Locksmith Animation
| File:Locksmith Animation New Logo.png Logo used since April 2023 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer animation Film production |
| Founded | January 14, 2014 |
| Founder | Sarah Smith Julie Lockhart Elisabeth Murdoch (financial backing)[1] |
| Headquarters | 113 Regent's Park Road, London , England |
Number of locations | 2 (2024) |
Key people | Julie Lockhart (president of prod.) Natalie Fischer (CEO) Mary Coleman (CCO) Britt Gardiner (COO) Daphne Mather (Head of Culture) Doug Ikeler (CTO/SVP Digital Prod.) Shelley Page (Head of Talent) |
| Products | Feature films |
Number of employees | 100 (2025) |
| Parent | Sister |
| Website | www |
Locksmith Animation is a British animation studio and film production company owned by Sister Group. Headquartered in London with an office in Los Angeles, Locksmith is best known for producing and developing independent computer-animated feature films.
Locksmith Animation's first film, Ron's Gone Wrong, was released on 22 October 2021, distributed by 20th Century Studios (which had recently been acquired by Disney two years prior) with positive reviews. That Christmas, a holiday film based on the children's Christmas book trilogy That Christmas and Other Stories by British filmmaker Richard Curtis, was released by Netflix on 4 December 2024. The studio's next films are, Bad Fairies, a subversive original musical-comedy film set in contemporary London, to be released by Warner Bros. Pictures[2] on 21 May 2027, The Lunar Chronicles, based on the author Marissa Meyer's four young adult science fiction fantasy novels by the same name, to be released also by Warner Bros. Pictures on November 3, 2028,[3] and Wed Wabbit, based on the adventure fiction novel from Lissa Evans, and their first independent feature, to be funded and release by themselves.
History
[edit | edit source]Locksmith Animation was founded on January 14, 2014 by media executive businesswoman Elisabeth Murdoch and two Aardman Animations collaborators Sarah Smith and Julie Lockhart. Locksmith was named after Lockhart and Smith's surnames.[4] In April 2014, visual effects studio Double Negative (now known as DNEG) formed a deal with Locksmith to provide the computer animation for Locksmith's films, this led DNEG to found their own animation department, DNEG Feature Animation (now known as DNEG Animation).[5]
In May 2016, Locksmith formed a production deal with Paramount Pictures, with Paramount acting as the distributor for Locksmith's films to be produced under the Paramount Animation label.[4] The following year, however, Paramount abandoned its deal with Locksmith when Paramount chairman and CEO Brad Grey was replaced by Jim Gianopulos.[6]
In September 2017, Locksmith formed a multi-year production deal with 20th Century Fox, which would distribute Locksmith's films; 20th Century Fox Animation was brought in to oversee the deal, as Locksmith was aiming to release a film every 12–18 months. The deal was to bolster Blue Sky's output and replace the loss of distributing DreamWorks Animation films, which are now owned and distributed by Universal Pictures, following its takeover by NBCUniversal in 2016.[6][7] The first film to be produced by Locksmith Animation was Ron's Gone Wrong which was released on 22 October 2021 by 20th Century Studios.[6][8] In February 2018, it was announced that Locksmith was developing Wed Wabbit, a live-action/animated hybrid film based on Lissa Evans' children's book, originally served as the first live-action/animated hybrid film from Locksmith.[9] In October 2019, after Disney took over 20th Century Animation, Locksmith formed a new multi-year production deal with Warner Bros. Pictures, which will distribute three Locksmith films under the Warner Animation Group label after the release of Ron's Gone Wrong, which was now the only theatrical Locksmith film to be distributed by 20th Century Studios.[1]
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Sister was announced as Locksmith Animation's parent company following the release of Ron's Gone Wrong in October 2021.
