2014 in animation
2014 in animation is an overview of notable events, including notable awards, list of films released, television show debuts and endings, and notable deaths.
Events
January
January 12: The Simpsons episode "Married to the Blob" is first broadcast, in which the couch gag is animated by Bill Plympton, the third time he has done so. In the same episode, the long-time single Comic Book Guy marries manga artist Kumiko Nakamura.February
February 1: The 41st Annie Awards are held.February 7: The Lego Movie, by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, is released.February 22: During the 86th Academy Awards, Frozen by Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee and Peter Del Vecho wins the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The song "Let It Go" from the same movie, written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, wins the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Mr. Hublot by Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares wins the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.March
March 9: The Simpsons episode "Diggs" is first broadcast, in which the couch gag is animated by Sylvain Chomet. The same evening, another episode, "The Man Who Grew Too Much", is first broadcast, featuring the last new speaking appearance of Edna Krabappel after Marcia Wallace's death on October 25, 2013. The character was retired after this episode.April
April 1: Cav Bøgelund's Våbenbrødre, an animated short aimed at mature audiences about Danish soldiers during the Afghan War, premiers.April 27:- * The Simpsons episode, "What to Expect When Bart's Expecting", is first broadcast, in which the couch gag is animated by Michael Socha.
- * Nickelodeon celebrates its 35th anniversary.
May
May 4: The Simpsons 550th episode "Brick Like Me" premieres on Fox, in which large parts of the episode are animated in the style of Lego.May 11: The Family Guy episode "He's Bla-ack!" premieres on Fox, which marks the return of Cleveland Brown after the cancellation of his spin-off from the previous year.May 18:- * Bob's Burgers concludes its fourth season on Fox with the episode "World Wharf II: The Wharfening (or How Bob Saves/Destroys the Town – Part II)". The season's finale was seen by over 1.9 million viewers that night.
- * American Dad! concludes its tenth season on Fox with the episode "The Longest Distance Relationship". The season's finale was seen by over 2.3 million viewers that night.
- * The Simpsons concludes its 25th season on Fox with the episode "The Yellow Badge of Cowardge", guest starring Olympian Edwin Moses. The season's finale was seen by over 3.2 million viewers that night.
- * Family Guy concludes its 12th season on Fox with the episode "Chap Stewie", which features the following English guest stars: Cary Elwes, Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and David Thewlis. The season's finale was seen by over 3.8 million viewers that night.
June
June 5:- * Teen Titans Go! concludes its first season on Cartoon Network with the episode "Puppets, Whaaaaat?".
- * Season 3 of The Amazing World of Gumball begins on Cartoon Network with the premiere of the episodes "The Kids/The Fan". Jacob Hopkins and Terrell Ransom Jr. replace Logan Grove and Kwesi Boakye as the voices of Gumball and Darwin due to the latter actors going through puberty.June 12: Season 2 of Teen Titans Go! begins on Cartoon Network with the premiere of the episode "Mr. Butt".Specific date unknown in June: In Belgium, Karolien Raeymaekers makes an animated short, Oma, about her deceased grandmother, as her final exam for the KASK film school in Ghent. The film would be posted on Cartoon Brew later that year and win several awards.
July
July 26: Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars premiered on Disney Channel. It brought in a total of over two million viewers that night.August
August 1: The second and final season of Gravity Falls begins on Disney Channel with the premiere of the episode "Scary-oke", episode premieres would soon switch over to Disney XD 3 days later.August 22: BoJack Horseman premiered on Netflix.September
September 14: Season 11 of American Dad! begins on Fox with the premiere of the episodes, "Roger Passes the Bar" and "A Boy Named Michael". Both episodes were seen by over 2.6 million viewers that night.September 21: American Dad! concludes its 11th season on Fox with the episode "Blagsnarst, a Love Story". The season's finale was seen by over 3 million viewers that night. This was the final episode to air on Fox as the show would switch over to TBS next month for the premiere of its 12th season.September 24: Season 18 of South Park begins on Comedy Central with the premiere of the episode "Go Fund Yourself". It was seen by exactly 2.4 million viewers that night.September 27: My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks is released.September 28:- * Fox replaces its Animation Domination block with a new block called Sunday Funday, which contained an hour of live-action shows and no longer fully had animated shows on its lineup, Animation Domination would return in 2019.
