Culture Girl/My Animation Studios Ranking

Transcript
It begins with Lauren at her living room. A drawing board shows up showing "7" with the subtitle "Illumination Entertainment". A drawing board shows up showing "6" with the subtitle "Sony Pictures Animation". A drawing board shows up showing "5" with the subtitle "Blue Sky Studios". A drawing board shows up showing "4" with the subtitle "Paramount Animation/Nickelodeon Animation Studios". A drawing board shows up showing "3" with the subtitle "Warner Bros. Animation". A drawing board shows up showing "2" with the subtitle "DreamWorks Animation". A drawing board shows up showing "1" with the subtitle "Walt Disney Pictures/Television Animation".
 * Lauren: Howdy, my loyal fans. Culture Girl for another video. Since I'm a big fan of animation and most of my fans are too, I decided to do something different and do a ranking to see how I evaluate all the major animation powerhouses of nowadays. I'll take some exceptions here, since I'm mainly evaluating studios based in the US, which means no foreign studios like Nelvana, DHX, Toei or Ghibli as examples. For Fox's animation, I'm only ranking Blue Sky here, but it wouldn't be fair if I put their animated TV department on this as they only do a few cartoons and much of those studios have gone cross-media. Ready or not, here I come.
 * Lauren: You expected Sony Pictures Animation to be last because of that movie that shall not be named? Wrong! I have my reasons for Illumination to be last. It's the youngest of them after all. And they don't really have any retrospective films. Their movies are basically a hit and miss. Not saying that I hate them, but they clearly put no effort into them. Besides, if we look at the Despicable Me series, in each movie, they're giving even more focus on the comic relief rather than the protagonist. They even decided to rip off Cars 2! Out of all of the movies to rip off, why that one? Illumination still has a lot to learn and I swear if they ruin The Grinch the same way they ruined The Lorax, I'll get a ticket to Los Angeles, go to Universal Studios and start a massacre. Okay, I might be kidding. So, how I'd rate Illumination's films? Generally, I consider them "eh", not that terrible, but not that awesome either. Do I have an exception? Well... only really one: the Despicable Me series, I think it's kinda cool.
 * Lauren: For the ones who expected SPA to be last because of that movie, I have my reasons to not put it last. That movie whose name I refuse to say was indeed a disgrace, but some of their other movies at least enjoyable. Starting with their first movie, Open Season, it was a good start and pretty nice, despite liking its sequel more. My favorite movie from them so far is Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, but I have the feeling Into the Spider-Verse might dethrone it. If the unnamable movie was never made, this would have been higher. But how about the live-action hybrids like The Smurfs or Peter Rabbit? Well, both The Smurfs movie were good, but I liked The Lost Village more since it had Rainn fuckin' Wilson as Gargamel and the design was much closer to the comics. But Peter Rabbit is not that bad either. Still better than that movie.
 * Lauren: Ah, Blue Sky Studios, aka Fox's response to Pixar and DreamWorks. I kinda have a love-hate relationship with this company. I mean, I like Ice Age, but I think all those sequels were unneeded. Most of the other movies are good too, especially Epic. And they did a better job with Dr. Seuss than Illumination. Horton was such an enjoyable movie and not every time we see Jim Carrey and Steve Carell in the same movie. But I still want to see Warner's take on one of his works. They also did good with Peanuts and I think they could do a good job with another licensed property. Dick Tracy, maybe?
 * Lauren: Paramount's relationship with animation comes from the classic era, but much of that content now belongs to either Warner Bros. or DreamWorks as the much of its animated content it now owns came after Viacom brought the studio in 1994, making it a sister studio to cable channel Nickelodeon. As of today, we can regard SpongeBob as Paramount's mascot the same way as Mickey Mouse for Disney and Bugs Bunny for Warner. It's kinda obvious what is my favorite Nicktoon: he lives in a pineapple under the sea. Even if they did some mistakes like... I kinda want to avoid names, but I'll say one is a spin-off starring a comic relief, one relies on idiotic superheroes, one overexposing a certain person and the last two involve YouTube, they prove to be one of the best animation houses nowadays and that's good. Each creator did a good job in each show I don't hate, save for... uh... that one guy who created Ren and Stimpy and that other one who created The Loud House. But the less we talk, the best it is.
