Vanguard Animation
American animation studio by John H. Williams From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vanguard Films & Animation, often named only as Vanguard Animation, is an American production studio founded in 2002 by producer John H. Williams and Neil Braun.[1] The studio has offices in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and Ealing Studios in London, England, United Kingdom. Starz Distribution owns a minority stake in the studio.
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| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer animation VFX Motion capture Animated |
| Founded | 2002 |
| Founders | John H. Williams Neil Braun |
| Headquarters | , United States |
Number of locations | 3 |
Key people | John H. Williams (CEO) Gary Chapman (Head of Prod.) |
| Owner | Starz Distribution (Minority) |
Number of employees | 10 |
| Subsidiaries | Rabbit Ears Entertainment, LLC |
| Website | vanguardanimation |
History
The studio was founded in 2002 by John H. Williams.[1] For its launch, it signed with Ealing Studios a four-picture deal to produce sub-$40 million computer-animated films.[2][3] The following year, Vanguard sold a minority stake to IDT Corporation and partnered with its animation unit, Digital Production Solutions, to co-produce and co-own all Vanguard's properties,[1][4] including Valiant (2005) produced for Disney.[2]
The company was part of the then-new "pipeline-free" trend (reported by Variety in 2006[5]) in animation production, where the companies did not keep the talent on payroll and instead were "establishing a team from scratch to execute each new feature", allowing them to secure tax breaks from the governments. For example, the feature "Valiant" was produced in the UK in order to collect the tax incentives there. With UK incentives ending, the production (for "Space Chimps") moved to Canada (Vancouver).[6]
Filmography
Feature films
| # | Title | Release date | Gross | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valiant | August 19, 2005 (US) | $61,746,888 | 32% | 45% |
| 2 | Happily N'Ever After | January 5, 2007 (US) | $38,085,778 | 4% | 28% |
| 3 | Space Chimps | July 18, 2008 | $64,834,964 | 33% | 36% |
| 4 | Space Chimps 2: Zartog Strikes Back (DTV) | May 28, 2010 | $4,124,518 | 0% | — |
| 5 | Get Squirrely | November 4, 2016 | $1,224,520[7] | 34% | — |
| 6 | Gnome Alone | November 2, 2017 | $10,800,715[8] | 44% | — |
| 7 | Charming | April 20, 2018 | $8,751,856[9] | 24% | — |
| 8 | Trouble | August 8, 2019 | $11,942,158[10] | 36% | — |
| 9 | Fearless | August 14, 2020 | — | 49% | — |
| 10 | Rally Road Racers | May 12, 2023 | $2,790,163 | 73% | — |
Short films
- Frank Was a Monster Who Wanted to Dance[11]
Unproduced projects
- Citizen Siege - A science fiction thriller CGI-animated film that was to be co-produced by Vanguard and video game developer Oddworld Inhabitants.[12] The plot involves an expatriate who returns home to find that he has been repossessed, in a shady underhive-like world where a corporate government rules the continent.[13] The film was originally scheduled to release in 2009, but the date was pushed back to an unknown date. As of 2019, there have been no recent developments regarding the film's production.
- Alien Rock Band[14]
- Rotten Island[14]
- Buzby[14]
- City of Dragons[14]
- Atomic Circus[14]
- Oz Wars[15]
- Ribbit[16]
- The Twits
- Galaxy High[17]
- The Gnome King[17]
See also
References
Sources
External links
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