In her column, Iman Monnoo ’28 dissects the failures, successes and future direction of animated media.
Editor’s Note: This article includes subjective thoughts, opinions and critiques.
In an era of billionaires and tech tycoons, David Ellison is one mogul with an excess of money and a greater excess of power. The son of Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle Corporation, Ellison has made a name for himself as the man behind the largest media merger in entertainment history.
In case you aren’t chronically online, the CEO recently settled an antitrust case brought by 12 Democratic state attorneys general over the merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery — a highly controversial decision, to say the least. After a year of intense litigation, the settlement deal was finalized on Oct. 6, clearing the final roadblock in the way of Paramount’s $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros.
At the center of this expanding media empire is Skydance, a studio with an ethos for pioneering AI-integrated films; experimenting at the intersection of form and technology; and expanding on the existing portfolios of both parent companies. But this consolidation extends beyond two major Hollywood studios, bringing together streaming services like HBO Max and Paramount+, and TV networks including CBS, CNN, Nickelodeon and MTV.
Ellison claims that the goal of Skydance is simple: “We have assembled an unmatched portfolio of intellectual property, sports, and news assets, and then we are building a product and tech organization that can compete with anybody coming out of Silicon Valley.”
One of the earliest opportunities to evaluate Skydance’s ambitions in animation comes through Brad Bird’s upcoming “Ray Gunn” (2026). You may recognize Bird’s name from childhood classics like “The Incredibles” (2004) or “The Iron Giant” (1999). Now, the acclaimed director is back with an attempt to change the landscape of the animation industry — this time with Skydance Animation.
“Ray Gunn” (2026) is a detective-noir animated film that follows the eponymous private investigator (voiced by Sam Rockwell) in a retro-futurist metropolis. As in any good noir mystery, hijinks ensue when Ray is recruited to tail an intergalactically famous singer named Venus Nova (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). The film is Bird’s attempt to bridge old-school noir — complete with smooth-talking investigators, gangsters and a femme fatale — with the glamour of space-age technology and aliens.
In theory, it’s an exciting revitalization of animation; in practice, it’s a dicey gamble that major studios were reluctant to take. Despite being a name-brand director, Bird struggled for 30 years to get the green light on his passion project. Skydance Animation eventually took a chance on Bird, with the film set to debut on Netflix on Dec. 18.
Not only is Bird’s film a bridging of genre but it is also a risky dive into a new target audience: young adults. Set against a backdrop of Art Deco towers, glittering nightclubs and seedy motels, the film is an aesthetic experience targeted towards high schoolers and college students. In the animation industry, this is a rare occurrence. Major studios seem to target either young children or established adults, and these marketing models have virtually no overlap.
In fact, the two disparate audiences drive two broad strains of animation: the emotional comedy of “KPop Demon Hunters” (2025), and the raunchy, profanity-laden style of “Rick and Morty” (2013) or “Bojack Horseman” (2014). Yet, 2026 appears to be rewriting this narrative with more and more young adult animations slated for release — notably LAIKA’s “Wildwood” (2026) and Leah Nelson’s “Tangles” (2026).
After three decades in the making, this project makes many ambitious promises to animation fans. Ultimately, Skydance’s collaboration with a legacy director like Brad Bird will be the first test of whether tech tycoons can infiltrate the animation industry. For any Stanford students interested in the intersection between the two, I’d recommend adding this to your watchlist.