The Warner Animation Group (WAG) is an American animation studio that is the feature animation label of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which is part of AT&T and Comcast's WarnerUniversal. Established on January 7, 2013, the studio is the successor to the dissolved 2D traditional hand-drawn animation studio Warner Bros. Feature Animation, which shut down in 2004, and is also a sister to the regular Warner Bros. Animation studio.
Its first film, The LEGO Movie, was released on February 7, 2014, and its most recent film was The Powerpuff Girls Movie 2: Generations on November 22, 2024; their upcoming slate of films include Storks 2 on March 7, 2025, an untitled 2D-animated/live-action Looney Tunes film on June 20, 2025, Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat on August 15, 2025, an untitled My Little Pony: The Movie sequel on October 10, 2025, The Angry Birds Movie 3 on March 13, 2026, The Flintstones on June 5, 2026, Dr. Seuss' Thing One and Thing Two on September 18, 2026, That Christmas on December 25, 2026, Smallfoot 2 on February 26, 2027, Scoob! 2 on May 14, 2027, Tom & Jerry 2 on August 13, 2027, Dr. Seuss' Oh, the Places You'll Go! on November 12, 2027, an untitled 2D-animated Daron Nefcy film on February 4, 2028, Funko on April 14, 2028, The Jetsons on July 7, 2028, Zero on September 8, 2028, an untitled Locksmith Animation original musical-comedy film on January 5, 2029, Wacky Races on March 9, 2029, an untitled third Space Jam film starring Dwayne Johnson on September 28, 2029, and The Ice Dragon on November 9, 2029. Films produced by WAG have grossed a total of $1.8 billion at the box office.
History
On January 7, 2013, Jeff Robinov (then head of the studio's motion picture division) founded a screenplay development department, nicknamed a "think tank" for developing theatrical animated films, known as the Warner Animation Group. The group includes John Requa, Glenn Ficarra, Nicholas Stoller, Jared Stern, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Warner Bros. created the group with the hope that the box office reception of their films will be competitive with other animation studios' releases.
On February 7, 2014, Warner Animation Group released their first film, The LEGO Movie, a film animated by Animal Logic, which also provided the animation for both spinoffs. It was met with positive reviews and proved to be a box office success.
WAG's second film, Storks, was released September 23, 2016. It received mixed reviews from critics.
On February 10, 2017, Warner Animation Group released The Lego Batman Movie, which received positive reviews from critics and was a box office success. On December 14, 2017, Warner Bros. announced Allison Abbate had been named Executive Vice President, and Chris Leahy has been named Senior Vice President.
The LEGO Ninjago Movie, based on the LEGO Ninjago toys, was released on September 22, 2017. Upon release, the film was met with mixed reviews from critics and became the first film from the studio and franchise to fail to recoup its budget.
Smallfoot, released September 28, 2018, earned a 75% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes with mostly positive reviews from critics and has grossed over $214 million worldwide.
The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, a sequel to The Lego Movie, was released February 8, 2019 and earned an 85% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes with generally positive reviews from critics but only grossed around $192.3 million worldwide, almost barely recouping its budget and becoming the studio and franchise's second box office disappointment.
In October 2019, Locksmith Animation formed a multi-year production deal with Warner Bros., which will distribute Locksmith's films.
An animated reboot of the Scooby-Doo film series titled Scoob! was initially set for a theatrical release on May 15, 2020, but then it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On April 21, 2020 it was announced that it would instead go to video on demand in response to the pandemic. It received mixed reviews from critics.
A live action/animated film based on Tom & Jerry was released internationally on February 11, 2021 and on February 26 in the United States in theaters and HBO Max simultaneously, which also debuted the company's new logo to match with the design of the new shield logo that Warner Bros. debuted back in November 2019. Just like its regular WB logo, which was revamped earlier that year with Locked Down, it is made by Devastudios, with clouds created using Terragen. It received mostly negative reviews from critics.
