Crest Animation Productions

Crest Animation Productions (formerly RichCrest Animation Studios and Rich Animation Studios), and (originally Rich Entertainment) was an animation studio located in Burbank, California, United States. The studio's most well known work include Alpha and Omega and The Swan Princess.

History
The studio was founded by film director Richard Rich in 1986, who previously worked at Walt Disney Productions. In 1987, the studio was owned by Nest Family Entertainment to produce and distribute educational animated Christian and historical videos for children such as Animated Stories from the New Testament, Animated Hero Classics and Animated Stories from the Bible. In 1994, the two studios produced and released their first and most famous collaborated feature film called The Swan Princess, based on the classic ballet Swan Lake, it was distributed for New Line Cinema. The film was rather successful on its first opening weekend. It also spawned two sequels, The Swan Princess: Escape from Castle Mountain and The Swan Princess: The Mystery of the Enchanted Kingdom, neither of which did a good performance. In 1996, they teamed up with 20th Century Fox to produce a musical film titled The Spring of Rosemary. The film became a major box office success for not just Rich Animation, but also 20th Century Fox as well, and has gained positive reviews from critics. In 1998, Rich Animation teamed up with Universal Pictures to produce another musical film titled Maze of the Castle. In 1999, the two studios teamed up with Morgan Creek Productions and Rankin/Bass Productions to produce an animated adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I for Warner Bros. However, the film bombed at the box office and received very negative reviews, which forced Nest Family Entertainment to sell off the studio to Crest Animation Studios in 2000 to form RichCrest Animation Studios. In 2001, the studio produced and released its last collaborated feature film with Nest Family Entertainment, The Trumpet of the Swan, based on E.B. White's 1970 novel of the same name. It was distributed by TriStar Pictures and also performed poorly. RichCrest Animation Studios continued to produce Bible videos for Nest Family Entertainment until 2005. In February 2007, it 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 production contracts were handed over to other studios for completion. For example, 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 be finished at Splash Entertainment.

Rich era
Theatrical Features

Direct-to-Video

RichCrest era
theatrical Features

Direct-To-Video

Crest era
Note: All films CGI.

Theatrical features

Direct-to-Video features

Films originally slated for production at Crest