has been greenlit for two seasons and was announced to feature showrunner Lauren Montgomery as both writer and executive producer with DiTerlizzi and Chad Quant. She has since left the project and has been replaced by Bobs Gannaway, another of Lasseter’s Disney-era colleagues.

On June 2020, Shane Prigmore, an animation veteran who co-created Tangled: The Series, was hired as SVP Development at Skydance Animation. He will be tasked with overseeing the creative development of all films and TV series on the studio’s production slate.

On October 1, 2021, Skydance Animation released its first short film inspired by a true story from director Joe Mateo called Blush. It was released on Apple TV+ as part of their multi-year deal. The ships from the short film became the mascots of the studio during the release of Luck, and a portion of Joy Ngiaw’s score was used for the fanfare of the studio.

In February 2022, it was announced that Brad Bird would revive his long-dormant project Ray Gunn for Skydance Animation after it was originally set up at Turner Feature Animation.

On March 16, 2022, Rich Moore revealed that he has entered into an exclusive, multi-year overall deal with Skydance Animation.

Skydance's first film Luck, was released on August 5, 2022. It received mixed reviews.

Filmography

Feature films

Released

Films produced by Skydance Animation

Release	Title	Director(s)	Producer(s)	Writer(s)		Composer(s)	Distribution
				Screenplay by	Story by
August 5, 2022	Luck	Peggy Holmes Co-director: Javier Abad	John Lasseter David Ellison Dana Goldberg David Eisenmann	Based on an original concept by: Rebeca Carrasco Juan De Dios Julián Romero		John Debney	Apple Studios
				Kiel Murray	Jonathan Aibel Glenn Berger Kiel Murray

Upcoming

Films produced by Skydance Animation

Release	Title	Director(s)	Producer(s)	Writer(s)	Composer(s)	Distribution	Production Status
								Ref(s)
TBA	Spellbound	Vicky Jenson	John Lasseter David Ellison Dana Goldberg David Lipman	Linda Woolverton Lauren Hynek Elizabeth Martin	Alan Menken (score) Alan Menken Glenn Slater (songs)	Apple Studios	Post-production
	Pookoo	Nathan Greno	Jennifer Magee-Cook	Nathan Greno	TBA		In production
	Ray Gunn	Brad Bird	John Lasseter David Ellison Dana Goldberg Brad Bird	Based on an original concept by: Brad Bird	Michael Giacchino
				Brad Bird Matthew Robbins

Short films

Release	Title	Director	Composer	Distribution
October 1, 2021	Blush	Joe Mateo	Joy Ngiaw	Apple TV+

Television series

Year		Title	Showrunners(s)/Developer(s)	Network	Seasons	Episodes	Co-Production	Ref(s)
First Broadcast	Last Broadcast
TBA		WondLa	Bobs Gannaway	Apple TV+	1 (2 ordered)	TBA	Gotham Group

Reception

Critical and public response

Each film is linked to the "Critical response" section of its article.

Critical and public response of Pixar films

Film	Budget	Critical
		Rotten Tomatoes	Metacritic
Luck	$140-200 million	48% (93 reviews)	48 (21 reviews)

Accolades

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipient(s)	Result
Hollywood Music in Media Awards	November 17, 2021	Original Score — Short Animated Film (Blush)	Joy Ngiaw	Won
Music + Sound Awards	2022		Joy Ngiaw, Joe Mateo

External links

• Official website