For the longest time, a handful of studios have dominated the animated movie landscape. Walt Disney Animation Studios was on top for decades, while Pixar came in and stunned everyone with their projects since the ’90s. DreamWorks has had some great moments, while Studio Ghibli puts out the most consistently great animated films around the world.
That said, it seems like Sony Pictures Animation is starting to take over the landscape. The once-overlooked studio has begun to really put out some stellar films as of late, from record-breaking hits on Netflix to Best Animated Feature Oscar winners to hidden gems. They’ve taken the world of animation by storm.
Sony Has The Best Animated Superhero Movies
While Sony Pictures Animation put out some strong movies over the years, from Hotel Transylvania to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, it feels like they really took a step up in 2018 with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The movie was a commercial success, yet an even bigger one critically.
The film was met with widespread acclaim for its visual style, screenplay, voice acting, music, and pretty much everything else. It holds a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and took home the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The 2023 sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, is just as good, if not better.
That means that Sony Pictures Animation has the best animated superhero franchise around. Other studios can compete, like Pixar’s The Incredibles, yet it’s hard to top what Sony has done with these projects. The highly anticipated Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse could make for an incredible trilogy, even if it’s only average. That’s how good the first two installments are.
Not only is Spider-Verse the best animated superhero franchise, but there’s a good chance it’s also the best superhero franchise period.
KPop Demon Hunters Broke Records
This past year, Sony Pictures Animation had its biggest success ever. KPop Demon Hunters took the world by storm, becoming the most-watched film on Netflix in history. For nearly 250 days, it has remained in Netflix’s global top 10, showing incredible staying power.
On top of that, the music of KPop Demon Hunters is even bigger, topping charts and getting millions of streams. It’s a cultural phenomenon that is currently the favorite to take home the Best Animated Feature Oscar at the Academy Awards.
The film is so successful that there are huge plans to expand the franchise. There’s a sequel slated for 2029, a short film that’s already out, and there’s talk of a stage play, another sequel, and a television series spin-off. That’s not even mentioning toys, merchandise, graphic novels, and more. That sets up Sony Pictures Animation for a long time.
The Quality Of Sony Animated Movies Has Gone Way Up
As noted, Sony Pictures Animation was putting out some solid movies early in its run. Open Season, Surf’s Up, and Arthur Christmas are all good films, while Hotel Transylvania became the first major franchise for the studio, spawning multiple sequels and becoming box office hits.
However, not all of their movies were well-received. Hotel Transylvania never got higher than 62% on Rotten Tomatoes, The Emoji Movie was destroyed by critics, and most of their other projects received mixed reviews at best. That has changed in recent years.
It started with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse but has only continued. The Angry Birds Movie 2 is one of the better-reviewed video game films ever, while The Mitchells vs. The Machines is one of the best animated movies of the 2020s. Its latest film, GOAT, has also received positive reviews.
Add in another likely Best Animated Feature Oscar winner in KPop Demon Hunters and this is a studio that is consistently putting out high-quality movies now. That bodes well for their future and they’re on a hot streak that could take them right to the top for a while.
Sony Even Has Great Hidden Gem Animated Movies
Everyone knows about KPop Demon Hunters and the Spider-Verse films, while even The Mitchells vs. The Machines was a hit on Netflix. The studio also has some underrated and overlooked movies that deserve more attention and help prove their status as animation giants.
While The Mitchells vs. The Machines was their biggest film of 2021, they released two other good ones. Wish Dragon was a very good movie that’s getting a sequel next year, while Vivo is a criminally underrated film that includes the musical stylings of the great Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Those two films scored a 71% and an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, respectively. It shows that Sony Pictures Animation is firing on all cylinders right now, even when they aren’t putting out wildly popular films.
The immediate future for Sony Pictures Animation includes the exciting sequels to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Wish Dragon, and KPop Demon Hunters, as well as an original movie titled Buds (not much is known about that). If those films are anything like what we’ve recently gotten from them, Sony Pictures Animation should be the animation kings of the 2020s.
