The Top 10 Animation Companies in the World

Do you remember any Disney drawings from your childhood? Did you draw the magic castle, the Disney logo, or other Disney characters? Do you get excited when you see "Walt Disney Pictures presents" on the screen? What computer or smartphone user wouldn't want to have a Disney png of a dreamy castle as a screensaver?

As a result of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Walt Disney Studio Animation gained worldwide recognition. In the world of animated films, this company is renowned for its pioneering experiences. Walt Disney Animation Studios produced 59 full-length films. They used 1970 voice actors to create unique Disney characters.

Walt Disney founded the studio in 1923. Over the years, it has become an empire home to the world's number one animation company.

With Family Guy, Seth McFarlane launched one of the most influential adult animated sitcoms on television. Quahog would return to television in 2005 after a brief cancellation in 2003, which saw renewed interest in the series. Many spin-off shows and successful theatrical films have been released by McFarlane's self-started company Fuzzy Door Productions since then.

Since 1991, Gregg Vanzo and his wife Nikki Vanzo have been producing quality animation in both film and television through Rough Draft Studios, which started in a garage in Van Nuys, California. Currently, the studio has three locations - two in Glendale, CA, and one in Seoul, South Korea - where it produces shows such as Beavis and Butthead, Futurama, Drawn Together, and Star Wars: Clone Wars.

Illumination Entertainment was founded only nine years ago, in 2007, when Chris Meledandri, then the President of Twentieth Century Fox Animation, left to pursue opportunities elsewhere. According to the contract, the company would produce a minimum of two family-oriented movies per year under NBCUniversal's contract. During his time at Fox, Meledandri oversaw films such as Robots and Alvin and the Chipmunks, so he knew how to produce successful children's films. With his first release Despicable Me, he brought in nearly eight times the production budget.

The headquarters of Williams Street Productions are located on the street on which the company is named. Located near both the TBS and TNT headquarters, Williams Street produces both animated and live-action content for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, a nightly block of adult-oriented programming between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. Williams Street's animated programs have gained significant popularity among young adults for their irreverent humor and outlandish spoofs. Keith Crofford and Mike Lazzo, the company's two executive vice presidents, keep the late night shows offbeat and provide a one-of-a-kind viewing experience that excels at experimental cartoon storytelling.

Since 2002, Blue Sky Studios has released eleven different feature-length animated movies to varying degrees of success. In 1982, MAGI, the company responsible for creating the visuals for the 1982 film Tron, shut its doors and six animators lost their jobs. Blue Sky created special effects for television advertising and feature films over a ten-year period, between 1987 and 1997. The focus shifted to animation when Fox approached the studio about buying it, with films like The X-Files, Titanic, and Alien: Resurrection also treated for visual effects.

With its spirited animation and absorbing storytelling, Kubo and the Two Strings is already leaving an impression with audiences and critics alike, but its production company, Laika, has been a top competitor in stop-motion films for decades. A successor to Will Vinton Studios, which produced films like Return to Oz and Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, Laika was founded in 2005. Phil Knight, owner of Nike, Inc., invests in the company, relocating its headquarters to Portland, OR, and hiring stop-motion director Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas).

With Nickelodeon as its number one competitor (which we'll discuss later), Cartoon Network Studios is one of the most-watched animated television studios. Having already talked about their sister studio Williams Street's creative programs aimed at adults, now it's time to turn our attention to kid-friendly content.

As a division of Hanna-Barbera, which created shows such as The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?, the company began in 1994. Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, and The Powerpuff Girls were among the programs produced by the division at that time. As a result of the merger between Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros. Since William Hanna passed away in 2001, Cartoon Network Studios has been pumping out original content for Turner Broadcasting's Cartoon Network channel.

Warner Bros. is perhaps the animation studio with the most extended lineage of cartoon characters on our list. The studio has ties to Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and several other Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies characters dating back to 1933. The studio would re-open its doors in 1980 after Warner Bros. Animation closed in 1969 due to rising production costs and declining popularity.

As a result, shows like The Bugs Bunny Show and Bugs N' Daffy have become staples for the company. There's no wonder Warner has kept a loyal audience for so long with shows such as Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain, as well as many DC properties such as Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series.

Never the bride, always the bridesmaid. Since DreamWorks Animation launched in 1994, that's been its story. They have forever changed the animation world in that short amount of time. We are all familiar with their logo, which depicts a young boy fishing on a crescent moon from his seat. The image was created after co-founder Steven Spielberg requested a computer-generated picture that would illustrate how creative the company strived to be. While that logo has never failed to impress since it first appeared more than two decades ago, audiences' reactions have never come close to our top three choices on this list.