Dec 5, 2022

Jeff Shell, president of NBCUniversal, says his company's animation business is more attractive than Disney's.

NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell believes his company's animation business is more promising than Disney's. [Honestly, not only are we challenging Disney Animation, but I would take our animation business over Disney Animation right now," CEO Shell said at an investor conference this morning. 'I think we have an animation system that rivals, if not surpasses, Disney's.' (This quote was reported by financial analyst Rich Greenfield.)

For those who need a refresher, there is a list of what animation assets NBCUniversal's parent company, Comcast, owns, but Shell specifically mentioned DreamWorks and Illumination are mentioned.

Illumination is responsible for "Minions": the biggest animated hit at the 2022 box office with "Minions: The Great Minion Escape" and has the potential for a blockbuster with "Super Mario Bros. Movie," which will be released in April 2023. The studio also recently launched Moonlight, a company specializing in adult animation, and appears to be looking to expand into this area. And the buzz around DreamWorks' feature film "Puss in Boots" is incredible: it has received praise from critics and preview audiences alike.

All things considered, it's hard to argue with Shell's point. Considering the disastrous two-week run of Disney's Strange World, just months after Pixar's theatrical blockbuster of the year, Lightyear, underperformed during its run in theaters, it's hard to argue with Shell's point. The timing of Shell's bragging can hardly be a coincidence.

Just about two years ago, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said something similar when he looked to the future of his company's animation division. According to him, the goal is to surpass the work of the Walt Disney Company, the most successful animation production company of our time. Hastings, however, was less bullish.

"We're very enthusiastic about catching up to them [Disney] in family animation and maybe eventually surpassing them," he said, also acknowledging that the streaming distributor "has a long way to go just to catch up to them.

Whether the Netflix boss was being modest or truly believed that Netflix was still far behind Disney, his company has certainly come a long way since those comments. Netflix's success in animation It is difficult to judge, as box office revenues cannot be compared, but there is no doubt that in terms of number of films, Netflix's original feature animation has made great strides in catching up with Disney. One wonders how films like "Kaiju" and Guillermo del Toro's "Pinocchio" would have fared in theaters.