Star Wars Forever

The Mouse moves briskly.

With Lucasfilm firmly ensconced in Disney land, production has begun the next animated Star Wars TV series. Two months after The Clone Wars was forced to surrender following a five-year run on Cartoon Network, Star Wars Rebels is massing its forces for a fall 2014 attack. It will premiere as an hourlong special before the series kicks off on Disney XD outlets ...

But Disney isn't wasting time on the cross pollination process. Phineas and Ferb have ended their regular series, but there are close to a half-dozen hour Star Wars specials featuring P & F that will be unspooling in coming months.

Synergy! Click here to read entire post

More Chances For a Little Gold Man

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences becomes more generous:

The Academy has relaxed the rules for winning an Oscar for Best Animated Feature, allowing more individuals to take home statuettes.

In rule changes approved by the AMPAS Board of Governors, the filmmaker with producer credit will now receive an Oscar in the category, along with the film’s credited director. In cases where a two-person team has shared director credit, a third statuette can be awarded.

In the past, the Animated Feature Oscar went to the single individual with the most creative input into the film, typically the director. In only two cases over the 12 years of the category – including the most recent winner, “Brave” – two credited directors received statuettes.

Because you can never have enough shiny awards ...

But what this is REALLY about is ... animated features are no longer the sleepy little sub-category that Disney Feature used to occupy all by its lonesome.

Now, animated features are big business, and lots of our fine conglomerates are making them. Disney, Universal, Viacom, Fox-News Corp. Sony, are in the cartoon biz, and delighted with the box office results.

In fact, cartoon features are the most profitable type of feature at the world box office. As the Nikkster reminds us:

Judged just by genre, average revenues for the decade’s 101 animated films ran 108.4% ahead of costs. DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek 2 led the category with a 462% margin. The 71 sci-fi/fantasy films had a margin of 108.1%. ...

This might have a teensy bit to do with the Acadmey's willingness to hand out more glittering trophies. Because if there's one thing the AMPAS does really well, it's being careful not to bite the big fat hands that feet it. Click here to read entire post

The Hue of Money

Veteran animation players remain in the game.

... Moviehouse Entertainment is looking to draw up deal memos with foreign buyers for former studio exec Frank Gladstone's The Hero of Color City. ...

It is aimed at three to six year olds.

Moviehouse has a one minute teaser it is screening at the Cannes Market.

Gladstone (The Road to El Dorado) has worked within the animation divisions of Disney, Warner Bros. and DreamWorks. The Hero of Color City is produced by Max Howard, former president of Warner Bros Feature Animation. ...

Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Howard worked together at Disney Feature Animation (Florida) back in the early nineties.

More recently, Max Howard produced the indie animated feature Igor, and Frank Gladstone was a development executive at Starz/Film Roman.

Mr. Gladstone is the current President of ASIFA, Los Angeles. Click here to read entire post

Pretenders to the Throne

Show their wares at Cannes.

Cannes: Global Competitors Emerge in Animated Film Market

... When it comes to animation, the big American studios: Pixar, DreamWorks Animation and Blue Sky still dominate the market. Take a look around the Marche, however, and this seems to be changing. The Last Elf of the Orient, Space Dogs 2, Marzipan Spirit, Jitterbug - those are just a handful of the more than 200 projects from outside North America that are looking for buyers and for a piece of the global animated pie. ...

There is plenty of room below that top tier [of Pixar and DreamWorks] for animated movies made outside the states,” said Martin Moszkowicz, head of film and TV at Germany's Constantin Film, who are producing the upcoming 3D animated feature Tarzan, an action-packed take on the classic jungle tale. ...

No nation is probably more eager than China to create the next Pixar. China's Tianjin North Film Group has arrived at the market touting the second film in its Legend of a Rabbit franchise. The first film was a notable flop though. Rather than retreating, the company is doubling down. ...

News flash: There is always somebody doubling down.

When billions of dollars glitter enticingly on the horizon, animation companies big and small swarm into the marketplace. (They'd be foolish not to.)

I've been watching this particular cauldron bubble since ... oh ... 1990, and the plotline seldom changes: American animation companies make big bucks in the world market; foreign cartoon studios then create product that they hope will make big bucks too.

Mostly, they fall on their eager faces.

So far, the closest that foreign companies have come to grabbing the big brass ring is Animal Logic with its dancing penguins epic Happy Feet (although the sequel sagged at the box office) and the French animation studio MacGuff ... which is under the direction and ownership of (American) Illumination Entertainment, so perhaps MacGuff doesn't quite count.

There could well come a day when foreign cartoon features clean up at the global box office. Even now, there are animated features from foreign lands that have made $50,000,000 ... or even $100,000,000 in markets around the world. But no European, Indian or Chinese studio has come close the billion dollar wonders created by Pixar, DreamWorks Animation or Blue Sky Studios.

I wouldn't bet against it happening someday, but it hasn't happened yet.
Click here to read entire post

Your Foreign B.O.

Where new animation and old is performing well.

... Fox rolled out is animated “Epic,” one week ahead of its U.S. debut. It brought in a strong $14.5 million from 16 markets. Mexico led the way with $3.5 million.

The studio’s “The Croods” added another $10.6 million to raise its international total to $375.8 million and its worldwide haul to $552 million. ...

