Universal Animation Studios

2ProductsAnimated films
Animated television showsParentUniversal Pictures

Universal Animation Studios LLC^[5] (formerly known as Universal Cartoon Studios) is an American animation studio and a division of Universal Pictures, which is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast. It has produced direct-to-video sequels to Universal-released feature films, such as The Land Before Time, An American Tail, Balto, and Curious George, as well as other films and television series.

The actual animation production is done overseas, usually by foreign animation studios like Wang Film Productions and Rough Draft Studios, while pre-production and post-production is United States-based.

The television animation divisions of Universal and DreamWorks merged on August 23, 2016 after Universal completed its acquisition of DreamWorks Animation, who began producing a majority of Universal Pictures' family friendly TV shows.^[6]

History

Universal Animation Studios was established in 1990 as Universal Cartoon Studios, the animation division of MCA Inc.^[7] It was originally a subsidiary of Universal Family Entertainment, which was headed by Jeff Segal.^[8] Its debut work was Back to the Future: The Animated Series, which was announced on March 22, 1991, and premiered on CBS on September 14 the same year.^[9][10]

In 1996, the two groups Universal Family Entertainment and its subsidiary Universal Cartoon Studios were absorbed into MCA Television Entertainment.^[11]

In 2005, Universal Cartoon Studios was absorbed into Universal Studios Family Productions, and later on, it was renamed to Universal Animation Studios.^[12][13]

Franchises

This is not including the original films of Charlotte's Web, An American Tail, The Land Before Time and Balto made by either Hanna-Barbera Productions, Sullivan Bluth Studios or Amblimation.

Titles	Release dates	Movies	TV Seasons
Woody Woodpecker	1991–present1	2	6
An American Tail	1986–1999	4	1
The Land Before Time	1988–2016	14	2
Balto	1995–2004	3	0
Alvin and the Chipmunks	1999–2000	2	0
Charlotte's Web	2003	1	0
Curious George	2006–2022	6	15

^1:The date reflects the first appearance of Woody Woodpecker in a production from Universal Cartoon Studios rather than the date when the character was originally created in 1940 by Walter Lantz Productions.

Filmography

Feature films

Theatrical feature films

#	Title	Release date	Director	Writer(s)		Producer(s)	Co-production with
				Story	Screenplay
1	Curious George	February 10, 2006 (2006-02-10)	Matthew O'Callaghan	Ken Kaufman Mike Werb	Ken Kaufman	Ron Howard David Kirschner Jon Shapiro	Imagine Entertainment
2	Woody Woodpecker[R][S]	October 5, 2017 (2017-10-05)	Alex Zamm	William Robertson Alex Zamm Daniel Altiere Steven Altiere	William Robertson Alex Zamm	Mike Elliott	Universal 1440 Entertainment

^S Combines live-action with animation.

