Reel FX Animation

Reel FX Animation (Reel FX), formerly known as Reel FX Creative Studios and Reel FX Entertainment, is an American computer animation and visual effects studio based in Dallas, Texas, with offices in Hollywood, California, and Montreal, Quebec. Known for its multiple projects on animated films/series and visual effects for live-action films.

Reel FX Animation

Logo used since 2023
Formerly	Reel Magic (1993–1995) Reel FX Creative Studios (1995–2020) Reel FX Animation Studios (2020–2023)
Company type	Private
Industry	Animated feature films Television series
Founded	1993; 32 years ago (1993)
Headquarters	717 North Harwood Street Floor 27, Dallas, Texas , U.S.
Number of locations	1575 N. Gower St Suite 380 Hollywood, California, United States 1751 Richardson St Suite 5400 Montreal, Quebec
Key people	Steve O'Brien (CEO, Chairman) Donna Henry (President) Chuck Peil (EVP/Partnerships) David Parrish (SVP/Animation) Joanna Ferguson (SVP, Feature Production) Emmanuel Laurent (SVP, Real-Time Production) Lucas Koppel (Director, Development)
Number of employees	350 (2013)[1]
Divisions	Reel FX Animation Reel FX Originals ATKPLN Flight School Studio
Website	www.reelfx.com

The studio primarily produces animated features, short films, and television series. Among them is the studio's first original animated feature film, Free Birds, released in 2013. A year later, The Book of Life was released. The film received several nominations, including Best Animated Feature Nominations from the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice Awards, Producers Guild Awards and Annie Awards.^[2] In 2020, Reel FX Animation teamed up with Warner Animation Group (now Warner Bros. Pictures Animation) on Scoob!. In addition, the studio released Rumble, a co-production with Paramount Animation and Back to the Outback with Netflix Animation, both in 2021. Most recently, Reel FX teamed up again with Netflix Animation to create The Monkey King in 2023.

The studio's upcoming slate of films includes The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants with Nickelodeon Movies and a film titled Diya with Good Karma Productions.

History

Reel FX Animation was founded in 1993 as Reel Magic in Fort Worth, Texas. The studio was the sixth to purchase an Autodesk Flame system. In 1995, the company moved to Dallas and changed its name to Reel FX Creative Studios. Reel FX purchased West End Post, and in 1999, moved to the White Swan building in the West End. In 2005, the studio moved its headquarters east a couple of miles to Deep Ellum. The company opened a second location in Pasadena, California, and in 2008 merged with VFX-studio Radium and opened a studio in Santa Monica.

In 2017, Reel FX opened its first studio outside the United States in Montreal Canada. The studio would eventually add artists in Toronto and Vancouver as well.

Films and releases

In 1999, the studio produced its first short film, The Man In The Moon. Based on William Joyce's Guardians of Childhood and co-directed by Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg. The short film became the first Reel FX Original (now called Inventions), and in 2007, was optioned to DreamWorks Animation where it ultimately became Rise of the Guardians, directed by Peter Ramsey. In October 2012, The Hollywood Reporter revealed Reel FX's connection to the 2012 feature film.^[3][4]

In December 2010, Reel FX produced an untitled 3D film with producer Andrew Adamson and Cirque du Soleil.^[5] In January 2012, Paramount Pictures announced that it had acquired worldwide rights to the film, now titled Worlds Away directed by Adamson and executive-produced by James Cameron.^[6]

First called Turkeys in the early works,^[7] and opened in 2013 under Free Birds, the film was directed by Jimmy Hayward and starred Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson, and Amy Poehler. Its release landed Reel FX's CEO Steve O’Brien the front page of D CEO Magazine in their May–June edition of that year.^[8]

Following the release of The Book of Life, Reel FX assisted on Rock Dog (Summit Entertainment, Huayi Brothers) and UglyDolls (STX Entertainment) while developing its next feature. Released in 2021, Rumble is based on Rob Harrell's graphic novel Monster on the Hill and adapted for the screen by Matt Lieberman and Etan Cohen. In 2022, Reel FX released the original animated series Super Giant Robot Brothers!, with Netflix Animation. Directed by Mark Andrews (Brave), the episodic series was created using a custom-built real-time production pipeline with Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, the first animated series to be rendered entirely in a video game engine.^[9][10]

Filmography

Feature films

Original films

Title	Release date	Co-production with	Distributor	Director(s)
Free Birds	November 1, 2013	Relativity Media	Relativity Media	Jimmy Hayward
The Book of Life	October 17, 2014	20th Century Fox Animation Chatrone[11]	20th Century Fox	Jorge R. Gutierrez
Rumble	December 15, 2021	Paramount Animation WWE Studios Walden Media New Republic Pictures	Paramount+	Hamish Grieve
Diya	TBA	Good Karma Productions[12]	TBA	Nitya Mehra