But what finished in the Win-Place-Show positions overseas? ...

The Great Gatsby opened in 50 foreign markets and took in $42.1 million, narrowly topping Disney’s Iron Man 3 ($40.2 million from 56 territories) and Star Trek: Into Darkness ($40 million from 41). ...

Don't know where Epic might finish up, but The Croods will be above $600 million when all the world currencies are collected and counted.
Click here to read entire post

The Toons of Spain

Spanish animation studios have been creating features for decades. And they're still at it.

... For crisis-beleaguered Spanish production, animation is proving to be a lifeline. ...

Tad, the Lost Explorer, Spain’s biggest local toon hit ever ($24.8 million) has gone on to corral $50 million-plus worldwide, and counting. Ilion Animation Studios’ $60 million Planet 51, a Sony U.S. pickup, paved the way by scoring $105.7 million worldwide in 2010.

Tad’s success underscored the significant impact of broadcasters’ marketing campaigns, especially for toons.

With aggressive promotion, Mediaset Espana helped Paramount propel Tad in Spain, beating Ice Age 4 ($19.7 million), Brave ($19.1 million) and Madagascar 3 ($13.4 million).

If Justin and Foosball catch box office fire this summer, ... says producer Jordi Gasull at El Toro, “they could consolidate a golden age for higher-end, mainstream toons from Spain.”

Higher end is in the eye of the executive writing the check.

Spain might go upscale, but Spain has the same issues holding on to its star talent that every foreign studio (live-action or cartoon) has had since around ... oh ... 1914. When a top animator, director or story artist wants to cash in, they don't go looking for a raise from the likes of Ilion Animation Studios. They get themselves a visa and catch a flight to the states, where the money is better.

The Iberian peninsula will likely produce entertaining cartoon features in the future, but the trick will be to get worldwide grosses competitive with the movies coming from our fine, entertainment conglomerates. That could be a tall order. Click here to read entire post

Mid May Box Office

With Add On!

Friday stats SHOW viz effx extravaganzas at the top of the heap.

Friday Numbers

1. Star Trek Into Darkness — $22.0 million
2. Iron Man 3 – $9.51 million
3. The Great Gatsby – $7.65 million
4. Pain and Gain – $876,000
5. 42 — $750,000

Meantime, The Croods, residing at #8 through Thursday, declined a mere 14% going into the weekend, and has now collected north of $174 million at the domestic box office.

Add On: To nobody's surprise, Captain Kirk and associates came out on top:

"Star Trek: Into Darkness" easily topped the domestic box-office charts this weekend, grossing $70.6 million this weekend in the U.S. and Canada, according to an estimate from distributor Paramount Pictures. ...

"Iron Man 3" dropped to second place on its third weekend in U.S. theaters, collecting $35.2 million. World-wide, the latest superhero film from Walt Disney Co.'s DIS +0.17% Marvel Studios has taken in a spectacular $1.073 billion.

"The Great Gatsby" dropped 53% from its solid opening, grossing $23.4 million and bringing its total domestic box office take to $90.2 million. ...

Kindly note that The Croods dropped less than any picture in the Top Ten, and has climbed back to #5:

Weekend Box Office (Domestic Total)

1) Star Trek Into Darkness -- $70,555,000

2) Iron Man 3 -- $35,182,000 ($337,073,000)

3) The Great Gatsby -- $23,415,000 ($90,159,000)

4) Pain and Gain -- $3,100,000 ($46,574,000)

5) The Croods -- $2,750,000 -- ($176,750,000)

With the exception of Rise of the Guardians, DWA animated features have been remarkably consistent raking in domestic grosses that are north of (or close to) $150 million:

Domestic Box Office

Madagascar 3 -- $216,391,482

Puss In Boots -- $149,260,504

Kung Fu Panda 2 -- $165,249,063

Megamind -- $148,415,853

Shrek Forever After -- $238,736,787

How to Train Your Dragon -- $217,581,231

Monsters Vs. Aliens -- $198,351,526

By and large, it's been a quite sterling box office record.
Click here to read entire post

Son of Awesomeness

Jeffrey K. and his troops are not letting the grass grow under their corporate feet.

AwesomenessTV, the YouTube multichannel network acquired by Dreamworks Animation last month, has bowed AwesomenessX, a new channel aimed at male teens and tweens.

New channel will be stocked with seven new original series, while five existing AwesomenessTV shows will migrate over. ...

(Maybe the goal here is to be a mini-conglomerate, yes?) ...

I spent a chunk of my morning wandering through DWA's Lakeside building. Happy Smekday! is well into work, (Release date November 2014) and Me and My Shadow, although "back in story," is still having some production work done.

How to Train Your Dragon II is going full tilt, which it should be, since it's ten months out from its release date.

There's a lot of empty cubicles around and about; a staffer told me:

"I don't know if management is going to go to a Disney/Visual effects model where they hire more staff at crunch time and lay them off afterwards. In the past, DreamWorks Animation spent a lot of time and effort recruiting people they needed for upcoming projects, and it was sometimes hard to get them. And they retained them.

"But now there's a lot bigger talent pool, and it's easier to recruit. Will the studio decide they can just hire crew on an "as needed" basis and not keep them after the production deadline? I don't know the answer to that, but I hope not." ...

