Amblin Entertainment is an American film and television production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall in 1981.
Overview
Amblin is named after Spielberg's first commercially released film, Amblin' (1968), a short independent film about a man and woman hitchhiking through the desert. The film, which cost $15,000 to produce, was shown for Universal Studios and won Spielberg more directing roles. Although Amblin is an independent production company, Universal distributes many Amblin productions, and Amblin operates out of a building on the Universal lot.
Its logo features the silhouette of E.T. riding in the basket on Elliott's bicycle flying in front of the moon from the 1982 movie, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
In addition to various Spielberg films, Amblin has produced movies by other directors such as Joe Dante (Gremlins, Small Soldiers, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Innerspace), Robert Zemeckis (the Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit), Brian Levant (the Flintstones duology), Matthew Robbins (*batteries not included), Penelope Spheeris (the 1994 film remake of The Little Rascals), Brad Silberling (Casper), Don Bluth (An American Tail, The Land Before Time), Clint Eastwood (The Bridges of Madison County, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, Hereafter), Gil Kenan (Monster House), Martin Campbell (The Mask of Zorro, The Legend of Zorro), Richard Donner (The Goonies), Jan de Bont (Twister), Barry Sonnenfeld (the Men in Black trilogy), Martin Scorsese (the remake of Cape Fear), Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III), J. J. Abrams (Super 8), The Coen Brothers (True Grit), and Simon Wells (An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, Balto).
Most of these directors are close friends of Spielberg, who has an executive producer or producer credit on many but not all of the films that Amblin's produced and were not directed by Spielberg. Amblin's most critically acclaimed production is Schindler's List (1993), which was nominated for twelve Academy Awards, winning seven, including Best Picture. A companion study guide for it, Facing History, was prepared through a grant from Amblin and Universal.
Amblin's television series credits include Amazing Stories, Tiny Toon Adventures, seaQuest DSV, Animaniacs, Earth 2, Pinky and the Brain, ER, Freakazoid!, Back to the Future, Family Dog, The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper, Fievel's American Tails, The Land Before Time and Men in Black: The Series. The animated title Fievel's American Tails and others were produced by Amblin's animation division Amblimation, which was active from 1991 until 1995. Another studio which has distributed many Amblin productions is Warner Bros. Entertainment. DreamWorks (which was co-founded by Spielberg) has distributed a number of Amblin productions since 1994.
The Walt Disney Studios has also collaborated with Amblin in such films as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Arachnophobia, Noises Off, A Far Off Place, War Horse, Lincoln, The Hundred-Foot Journey, Bridge of Spies, and The BFG.
Motion pictures
- Asterisked films indicate that Steven Spielberg is uncredited or uninvolved.
Short films
- Tummy Trouble (1989)
- Roller Coaster Rabbit (1990)
- Trail Mix-Up (1993)
- I'm Mad (Animaniacs short) (1994)
Direct-to-video
- Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation (1992)
- Wakko's Wish (1999)
Television films
- Class of '61 (1993)
Television shows
Live-action
Animated
With Universal Animation Studios
- Back to the Future: The Animated Series (1991â€"1992)
- A Wish for Wings That Work (1991)
- Fievel's American Tails (1992, also with Nelvana)
- Casper (1996â€"1998)
- The Land Before Time (2007â€"2008)
With Warner Bros. Animation
- Tiny Toon Adventures (1990â€"1995)
- The Plucky Duck Show (1992)
- Animaniacs (1993â€"1998)
- Freakazoid! (1995â€"1997)
- Pinky and the Brain (1995â€"1998)
- Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain (1998â€"1999)
With Universal, WB and Nelvana
- Family Dog (1993)
With Columbia Tristar Television
- Men in Black: The Series (1997-2001)
Theme park attractions
While Amblin has never had its own theme park, theme parks have made rides based on Amblin films and co-productions.
- Back to the Future: The Ride, a simulator ride at Universal Studios Japan. Also existed at Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Hollywood.
- Gremlins Invasion, a ride at Warner Bros. Movie World and Warner Bros. Movie World Germany.
- Jurassic Park: The Ride, a water ride at Universal Studios Hollywood.
- Men in Black: Alien Attack, a dark ride at Universal Studios Florida.
- Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin, a dark ride in Mickey's Toontown, a land at Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland.
- Twister...Ride it Out, a simulator ride at Universal Studios Florida.
- E.T. Adventure, a dark ride at Universal Studios Florida. Also existed at Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Japan.
References
External links
- Amblin Entertainment at the Internet Movie Database