Draft:Spotlight Animation Studios

Spotlight Animation Studios
Company type	Division
Genre	Animation; Motion pictures; Television;
Predecessor	Fox Animation Studios; MAGI; Blue Sky Studios
Founded	February 12, 2025; 3 months' time
Founder	Chris Wedge; Chris Meledandri; Robert Simonds; Bill McGlashan;
Headquarters	Greenwich, Connecticut, United States
Key people	Gabriel Marano (president); Zev Foreman (co-president); Olivier Dumont (co-president); Gina Shay (head of animation);
Products	Film production; Television series; Animated series
Parent	20th Century Studios
Divisions	High Ridge Road, North Stamford, Connecticut

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Spotlight Animation Studios was an American visual effects and computer animation studio based in Greenwich, Connecticut. It was founded on February 12, 2025, by Chris Wedge, Chris Meledandri, Robert Simonds and Bill McGlashan, Connecticut the North Stamford branch was originally Annapurna Animation.

History

In February 2025, it was reported that Robert Simonds and Bill McGlashan was nearing a deal to the Spotlight Animation label under Paramount Animation for the first time in over a decade. In May 2025, Spotlight Animation Studios hired former Illumination and DreamWorks Animation CCO Chris Meledandri. In July 2025, Gina Shay, producer of Toyland, is now hired as Head of Production at Spotlight Animation Studios and will oversee production planning for the studio's slate of films.

Spotlight Animation Studios signed on directors Nick Bruno and Troy Quane (Spies in Disguise and Nimona) to directors Toyland, Kevin Asbury to direct Kazorn and the Unicorn and Shedd, Chris Miller (Shrek the Third, Puss in Boots and The Smurfs Movie) to direct Larrikins, Tom McGrath (Madagascar, Megamind and The Boss Baby) to direct Zodiac and Nicholas Stoller and Doug Sweetland (Storks) to directors Penguin of Ipanema.

Production logo

With the release of Toyland in March 2026, Spotlight Animation's logo. It features characters from Kazorn and the Unicorn, Larrikins, Zodiac, Penguin of Ipanema, Shedd, and Toyland, it was animated by DNEG Animation and their head of animation Chris Meledandri. The behind the music of the studio's logo was posted by Theodore Shapiro.

Process

In a similar fashion to Skydance Animation, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, Sony Pictures Animation and Illumination, the studio outsources their animated films to different animation and visual effects studios, with the majority of their films being animated in-house by the main Blue Sky Studios in Greenwich, Connecticut. Spotlight Animation Studios outsources their feature films to other animation studios such as DNEG Animation.

Feature films

Filmography

Feature films

Upcoming films

Title	Release date	Director(s)	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Composer(s)	Production	Distribution
Toyland	March 27, 2026	Nick Bruno and Troy Quane	Based on an loose remake of the 1995 animated film Toy Story by: Joss Whedon Andrew Stanton Joel Cohen Alec Sokolow	Chris Meledandri Gina Shay	Theodore Shapiro	N/A	20th Century Studios
Toyland	March 27, 2026	Nick Bruno and Troy Quane	Matt Lieberman
Kazorn and the Unicorn	May 22, 2026	Kevin Asbury Co-director: Chris Wedge	Pamela Ribon Stacey Harman
Larrikins	August 13, 2027	Chris Miller	Based on an original characters by: Harry Cripps		Theodore Shapiro (score) Pharrell Williams Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (songs)	I Am Other Imagine Entertainment
Larrikins	August 13, 2027	Chris Miller	Martin Hynes Steven Levenson			I Am Other Imagine Entertainment
Shedd	May 26, 2028	Kevin Asbury	Alison Peck		Christopher Lennertz	N/A
Zodiac	July 21, 2028	Tom McGrath	Billy Frolick Mark Burton		Christopher Lennertz
Penguin of Ipanema	July 20, 2029	Nicholas Stoller Doug Sweetland	Stoller		Mychael and Jeff Danna

In development

Film	Director(s)	Notes
The ChubbChubbs!	Chris Wedge	—
Geronimo Stilton	David Soren
Untitled The Ugly Duckling and Me! film	Nick Bruno and Troy Quane

[D-1] Originally in-production at 20th Century Studios, but were switched over to Walt Disney Pictures before completion.

[a]

v t e Blue Sky Studios
Feature films	Ice Age (2002) Robots (2005) Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006) Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! (2008) Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) Rio (2011) Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) Epic (2013) Rio 2 (2014) The Peanuts Movie (2015) Ice Age: Collision Course (2016) Ferdinand (2017) Spies in Disguise (2019) The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild (2022) Nimona (2023)
Short films	Bunny (1998) Gone Nutty (2002) Aunt Fanny's Tour of Booty (2005) No Time for Nuts (2006) Surviving Sid (2008) Cosmic Scrat-tastrophe (2015) Scrat: Spaced Out (2016)
Television specials and series	Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas (2011) Ice Age: The Great Egg-Scapade (2016) Ice Age: Scrat Tales (2022)
Franchises	Ice Age (2002–2022) Rio (2011–2014)
People	Chris Wedge Carlos Saldanha Steve Martino Nick Bruno and Troy Quane
See also	20th Century Animation 20th Television Animation Fox Animation Studios Walt Disney Animation Studios Pixar Disney Television Animation Disneytoon Studios Marvel Animation Lucasfilm Animation Industrial Light & Magic List of 20th Century Studios theatrical animated feature films unproduced projects