Amblimation

Amblimation was the British animation production subsidiary of Amblin Entertainment. It was formed by Steven Spielberg in May 1989, following the success of ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' (1988), and after he parted ways with Don Bluth due to creative differences. It only produced three feature films: '' An American Tail: Fievel Goes West'' (1991), '' We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story'' (1993), and '' Balto'' (1995), all three of which feature music composed by James Horner and were distributed by Universal Pictures. The company's mascot, Fievel Mousekewitz, appears in its production logo. It was based in the former Eaton Yale and Towne UK factory in Acton, London, and had 250 crew members from 15 different nations.

The studio closed in 1997 after only eight years of operation. All 250 of Amblimation's crew members went on to join DreamWorks Animation, which was later acquired in 2016 by Universal's parent company NBCUniversal for $3.8 billion.

History

Film director and producer Steven Spielberg first began working in animation when he served as executive producer on '' An American Tail'' and '' The Land Before Time'', both directed by Don Bluth, as well as Robert Zemeckis's ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit''. Following the successes of all three films, Spielberg planned to collaborate with Bluth again to produce a sequel to ''An American Tail''; however, owing to creative differences, both men parted ways. In light of Bluth's departure, Spielberg chose former Disney animator Phil Nibbelink and former Richard Williams storyboard artist Simon Wells, the great-grandson of science-fiction author H. G. Wells, both of whom had previously worked with him as supervising animators on ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'', to direct the sequel, '' Fievel Goes West''. In order to produce the film, Spielberg formed Amblimation, a collaboration between Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment, which was based out of the former Eaton Yale and Towne factory in Acton, London, and had an international crew of 250 members from 15 different nations. ''Fievel Goes West'' was officially put into production when the studio first opened in May 1989, and at the time, the studio was also developing '' We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story'' and an animated adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's ''Cats''.

As production on ''Fievel Goes West'' was wrapping up, Nibbelink and Wells began storyboarding on ''We're Back!''. Once the animatic for ''We're Back!'' was completed in 1991, Spielberg brought in brothers Dick and Ralph Zondag to continue directing it, and assigned Nibbelink and Wells to direct ''Cats'', which was intended to be Amblimation's third film after ''We're Back!''. However, production on ''Cats'' was delayed continuously, due to Webber's dissatisfaction with the story direction. Eventually, ''Cats'' was scrapped, and Nibbelink and Wells returned to finish ''We're Back!''. However, shortly afterwards, Wells left the project again to direct '' Balto'', leaving Nibbelink to finish ''We're Back!'' alone. Ultimately, ''We're Back!'' was a box-office bomb, grossing just over $9 million and failing to reach the massive success of ''Jurassic Park'', which Spielberg had released the previous summer.

The commercial failure of ''We're Back!'' led to budgetary constraints on ''Balto'', and would lead to it being Amblimation's final film. In October 1994, Spielberg co-founded DreamWorks Pictures with former Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg and music executive David Geffen, and relocated 120 of Amblimation's crew members to Los Angeles as ''Balto'' neared completion, to form DreamWorks Animation. In early June 1995, Edgar Bronfman, Jr., then-head of Universal's parent company at the time, Seagram, agreed to discontinue Amblimation as part of a distribution deal with Geffen, despite the objections of his colleague, Michael Ovitz. After ''Balto'' failed at the box office, Amblimation was officially closed, and most of the remaining crew members joined DreamWorks to begin working on '' The Prince of Egypt'', while some moved on to join other studios.

Filmography

Theatrical feature films

See also

* Illumination
* Amblin Entertainment
* DreamWorks Animation
* Universal Interactive
* Universal Animation Studios
* Sullivan Bluth Studios
* List of Universal Pictures theatrical animated feature films
* List of unproduced Universal Pictures animated projects

References

{{Steven Spielberg

Amblin Entertainment
Defunct film and television production companies of the United Kingdom
Film production companies of the United Kingdom
Television production companies of the United Kingdom
American animation studios
British animation studios
Defunct companies based in London
British companies established in 1989
Mass media companies established in 1989
Mass media companies disestablished in 1997
1989 establishments in England
1997 disestablishments in England
Steven Spielberg