 * Lauren: This one was kinda expected. Even if it's my favorite film and TV studio, they are 3rd in this list, because the other two I'm talking about next deserve more the first two places. And this thing did do quite a few shit like Coconut Fred, Quest for Camelot, the infamous PPG and Ben 10 reboots, Out of Jimmy's Head and The Problem Solverz. I'm not including TTG! here, because it's a guilty pleasure of mine. But for every bad thing, they did at least two good things. After all, they're the home of the Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo, Tom and Jerry, the DC Universe, the good The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, the good Ben 10 seasons, Adventure Time, Regular Show, Steven Universe, etc. I might get a bit controversial here if I say I actually liked stuff like Loonatics Unleashed and Ben 10: Omniverse. But hey, they're tastes, right? Also I am probably gonna get death threats for this, but I never really liked Over the Garden Wall. I just never got into it. Why does it get so much praise? I dunno. Also, while I liked both Space Jam and Back in Action, I like the second more since it's closer to the source media and Bugs and Daffy's voices are closer to Blanc's ones. No offense to either West or Baker, you're both great VAs and West is my favorite post-Golden Era Elmer, but I like Bergman and Alaskey more as both of the main duo as well as both Sylvester and Tweety the same way as Bergen is the definitive post-Blanc Porky to me.
 * Lauren: Yeah, you were probably asking where DreamWorks was on the list. The studio that was born as a result of Katzenberg leaving Disney due to his conflicts with Eisner is the runner-up here. While the studio had a few 2D films in the late 1990s and the early 2000s, including one I refuse to name it, it was with CGI that they found a way to fight Disney. If at Disney, it all started with a mouse, at DreamWorks, it all started with an ant. However, it was an ogre that made DreamWorks what it is today. Half laughing stock, half masterpiece. And that's pretty much why Shrek is my favorite DreamWorks film. It helps having two iconic former SNL members on it alongside the eventual Dexter villain John Lithgow and the TBD Cameron Diaz. The second one was great too, but the third and the fourth ones were... eh. Aside from that one, Madagascar, How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, Megamind and Rise of the Guardians complete my favorite list. Is there a DreamWorks film aside from that one I alluded to earlier and any sequel I didn't like? I pretty much hated the Disney rip-off Trolls, it felt more like an Illumination film to me than a DreamWorks one. And also one shark bitten elephant in the room. The one by Mr. Fortnite and Marques Brownlee himself, Will Smith. Fortunely, Jack Black had another chance at a better movie. Best casting choice in the movie? Mr. Taxi Driver/King of Comedy himself, Martin Scorsese, voiced a pufferfish. But aside from that, it's a pretty forgettable movie. Also, I know Universal owns DreamWorks now, but my biggest fear is if they turn it into an Illumination 2 and with that movie about a Donald Trump baby. Given the fact NBC and President Orangutan hate each other nowadays, does this count as Anti-Trump propaganda? (shrugs)
 * Lauren: Yeah, the first place was pretty obvious, since most of those studios wouldn't exist if Uncle Walt wasn't kicked out from Universal and started his own studio. And this company made iconic stuff, despite having their own mistakes as well. But most of those mistakes are made nowadays at corporate level due to its executives' greediness. Am I against them owning Marvel? Eh, Warner Bros. owns DC after all, I don't see the problem with it. What about Lucasfilm? I still have mixed feelings about that one, I always thought either Fox or Viacom would buy it because of reasons... I refuse to talk about the Fox deal for now, since I was supposed to focus on Disney's animated content, not the company. My favorite film from them so far is The Hunchback of Notre Dame, since they went way darker than other features, even if it wasn't the first time the studio did a darker story, and Frollo is number one of the top three Disney villains I want to work for.