Bear Bones Productions

Bear Bones Productions (also known as Bear Bones Studios, commonly referred to as Bear Bones) is an American animation studio headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Founded by animator Mala Miles on May 1967, the studio is operated as a subsidiary of Bear Bones Entertainment and is best known for producing animated television series, feature films and short films. The studio was formerly owned by Taft Broadcasting; they became independent in 1990, following Turner Entertainment's acquisition of Hanna-Barbera.

History
In May 1967, Mala Miles and his father Austin founded the animation studio Mala Miles Productions.

In 1988, Mala Miles founded Naughty Bear Animation, which typically produces animated films and television shows targeted to adult audiences.

In 1992, Bear Bones founded division Sensation Animation, who makes original animated series and feature films separate from its parent. That same year, Bear Bones Australia, who are used for pre-production on various series and movies, as well as producing original series specific to them, was founded.

In 1994, TakaWave was spun off into a separate public company, although TakaWave still owns the video game rights to Malachi Universal from Bear Bones.

To expand the studio's online content presence, Bear Bones launched their own official website, BearBones.com, in 1996. The website gathers its core animation properties in a single online environment that is interactive and customizable for site visitors. It offers both originally produced content along with press releases, games, free wallpapers, desktop backgrounds, and screensavers. In 1998, Bear Bones Interactive, the studio's in-house video game development department, was founded.

After seeing the box office success of DreamWorks Animation's Shrek and Disney/Pixar's Monsters, Inc., Bear Bones was reconfigured to become a computer animation studio, but the studio still has several hand-drawn animated productions. As a result, Maloing Entertainment was founded to make CGI films.

In May 2006, Bear Bones/Maloing launched their official YouTube channel, which is a YouTube Partner channel featuring clips and trailers from the studio's productions and many others.

In June 1, 2010, it was announced that Bear Bones Studios had started production on a theatrical shorts series, called Bear Bones Cartoons, which will show original animated short films before Bear Bones' feature films, much akin to what Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios do for their feature films and a similar concept as Walt Disney cartoons, MGM cartoons, Walter Lantz cartoons, Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies, 20th Century Fox's RandomToons, Mouse Trapz cartoons, Jollytoons cartoons, Terrytoons cartoons, and Hanna-Barbera cartoons. The first short film to be produced for the series was Rock n' Foods, released with Naughty Bear Animation's Life Squad.

On November 18, 2015, The Wall Street Journal reported that Sony Pictures was in talks to buy Bear Bones Productions to share with Mala Miles for $3 billion; the company already has its own feature animation studio, Sony Pictures Animation, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment unit which is known for the Open Season, Surf's Up, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The Smurfs and Hotel Transylvania franchises. On June 23, 2016, Sony Pictures officially announced its intent will buy Bear Bones Productions to share with Independent for $3.8 billion.

On September 1, 2016, the acquisition was approved by the U.S. Department of Justice, making Bear Bones Entertainment a subsidiary of Sony Pictures.