Which animation studio do you admire?

I thought I start off this with the start of all animations is the studios they are housed in. We all know the main stream studio, Disney, Pixar, Sony Animation, Dreamworks Animation, Studio Ghibli, etc.
Or even lesser known studios, Bullwinkle Studios, Big Idea Productions, Illumination Entertainment, etc.
So what I thought of talking about studio that you admire and why or why not?

Most people tend to jump to Disney when they first start learning how to animate, maybe because Disney was one of the first ground braking animation studios of its time, even more so than Felix the cat Productions which first introduced an assembly line to animation. What I've always liked about Disney is the great interest in making an animation and letting that speak for its self. You get so much more expression in just movement than you do with dialog, which Disney has always been great at. And I love how they try really hard never to break that tradition. I don't want to list cons of them being a super power because that's not animation, that's accounting nonsense. And what new can I say about their huge interest in sequels and milking the franchise. I guess the only thing I can say is there attempt to maintain their dominance in animation, a lot of their new stuff just don't seem to hold up as well as really great animation long ago, but that's just me. But one thing I don't like is everybody wish to be Disney, following their model too closely, namely forcing songs in the story. Just because Disney is musical oriented doesn't mean everyone else has to be.

The other I'll talk about is Sony Animations. I like the growing collection of their animations and their mojo that follows it. They seem to take a different path in animations, story telling and other choices. Though they are kind of starting out, they have already made a good image for themselves, with "Cloudy with a Chance of meatballs" and "Surfs up". They seem to be an animation studio that really loves to have fun with the products they pick. It was really cool to see the behind the sceens of "Surfs up" showing there ability to use a shaky cam to make their movie. I also enjoyed "Hotel Translvania" with the big quality in timing of their jokes and character designs.

I think I'll stop here for now, but I would like to read other peoples thoughts, mainly because when I first started college, I was asked what studio I want to join first. It was studio Ghibli, but now, I'm open to any really.

I've really been into Laika lately. I know it's considered a large studio now, but not too long ago it was just a dream. They're probably one of the only major studios that focuses their films on stop-motion which is something that disney has played around in, but never really focused on other than Tim Burton's work. Not just that but how cool is it that Paranorman was up there in the Animation Oscar nominees with Wreck-it-Ralph and Brave? Although I've never played with stop-motion myself I would love to work on the graphics and composting for their studio one day. (shoot for the stars!!!)

Blur Studios. They make some of the best animated shorts I've ever seen. I want to see their work on The Goon to come to fruition.

ccchesley wrote:I've really been into Laika lately. I know it's considered a large studio now, but not too long ago it was just a dream. They're probably one of the only major studios that focuses their films on stop-motion which is something that disney has played around in, but never really focused on other than Tim Burton's work. Not just that but how cool is it that Paranorman was up there in the Animation Oscar nominees with Wreck-it-Ralph and Brave? Although I've never played with stop-motion myself I would love to work on the graphics and composting for their studio one day. (shoot for the stars!!!)

Oh Candace! I want to work for Laika too! They're so awesome!!!