Crest Animation Productions (formerly RichCrest Animation Studios, Rich Animation Studios and originally Rich Entertainment) was an Indian-American animation studio located in

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, w ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The studio's most well known work include ''

Alpha and Omega Alpha (Α or α) and omega (Ω or ω) are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, and a title of Christ and God in the Book of Revelation. This pair of letters is used as a Christian symbol, and is often combined with the Cross, Chi-rh ...

'', '' Norm of the North'', and '' The Swan Princess''.

History

The studio was founded by film director

Richard Rich Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich (July 1496 – 12 June 1567), was Lord Chancellor during King Edward VI of England's reign, from 1547 until January 1552. He was the founder of Felsted School with its associated almshouses in Essex in 1564. He wa ...

in 1986, who previously worked at

Walt Disney Productions The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

. He initially had 26 employees, most of them coming from Disney such as former marketing chief Matt Mazer. Around that time, Rich was contacted by Jared F. Brown to produce half-hour animated videos based on audio cassettes of the

Book of Mormon The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which, according to Latter Day Saint theology, contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from 600 BC to AD 421 and during an interlude date ...

for his Living Scriptures firm. They subsequentially expanded to educational animated

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

and

historical History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

videos for children through a sister company Family Entertainment Network. In 1993, Rich Animation Studios was fully acquired by Nest Entertainment, a holding company that also combined Family Entertainment Network and Cassette Duplicators Inc., a cassette-duplicator in

West Valley City West Valley City is a city in Salt Lake County and a suburb of Salt Lake City in the U.S. state of Utah. The population was 140,230 at the 2020 census, making it the second-largest city in Utah. The city incorporated in 1980 from a large, quic ...

. On the heels of the videos' success, the two studios produced '' The Swan Princess'' in 1994, based on the classic ballet

Swan Lake ''Swan Lake'' ( rus, Лебеди́ное о́зеро, r=Lebedínoye ózero, p=lʲɪbʲɪˈdʲinəjə ˈozʲɪrə, link=no ), Op. 20, is a ballet composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Despite its initial failur ...

. Despite being a

box-office disappointment A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...

, it sold well on video and spawned two sequels, '' The Swan Princess: Escape from Castle Mountain'' and '' The Swan Princess: The Mystery of the Enchanted Kingdom''. In 1999, the two studios teamed up with Morgan Creek Productions and

Rankin/Bass Productions Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment (founded and formerly known as Videocraft International, Ltd. and Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.) was an American production company located in New York City, and known for its seasonal television specials, usual ...

to produce an animated adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's ''

The King and I ''The King and I'' is the fifth musical by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on Margaret Landon's novel '' Anna and the King of Siam'' (1944), which is in turn derived from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, governess to the childre ...

'' for

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...

However, the film bombed at the box office and received very negative reviews, which forced

Nest Family Entertainment Nest Family Entertainment is an American family entertainment company based in Coppell, Texas. It was formed in 1980 as Family Entertainment Network by Jared F. Brown, Stephen W. Griffin, and Seldon O. Young. The company has produced several dram ...

to sell off the studio to Crest Animation Studios in 2000. The studio was renamed to RichCrest Animation Studios, and they continued to produce Bible videos for Nest until 2005. In February 2007, RichCrest was renamed to Crest Animation Productions and announced that it was "expanding its business to become a full-service animation studio specializing in the development and production of CGI-animated properties for theatrical, television, home entertainment and interactive distribution". The studio was finally shut down in 2013, after failing to make a profit. Many of its productions contracts were handed over to other studios for completion. '' Norm of the North'', a film that was in production at Crest before closing, along with future ''Alpha and Omega'' sequels were handed over to

Splash Entertainment Splash Entertainment, LLC., formerly known as Mike Young Productions, Inc., MoonScoop Entertainment, LLC. and Taffy Entertainment, is an American animation studio that produces children's TV series. Splash also controls the streaming service Kab ...

while future ''Swan Princess'' installments were handled by Streetlight Animation, which Rich also formed.

Filmography

Theatrical Features

Rich era RichCrest era Crest era

Direct-to-Video

Rich era RichCrest era Crest era Note: All films CGI. Films originally slated for production at Crest

References

American animation studios Companies based in Los Angeles County, California Indian animation studios Visual effects companies Indian companies established in 1986 Mass media companies established in 1986 Mass media companies disestablished in 2013 Indian companies disestablished in 2013 Film production companies based in Mumbai 1986 establishments in California 2013 disestablishments in California {{animation-studio-stub