The story
Founded by Aton Soumache in 2008.1
In 1996 while during the production of Christian Volckman's short Maaz, producer Aton Soumache and Alexis Vonarb launched his own production company dedicated to short films and feature films named Onyx Films.
A year in September 1997, Aton Soucmache and Alexis Vonarb entered the TV business by launching Method Animation which was known as Method Films at that time.
In December 1999, It was announced that Method Films had teamed up with Paris-based animation studio Millimages to launch a new stop-motion animation joint-venture studio based in Paris which would be named Gimmick. The new animation studio will work on Method Films in-house projects along with Millimages' works and would work on co-productions as well as outside clients such as TV adverts. Their first programme related to the partnership was Skyland.
In August 2006, Method Films and its CGI animation production unit Onyx Films formed a joint venture with Indian animation and visual effects company DQ Entertainment to produce its feature films.
In late February 2008, Method Films announced that their Indian animation production partner DQ Entertainment had acquired a 20% stake in French animation studio Method Films, expanding their partnership with them.
In January 2014, Method Animation along with their feature animation subsidiary Onyx Films (including its post-production & CGI feature studio Onyx Lux) and French live-action film production company Chapter 2 announced that they had merged by their founders Aton Soumache and Dimitri Rassam to form a new animation and film audiovisual production group named ON Entertainment with the new company launching its focus on their animated series and feature films along with live-action films. Method Animation and its feature film subsidiary Onyx Films alongside drama film production company Chapter 2 became labels of the new production and audiovisual group as Method Animation became the parent company of ON Entertainment and was placed under the new company's animation label under their ON Kids & Family division with Method's feature film subsidiary Onyx Films moved from the former to become ON's animated feature film division alongside live-action film production house Chapter 2 which became ON's live-action film production label.
Two years later in December 2017, it was announced that a European-based French special-acquisition company named Mediawan was in exclusive talks to buy a majority stake in Method Animation's parent ON Entertainment alongside the former animation label under the latter's ON Kids & Family division and their live-action film production house Chapter 2 including ON's feature film division ON Animation Studios, their post-production & CGI feature studio Onyx Lux and their Montreal-based feature animation production studio for about €50 million in order for Mediawan to enter the animation and feature film business. A year later in June 2018, Mediawan completed their acquisition of a majority stake in Method Animation alongside its parent ON Entertainment and renamed it ON Kids & Family after their division with Chapter 2 split from ON and moved under Mediawan's portfolio.
In February 2017, Method Animation alongside producer of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir, ZAG Entertainment, signed a co-production partnership with Spanish-Italian children's entertainment licensing company Planeta Junior (now DeAPlaneta Entertainment) to handle two new series produced by Method Animation alongside ZAG Entertainment under the latter's Zag Heroez brand, such as Power Players and Zak Storm, while Planeta Junior will handle licensing of the brand's programs in its territories.
Read the full text
In April 2019 one year after Mediawan's acquisition of ON Entertainment and their division ON Kids & Family, ON Kids & Family and their parent company Mediawan announced that they've established a partnership with world-renowned French producer, illustrator and author Joann Sfar to develop the author's works into film and television adaptations with the acquisition of a majority stake in Joann Sfar's animation production company Nice Pictures and had it placed under ON Kids & Family.
In June 2020, ON Kids & Family and its parent company Mediawan announced that they have rebranded their Joann Sfar's Paris-based production company Nice Pictures as their mini-studio renaming it to Magical Society with Veteran animation producer and founder of Method Animation and producer Aton Soumache and award-winning publisher Joann Sfar heading the rebranded company.
In February 2021, ON Kids & Family announced that they've expanded their TV state into preschool television series and has partnered with Chinese toy manufacturer and global media company Alpha Group Co. Ltd to jointly develop ON's first preschool animated series named Petronix Defenders with Alpha Group develop toys made for the show and will distribute the show in Asia-Pacific and MENA while Mediawan's distribution arm Mediawan Rights will distribute the show worldwide elsewhere.
In June 2021, Method Animation had joined forces with Universal Music France, the French subsidiary of the major Dutch/American global music corporation Universal Music Group, to produce an anthology music animated TV series for young adult audiences, entitled Jam with the Australian filmmaker & director of The Greatest Showman, Michael Gracey, would serve as the director of the series & Method Animation's rooster of talent Robert Valley, Félicie Haymoz, Sylvain Chomet and Joann Sfar would serve as creator and would animate episodes for the series; however no other announcement of that series had been made since.
In June 2022, when ON Kids & Family's parent company Mediawan announced that they're bringing all of their kids and family activities and ramping up their youth entertainment content, it was announced that Mediawan had rebranded ON Kids & Family and relaunching it as a new division under the Mediawan name which was renamed Mediawan Kids & Family, marking the end of the ON name after 7 years with Method Animation, Magical Society, ON Animation Studios and ON Classics becoming part of the newly renamed division with the latter two retaining the ON name. Mediawan Kids & Family and their parent company Mediawan also announced that they've launched two new production labels which was traditional animation production studio Somewhere Animation and live-action studio Elliott Studio along with Mediawan Kids & Family launching their own distribution division named Mediawan Kids & Family Distribution that will handle all of their original live-action and animated productions along with third-party programmes. Three days later in that same month, Method Animation had joined forces with Miraculous creator Thomas Astruc, Shibuya Productions and Japanese animation studio Tezuka Productions to reboot Osamu Tezuka's best-selling manga series Astro Boy into a new CGI half-hour animated series which will be named Astro Boy Reboot.
In December 2022, Method Animation along with their parent Mediawan Kids & Family announced that they have hired Katell France the founder of her animation studio Onikiri as Chief Content Officer and managing director of the Method Animation label.
In February 2023, Mediawan Kids & Family along with their parent company Mediawan had announced that they've acquired a majority stake in Bristol-based British scripted and animation production company Wildseed Studios, marking Mediawan's youth entertainment division Mediawan Kids & Family's first international acquisition with Wildseed Studios becoming part of Mediawan Kids & Family as their own production label. Two months later in April of that same year, Method Animation and their parent division Mediawan Kids & Family had been expanded by their parent company Mediawan when they announced that they've acquired Amsterdam-based Dutch independent film & television production company and animation production studio Submarine, marking Mediawan Kids & Family's second expansion this time into the Netherlands.
From Wikipedia’s article on Method Animation, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5