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; 2 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

Please note: This draft should not be submitted for review or moved to the mainspace until final animation or voice recording has begun, per WP:NFF.

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 it is a unit of 20th Century Studios, a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is a division of The Walt Disney Company. The studio is best known for creating the Ice Age, and Rio tasked with producing computer-animated feature films. Scrat, a character from the Ice Age franchise, was the studio's mascot.

History

In February 2025, it was reported that Robert Simonds and Bill McGlashan was nearing a after the closure of Blue Sky Studios in 2021. the Spotlight Animation label under 20th Century Studios 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 Carlos Saldanha (Ice Age, Rio, Ferdinand and Harold and the Purple Crayon) to direct Toyland, Kevin Asbury to direct Kazorn and the Unicorn and Frogkisser!, 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 August 14, 2026, Spotlight Animation's logo revealed their first logo, it represents their logo in blue, in white in the style of Blue Sky Studios' short logo. With the release of With the release of Kazorn and the Unicorn in March 2027, their full logo was released and shows Scratte and Scrat from Ice Age which are now the mascots of the studio launched from their baby (also from Ice Age) runs around to form the studio's logo with draws blue and purple crayon, the fanfare was composed by Batu Sener which was adopted from the theme of Ice Age, it was animated by DNEG Animation and their head of animation, Chris Meledandri.

Process

In a similar fashion to Paramount Animation, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, Sony Pictures Animation and Illumination, Spotlight does not produce its films in-house where it is based in Greenwich, Connecticut., but rather outsources the animation production of its films to other studios, with the majority of their films being animated by. Spotlight Animation Studios outsources their feature films to other animation studios such as DNEG Animation.

Filmography

Feature films

Upcoming films

Title	Release date	Director(s)	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Composer(s)	Production	Distribution
Toyland	August 14, 2026	Carlos Saldanha	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	Batu Sener	N/A	20th Century Studios
Toyland	August 14, 2026	Carlos Saldanha	Matt Lieberman
Kazorn and the Unicorn	March 5, 2027	Kevin Asbury Co-director: Chris Wedge	Pamela Ribon Stacey Harman
Larrikins	August 13, 2027	Chris Miller	Based on an original characters by: Harry Cripps		Rupert Gregson-Williams (score) Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (songs)
Larrikins	August 13, 2027	Chris Miller	Martin Hynes Steven Levenson
Frogkisser!	May 19, 2028	Kevin Asbury	Based on an fairy tale by: Garth Nix		Batu Sener (score) Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (songs)
Frogkisser!	May 19, 2028	Kevin Asbury	Michael McCullers		Batu Sener (score) Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (songs)
Zodiac	July 21, 2028	Tom McGrath	Billy Frolick Mark Burton		Batu Sener
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

References

External links

Official website

[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)
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)
Associated productions	The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild (2022) Nimona (2023) Ice Age 6 (2026)
Franchises	Ice Age (2002–present) Rio (2011–present)
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