- * Season 26 of The Simpsons begins on Fox with the premiere of the episode "Clown in the Dumps", with the couch gag being animated by Don Hertzfeldt. It had been announced months earlier that a recurring character would die. This character's identity is revealed: Hyman Krustofsky, father of Krusty the Clown.
- * Season 13 of Family Guy begins on Fox with the premiere of the episode "The Simpsons Guy", which is crossover with The Simpsons.
October
October 2: Alan Becker releases "Animator vs Animation IV" on YouTube.October 5: Season 5 of Bob's Burgers begins on Fox with the premiere of the episode "Work Hard or Die Trying, Girl". The season's premiere was seen by over 3.1 million viewers that night.October 13: Hub Network is rebranded as Discovery Family; Hasbro remains a minority partner and programs the network's daytime lineup with children's animated programs carried over from Hub Network, while its primetime lineup was replaced with reruns of non-fiction programs from Discovery Channel's library.October 20: Season 12 of American Dad! begins on TBS with the premiere of the episode "Blonde Ambition". Starting with this season, the show begins airing on TBS after airing on Fox for its 11 previous seasons.November
November 7: Disney releases Big Hero 6.November 9: "Simpsorama", a crossover episode between The Simpsons and Futurama, is first broadcast.Specific date unknown in November: Three animated programs, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, Fatherhood, and Little Bill, are pulled from syndication due to actor Bill Cosby facing allegations of sexual assault. Little Bill is one of the programs to be regretted by Nickelodeon as books based on the show were ceased from circulation. Distractify responded "Perhaps Little Bill should be left in the past."December
December 4: Wander Over Yonder concludes its first season on Disney XD with the premiere of the episode "The Gift 2: The Giftening".December 10: South Park concludes its 18th season on Comedy Central with the episode "#HappyHolograms", this was the show's first Christmas-themed episode in 10 years since Season 8's "Woodland Critter Christmas".December 17: Luxo Jr. and Moon Breath Beat are added to the National Film Registry.Awards
- Academy Award for Best Animated Feature: Frozen
- Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film: Mr. Hublot
- Animation Kobe Feature Film Award: Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion
- Annecy International Animated Film Festival Cristal du long métrage: The Boy and the World
- Annie Award for Best Animated Feature: How to Train Your Dragon 2
- Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Animated Feature Film: The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
- BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film: The Lego Movie
- César Award for Best Animated Film: Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants
- European Film Award for Best Animated Film: The Art of Happiness
- Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film: How to Train Your Dragon 2
- Goya Award for Best Animated Film: Mortadelo and Filemon: Mission Implausible
- Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year: The Wind Rises
- Japan Media Arts Festival Animation Grand Prize: The Wound
- Mainichi Film Awards - Animation Grand Award: ''Giovanni's Island''
Television series debuts
| Date | Title | Channel | Year |
| January 7 | Numb Chucks | YTV | 2014–2016 |
| January 9 | Go! Go! 575 | Tokyo MX | 2014 |
| January 13 | Chozen | FX | 2014 |
| January 18 | Pokémon the Series: XY | Cartoon Network | 2014 |
| January 20 | Sheriff Callie's Wild West | Disney Junior | 2014–2017 |
| February 3 | Wallykazam! | Nick Jr. | 2014–2017 |
| February 12 | Mixels | Cartoon Network | 2014–2016 |
| February 17 | Breadwinners | Nickelodeon | 2014–2016 |
| March 12 | Nerds and Monsters | YTV | 2014–2016 |
| April 2 | TripTank | Comedy Central | 2014–2016 |