Another employee said:

Management's working to get budgets down from $150 million per picture to $120 million per picture. This means that production heads have to say No to directors' wish lists. Some things will be possible to do, others not." ...

Artists are still being laid off as their assignments end, so more empty cubes. But morale is a bit better than a couple of months ago, though it's still way below attitudes of, say, a year back. (Big surprise.)

One ray of sunshine: DVD and Blu-Ray sales are up.

Mr. Katzenberg cited the surprisingly strong home video performance of "Rise of the Guardians," which was a box-office disappointment in theaters last November. The movie has sold 3.2 million copies on DVD and Blu-ray, well ahead of DreamWorks' prior expectations. ...

Click here to read entire post

Sequelmania

Since they're all the rage, there is this.

I have been thinking about [Incredibles 2]. People think that I have not been, but I have. Because I love those characters and love that world. I am stroking my chin and scratching my head. I have many, many elements that I think would work really well in another [Incredibles] film, and if I can get ‘em to click all together, I would probably wanna do that. I like the idea of moving a little more quickly in films. I’m looking for ways to accelerate the pace a little bit and figure out a way to keep creative control over these movies to a level where I’m comfortable with the end result but also speed them up a bit and make more of them. I have many different films I wanna make. It’s like a big airplane hangar and I have different projects on the floor; half-assembled in my brain. I’m interested in all of them. You kind of have to move on the ones people are willing to pay for and the ones you’re most excited about.

Of course, Brad Bird could move more quickly ...

Because animated features are produced in, what? Nine ... seven ... six months these days? The production schedules are almost like live-action, with lots of bodies thrown at this project or that to meet a release date. Story development, of course, is something else again. That part of the process can take freaking years, and often does.

But that makes it somewhat easier for Brad, I think. He could work on the story, go off and shoot a live-action feature, come back and work on the story some more, then make one more live-action movie, and then swing over to Pixar and helm the last frenetic six months of production work on the sequel. (And he could always have a co-director for the in-between times, couldn't he?)

There's ways of getting this done. Michael Curtiz and John Ford used to make three and sometimes four movies a year. No reason the directors of the 21st century can't do the same. Skype! Technology!
Click here to read entire post

The New DVD Tent Pole

Out with a new trailer.



As it happens, I was at DisneyToon Studios today doing a 401(k) enrollment meeting. It's a nice studio, with lots of amenities ...

The artists working there are working on the DTS franchises, one about planes and one about Tinker Bell and her many friends.

Tink has made Diz Co. plenty of money. I'm laying bets that Planes will make the Burbank conglomerate even more. Not only will it sell a lot of little silver disks, but it will do alright in its summer theatrical release. (If Planes' timing is good, it might do more than alright.)

And Planes is a dead-bang cinch to sell several metric tons of toys and various games. Robert Iger is about building brands and leveraging product with other product. Plenty of people object to the money-grubbing mercenary quality to some of Disney's pictures, but the profits are gushing and the stock price keeps going up ... up ... and up.

Synergy, interconnectivity and multiple media platforms is what it's about in IgerWorld. According to the wrap, that's a big part of the reason filmmaker J.J. Abrams will be coming to the Mouse House to oversee the next trilogy of Star Wars.

Abrams' ambitions to create a multi-platform film franchise will find a ... natural home at Disney, analysts and industry experts tell TheWrap. As successful as "Star Trek" has been, few franchises match the profitability and cultural prominence of George Lucas' space opera, which would be difficult for any director to pass up.

“Disney has always been oriented to multi-platform revenue stream situations,” Seth Willenson, a film library valuations expert, told TheWrap.

Multi-platform revenue streams. It's why Mr. Abrams wants to work at Disney. And it's why Planes is being made. The revenue stream from kid merchandise should be a veritable gusher.
Click here to read entire post

Ms. Jobs

Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve Jobs widow, is making use of the family money.

Steve Jobs’s Widow Debuts on Philanthropic Stage

Marlene Castro knew the tall blonde woman only as Laurene, her mentor. They met every few weeks in a rough Silicon Valley neighborhood the year that Ms. Castro was applying to college, and they e-mailed often, bonding over conversations about Ms. Castro’s difficult childhood. Without Laurene’s help, Ms. Castro said, she might not have become the first person in her family to graduate from college.

It was only later, when she was a freshman at University of California, Berkeley, that Ms. Castro read a news article and realized that Laurene was the wife of Apple’s co-founder, Steven P. Jobs. ...

Ms. Powell Jobs has tiptoed into the public sphere, pushing her agenda in education as well as global conservation, nutrition and immigration policy. ... [She] has a net worth estimated at $11.5 billion, according to Bloomberg, most of it in shares of the Walt Disney Company. ...

Ms. Powell Jobs has become a leader in pushing for decade-old legislation known as the Dream Act, a measure that would provide legal status for immigrants who arrived in the country as young children. Last December, she enlisted the Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Davis Guggenheim to make a documentary about immigration. The two had met through their work in education; Mr. Guggenheim’s most recent film, “Waiting for Superman,” examined the crisis in America’s public schools.

“Laurene asked me how much time I needed to make a movie, and I told her about a year and a half,” Mr. Guggenheim said. “But she said that she needed something done in three months because the legislation was coming up for a vote.”

