Here are the Top Animation Studios in the World

top animation studios

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Created and developed for more than a hundred years, viewers have consistently appreciated the craft of animation due to its boundless imaginative potential. No matter the form it assumes, whether classic animation or contemporary CGI techniques. A significant impact on the history of animation comes from the creations of these top animation studios, which are also among the largest animation studios.

These top animation studios worldwide craft vibrant fantasy realms that enchant audiences across generations. 

What is an Animation Studio?

An animation studio is a business that produces animated content. It possesses the essential tools and skilled staff to create animations for various objectives. The top animation studios are known for their exceptional creativity and innovation, setting benchmarks in the industry.

Certain studios, including the biggest animation studio, create and distribute their intellectual properties, like animated films, and hold the rights to their characters and technologies. Other studios produce animated material for clients under contract and do not possess the copyrights to digital merchandise.

Other fields of expertise comprise: 

  • Creation of a full-length movie.
  • Cartoon advertisements.
  • Title sequences, television programs, and brief movies.
  • A broad spectrum of multimedia creation. 

Categories of Animation Studios 

Despite the numerous animation studios across the globe today, they can be categorized into two types: large corporate entities and small contracting companies. 

Large Corporate Animation Studios

Major corporate studios are animation companies that began on a small scale and grew into large firms or entertainment media enterprises that either acquired an existing studio or created their own animation division. For instance, The Disney Company, one of the biggest animation companies, possesses several subsidiary studios, including Walt Disney Animation Studio, Industrial Light & Magic, 20th Century Animation, and Lucasfilm Animation. It also bought Pixar Animation Studios in 2006.

In particular, the top animation studios and the biggest animation studios possess extensive frameworks with dedicated divisions and teams, along with a substantial budget for new equipment or cutting-edge animation technologies.

These major studios, including renowned CGI studios, are also experts in technical and production abilities and are frequently appropriate for films that have a large budget and demand advanced or specialized techniques. 

Minor Contractor Studios 

This kind of studio is frequently run as a privately owned business, typically consisting of a small group of several hundred individuals. Due to their smaller scope, it is simple to engage in the projects and achieve the best-animated results. 

Generally, the majority of individuals employed at both animation studios are highly talented, mutually encouraging, and enjoy having fun. 

Read also: A List of Best Animation Studios Los Angeles Has to Offer for Animators to Work

Top Most Famous Animation Studios Globally 

Here are the largest animation studios globally, crafting colorful, fantastical realms that captivate generations of audiences. Clearly, if you frequently view animated movies, you must already be familiar with them! 

Prolific Studio 

Prolific Studio

Prolific Studio is an important contractor for top animation studios and top animation companies. They produce animations in both 3D and 2D, employing various animation styles to cater to a diverse audience.

Their broad experience enables them to collaborate with larger studios, including big anime studios, and produce top-notch animations that meet their high standards.

They adhere to a thorough animation procedure that includes preliminary consultations, storyboard creation, character design, and the ultimate production of animations. This guarantees that their efforts correspond with clients’ visions and goals.

Prolific Studio boasts a talented team of in-house animators who utilize cutting-edge technology to produce content that achieves results.

Their reliability in producing top-notch animations and ensuring high client satisfaction has established them as a dependable ally for significant animation studios, including big anime studios.

Pixar 

Pixar is renowned for its computer-generated 3D animations (CGI), developed through photorealistic Renderman, its proprietary graphics rendering software designed to deliver top-notch visuals.

As one of the top animation studios and a pioneer in the industry, Pixar serves as an excellent illustration of how genius fosters creativity. For many years, the animation studio has developed animated characters that we have all grown to adore. Pixar, often regarded as the biggest animation studio by influence, has achieved the creation of narratives that resonate with audiences of every age, not just youngsters.

It’s not only the movies that reach theaters that impress us; even short films draw our attention with the richness of their details. Particularly, Pixar has enchanted viewers repeatedly, from the Toy Story series to WALL-E, and we have no doubt that they will keep doing so for many years ahead.

As one of the leading cartoon movie companies, the studio has gained 23 Academy Awards, 10 Golden Globe Awards, and 11 Grammy Awards, along with various other accolades and honors. 

Walt Disney Animation Studios 

Disney is a name that stirs an emotional reaction in everyone globally simply by saying it. As one of the top animation studios, the brand is omnipresent, and the iconic animated movies that the studio created in its initial years laid the foundation for the entire industry. Walt Disney, along with his brother Roy Disney, founded Walt Disney Animation Studios in 1923. At first, the two brothers were producing brief animated movies.

Additionally, Walt Disney stands as one of the biggest animation studios within the Disney Company, linked to numerous iconic works throughout the years: “Frozen,” “Mulan,” “Fantastic,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “101 Dalmatians,” “The Little Mermaid,” “The Lion King,” and “Aladdin and the Lamp,” among others.

Moreover, Walt Disney Animation Studios, often regarded among the best CGI companies, created fundamental methods like the 12 principles of animation and the invention of the multiplane camera, which later established the norm for traditional animation production.