Animation and visual effects services

Title	Release date	Production companies	Distributor	Director(s)
Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams	August 7, 2002	Troublemaker Studios	Dimension Films	Robert Rodriguez
The Wild (opening sequence only)	April 14, 2006	Walt Disney Pictures Hoytyboy Pictures Sir Zip Productions Contrafilm C.O.R.E.	Buena Vista Pictures Distribution	Steve Williams
Everyone's Hero	September 15, 2006	IDT Entertainment	20th Century Fox	Christopher Reeve Colin Brady Daniel St. Pierre
Open Season 2	January 27, 2009	Sony Pictures Animation	Sony Pictures Home Entertainment	Matthew O'Callaghan Todd Wilderman
Open Season 3	January 25, 2011			Cody Cameron
Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away	December 21, 2012	Cirque du Soleil Strange Weather Films Cameron Pace Group	Paramount Pictures	Andrew Adamson
Rock Dog	February 24, 2017	Huayi Brothers	Summit Entertainment	Ash Brannon
UglyDolls	May 3, 2019	STX Family Alibaba Pictures Troublemaker Studios Original Force	STX Entertainment	Kelly Asbury
Scoob!	May 15, 2020[13][14]	Warner Bros. Pictures Warner Animation Group[13]	Warner Bros. Pictures	Tony Cervone
Back to the Outback	December 10, 2021[15]	Netflix Animation Weed Road Pictures[16]	Netflix	Clare Knight Harry Cripps
The Monkey King	August 18, 2023	Netflix Animation Pearl Studio Star Overseas		Anthony Stacchi
The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants[17]	December 19, 2025[18][19]	Nickelodeon Movies United Plankton Pictures	Paramount Pictures	Derek Drymon

Television

Series

Original series

Title	Years	Co-production with	Network	Creator
Super Giant Robot Brothers[20]	2022	Netflix Animation Assemblage Entertainment	Netflix	Víctor Maldonado Alfredo Torres

Animation services

Title	Years	Co-production with	Network	Creator
No Activity (season 4)[21]	2021	Funny or Die Gary Sanchez Productions Jungle Entertainment Flight School Studio CBS Studios	Paramount+	Trent O'Donnell

Specials

• Jonah Sing-Along Songs and More! (2002; with Big Idea Productions)
• Halloweentown High (2004)
• Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas (2011; with 20th Century Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios)

Short films

• The Man in the Moon (1999)^[22]
• Aunt Fanny's Tour of Booty (2005; co-animated with Blue Sky Studios)^[23][24]
• Secrets of the Furious Five (2008; with DreamWorks Animation and Film Roman)
• Live Music (2009) (co-produced with Mass Animation)
• Looney Tunes: (with Warner Bros. Pictures and Warner Bros. Animation)
  • Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner shorts:^[25]
    • Rabid Rider (2010)
    • Fur of Flying (2010)
    • Coyote Falls (2010)
    • Flash in the Pain (2014)^[26][27][28]
  • I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat (2011)
  • Daffy's Rhapsody (2012)^[26]
• Pacific Rim: Jaeger Pilot (2014)
• The Adventures of Chuy (2015) (co-production with 20th Century Fox Animation)
• Son of Jaguar (2016)
• Best Fiends:
  • Best Fiends: Boot Camp (2017)^[29]
  • Best Fiends: Visit Minutia (2017)^[30]
  • Best Fiends: Fort of Hard Knocks (2018)^[31]
  • Best Fiends: Baby Slug's Big Day Out (2018)^[32]
  • Best Fiends: Howie's Gift (2019)^[33]
  • Best Fiends: Temper's Adventure (2019)^[34]
  • Best Fiends: The Immortal Cockroach (2019)^[35]
  • Best Fiends: The Fight Before Christmas (2019)^[36]
  • Best Fiends: King Slug Industries (2020)^[37]
• La Calesita (2022)

Theme park attractions

• The Simpsons Ride (2008; co-animated with Blur Studio)
• Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem (2012)^[38]

Direct-to-video

• Barney Home Video (1996–2000) (visual effects)
• G.I. Joe: Spy Troops (2003)
• G.I. Joe: Valor vs. Venom (2004)
• Action Man: X Missions – The Movie (2005)
• Boz: Colors and Shapes (2006)
• Boz: Friends and Helpers (2006)
• Boz: Bananas, Bubbles and Busy Bodies (2006)
• Boz: Adventures in Imagination (2006)
• The Three Wise Men (formerly The Very First Noel) (2006)
• Thank You God for B-O-Zs and 1-2-3s! (2007)
• Start Singing with Boz (2008)
• Boz: A WowieBozowee Christmas (2008)
• Tales of the Black Freighter (2009)

Commercials

• Chuck E. Cheese's commercials from 2012 to 2015 (co-produced with Little Zoo Studio)^[39][40][41]
• Free Birds - Dwight Howard^[42][43]
• Cheetos Mix-ups - The Book Of Life^[44][45]
• Book of Life Happy Meal - McDonald's^[46][47]
• The Lego Batman Movie - Chevrolet^[48]
• UglyDolls - Happy Meal^[49][50][51]

Production logos

• Relativity Media (2013)
• Warner Animation Group (2016, 2020; co-produced with DevaStudios)
• Paramount Animation (2019; co-produced with ATK PLN)^[52]