So instead of a creating a big feature with a broad theatrical release, Ms. Powell Jobs commissioned a 30-minute film, “The Dream Is Now,” which is viewable online and being shown at college campuses across the country. Last month, Ms. Powell Jobs and Mr. Guggenheim traveled to Washington with several young immigrants and their families who were featured in the film; the purpose of the trip was to screen the documentary for a group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

I find it admirable that Laurene Powell Jobs is putting her riches to use helping people that need assistance. It would be so much easier to pass the time shopping or sleeping on a Maui beach; the fact that she's trying to improve lives says a lot about her values and character. Click here to read entire post

Changes in the TAG 401(k) Plan

We get questions:

[You say:] "[F]ees will go up a few basis points for people in Vanguard index funds -- which now pay zero fees."

Index funds are not managed, that's why they are cheap and historically they outperform managed funds.

People are catching on and moving more to these. Is the Union just trying to get more money to the admins?

Managed fund fees cannibalize a large amount of individual gains and usually for lower returns, sounds very fishy or the trustees are grossly uninformed... simple math.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/business-economy-financial-crisis/retirement-gamble/how-retirement-fees-cost-you/

Actually, the union is working to chop expenses. Here's why changes are happening. ...

The TAG 401(k) Plan has had expenses since its inception in 1995, all of them borne by Plan participants. (This is the same deal participants get in the Motion Picture Industry Pension Plan, in case you're wondering. Expenses of the billion-dollar MPI Pension Plan are paid by the people in it.)

PIMCO, T. Rowe Price, Neuberger Berman and other funds on the TAG 401(k) Plan platform charge fees, and a slice of those fees get remitted to the plan administrator (Mass Mutual) to pay for operating all the moving parts of our multi-employer plan. Vanguard Target Retirement Funds are the only funds that give no fees back to the plan administrator.

(Good deal for people in the Vanguard Funds, yes?)

Since last year, 401(k) plans nationwide have faced new regulations that require them to be more transparent. (What are the costs of the American Beacon Large Cap Value Fund? How much are participants paying for for T. Rowe Price Spectrum Growth? "Participants need to know," sayeth the government.)

There have also been lawsuits against 401(k) plans that don't use the lowest-cost share classes for the mutual funds inside the Plan. This being the case, the trustees have directed the plan administrator to reduce every mutual fund offered to the lowest possible expense ratio. (Most are already at the lowest ratio, but a few aren't.)

This will be a good thing for plan participants, but it could leave the Plan's operating budget under-funded because cash flow coming back to Mass Mutual from different funds will be lower. To make up any difference, plan participants will pay some of the costs on a pro rata basis out of their accounts, including individuals in the Vanguard funds.

Here are current costs of TAG 401(k) Plan's most popular funds:

Expense Ratios

PIMCO Total Return -- .67%
T. Rowe Price Spectrum Growth -- .8%
Vanguard Target Retirement Funds -- .17%-.19%
MM S & P 500 Index Fund -- .21%
Mid Cap Index -- .16%
Northern Small Cap Index -- .38%
International Equity Index -- .37%

(My opinion? Avoid the higher-priced, actively managed funds, dive into the index funds.) Click here to read entire post

Tease

The (now) Junior Animation Partner from News Corp. launches a new trailer.



Rio Number One was brought in for $90 million, and grossed $484,635,760 in 2011. By contrast, DreamWorks Animation (News Corp.'s new animation recruit) has pulled down $534,309,798 in its current run, while costing $135 million to make.

I've thought for a while that DWA's recent downsizing has as much to do with Fox whispering in Jeffrey's ear: "Steamliiine ..." as it does with Rise of the Guardians falling to earth last holiday season.

I think DreamWorks Animation has a longer-term game plan to merge with Fox-News Corp. And when that happens, a large chunk of money (and stock) will change hands, Mr. Katzenberg will remain at the helm, and feature production will go merrily on.

At budgets closer to Blue Sky Studio's $90 million than DWA's $140-$160 million*.

* I'm speculating, but I won't be surprised if these things come to pass.

Click here to read entire post

Biting the Three-Fingered, Gloved Hand

With "late to the party" Add On. And even newer Add On.

Diz Co. gets blow-back for its latest character merchandising:

Following the moderate success Brave, Disney as ever was efficient in marketing the characters and film ... Merida was earlier this week revealed as the ’11th princess’ of the popular marketing line, the first Pixar character to reach the status, though [there was a] ‘redesign’ to fit her in alongside the likes of ‘Cinderella’ and ‘Ariel’. The new concept art shows her as ‘older and slimmer’ ...

Angered by the alterations, a petition against Disney and chairman Bob Iger has been started on ‘Change.org‘ with over 187,000 supporters at the time of writing ...

Brave‘s former director Brenda Chapman added to the ‘controversy’: “I think it’s atrocious what they have done to Merida. When little girls say they like it because it’s more sparkly, that’s all fine and good but, subconsciously, they are soaking in the sexy ‘come hither’ look and the skinny aspect of the new version. It’s horrible! Merida was created to break that mould – to give young girls a better, stronger role model, a more attainable role model, something of substance, not just a pretty face that waits around for romance.” ...