Studio Ghibli

Studio Ghibli

Studio Ghibli, one of the most powerful animation studios in Japan, is renowned for its superb movie production. Hayao Miyazaki and the talented animators at the studio have probably made Studio Ghibli the most down-to-earth and beloved anime studio in the world. So astonishing detail and genuine care goes into every one of Ghibli’s works, which makes it overwhelmingly clear why sets the studio apart from the rest.

Films from the Ghibli animation studio received extensive acclaim and significantly impacted other animation studios. If that’s not sufficient, Studio Ghibli has produced six of the top fifteen highest-grossing anime films ever, with Spirited Away ranked first. Its first film, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, achieved tremendous success, contributing to Studio Ghibli’s emergence as the iconic studio it is now.

Other notable works such as Castle in the Sky, Princesse Mononoke, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howl’s Moving Castle, and My Neighbor Totoro gained popularity in Japan and worldwide.

DreamWorks Animation

Dreamworks Animation has always been a step behind both Pixar and Disney, but that is not to say that the company is not one of the greats when it comes to producing animated content. The animation studio has always delivered exceptional and captivating stories whenever they make the transition from cinema to screen, and so they have yet to let anyone down.

By July 2021, the company had diversified with 41 different feature films and some of the biggest-grossing animated movies of all time. The studio has received remarkable recognitions: 22 Emmy Awards, 3 Academy Awards, several Annie awards, and other nominations from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and the Golden Globe.

Throughout the years, Shrek and Kung Fu Panda have emerged as two of their most prosperous film franchises, with Shrek 2 (2004) achieving the highest earnings upon its debut.

Nickelodeon Animation Studios

Nickelodeon is the leading brand for children’s entertainment, offering a superb variety of family-oriented shows, feature films, and various entertainment platforms. 

This popular animation studio has created some of the most iconic television cartoons of all time, including Spongebob Squarepants, Avatar The Last Airbender, and Jimmy Neutron. These three served as proof of the studio’s evolution in animation throughout the 1980s and 90s.

Although there are stronger contenders for the leading position in film, Nickelodeon is undoubtedly one of the major players in television. Spongebob has prevailed throughout the years and is among the most iconic cartoons ever created. Their shows, including Rugrats, have also gained considerable acclaim and built a sizable fanbase notably over time. 

Cartoon Network Studio

The Satellite TV channel Cartoon Network has been no. 1 in the world for years, and its studios are the main creators and developers of animated series and shorts.

Unlike other major studios, Cartoon Network Studios began airing their shows during the 2010s on Adult Swim, and it now streams via HBO Max under Warner Bros. As it stands, the studio has only released one animated film in theaters to date, The Powerpuff Girls Movie, along with some classic animated series like Adventure Time, Ben 10, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Samurai Jack, and others.

Warner Bros. Animation 

Warner Bros. Animation

Warner Bros. Animation is most recognized for producing Looney Tunes, Batman: The Animated Series, and Space Jam. 

In 1980, Warner revived its animation division to produce associated projects. In 1996, TBS merged with Time Warner (currently WarnerMedia) to create Looney Tunes. 

Warner Bros. Animation recently started venturing into the film genre and has seen success with animated films like The Lego Movie, Storks, Smallfoot, Tom and Jerry, and many more.

Toei Animation 

Toei Animation ranks among the leading animation studios in Japan. It is recognized worldwide for a vast array of projects that include feature films, animated television series, and video games (almost 300 endeavors from the 1960s to today). For instance, the animation studio has created movies that have reached the top ten rankings of the best-animated films: Dragon Ball Z, One Piece, and others. 

If you know about anime, you’ve likely heard that Dragon Ball is Toei’s most famous franchise. Other extremely popular series encompass Sailor Moon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and One Piece. 

In addition, the anime by Toei Animation that received the Animage Anime Grand Prix award includes Galaxy Express 999 in 1981, Saint Seiya in 1987, and Sailor Moon in 1992. 

Sunrise Inc.

While other studios concentrated on genres like manga adaptations, sports, and tales for children, Sunrise dedicated itself to creating robot anime. 

Moreover, among the largest and most renowned anime studios, Sunrise is known for Cyborg 009, the Gundam series, InuYasha, Gintama, Cowboy Bebop, and Code Geass. 

Sony Pictures Animation

The animation division of Sony is considered to be one of the most productive in the world. The studio is perhaps younger than Dreamworks, Disney, and Pixar, but its growth over the years has been phenomenal. Some of its best movies are Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Hotel Transylvania.

Over the years, Sony has made a name for itself as an animation studio, and we look forward to seeing more films from them, like Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, which certainly piqued the interest of everyone. This movie solidified the claim by many that the studio is among the best.

You may also like: How to Create Your Own 3D Animated Series: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

Final Words

The list above features just the top 11 animation studios, but the number of new animation studios has grown in recent years. In addition to major corporate animation studios from Western nations or Japan, smaller contractor studios in various regions have demonstrated significant productivity in terms of both quantity and quality.

If you want top animation services from one of the best animation studios in LA, Prolific Studio is the perfect answer. Contact us now.

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David Lucas

David Lucas leads SEO content strategy at Prolific Studio, combining data insights with creative storytelling to boost visibility and engagement. By identifying search trends and tailoring content to resonate with audiences, he helps the studio achieve measurable growth while staying at the forefront of animation and digital innovation.

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