(L to R): 'Wildwood,' 'K-Pop: Demon Hunters,' 'Simpsons' creator Matt Groening, 'Acme vs. Coyote' Laika, Netflix, Fox, Ketchup Entertainment Animation has never been bigger or more difficult to pin down. In the past year alone, a K-pop-fueled Netflix phenomenon swept the Oscars, a Chinese sequel became the highest-grossing animated film of all time and a stick-figure animator built an audience of 34 million-plus without ever setting foot in a studio. Meanwhile, a family of Australian blue heelers is teaching parents around the world how to raise their kids. Animation’s center of gravity isn’t just shifting — it’s multiplying.
THR Which is why The Hollywood Reporter is launching its first-ever Animation Power List, a representative snapshot of the most important and influential figures working in animation today, across film, television and online.
Box office and ratings matter, of course, and plenty of the names here have the billions to prove it. But commercial success is only part of the equation. We also weighed the more subjective, harder-to-quantify question of influence: Who is setting the aesthetic agenda, shaping the business models, launching new talent or simply making the rest of the industry look over its shoulder? We tried to strike a balance, pairing the studio heads and A-list directors who steer the biggest projects with the character designers, animators, FX supervisors and art directors whose craft, all too often, goes unsung.
This is a snapshot, not a definitive ranking or a comprehensive census. In a business this big and this global, someone is bound to have been unjustly left off. To those we missed: We’re sorry, we’re big fans and there’s always next year. Consider this an opening sketch.
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Eric Bauza
Image Credit: Storm-Santos Voice Actor (Coyote vs. Acme, Teen Titans Go!)
Bauza has quietly become the voice of an entire cartoon universe. One of the successors to the legendary Mel Blanc as the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Marvin the Martian and a dozen more iconic characters, the Canadian actor outdid himself with Coyote vs. Acme, voicing everything from Bugs Bunny to Foghorn Leghorn and Tweety Bird. Says Bauza: “A lot of talented folks worked really hard to make this film, and to be able to see it celebrated by so many people across the globe has really made the wait worth it.”