I don't think Bob Iger will be making any tearful apologies for the liberties taken with Pixar's lead character. (Just a guess.)

When the Walt Disney Company shelled out $7.2 billion for the Emeryville money-making machine, it reserved the right to bastardize the artists' creations any damn way it wanted. It's called "maximizing shareholder value," and if you're not down with that, it's your problem.

Mr. Iger is running a multi-national conglomerate, not a Renaissance art studio. You want the Renaissance, move to Florence.

Add On: Ah. I see that Cartoon Brew covered this blizzard in a thimble a few days ago. I should read more blogs.

Add On Too: The shitstorm that came down on Diz Co.'s head seems to have created some ... ah ... movement.

Quiet as a mouse, Disney has pulled the girly version of Merida from its site and has replaced it [with] the original movie version. ...

Click here to read entire post

Re Those Unfashionable $500 Writers

The company says it's not Joan's fault.

E! president Suzanne Kolb on Wednesday sent a letter to eight striking “Fashion Police” writers, defending the show's host Joan Rivers and insisting on a sanctioned election before it would come to the negotiating table.

The writers have been on strike since April 17, after expressing a desire to organize and join the Writers Guild of America West. The writers want the network to recognize the WGA as their bargaining representative, while the network is insisting that a National Labor Relations Board election be held first.

"Why strike over an election if you believe the vote will be in favor of representation?" Kolb asks in the letter.

The writers maintain that demanding an election before negotiating is a stalling tactic, since they've made their desire to be in the guild clear. ...

Here at TAG, we're flexible about the National Labor Relations Board.

Sometimes we file a petition for a representation election with the National Labor Relations Board. (This is what E! wants and the WGAw -- apparently -- dislikes.)

Sometimes we do a card count. (That's a neutral third party counting representation cards to see if the union has enough to own a majority of the company's employees.)

And sometimes a company just comes to TAG and asks to sign a contract.

What appears to be happening in this case is that the company, knowing the WGAw doesn't want to get sucked into a NLRB hearing and vote, is trying to suck the WGAw into a NLRB hearing and vote. And the WGAw is resisting, having the writers strike and applying pressure that way.

The question is, who owns sufficient leverage to make their desires stick?

More on the $500 writers here.

Click here to read entire post

Diz Ramps Up

Spent a big part of my morning in Walt Disney Animation Studios hat building. I was there for a 401(k) meeting, but walked around after it. And I came across a lot of lighting technical directors in what had formerly been a first-floor conference room. A supervisor explained to me:

"We've got most of the available rooms filled. Management's trying to be creative with space. We've hired 80 new lighters, we're on a tight schedule, and there isn't a lot of places left to put everybody." ...

Another staffer upstairs said:

"We're doing more pictures now, more stuff is in development. Big Hero 6 is going to overlap with Frozen. Management wants to do one picture a year now. They're not going to be laying a lot of people off, because they're going to need them."

Sounds like DreamWorks Animation from a couple of years ago. ...

Moseying around the building, it was obvious there are differences at the Hat. Conference rooms are filled with tech directors. Animators work in newly-erected cubicles on outside decks and what used to be open-space common areas. Many of the newbies are over from (surprise!) DWA.

What a difference eight months makes.

Some of the newer recruits are, unsurprisingly, a wee bit dour and fatalistic. I got into a discussion with several about the long-term health of the business.

"There might be a lot of people working right now, but it's all short term. Jeffrey is sending more and more of it to India. He's building a new studio in China." ... "Artists in India are making five hundred dollars a week. How can anybody here compete with that?"

I countered that some of the work will go away, but much of it won't. I said that every studio that produces animated features is going to shorter and shorter schedules. Disney gives itself less than a year to create Frozen. Over the hill in Culver City, Cloudy With Meatballs will have maybe five months to produce Cloudy With Meatballs Two, hiring a hundred animators, and God knows how many lighters and other tech directors (in two countries) to get the project out. "Hard to job all your layout and animation out," I said, "when your deadlines are tight and you have to hit a release date."

The business, I told the group, is much as it's always been: Studios are happy to outsource, but then unhappy with the crappy results. I pointed out (like always) that nobody except Illumination Entertainment has made a high-grossing animated feature outside the United States, and I.E. doesn't outsource with low-rent subcontractors, but owns the MacGuff studio in Paris. The City of Light is where all the work is done. (And Paris, as we all know, is the Mumbai of Europe.)

There is one thing you learn after hanging out in the cartoon biz for decades: Don't try to predict the future, because you'll be wrong.

In 1979, I heard animators complain in front of the old animation building how the company putting the classic cartoon features on VHS cassette tapes was going to destroy Disney's re-issue market ... and hurt future production.

In 1985, I heard Diz Co. employees moan how the new regime was going to dissolve the feature animation department.

In 1995, I heard artists say how if they could only become a hand-drawn animator, they would be set for life ... because every studio* was making long-form cartoons and it was more secure than working for the government.

In 2000, I heard Tom Schumacher assure staff that the down-sizing at Disney Feature Animation was over and there weren't going to be any more layoffs.

In 2007, animators reported how Ed and John said Feature Animation layoffs would be "small." (They totaled 140.

In 2013, Southern california's visual effects industry was pronounced "mortally wounded" ...

