Sony Pictures Animation

Background
Sony Pictures Animation Inc. is an American animation studio that is a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment and a division of the Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, founded on May 9, 2002. The studio works closely with Sony Pictures Imageworks, which handles digital production. All of its theatrical releases are currently distributed worldwide by Sony Pictures Releasing, under their Columbia Pictures label, and all home video releases are distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The company didn't have a logo until 2006.

1st Logo (September 29, 2006-December 2, 2011)
Nicknames: "Extreme Letters"

Logo: On a light blue background, some letters bumps out of nowhere. As a blue "n" runs by, a blue "o" rolls down and a blue "i" slides while a blue "a" spins around. Then "i" comes back, trips, and loses its dot. A blue "m" dodges it and it hits the "a". The dot bounces off a ton of letters while the (now dotless) "i" tries to catch it. Then all the letters bounce back and are revealed to be the letters in the word "animation". Then the words "SONY PICTURES" drop on the word "animation". The logo slowly zooms out until all the letters fall down.

Variants:
 * On short films, it is already formed; however, the camera zooms in slowly, and the word "animation" is missing the "o". Said letter then drops down and squeezes between "i" and "n". It then knocks "i" and "n" out, sending the dot on the "i" throwing itself to the left. The "m" crawls slightly left as the "n" rapidly changes into the ping-pong racket sending the "i"'s dot back to it belongs before changing back into "n". The "SONY PICTURES" text and the letters falling down play normally after that.
 * A still version of the logo exists. This can be seen on The Smurfs.
 * On the DTV film Open Season 3 and the special The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol, the logo is in warp-speed and it freezes instead of falling down at the end. On the latter, the animation plays in normal speed.

FX/SFX: The bouncing, running, spinning, rolling, and sliding. Nice CGI animation from Sony Pictures Imageworks.

Music/Sounds: A fast-paced jazzy fanfare, composed by James Newton Howard. When the letters crash, a crowd is heard groaning.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * Sometimes, the opening theme plays over it.
 * On the shorts variant, the first half of the music plays over the Columbia Pictures logo, before cutting to said variant.
 * On the DTV film Open Season 3, the song "Real Wild Child" by Wakefield (originally a cover of the Iggy Pop song) plays over the logo.

Availability: Common. It's seen on Open Season, Surf's Up (still version), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and recently on The Smurfs (still version). Also appeared on Open Season 2 and 3, The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol, Boog and Elliot's Midnight Bun Run, and The ChubbChubbs Save XMas. This logo even appeared still on the games of the named titles.

Editor's Note: It's a fun logo.

2nd Logo (November 11, 2011-October 25, 2018)
Nicknames: "Extreme Letters II", "Bouncing Letters", "Less Extreme"

Logo: On a white background, the blue words "Sony Pictures" and "Animation", in a wacky font, zoom out and bounce letter-by-letter. Suddenly, the letters stop when they reach the middle position. An arc is visible in "Animation", separating the blue into 2 shades.

Variants:
 * A still version exists. This can be seen on Arthur Christmas, The Pirates! Band of Misfits (known as The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! in the UK), Goodnight Mr. Foot, the infamously-panned The Emoji Movie, and all of Cartoon Hangover's Go! Cartoons shorts.
 * On Open Season: Scared Silly, the logo begins with a flash of thunder, and the logo is in black and white.
 * An still, monochrome version exists on the storyboard of the deleted alternative opening to The Mitchells vs. The Machines, as seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oXu2Gwg7lU
 * On Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: The Series, the logo zooms out.

FX/SFX: The bouncing.

Music/Sounds: Cartoony sound effects, which vary depending on the film.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * On Arthur Christmas, a cartoonish synth theme is heard.
 * On The Pirates! Band of Misfits and The Star, the opening theme of the movie plays over the logo.
 * On Open Season: Scared Silly, the logo begins with a thunder sound effect while the opening theme plays over the logo.
 * On Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: The Series, a joyful fanfare is heard.

Availability: Common. It can be seen on films produced by the company from this era, beginning with Arthur Christmas, with the final film to use this being Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation. Also seen on the short film Goodnight Mr. Foot, as well as The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow, Open Season: Scared Silly, Surf's Up 2: WaveMania, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: The Series, and Hotel Transylvania: The Series.

Editor's Note: A logo that doesn't live up to the 1st logo's quirkiness.

3rd Logo (October 16, 2015-October 12, 2018)
Nickname: "Still Letters"

Logo: On a black background, a backlight illuminates some letters. A blue-tinted spotlight then flies over the letters, revealing the Sony Pictures Animation logo with its shadows bending in response to the light, while it reveals a dim logo. The logo then fades into full color and the spotlight disappears. The logo slowly shines.

Variant: On Peter Rabbit, preceding from the Sony Corporation logo, the still logo fades in as it moves forward. The logo shines from the capital "A" to the lowercase "a", then the shine turns into a sunburst and fades into the Columbia Pictures logo.

FX/SFX: The light shining.

Music/Sounds: The opening theme of a movie.

Availability: Seen on the 2015 film Goosebumps and its 2018 sequel Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween. The second variant was only seen on the 2018 film Peter Rabbit.

Editor's Note: This is the logo used on their live-action productions.

4th Logo (December 14, 2018- )
Nickname: "Geometric Letters"

Logo: On a black background, the current Sony Pictures Animation logo flickers and illuminates like a neon sign. The logo has "SONY PICTURES" on top in a font similar to the 1st logo, and "ANIMATION" in a large, bold, geometric font. The logo then flickers out slowly back into darkness.

Variant: On Hotel Transylvania: The Series, the logo is black and is seen on a white background.

FX/SFX: The flickering and illumination of the logo. This was done by Devastudios.

Music/Sounds: The opening theme of the movie.

Availability: Current. First seen on Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse as a variant, and has appeared on all their current productions since. It appeared most recently on Wish Dragon in full. The variant appears on new episodes of Hotel Transylvania: The Series.

Editor's Note: Very different compared to the 2nd logo, and it's cool to see different versions on their movies. The television logo however is pretty simplistic.