20th Century Animation, Inc. (previously known as Fox Family Films and 20th Century Fox Animation and sometimes referred to as Fox Animation) is an American animation studio located in Century City, Los Angeles, until its lease with Fox Corporation ended and it was relocated to the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures distributes and markets the films produced by this studio in theatrical markets. Formed in February 1994, it is organized as a division and label of 20th Century Studios, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios, and specializes in producing animated feature-length films. At one point, 20th Century Animation had two subsidiaries: Don Bluth's Fox Animation Studios, which was closed on June 26, 2000, and Blue Sky Studios (the latter became the primary unit of 20th Century Animation), which was closed on April 10, 2021. The studio is one of Disney's three feature animation studios, alongside Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios.
The studio has produced a total of 36 feature films (six films as Fox Family Films, three films from Fox Animation Studios, thirteen feature films from Blue Sky Studios, and fourteen original films), most of them being distributed by 20th Century Studios. Their first film was Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie and their first animated film was Anastasia, with the most recent release being Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw. Its upcoming slate of films include Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway slated for release in December 2026, Ice Age: Boiling Point slated for theatrical release on February 5, 2027, and The New Simpsons Movie slated for theatrical release on September 3, 2027.
Anastasia, Ice Age and Rio are the studio's most commercially successful franchises, while Robots (2005), The Simpsons Movie (2007), Horton Hears a Who! (2008), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), The Book of Life (2014), The Peanuts Movie (2015), Spies in Disguise (2019), Ron's Gone Wrong (2021), and Predator: Killer of Killers (2025) are among its most critically praised films.
Contents
Background
Before 20th Century Fox started its animation division, Fox were merely distributors for independent animation studio Terrytoons. Fox would later release its first seven animated films, such as Hugo the Hippo (1975), Wizards, Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure (1977), Fire and Ice (1983), FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992) Once Upon a Forest (1993) and The Pagemaster (1994), most of them licensed from third-parties, while others produced in-house.
In May 1993, Fox agreed to a two-year first-look deal with Nickelodeon for family films. The deal would mostly include original material, though a Nickelodeon executive did not rule out the possibility of making films based on The Ren & Stimpy Show, Rugrats and Doug. However, no films came out of the deal due to the 1994 acquisition of Paramount Pictures by Nickelodeon's parent company, Viacom, and they would distribute the film projects instead.
History
1994–1998: Formation and early years
The division initially started in February 1994 as Fox Family Films, as one of four film divisions of 20th Century Fox under executive John Matoian. The division was planned to produce six feature films a year as part of a plan to produce more films per year overall. Fox senior vice president of production Chris Meledandri was transferred into the unit as executive vice president in March 1994 after having been hired the previous year. The week of May 6, 1994, Fox Family announced the hiring of Don Bluth and Gary Goldman for a new $100 million animation studio which began construction that year in Phoenix, Arizona. In three years, the animation studio would produce and release its first film, Anastasia. In September 1994, Matoian was promoted by Rupert Murdoch to head up the Fox network. Meledandri was selected to head up the unit in 1994.
It produced live-action films such as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995), Dunston Checks In (1996) and Home Alone 3. By August 1997, Fox Family had decreased the number of live films. R.L. Stine agreed with Fox Family Films in January 1998 for a film adaptation of the Goosebumps book franchise with Tim Burton producing.
1997–2020: 20th Century Fox Animation, Fox Animation Studios and success with Blue Sky Studios
In August 1997, Fox's Los Angeles-based visual effects company, VIFX, acquired majority interest in Blue Sky Studios to form a new visual effects and animation company, temporarily renamed "Blue Sky/VIFX". Blue Sky had previously did the character animation of MTV Films' first film Joe's Apartment. Following the studio's expansion, Blue Sky produced character animation for the films Alien Resurrection, A Simple Wish, Mouse Hunt, Star Trek: Insurrection and Fight Club. VIFX was later sold to another VFX studio Rhythm and Hues Studios in March 1999. According to Blue Sky founder Chris Wedge, Fox considered selling Blue Sky as well by 2000 due to financial difficulties in the visual effects industry in general.
In 1998, following the success of Anastasia, the division was renamed to 20th Century Fox Animation, refocusing on animated feature films, including stop-motion, mixed media and digital production. The division's live action films in development at the time included Marvel Comics' Silver Surfer, the disaster film spoof Disaster Area, Fantastic Voyage and Goosebumps. The 1998 film Ever After, a Cinderella adaptation, was the division's last live action film. At this time, there were several animated films on the company's development slate: Dark Town with Henry Selick, Chris Columbus and Sam Hamm, Santa Calls at Blue Sky, and Matt Groening (The Simpsons), Steve Oedekerk and Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) projects. The Phoenix studio at the time was producing Planet Ice expected in 1999 and directed by Art Vitello and Anastasia producer/directors Don Bluth and Gary Goldman's then soon to be announced project. Chris Meledandri remained as the president of the division. The only television series that the Phoenix studio produced was Adventures from the Book of Virtues, which was a co-production between Fox Animation Studios and PorchLight Entertainment; that series would air on PBS between 1996 and December 2000.
20th Century Fox Animation vice president of physical production Chuck Richardson was sent in early December 1999 to Fox subsidiary Blue Sky Studios as general manager and senior vice president. Richardson was sent to prepare Blue Sky for feature animation production.
