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)
Nickname: "Extreme Letters"

Logo: On a light blue background, some letters bump out of nowhere. As a "t" jumps forward, a "n" runs by, and a "o" rolls down, an "i" slides while an "a" spins around. Then the "i" comes back, trips, and loses its dot, as the "m" dodges it, hitting 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", followed by the words "SONY PICTURES" dropping down below. 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" as it knocks both 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 rest of the logo plays normally after that.
 * A still version of the logo exists. This can be seen on The Smurfs and some of their games.
 * 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. The "short film" variant was done at Baked Studios, who also designed the 2021 MGM logo.

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.
 * 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 the first few films from the company such as Open Season, Surf's Up, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, with the last film to use this being The Smurfs.
 * Also seen on the first two Open Season DTV sequels, as well as the short films The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol, Boog and Elliot's Midnight Bun Run, and The ChubbChubbs Save Xmas.
 * This was also seen 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 text "Sony Pictures Animation" in a wacky font, zoom out and bounce letter-by-letter. They stop when they reach the middle position. An arc is visible in "Animation", separating the into two shades.

Variants:
 * A still version of the logo 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.
 * On the TV adaptation of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and season 1 of Hotel Transylvania: The Series, the logo is in warp-speed and zooms out, making it look open-matted.
 * The latter has it shortened without the zooming.
 * On The Star and Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, the Sony logo transitions to this logo.

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 the TV adaptation of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, a joyful fanfare is heard.
 * On season 1 of Hotel Transylvania: The Series, the closing theme is heard.

Availability: Common. It can be seen on films produced by the company from this era, beginning with Arthur Christmas.
 * The fully-animated version debuted on Hotel Transylvania, while the final film to use this logo was Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation.
 * Also seen on the short films Goodnight Mr. Foot, The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow, and the DTV films Open Season: Scared Silly and Surf's Up 2: WaveMania.
 * It is also seen on the TV adaptation of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and season 1 of Hotel Transylvania: The Series, as well as Cartoon Hangover's Go! Cartoons shorts.

Editor's Note: Even though it doesn't live up to the previous logo's quirkiness, it's still another fun logo.

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

Logo: On a black background, a backlight illuminates some letters. A -tinted spotlight then flies over and reveals the text from before with its shadows bending in response to the light as it dims. It then fades into full color and the spotlight disappears while it slowly shines.

Variants:
 * On Peter Rabbit, preceding from the Sony logo, the text fades in as it moves forward and shines briefly up to the letter "a", where the shine becomes a very bright light, which fades into the Columbia Pictures logo.
 * On Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, the text is purplish-.

FX/SFX: The light shining.

Music/Sounds: The opening theme of the movie.

Availability: Uncommon. Seen on Goosebumps, its sequel Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, and Peter Rabbit, all three of which were not produced by the studio, but released under the label.

Editor's Note: None.

4th Logo (December 14, 2018-)
Nicknames: "Geometric Letters", "Still Letters II"

Logo: On a black background, the text "SONY PICTURES ANIMATION" (with "ANIMATION" in a bold geometric font) flickers and illuminates like a neon sign on a dark blue background. After a few seconds, the text flickers out back into darkness.

Variants:
 * A prototype version appeared on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse where the text is more (similar to the previous two logos) and the background is black.
 * On Hotel Transylvania: The Series and some trailers for The Angry Birds Movie 2, the print logo appears on a white background with "ANIMATION" shifted upwards on the former.
 * An alternate version appeared on the first trailer for The Mitchells vs. the Machines (then called Connected) in which the already-formed logo slowly zooms in and a white glow appears from the left of "ANIMATION".

FX/SFX: The flickering and illumination of the text, done at Devastudios.

Music/Sounds: The opening theme of the movie.

Music/Sounds Variants: On season 2 of Hotel Transylvania: The Series, the closing theme is heard.

Availability: Current. It was first seen on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse as a prototype variant and has appeared on all their current productions since. The standard version has so far appeared on Wish Dragon, Hair Love and Monster Pets, while the still logo appeared on season 2 of Hotel Transylvania: The Series. Don't expect this logo to appear on Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, as that film was released under the Columbia Pictures label instead. It is set to appear in future films such as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One).

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