| April 9 | The Tom and Jerry Show | Cartoon Network, Boomerang | 2014–2021 |
| April 11 | Piggy Tales | Toons.TV | 2014–2019 |
| April 14 | Clarence | Cartoon Network | 2014–2018 |
| May 2 | Space Racers | PBS Kids, Universal Kids | 2014–2018 |
| May 23 | Tumble Leaf | Amazon Video | 2014–2019 |
| July 7 | The 7D | Disney XD | 2014–2016 |
| July 12 | Astroblast! | Universal Kids | 2014–2015 |
| August 18 | Dora and Friends: Into the City! | Nick Jr. | 2014–2017 |
| August 22 | BoJack Horseman | Netflix | 2014–2020 |
| September 21 | Mr. Pickles | Adult Swim | 2014–2019 |
| September 22 | Jorel's Brother | Cartoon Network Brazil | 2014–2025 |
| October 3 | Star Wars Rebels | Disney XD | 2014–2018 |
| October 13 | Blaze and the Monster Machines | Nick Jr. | 2014–2025/2026 |
| October 27 | Stone Quackers | FXX | 2014–2015 |
| October 27 | Mike Tyson Mysteries | Adult Swim | 2014–2020 |
| November 1 | Angry Birds Stella | Toons.TV | 2014–2016 |
| November 3 | Over the Garden Wall | Cartoon Network | 2014 |
| November 8 | Sonic Boom | Cartoon Network | 2014–2017 |
| November 26 | VeggieTales in the House | Netflix | 2014–2016 |
| December 5 | Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero | Disney XD | 2014–2017 |
| December 19 | All Hail King Julien | Netflix | 2014–2017 |
Deaths
January
January 5: Carmen Zapata, American actress, dies at age 86.January 6: Larry D. Mann, Canadian actor, dies at age 91.January 10: Russell Johnson, American actor, dies at age 89.January 16: Hal Sutherland, American painter, film director and animator, dies at age 84.January 19: Michael Sporn, American animator and film director and producer, dies at age 67.January 21: Bill Kresse, American animator and comics artist, dies at age 80.January 27: Ichiro Nagai, Japanese actor, dies at age 82.January 30:- * Arthur Rankin Jr., American film director and producer, dies at age 89.
- * Campbell Lane, Canadian actor, dies at age 78.January 31: Don Vanderbeek, American background artist, dies from esophageal cancer at age 64.
February
February 2: Philip Seymour Hoffman, American actor, director and producer, dies from a drug overdose at age 46.February 12: Sid Caesar, American actor and writer, dies at age 91.February 16: Jimmy T. Murakami, American film director and animator, dies at age 80.February 24: Harold Ramis, American actor,, comedian, director and writer, dies at age 69.March
March 18:- * Jorge Arvizu, Mexican actor, dies at age 81.
- * Joe Lala, American musician and actor, dies at age 66.March 27: Richard Lorenzana, American production accountant, dies at age 69.
April
April 6: Mickey Rooney, American actor, dies at age 93.April 29: Bob Hoskins, English actor, dies at age 71.May
May 2: Efrem Zimbalist Jr., American actor, dies at age 95.June
June 9: Rik Mayall, English actor, dies at age 56.June 15: Casey Kasem, American actor, dies at age 82.June 23: Steve Viksten, American television writer, and actor, dies at age 53.June 26: Wolf Koenig, Canadian film director and animator, dies at age 86.June 28: Meshach Taylor, American actor, dies at age 67.June 30: Bob Hastings, American actor, dies at age 89.July
July 6: Tô Hoài, Vietnamese writer, playwright, screenwriter, journalist and animator, dies at age 93.July 7: Dick Jones, American actor, dies at age 87.July 19: James Garner, American actor, dies at age 86.July 28: James Shigeta, Japanese-American actor, dies at age 85.August
August 4: Walter Massey, Canadian actor, dies at age 85.August 6: David Weidman, American animator and poster designer, dies at age 93.August 11:- * Robin Williams, American actor and comedian, commits suicide at age 63.
- * Liz Holzman, American animator, storyboard artist, character designer, prop designer, art director, writer, director and producer, dies from cancer at age 61.August 12: Lauren Bacall, American actress and voice actress, dies at age 89.August 18: Don Pardo, American announcer, dies at age 96.