^R Not released theatrically in the United States

Direct-to-video/streaming feature films

Children's feature films

#	Title	Release date	Co-production with
as Universal Cartoon Studios
1	The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure	December 13, 1994 (1994-12-13)	N/A
2	The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving	December 12, 1995 (1995-12-12)
3	The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists	December 10, 1996 (1996-12-10)
4	The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island	December 9, 1997 (1997-12-09)
5	Hercules and Xena – The Animated Movie: The Battle for Mount Olympus	January 6, 1998 (1998-01-06)	Renaissance Pictures
6	The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock	December 1, 1998 (1998-12-01)	N/A
7	Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein	September 28, 1999 (1999-09-28)	Bagdasarian Productions, LLC.
8	An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island	February 15, 2000 (2000-02-15)	N/A
9	An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster	July 25, 2000 (2000-07-25)
10	Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman	August 29, 2000 (2000-08-29)	Bagdasarian Productions, LLC.
11	The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire	December 5, 2000 (2000-12-05)	N/A
12	The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze	December 4, 2001 (2001-12-04)
13	Balto II: Wolf Quest	February 19, 2002 (2002-02-19)
14	The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water	December 10, 2002 (2002-12-10)
15	Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure	March 18, 2003 (2003-03-18)	Paramount Pictures Nickelodeon Animation Studio
16	The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration	December 2, 2003 (2003-12-02)	N/A
17	Balto III: Wings of Change	September 30, 2004 (2004-09-30)
18	The Land Before Time XI: Invasion of the Tinysauruses	January 11, 2005 (2005-01-11)
19	The Adventures of Brer Rabbit	March 21, 2006 (2006-03-21)
as Universal Animation Studios
20	The Land Before Time XII: The Great Day of the Flyers	February 27, 2007 (2007-02-27)	N/A
21	The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends	November 27, 2007 (2007-11-27)
22	Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey![R]	July 10, 2009 (2009-07-10)	Imagine Entertainment
23	The Little Engine That Could	March 22, 2011 (2011-03-22)	Crest Animation Productions
24	Curious George 3: Back to the Jungle[14]	June 23, 2015 (2015-06-23)	Imagine Entertainment Universal 1440 Entertainment
25	The Land Before Time XIV: Journey of the Brave[15]	February 2, 2016 (February 2, 2016)	Universal 1440 Entertainment
26	Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas Is You	November 14, 2017 (2017-11-14)	Universal 1440 Entertainment Splash Entertainment Telegael Magic Carpet Productions
27	Curious George: Royal Monkey[16]	September 10, 2019 (2019-09-10)	Imagine Entertainment Universal 1440 Entertainment
28	Curious George: Go West, Go Wild[P][17]	September 8, 2020
29	Bobbleheads: The Movie	December 8, 2020	Threshold Animation Studios Universal 1440 Entertainment
30	Curious George: Cape Ahoy[P][18]	September 30, 2021	Imagine Entertainment Universal 1440 Entertainment
31	Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp[N][S][19]	April 12, 2024 (2024-04-12)[20]	Universal 1440 Entertainment

Adult animated short films

#	Title	Release date	Co-production with
as Universal Cartoon Studios
1	Van Helsing: The London Assignment[A]	May 11, 2004 (2004-05-11)	N/A
2	The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury[A]	June 15, 2004 (2004-06-15)

^P Released on Peacock.

^N Released on Netflix.

^A Adult animated production.

Short films

• Fractured Fairy Tales: The Phox, the Box, & the Lox (1999) (theatrical release)

Television series

#	Title	Creator(s) / Developer(s)	Original run	Network	Co-production with
as Universal Cartoon Studios
1	Back to the Future	Robert Zemeckis Bob Gale	1991–1992	CBS	Amblin Television Zaloom/Mayfield Productions BIG Pictures
2	Shelley Duvall's Bedtime Stories	Shelley Duvall	1992–1993	Showtime	Think Entertainment
3	Fievel's American Tails	David Kirschner	1992	CBS	Amblin Television Nelvana
4	Exosquad	Jeff Segal Eric Lewald Michael Edens	1993–1994	Syndication	N/A
5	Problem Child	Scott Alexander Larry Karaszewski		USA Network	D'Ocon Films Productions (season 1) Lacewood Productions (season 2)
6	Monster Force	Marv Wolfman	1994	Syndication	Lacewood Productions
7	Beethoven	N/A	1994–1995	CBS	Northern Lights Entertainment
8	Earthworm Jim	Doug TenNapel Doug Langdale	1995–1996	Kids' WB	Shiny Entertainment
9	The Savage Dragon	Dean Stefan Bob Forward		USA Network	Lacewood Productions (season 1) Studio B Productions (season 2) P3 Entertainment USA Studios
10	The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper	Sherri Stoner Deanna Oliver	1996–1998	Fox Kids	Amblin Television Harveytoons
11	Wing Commander Academy	Michael Edens Mark Edens	1996	USA Network	N/A
12	Vor-Tech: Undercover Conversion Squad	N/A		Syndication	Edition Dupuis France S.A. Mediatoon Lacewood Productions
13	The New Woody Woodpecker Show	Bob Jacques Kelly Armstrong	1999–2002	Fox Kids	N/A
14	The Mummy: The Animated Series	Thomas Pugsley Greg Klein	2001–2003	Kids' WB	Studios USA Television (season 1) The Sommers Company
as Universal Animation Studios
15	Curious George	Joe Fallon	2006–2022	PBS Kids (2006–2022) Family Jr. (2018–2020) Peacock (2020–2022)	Imagine Entertainment (seasons 1–9, 14–15) WGBH Boston (seasons 1–12) Universal 1440 Entertainment (seasons 10–15)
16	The Land Before Time	Ford Riley	2007–2008	Cartoon Network	Amblin Entertainment
17	Woody Woodpecker	Alex Zamm	2018–2022	YouTube	Universal Pictures International Universal 1440 Entertainment Splash Entertainment