Space Jam: A New Legacy, starring LeBron James, was released on July 16, 2021, and was the first film from Warner Animation Group to incorporate traditional animation. It also received mostly negative reviews from critics.
Upcoming releases
An animated film based on the Legion of Super-Pets titled DC League of Super-Pets is scheduled for release on May 20, 2022.
WAG's third live-action/animation hybrid, a Wile E. Coyote film titled Coyote vs. Acme, will be released on July 21, 2023. The film will be directed by Dave Green and produced by Chris DeFaria and James Gunn.
A musical feature adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's children's book Toto: The Dog-Gone Amazing Story Of The Wizard Of Oz began animation production in February 2021. It is being directed by Alex Timbers, from a screenplay by John August, and produced by Derek Frey.
Production
Similar to Disney's 20th Century Animation, Universal's DreamWorks Animation and Illumination, Netflix's Netflix Animation, Paramount Animation and Sony Pictures Animation, WAG outsources their animated films' production to other studios, such as Animal Logic (The LEGO Movie franchise, DC's League of Super-Pets and Toto), Sony Pictures Imageworks (Storks and Smallfoot), Reel FX Creative Studios (Scoob!), Framestore (Tom & Jerry) and Industrial Light & Magic (Space Jam: A New Legacy). However, Space Jam: A New Legacy did included in-house animation by WAG, with several animators hired by the studio to work on the film's hand-drawn animated segments.
The budgets for their films tend to range within $60–80 million. Their most expensive films to date, The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, Scoob! and Space Jam: A New Legacy, cost $99 million, $90 million and $150 million respectively.
The screenplay department is reportedly somewhat similar to Pixar Animation Studios' "brain trust" in terms of how its members consult with one another and give feedback on each other's projects. The group is nicknamed the "think tank".
Filmography
Feature films
Released films
| # | Title | Release date | Co-production with | Animation services | Budget | Gross | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The LEGO Movie | February 7, 2013 | Village Roadshow Pictures RatPac-Dune Entertainment Lego System A/S Vertigo Entertainment Lin Pictures |
Animal Logic | $60–65 million | $469 million | 96% | 83 |
| 2 | Storks | September 23, 2016 | RatPac-Dune Entertainment Stoller Global Solutions (uncredited) |
Sony Pictures Imageworks | $70 million | $183.3 million | 66% | 56 |
| 3 | The LEGO Batman Movie | February 10, 2017 | DC Entertainment RatPac-Dune Entertainment Lego System A/S Lord Miller Productions Vertigo Entertainment Lin Pictures |
Animal Logic | $80 million | $312 million | 90% | 75 |
| 4 | The LEGO Ninjago Movie | September 22, 2017 | RatPac-Dune Entertainment Lego System A/S Vertigo Entertainment Lord Miller Productions Lin Pictures |
$70 million | $123 million | 56% | 55 | |
| 5 | Smallfoot | September 28, 2018 | Zaftig Films | Sony Pictures Imageworks | $80 million | $214 million | 76% | 60 |
| 6 | The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part | February 8, 2019 | Lego System A/S Vertigo Entertainment Lord Miller Productions Rideback |
Animal Logic | $99 million | $192.3 million | 84% | 65 |
| 7 | Scoob! | May 15, 2020 | Hanna-Barbera | Reel FX Creative Studios | $90 million | $26.2 million | 48% | 43 |
| 8 | Tom & Jerry | February 26, 2021 | Turner Entertainment (uncredited) The Story Company |
Framestore | $79 million | $131.1 million | 31% | 32 |
| 9 | Space Jam: A New Legacy | July 16, 2021 | Proximity Media SpringHill Company |
Industrial Light & Magic Luma Pictures Cinesite Company 3 Animation Tonic DNA House of Moves Day For Nite Studio D Virtuos In-house |
$150 million | $154.8 million | 27% | 36 |