Bento Box Entertainment (also known as Bento Box Animation) is an American animation studio located in North Hollywood, California. It was founded in 2009 by executive producers Scott Greenberg, Joel Kuwahara, and Mark Mc.Jimsey. Bento Box currently operates three other animation houses aside from the main North Hollywood base: Burbank; Bento Box Animation Studio Atlanta, in Atlanta, Georgia; and Bento Box Canada in Toronto, Ontario. The company also operates Princess Bento Studio (a joint venture with Princess Pictures) in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
As of August 2019, Bento Box is a subsidiary of Fox Corporation and continues to operate independently under Fox Entertainment. Beforehand, the studio provided (and still provide to this day) animation for Bob's Burgers, produced by 20th Television (now owned by Disney) for the Fox network.
Shows and movies worked on by Bento Box Entertainment:
- Achmed Saves America
- Alien News Desk
- Allen Gregory
- The Awesomes
- Beverly Hills Chihuahuas (failed pilot; with Hong Ying)
- Bob's Burgers
- Bordertown
- Brickleberry
- Central Park
- Duncanville
- Farzar
- Glove and Boots
- The Great North
- Grimsburg
- Gumby Kids and an untitled prime-time adult Gumby show (upcoming)
- Hazbin Hotel note co-production with A24, in collaboration with Princess Pictures. Pilot produced/animated independently by SpindleHorse Toons.
- Hoops
- HouseBroken
- Koala Mannote Co-production with 20th Television Animation, in collaboration with Princess Pictures.
- Krapopolis
- Lazor Wulf
- Legends of Chamberlain Heights
- Mulligan
- Neighbors from Hell
- The New Adventures of Paddle Pop
- Out There (2013)
- Paradise PD
- Pastacolypse
- The Prince
- Saturday Morning All Star Hits! (animated sequences and effects)
- Smiling Friends (seasons 1-2)note Co-production with Williams Street, in collaboration with Princess Pictures. Pilot produced by Studio Yotta and Six Point Harness. "The Smiling Friends Go To Brazil" and season 2 also co-produced with Studio Yotta, with "Erm, the Boss Finds Love?", "Charlie, Pim, and Bill vs. the Alien'" and "The Magical Red Jewel (aka Tyler Gets Fired)" additionally co-animated by Saerom. Starting with Season 3, animation production was fully transferred to Saerom with specialty animation done by ZAM Studios.
- Solar Opposites
- Universal Basic Guys (animated by Princess Bento Studio)
- Wolfboy and the Everything Factory
Tropes applying to the company as a whole include:
- Animated Shock Comedy: Many of the company's animated productions are raunchy comedies with jokes about sex, drugs, and violence.
- Animation Bump: The unaired pilots for both Allen Gregory and a never-proposed Animated Adaptation of Harold & Kumar. The animation on Central Park also gets noticeably more fluid during the musical sequences.
- Black Comedy: Brickleberry, Paradise PD, Solar Opposites and their edgier works are infamous for this.
- Domestic-Only Cartoon: Legends of Chamberlain Heights, Ten Year Old Tom and Hoops. Averted with shows that are partially or fully outsourced to Canada, South Korea, or The Phillipines (and in SMASH's case, Taiwan).
- Downer Ending: There have been a few shows ending on this note (Ex: Allen Gregory, Hoops, The Life & Times of Tim, and Brickleberry to name a few).
- Limited Animation: A lot of their shows are notorious for their cheap-looking animation style.
- Lighter and Softer: Bob's Burgers, Duncanville, Central Park, Out There, HouseBroken, and The Great North.
- No Budget: Legends of Chamberlain Heights, The Life & Times of Tim, Ten Year Old Tom and the first season of Bob's Burgers.
- Production Posse: Before opening their other animation studios, they seemed to favor Bardel Entertainment, Yeson Entertainment, Hanho Heung-Up, NE4U, Copernicus Studios, Lighthouse Studios, Toon City, and Yearim Productions the most for outsourcing.
- It's easier to list the shows Bento Box didn't animate for 20th Television or the Fox network. Owing to this, and because they still animate Bob's Burgers, Fox Entertainment acquired the company.
- Short-Runners: Some of the shows they've worked on never last beyond their second season. Out There being the most notorious example.
- Thin-Line Animation: Their default house style.