Whatever you think the animation business will be like in 2019, you are off by a country mile.

* Disney, Dreamworks Animation, Turner Feature Animation, Warner Bros. Feature Animation. Etc.
Click here to read entire post

Crooks? In Toon Town?!

Well, at least the scammers had rights to the property.

The FBI in Los Angeles is conducting an investigation involving investments made with Gigapix Studios Inc and OZ3D LLC between 2002 and the present for a scam to remake The Wizard Of Oz as a computer-animated feature film. The feds are “seeking victims” of financial fraud in the private offerings and is trying to find the “large number of investors” who were fleeced.

The FBI in Los Angeles is conducting an investigation involving investments made with Gigapix Studios Inc and OZ3D LLC between 2002 and the present for a scam to remake The Wizard Of Oz as a computer-animated feature film. The feds are “seeking victims” of financial fraud in the private offerings and is trying to find the “large number of investors” who were fleeced. ...

The Wizard of Oz is in the public domain. ...

I wonder if Jeff Varab could be involved? (Naaaah. How would that even be possible?) Click here to read entire post

Annies

Time flies. It seemed like only, oh, a couple of months ago ...

The International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood, announced today its ‘Key Dates’ for the upcoming awards season. The 41st Annual Annie Awards ceremony is set for Saturday, February 1, 2014. Location to be announced shortly. Call for Entries will begin on Monday, September 2, 2013, with complete Rules and Category information to be posted on the official Annies website – www.annieawards.org -- this summer.
“We are going to try a few new things this year, as far as the ceremony goes,” says Frank Gladstone, president of ASIFA-Hollywood. “Our goal is to make sure that the audience, either in the theatre or watching the streaming broadcast, has a more elegant, streamlined and fun experience.”

Entries submitted for consideration will be from productions that were released in the United States between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2013. The deadline to join ASIFA-Hollywood or to renew membership in order to participate in the Annie Award voting is Monday, November 4, 2013. ...

You can NEVER have enough awards. Click here to read entire post

The Fox Cartoon Schedule

Rupert and his minions roll out most of their old animation stalwarts on Sunday evenings: The Simpsons, Bob's Burger, Family Guy, and American Dad..

You will note that the Cleveland Show has been quietly dropped over the side. I's not on the schedule, no board artists or writers or animators are working on it ... but Cleveland hasn't been canceled, either. However, we seriously doubt it will be coming back. The parade's moved on.

Ah, but there is one new cartoon recruit:

MURDER POLICE is a new animated comedy series that expands the boundaries of the cop show genre as only animation can. From David A. Goodman (FAMILY GUY) and rising writer/animator/performer Jason Ruiz, the series follows a dedicated, but inept detective and his colleagues – some perverted, some corrupt, some just plain lazy – in a twisted city precinct. ...

For those of you tracking News Corp.'s various cartoons in prime time, The Simpsons* has its visual pre-production done at Film Roman/Starz (Burbank), Bob's Burgers is done at Bento Box (also Burbank), while American Dad and Family Guy are created at Fox Animation on Wilshire Boulevard (over the Santa Monica Mountains in Los Angeles.)

Bento Box is also doing the mid-season entry Murder Police at its newest studio location in North Hollywood. Wes Archer is one of the directors, with a lot of the crew from The Cleveland Show coming on board. (Guess they got tired of waiting for that pick-up.)

Board artists working on tell me that MP is a funny show, but we'll have to wait and see, since it's a mid-season replacement.

* "The Simpsons" is the last prime-time animated series that has a crew dedicated to drawing background layouts. Every other show is (as the saying goes) "board driven" - meaning that the layouts are part of the storyboards. Even though "The Simpsons" layout staff has been diminished, it still hangs on.

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Sold Off

Kind of inevitable; still sad.

Rhythm and Hues' 200,000-sq.-ft. office campus at 2100 E. Grand Ave. in El Segundo, Calif. has sold to a joint venture made up of Rockwood Capital and Marshall Property & Development for $25 million. The property was sold in an off-market transaction by 2100 Grand LLC, a related entity of the visual effects company Rhythm & Hues Studios.

... The company, which worked on the visual effects for the movie ‘Life of Pi,’ used the facility as its headquarters. At auction, Rhythm & Hues was purchased by an affiliate of Prana Studios.

“The deal was complex, time-sensitive and particularly challenging due to the bankruptcy,” said Lucent Capital Managing Director Steven Yazdani, in a statement. “Properties of this size and quality rarely trade without a national marketing campaign by a major brokerage firm. We were able to generate several, aggressive offers which met the seller’s expectations from all cash buyers.”

The buyer plans to invest up to $20 million in the redevelopment of the office campus, turning it into premier creative office space. Improvements will include interactive outdoor common areas, new tenant spaces an additional parking. ...

R & H was held up as a model company by lots of visual effects workers. As I've recounted, when DreamQuest Images was being merged with Disney Feature Animation in 2000, DQ employees stood up in meetings and pointed to Rhythm and Hues as the kind of company after which the Mouse should pattern its new visual effects division.