In June 2021, it was announced that Natalie Fischer, the former COO of Illumination Entertainment, DreamWorks Animation and Pixar would step in as CEO. Locksmith co-founder Sarah Smith exited the company to pursue her own creative endeavours. It was also announced that Locksmith is currently in production on That Christmas,[10] a holiday film based on the children's Christmas book trilogy That Christmas and Other Stories by British filmmaker Richard Curtis, and they are working on an original musical-comedy film.[11] That Christmas was unveiled in June 2022 as part of Netflix's slate of animated films.[12]
In January 2022, Locksmith had optioned to adapt Marissa Meyer's fantasy novel series The Lunar Chronicles.[13]
In June 2023, as part of the rebranding of WAG (now called Warner Bros. Pictures Animation), it was announced that the studio had signed a first-look deal with Locksmith to develop and produce the animated feature films, Bad Fairies, and The Lunar Chronicles for Warner Bros. Pictures.[14]
Films
[edit | edit source]Feature films
[edit | edit source]Released
[edit | edit source]| Release year | Title | Director(s) | Screenwriter(s) | Producer(s) | Composer(s) | Co-production with | Distributor | Animation service(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Ron's Gone Wrong | Sarah Smith Jean-Philippe Vine Co-director: Octavio E. Rodriguez |
Peter Baynham Sarah Smith |
Julie Lockhart Lara Breay |
Henry Jackman | 20th Century Animation TSG Entertainment |
20th Century Studios | DNEG Animation |
| 2024 | That Christmas | Simon Otto | Based on the books by: Richard Curtis and Rebecca Cobb |
Nicole P. Hearon Adam Tandy |
John Powell | — | Netflix | |
| Richard Curtis Peter Souter |
Upcoming
[edit | edit source]| Release year | Title | Director(s) | Screenwriter(s) | Producer(s) | Composer(s) | Co-production with | Distributor | Animation service(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2027 | Bad Fairies | Megan Nicole Dong Co-director: Olivier Staphylas |
Deborah Frances-White | Carolyn Soper | Isabella Summers (score) Toby Marlow Lucy Moss (songs) |
Warner Bros. Pictures Animation Sketchshark Productions |
Warner Bros. Pictures | DNEG Animation | [11][15] |
| 2028 | The Lunar Chronicles | Noëlle Raffaele | Based on the books by: Marissa Meyer |
Christina Steinberg | TBA | Warner Bros. Pictures Animation | Industrial Light & Magic | [16][17][18] | |
| Lindsey Ferrentino Kalen Egan Travis Sentell | |||||||||
| TBA | Wed Wabbit | Olly Reid | Based on the book by: Lissa Evans |
Julie Lockhart Andrew Baker |
TBA | Cantilever Media Timeless Films |
Sky Cinema | — | [9][19] |
| Gideon Defoe |
Short films
[edit | edit source]| Release year | Title | Director(s) | Screenwriter(s) | Producer(s) | Composer | Animation service(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Cardboard | Jean-Philippe Vine | Jean-Philippe Vine | Michaela Manas Malina | Hugo Brijs | DNEG Animation Ritzy Animation |
[20] |
Reception
[edit | edit source]Box office
[edit | edit source]| Film | Budget | USA box office gross | Worldwide box office gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ron's Gone Wrong | TBA | $23 million | $60.7 million |
| That Christmas | TBA | — | — |
Critical and public response
[edit | edit source]| Film | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic | CinemaScore |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ron's Gone Wrong | 82% (103 reviews)[21] | 65 (23 reviews)[22] | A[23] |
| That Christmas | 66% (41 reviews)[24] | 60 (13 reviews)[25] | — |
Accolades
[edit | edit source]| Year | Film | Category | Recipient(s) | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Ron's Gone Wrong | Outstanding Achievement for Character Design in a Feature Production |
Julien Bizat | Nominated |
| Outstanding Achievement for Production Design in an Animated Feature Production |
Aurélien Predal, Till Nowak and Nathan Crowley | |||
| 2025[26] | That Christmas | Best Animated Feature | That Christmas | |
| Outstanding Achievement for Character Design in an Animated Feature | Uwe Heidschötter | |||
| Outstanding Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature | Simon Otto | |||
| Outstanding Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature | John Powell, Ed Sheeran and Johnny McDaid | |||
| Outstanding Achievement for Production Design on an Animated Feature | Justin Hutchinson-Chatburn and Mike Redman | |||
| Outstanding Achievement for Storyboarding in an Animated Feature | Lorenzo Fresta, Ashley Boddy and Helen Schroeder |
British Animation Awards
[edit | edit source]| Year | Film | Category | Recipient(s) | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Ron's Gone Wrong | Best Long Form | Sarah Smith, Jean-Philippe Vine and Octavio E. Rodriguez | Won |
| Best Design | ||||
| Writers Award | Sarah Smith and Peter Baynham | Nominated |
References
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- ^ https://x.com/lsanimation/status/1901678123067859343?s=61&t=kmvL-LOuranUNlThj5bGOw
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