Television specials

#	Title	Release date	Network	Co-production with
as Universal Cartoon Studios
1	A Wish for Wings That Work	December 18, 1991 (December 18, 1991)	CBS	Amblin Television
as Universal Animation Studios
2	Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas	November 25, 2009 (November 25, 2009)	PBS Kids	Imagine Entertainment WGBH Boston
3	Curious George Swings Into Spring	April 22, 2013 (April 22, 2013)
4	Curious George: A Halloween Boo Fest	October 28, 2013 (October 28, 2013)
5	How Murray Saved Christmas	December 5, 2014 (December 5, 2014)	NBC	Universal Television

Miscellaneous work

• 63rd Academy Awards (1991) – animation for Woody Woodpecker presenting the award for Best Animated Short Film^[21]
• Kids WB! promos – Earthworm Jim segments.
• The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man (1999) – traditionally-animated introduction^[22]
• Dudley-Do Right’s RipSaw Falls (1999) – traditionally-animated queue video.

Cancelled projects

• Escape from Jurassic Park,^[23] an animated TV series that takes place after the first Jurassic Park film, was confirmed to be in development and awaiting Steven Spielberg's approval in June 1993.^[24] The series would have centered on John Hammond's attempts to finish Jurassic Park and open it to the public, while InGen's corporate rival Biosyn is simultaneously planning to open their own dinosaur theme park in Brazil, which ultimately ends with their dinosaurs escaping into the jungles.^[25][26][27] Artist William Stout was hired to work on the series and subsequently made a trailer to demonstrate how the series would look, and how it would combine traditional animation with computer animation. The series required Spielberg's final approval before it could go into production. However, Spielberg had grown tired of the massive promotion and merchandise revolving around the film, and never watched the trailer.^[28] On July 13, 1993, Margaret Loesch, president of the Fox Children's Network, confirmed that discussions had been held with Spielberg about an animated version of the film. Loesch also said, "At least for now and in the foreseeable future, there will not be an animated Jurassic Park. That's Steven Spielberg's decision, and we respect that decision."^[29]
• A pair of traditionally animated cutscenes were produced for the 1996 video game Crash Bandicoot to serve as the game's intro and outro, as well as act as source material for a potential animated series if the game was well-received and commercially successful. The hand-drawn cutscenes were dropped after Sony Computer Entertainment picked up Crash Bandicoot for publication, as Sony desired to push the PlayStation's 3D polygonal graphics. The cutscenes were uploaded to YouTube by producer David Siller in 2015.^[30][31]
• Jurassic Park: Chaos Effect, an animated television series based on The Lost World: Jurassic Park, was confirmed to be in development within the third part of a four-part comic adaptation of the film published by Topps Comics in July 1997.^[32][33] In November 1997, it was reported that the cartoon would be accompanied by Jurassic Park: Chaos Effect, a series of dinosaur toys produced by Kenner and based on a premise that scientists had created dinosaur hybrids consisting of DNA from different creatures.^[34][35] That month, it was also reported that the cartoon could be ready by March 1998, as a mid-season replacement.^[34] The Chaos Effect toyline was released in June 1998,^[35] but the animated series was never produced, for unknown reasons.^[36]

See also

• Illumination
• DreamWorks Animation
  • DreamWorks Animation Television
• List of Universal Pictures theatrical animated feature films
• List of unproduced Universal Pictures animated projects
• List of animation studios owned by Comcast NBCUniversal

References