Fox Animation Studios laid off 2/3 of its employee workforce in February 2000 before its closure in late June of that year, ten days after Titan A.E. was released and six months before Adventures from the Book of Virtues aired its final episode. Fox Animation looked to produce films at Blue Sky and its Los Angeles headquarters.
2019–present: Disney era, renaming and closure of Blue Sky Studios
On October 18, 2018, it was announced that Fox Animation would be added alongside 20th Century Fox to Walt Disney Studios following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, with co-presidents Andrea Miloro and Robert Baird retaining leadership while reporting to Walt Disney Studios Chairman, Alan Horn and Twentieth Century Fox vice chairman Emma Watts.
On March 21, 2019, Disney announced that Fox Animation (including Blue Sky Studios) would be integrated as new units within Walt Disney Studios, with Co-presidents Andrea Miloro and Robert Baird continuing to lead the studio and reporting directly to Alan Horn. Miloro stepped down as co-president in late July 2019. In August 2019, Walt Disney Animation Studios head Andrew Millstein was named co-president of Blue Sky for day-to-day operations alongside Baird, while Pixar Animation Studios president Jim Morris would also be taking on a supervisory role over Millstein. With the Disney takeover, the Locksmith deal left 20th Century Fox for Warner Bros. in October 2019, except for the first and now only film under the deal, Ron's Gone Wrong.
With the August 2019 20th Century Fox slate overhaul announcement, projects from 20th Century Fox franchises such as Night at the Museum, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Ice Age were announced for the then-upcoming Disney+ streaming service. These projects would later be announced during Disney's Investor Day in December 2020 as animated feature films for the aforementioned streaming service. The first of these projects was an animated reboot of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which was released on December 3, 2021, under Walt Disney Pictures.
On January 17, 2020, Disney dropped the "Fox" name from the two main film studio units acquired from 21st Century Fox—20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight Pictures. Fox Animation took on its current name with its incorporation on January 28, 2020, to avoid confusion with Fox Corporation.
On February 9, 2021, Disney announced that it was shutting down Blue Sky Studios in April 2021, the main unit of 20th Century Animation. It closed on April 10, 2021. After the closure of Blue Sky Studios, Robert Baird went on to co-found Annapurna Animation with Andrea Miloro the following year in December.
Process
Rather than having a consistent in-house animation style like Disney's other two feature animation studios, Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, 20th Century Animation acts as a division and somewhat of a distribution label for animated films that are made under or acquired by 20th Century Studios. An example of this is with Fox Animation Studios and Blue Sky Studios' films; both of which were subsidiaries of the company. Another example of this is Fantastic Mr. Fox. Additionally, Ron's Gone Wrong was the first and only film made under a deal between 20th Century and Locksmith Animation.
However, in a similar fashion to Sony Pictures Animation, Paramount Animation, and Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, the animation production of 20th Century Animation's films (except for Blue Sky Studios) is outsourced to other studios. For example, The Simpsons Movie was animated at Film Roman alongside AKOM and Rough Draft Studios, while Ron's Gone Wrong was animated by DNEG. The Book of Life was developed outside of 20th Century Animation at Reel FX, with the studio co-producing the film later on. The Diary of a Wimpy Kid films and The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild were animated by Bardel Entertainment.
Fox Animation Studios (headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona) and Blue Sky Studios (headquartered in White Plains, New York, and later Greenwich, Connecticut) animated their respective films internally; however, Anastasia and Titan A.E. were outsourced to multiple animation studios, including Bardel Entertainment, Reality Check Studios, and Blue Sky, when the latter of the three was still a VFX studio.
Both Fox Animation Studios and Blue Sky had their own unique animation style, with the former having the same animation style as Don Bluth Entertainment due to both Don Bluth Entertainment and Fox Animation Studios being founded by the same animator, Don Bluth.
Filmography
Fox Animation Studios
From 1994 to 2000, Fox operated Fox Animation Studios, a 2D hand drawn/CGI animation studio which was started to compete with Walt Disney Animation Studios, which was experiencing great success with films such as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. The Fox studio, however, was not as successful. Their first feature, Anastasia, was a great success that made nearly $140 million at the worldwide box office on a $53 million budget in 1997, but their next feature, Titan A.E., was a large financial loss, losing $100 million for 20th Century Fox in 2000. The lack of box office success, coupled with the rise of computer animation, led Fox to shut down the studios.
Blue Sky Studios
From 1997 until 2021, Fox owned Blue Sky Studios, a computer animation company known for the Ice Age franchise. Fox has had much more success with the studio, with the box office receipts of their films becoming competitive with the likes of Pixar and DreamWorks Animation. On March 21, 2019, Blue Sky Studios was integrated as a separate unit within Walt Disney Studios, yet they would continue to report to Fox Animation presidents Andrea Miloro and Robert Baird. In February 2021, Disney had announced that Blue Sky would cease all operations and close sometime within April 2021, eventually shuttering on April 10, 2021.
Original films and co-productions
Starting in 2007, 20th Century Animation occasionally produces its own films without Blue Sky Studios' involvement while also co-producing films from other studios. The company is not credited on these films like how they are with Blue Sky's films and Fox Animation Studios' Anastasia and Titan A.E. As of 2025, The Simpsons Movie remains their highest-grossing original film.
All films listed are produced and or distributed by 20th Century Studios unless noted otherwise.
S Combines live-action with animation.
S Combines live-action with animation.
Franchises
This list does not include follow-up films not produced by 20th Century Animation