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.

1st Logo (September 29, 2006-December 2, 2011)

Sony Pictures Animation (2006)

Nickname: "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:

Starting in 2009, the logo was given a high definition look, with the same animation intact. This variant first appeared on the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs trailer. A still version of the logo exists.

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

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

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: Its a fun logo, and much better than some of their other titles. The letters dropping may surprise some first-time viewers, though.

2nd Logo (November 11, 2011-July 13, 2018)

Sony Pictures Animation (2011)Sony Pictures Animation (2011) Nickname: "Extreme Letters II", "Bouncing Letters"

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 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.

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.

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, and being attached to some of the worst films they made doesn't help its reputation.

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", thenthe 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 white background, the current Sony Pictures Animation logo emerges from the middle of the screen. The logo has "SONY PICTURES" on top in a font similar to the 1st logo, and "ANIMATION" in a large, bold, geometric font. They spread away from each other before cutting away.

Variants: The logo uses custom variants on the movies it's used on so far.

FX/SFX: The logo emerging.

Music/Sounds: The closing theme of the show, or whatever plays on its variant.

Availability: Current. First seen on Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, and has appeared on all their current productions since. It also 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 (which is the one described), however, is pretty simplistic.