Bear Bones Productions (also known as Bear Bones Studios, commonly referred to as Bear Bones) is an American animation studio headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Founded by former Hanna-Barbera animator Mala Miles on May 1967, the studio is operated as a subsidiary of Bear Bones Entertainment and is best known for producing animated television series, feature films and short films.
History[]
In May 1967, Mala Miles and his father Austin founded the animation studio Mala Miles Productions.
In 1987, Mala Miles announced its plans to acquire Wave Wonder and the company renamed to TakaWave. In 1988, Mala Miles created a new division named Naughty Bear Animation, which typically produces animated films and television shows targeted to adult audiences. By 1990, the company was renamed to Bear Bones Productions.
In 1992, Bear Bones founded sub-division Sensation Animation, who make original animated series and feature films not intended for its parent. That same year, Bear Bones Australia, who are used for pre-production on series and movies, was founded.
In 1994, TakaWave was spun off into a separate public company following Fox Interactive, Paramount Interactive and Universal Interactive Studios. But, TakaWave still owns rights for Malachi Universal from Bear Bones.
To expand the studio's online content presence, Bear Bones launched their own official website, BearBones.com, in 1996. The website gathers its core animation properties in a single online environment that is interactive and customizable for site visitors. It offers both originally produced content along with press releases, games, free wallpapers, desktop backgrounds, and screensavers. Some of the characters to be used in the project from the Bear Bones libraries. In 1998, Bear Bones Interactive, the studio's in-house video game development department, was founded.
After seeing the box office success of DreamWorks Animation's Shrek and Disney/Pixar's Monsters, Inc., Bear Bones was reconfigured to become a computer animation studio, but the studio still has several hand-drawn animated productions underway. As a result, Maloing Entertainment was founded to specifically make CGI films.
In May 2006, Bear Bones/Maloing launched their official YouTube channel, which is a YouTube Partner channel featuring clips and trailers from the studio's productions and many others.
In June 1, 2010, it was announced that Bear Bones Studios had started a theatrical shorts series, called Bear Bones Cartoons, which will show original animated short films before Bear Bones' feature films, much akin to what Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios do for their feature films and would be the similar concept as Walt Disney cartoons, MGM cartoons, Walter Lantz cartoons, Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies, 20th Century Fox's RandomToons, Mouse Trapz cartoons, Jollytoons cartoons, Terrytoons cartoons, and Hanna-Barbera cartoons, but in the modern version. The first short film to be produced for the series was Rock n' Foods, which was released with Naughty Bear Animation's Life Squad.
On November 18, 2015, The Wall Street Journal reported that Sony Pictures was in talks to buy Bear Bones Productions to share with Independent for $3 billion; the company already has its own feature animation studio, Sony Pictures Animation, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment unit which is known for the Open Season, Surf's Up, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The Smurfs and Hotel Transylvania franchise. On June 23, 2016, before the release of Fabions!, Sony Pictures officially announced its intent will buy Bear Bones Productions to share with Independent for $3.8 billion.
On September 1, 2016, the acquisition was approved by the U.S. Department of Justice, making Bear Bones Entertainment a subsidiary of Sony Pictures.
On January 25, 2020, Sony Pictures Entertainment will sell the rights of Bear Bones to The Walt Disney Company.