December’s Biggest Stories From The World Of Animation

From major awards announcements to box office debuts to high-profile interviews, we were plenty busy this December covering all the major stories impacting the world of animation.

The animated feature Oscar race came into focus as other major award platforms announced their picks for the best of 2023. Animation and vfx workers didn’t let the holiday season slow down their push to seek out union representation. And the December box office held several surprises, some good and some historically bad.

Here are ten topics that had our readers talking in December.

1) Awards:

This month, we learned that a record 33 animated features qualified for this year’s Oscar race as well as the 15 titles shortlisted for the animated short category. The Golden Globes unveiled their six animated feature nominees, as did the Critics Choice Awards. The European Film Awards picked Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams as the year’s best European animated feature, and the New York Film Critics picked Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron as the year’s top animated film. In looking at the results of those races, it’s hard to draw any hardline conclusions about this year’s Oscar race, except that The Boy and the Heron and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse seem to be edging away from the rest of the pack as the two films which are being nominated by nearly every awards body. December also saw the second edition of the Children’s & Family Emmy Awards take place, where Netflix’s Lost Ollie and Disney’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur both scored multiple prizes.

2) Box Office:

December began with two big U.S. features in theaters, Disney’s Wish and Dreamworks’ Trolls Band Together. The two films did similar business week-to-week in December, despite Trolls having been released a week before Wish. However, the big story this month was the record-breaking run of Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron, which became the filmmaker’s highest-grossing title ever in the U.S., distributor GKIDS’s highest-grossing release ever, and the highest-grossing original anime in U.S. box office history. Just ahead of the Christmas holiday, Migration, Illumination’s first original feature since Sing in 2016, posted the studio’s lowest-ever opening weekend, but we’re not ready to call it a flop yet. After all, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish debuted with a similar box office total just before Christmas last year and legged out an impressive $481.6 million global haul.

3) Year in Review:

We published several “wrap-up” style pieces this month, exploring major trends in the industry over the past year. We divided the major animated feature distributors into winners and losers based on the performances of their films this year, we profiled 10 standout animated series that debuted in 2023, and we highlighted a few key works that will hit the public domain when the calendar flips over on January 1.

4) Interviews:

We spoke to numerous filmmakers, artists, and producers in December, including Merry Little Batman art director Guillaume Fesquet and character designer Ben Tong, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget director Sam Fell, Kung Fu Panda 4 director Mike Mitchell and co-director Stephanie Ma Stine, Rey Mysterio vs. The Darkness producers Los Hermanos Calavera, Robot Dreams director Pablo Berger, Migration director Benjamin Renner, Titina director Kajsa Næss, Unicorn Wars director Alberto Vázquez, and Four Souls of Coyote director Áron Gauder.

5) Opinions:

Several high-profile figures from the industry shared opinions which caught our attention this month. Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri talked about the current state of animated feature theatrical distribution and whether original titles can be profitable compared to their franchise counterparts. Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino warned Japanese Studios against emulating “Disney’s boring digital production system.” And Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley explained why he believes that mixing the western influences of his comic with the eastern influences of producer Science Saru created such a unique adaptation of the original IP.

6) Artist Rights:

December capped off a huge year in terms of labor organization within the animation industry. This month, Warner Bros. Discovery studio management agreed to voluntarily recognize Warner Brothers Animation and Cartoon Network production workers’ request to unionize with The Animation Guild. And a group of 83 vfx workers at James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment, best known for working on the Avatar films, filed a request with the NLRB for a vote to unionize with IATSE.

7) Theatrical Distribution:

Disney announced it will give long-overdue theatrical runs to three Pixar features that went straight to streaming when they debuted during and shortly after the pandemic: Soul, Turning Red, and Luca. Paramount released an animation-heavy trailer for John Krasinski’s upcoming hybrid feature IF, which will hit theaters on May 17.

8) Studios:

Skybound Entertainment, producer of Prime Video’s hit animated series Invincible, launched Skybound Japan, a new division established to grow the company’s global footprint and facilitate international co-production.

9) Streaming:

Netflix released a massive trove of viewing data for the first six months of 2023, which had some big-time surprises in it. Company co-CEO Ted Sarandos also said the platform plans to up its animated feature spend after the success of original films such as Leo and The Sea Beast. Paramount+ announced that its once theatrical-bound animated feature The Tiger’s Apprentice will go straight to streaming on February 2. And Prime Video released the first trailer for its upcoming indie animated series Hazbin Hotel, which debuts on January 19. And Peacock revealed first character photos and a January 25 debut date for its first adult animation series In the Know.

10) New Titles:

This month, it was revealed that Glucose filmmaker Jeron Braxton will make his feature debut with the animated monster movie Slime. Premise Entertainment shared early details and first-look artwork for its biblical animated feature Jesus. And Amphibia creator Matt Braly is developing a new Sony animated film scripted by Steven Universe creator Rebecca Sugar.

On the Move:

Animation legend Mark Henn retired after 43 years at Disney; Toon Boom Animation appointed former Corus executive Colin Bohm as its new CEO; and Steven Universe creator and OK K.O.! creator Ian Jones-Quartey signed with UTA.

RIP:

In Memoriam: Remembering the animation figures who died in 2023.