It didn't happen, and now R & H has faded into history and its place of business sold off. Nothing is forever. Click here to read entire post

Africa's Largest Cartoon Studio

... Which probably doesn't mean a great deal; still in all:

... In 1996 Triggerfish was a traditional stop frame animation studio. It did commercials for ad agencies and landed a contract to produce the South African version of kiddies show Sesame Street, Takalani Sesame, and did such a good job of it that it soon landed the US domestic version as well. It was in 2002 that Stuart Forrest joined the business as a junior animator. By 2005, he would be Managing Director and have taken over the business with a handful of business partners. ...

In 2007 he teamed up with US partners to at first direct, and then produce, the animated film Zambezia. After spending several years raising the money, it went into production in 2009, and was finally released in August last year. The film is still rolling out in certain markets ... Their next release, Khumba, will have a limited release in the US, which might grow depending on initial box office receipts.

Forrest hopes his studio will look a lot more like the Disney’s and Pixars of the world, and create classics with long life cycles. He is currently negotiating with international investors to make this dream a reality, and quickly.
In the meantime the studio has started development on its third feature film, a sea monster story done differently than those that have come before it, says Forrester, who describes it as something along the lines of “How to train your dragon meets E.T.” It’s still a couple of years before it will enter production, he notes, the studio is about half way through the script at the moment. ...

There seems to be a lot of niche players in CartoonWorld, most wanting to be the next Disney, Pixar or DreamWorks, and most failing.

But if the price-points for their features are right, and the puppies click in the markets in which they're released, smaller studios can make some coin. The U.S. and Canada, of course, are markets hard to crack due to steep marketing costs, but talent, innovation and the resulting commercial properties can be found anywhere.

Inspiration, contrary to rumor, isn't all hoarded in Emeryville, Glendale, and Burbank. Click here to read entire post

Overseas Derby

The tent poles arrive, and work their magic ways.

Foreign Box Office -- (Total Worldwide Cume)

1) Iron Man 3 -- $90,000,000 -- ($948,993,000)

2) The Great Gatsby -- 00 -- ($51,115,000 U.S.-Canada)

3) Star Trek Into Darkness -- $31,700,000 -- ($31,700,000)

4) The Croods, -- $20,900,000 -- ($536,415,477)

5) Oblivion -- $15,564,150 -- ($242,555,765) ...

Iron Man 3 will blast through the billion-dollar marker in a day or three. (Marvel-Disney is on a roll, so it's hardly a surprise that Walt Disney Animation Studios is partnering with Marvel for Big Hero Six.)

The Croods will likely level off at around $600 million. (It's now #7 domestically, after hanging in the Top Five since its initial release.)

Star Trek Into Darkness, already out in various foreign markets, unspools domestically later this week and will have a shot at the top spot. Click here to read entire post

Investing To Win

The Big Picture reminds us:

The Math of Active Management is Daunting:

1. Only 20% of active managers (1 in 5) can outperform their benchmarks in any given year;

2. Within that quintile, less than half (1 in 10) outperform in 2 out of the next 3 years;

3. Only 3% stayed in the top 20% over 5 years (1 in 33);

4. Once we include costs and fees, less than 1% (1 in 100) manage tooutperform (net).

5. What are the odds you can pick that 1 in 100 manager?

Source: Morningstar, Vanguard

The odds? Probably not good.

The TAG 401k) Plan has a wide array of index funds (also a number of actively managed funds, in case you want to hook your wagon to some out-performer's star. But remember ... today's hot financial adviser is tomorrow's loser.)

I remind people about index investing because I've gotten shafted investing with a smarter-than-thou financial adviser picking individual stocks. It's not that the adviser was super wrong, it's that the adviser charged Big Money to be only mildly right.

Months ago, TAG 401(k) Plan trustees were faced with having to replace an actively-managed Mid Cap fund that had been sucking bad over the previous year. Not only did it suck against other actively managed funds, but it didn't keep up with the index fund that it tracked. We tried to replace it with another actively managed fund, but they all were worse than the index.

So we deep-sixed the active fund and went with the index. Forbes magazine points out that indexes dominate over time.

An actively-managed five-fund portfolio held for 20 years has only a two percent chance of outperforming a comparable index fund portfolio.

Said another way, if you hold five index funds in different fund categories for 20 years, your portfolio has a 98 percent chance of outperforming a portfolio holding five comparable, actively-managed funds. ...

Even actively managed bond funds, often thought to wallop indexes, aren't so spiffy:

"On average, about 70 percent of all actively-managed bond funds underperformed their benchmarks over the five-year period ending in 2012. ..."

Factoids to think about when you're putting money into retirement investments.

401(k) Enrollment Meeting Dates (May-June)

Disney

Disney Feature - Southside Bldg.
Tue. May 14th, 10 am Rm. 1300

DisneyToon
Thur. May 16th, 2 pm,
Conf. Rm. 101

Disney TVA - Sonora Bldg.
Wed. May 22nd, 10 am, Rm. 1172

Disney TVA - Empire Cntr..
Wed. May 22nd, 2 pm, Rm. 5223

Cartoon Network
Wed. May 15th, 1 pm,
Main Conf. Rm.

Dreamworks Animation
Thur. May 30th, 2 pm,
Dining Rm. B&C

Dreamworks - Dragons
Thur. May 23rd, 2 pm,
Main Conf. Rm.

Fox TV Animation
Wed. June 5th, 2 pm,
Main Conf. Rm.

