ABSTRACT
California-based Illumination Entertainment, founded by Chris Meledandri in 2007 after he left 20th Century Fox, where he had been Head of Animation, expanded into France in 2011 when it purchased Mac Guff Studio in Paris. All of the animation for Despicable Me and The Lorax was completed in the French studio, but the movies must be credited to the US studio because that is where they originated. The truth is that zero Frenchproduced animated feature films have achieved any international success at all. Astérix Le Domaine des Dieux and Mune, le Gardien de la Lune were moderately successful in the French market. The Little Prince, directed by Mark Osborne (Kung Fu Panda) in 2015, has received excellent notices internationally and Paramount released it in the United States in 2016.
