Sony Pictures Imageworks

Background

Sony Pictures Imageworks Inc. is a Canadian visual effects and computer animation studio headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, with an additional office on the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver City, California. SPI is a unit of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Motion Picture Group.

The company has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with Oscars for their work on Spider-Man 2 and the computer-animated short film The ChubbChubbs!, and received many other nominations for their work.

SPI has provided visual effects for many films; most recent include The Meg, Men in Black: International, and Spider-Man: Far From Home. They also provided services for several of director Robert Zemeckis' films, including Contact, Cast Away, The Polar Express, and Beowulf (2007).

Since the foundation of its sister company Sony Pictures Animation in 2002, SPI would go on to animate nearly all of SPA's films, including Open Season, Surf's Up, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and films in the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Smurfs and Hotel Transylvania franchises, in addition to animating films for other studios such as Arthur Christmas for Aardman Animations (co-produced by SPA), Storks and Smallfoot for the Warner Animation Group, The Angry Birds Movie and its sequel for Rovio Animation, Over the Moon for Netflix Animation, Netflix and Pearl Studio, and The Sea Beast for Netflix Animation.

In early October 2023, DreamWorks Animation announced that their future productions would no longer be completely in-house, SPI would handle feature animation services for an unannounced movie from DWA set to be released in 2025

1st Logo (July 3, 2002-May 9, 2003)

Visuals: On a black background, there are the words "sony pictures imaGeworKs" in red, surrounded by a wide blue/purple halo and with "sony pictures" atop "maGe". "PRESENTS", also in red, can be seen below.

Variant: The logo would also be shown without "PRESENTS" and the blue halo.

Technique: A still, digital graphic.

Audio: The opening theme.

Availability: Used on early Sony Pictures Imageworks shorts, The ChubbChubbs and Early Bloomer.

2nd Logo (July 21, 2006-)

Monster House (2006)
Open Season (2006)
The ChubbChubbs Saves Xmas (2007)
Surf’s Up (2007)
Beowulf (2007)
Open Season 2 (2009)
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009)
Open Season 3 (2011)
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018)
The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021)
Vivo (2021)

Visuals: The screen zooms out from a black background. The screen zooms quickly to a waterdrop on an eyelash. The waterdrop falls into the eye, eventually electrifying and becoming fire, in which the logo forms. The screen zooms back, and we see the logo in what appears to be a blue starfield lose its shape. The screen then zooms in, and the background changes to a blue aura one, and we see the logo form. Once the logo finishes forming, the company name fades in.

Variants:

An in-credit variant exists.
There is also a prototype version: There are some eyelashes on a black background. The screen zooms out, and it is revealed that it is on a human eye. The eye opens, and the camera slowly zooms closer to it, and as we get even closer, it all flashes, to reveal many metallic cubes on a black background; one of them forming the logo. The logo zooms out, as we see a bright lens flare. As it zooms out, the company name appears zooming out of the screen as well. The metallic cubes disappear and the lens flare dies down once the logo stops zooming out. The sequence then fades to black.

Technique: CGI by Prologue.

Audio: A majestic fanfare, along with sounds that happen in the logo.

Audio Variants:

For the in-credit variant, the closing theme of the movie.
The prototype version features a doo-wop tune.

Availability:

The in-credit variant appears at the end of some Sony Pictures Animation films which are: Open Season, Surf's Up, Open Season 2, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Open Season 3, Hotel Transylvania 3ː Summer Vacation, The Mitchells vs the Machines and Vivo. This is also seen at the end of Monster House, The ChubbChubbs Saves Xmas and Beowulf (2007).
The prototype version is unused.