Marvel Animation
Thur. June 13th, 10 am,
Marvel Anim. Conf. Rm.

Nickelodeon
Wed. May 29th, 2 pm,
Main Conf. Rm.

Robin Red Breast
Tue. May 21st, 2 pm,
Large Conf. Rm.
Santa Monica Bldg.

Starz/Film Roman
Tue. May 28th, 2 pm,
“Glass” Conf. Rm.

Sony Pictures Animation
Tue. June 4th, 2 pm,
North - Rm 2050

A panel discussion onf "Investing for Retirement" will be happening at the Animation Guild General Membership meeting on Tuesday, May 28. (Meeting at 7:00 p.m.; panel immediately thereafter.

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Adult Swim Pickups

The late night division at Cartoon Network greenlights new animation.

Adult Swim has scheduled eight new original series and specials for the season to come, alongside bringing back 16 shows.

New for the network are Rick and Morty, from Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland. The animated half-hour comedy is about a genius inventor grandfather and his less-than-genius grandson. Mr Pickles, also animated, is about a loveable border collie who has a secret satanic streak. The comedy Mike Tyson Mysteries features an animated Mike Tyson solving mysteries with his sidekick talking pigeon. The series incorporates live-action appearances by Tyson himself. The show comes from Warner Bros. Animation.

King Star King features a punk rock, modern-day he-man who falls from the realm of the gods to land as a fry cook in a slummy waffle house. ... The network also recently acquired the rights to air Bob's Burgers

Adult Swim isn't, sadly, wall-to-wall animation, but it orders up its share. The more cartoons that get made, the better we like it. Click here to read entire post

Springtime Box Office

De Caprio's new picture has traction.

While Disney/Marvel’s Iron Man 3 is heading for its second weekend atop the box office charts in North America, Warner Bros./Village Roadshow’s The Great Gatsby had a jazzy opening day, pulling in an estimated $19.4 million, including the $3.25 million it collected at Thursday night screenings. ...

And The Croods pass $170 million.

FRIDAY BOX OFFICE (TOTALS)

1) IRON MAN 3 -- $19,757,000 ($232,178,000)

2) THE GREAT GATSBY -- $19,400,000

3) PAIN AND GAIN -- $1,324,000 ($37,932,000)

4) TYLER PERRY PRESENTS PEEPLES -- $1,185,000

5) 42 -- $1,110,000 ($81,192,000)

6) OBLIVION -- $1,000,000 ($78,792,000)

7) THE CROODS -- $700,000 ($170,315,000)

8) MUD -- $637,000 ($6,657,000)

9) THE BIG WEDDING -- $568,000 ($16,356,000)

Add On: Rolling Stone analyzes the weekend:

WINNER OF THE WEEK: The Great Gatsby. Nothing succeeds like excess. That's the lesson behind the estimated $51.1 million debut of Baz Luhrmann's lavish, garish 3D version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic the-party's-over novel. ...

LOSER OF THE WEEK: Peeples. Not everything Tyler Perry touches turns to gold. His movies typically open near $20 million, but he didn't write or direct this meet-the-parents comedy, just produce it and put his "Tyler Perry Presents" banner on top. Despite Perry's name and the presence in the lead roles of TV stars Craig Robinson (The Office) and Kerry Washington (Scandal), Peeples opened in fourth place with an estimated $4.9 million. ...

Click here to read entire post

Creating an Animated Documentary?

David Rich is an actor, comedian and filmmaker.

TAG Interview with David Rich

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

In 2010, Mr Rich began filming a non-fiction movie entitled Actor?, which explores the acting craft through the eyes of Ed Asner, Dee Wallace and numerous others.

From the start, David Rich intended large sections of the non-fiction movie to have a complementary animated story weaving around the live-action ...

Actor? is filled with entertaining interviews, but the animated sections make it considerably different from your garden-variety documentary.

I asked Mr. Rich how the animated sequences were put together, and he informed me that a Michigan studio (where entertainment tax subsidies occur in abundance) performed the work. There were twenty animators, designers and technicians on the film from start to finish, and production took approximately a year.

There's not a lot of long-form indie animated product out there, but Actor is one of them. Click here to read entire post

Information Miss

In a lengthy Disney piece, the L.A. Times tells us:

Traditionally, [Disney] hadn't employed formal writers but let the story instead be shaped by animators — but contemporary movies have more complex storylines, with multiple plotlines and characters. "When you're writing in live action, you have more ownership," Lee said at the studio as she and Buck were in the final weeks of making story changes to "Frozen" last month. "In animation, you have to let the best idea win. You're constantly killing your darlings." ...

Not exactly.

Joe Grant co-wrote Dumbo. Bill Peet wrote and drew any number of Disney features, children's books, and perhaps most famously 101 Dalmations (with a strong assist from the book by Dodie Smith.)

Former Bing Crosby writer (and Disney assistant animator) Larry Clemmons penned a string of Disney features in the sixties and seventies. Ron Clements and John Musker co-wrote "Little Mermaid," "Aladdin" and others.

So, uh, no.

Writers have been invested in Disney features for decades. I have no idea how anyone qualifies to be a "formal writer." What, Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio (who also wrote minor items like Pirates of the Caribbean, Pirates of the Caribbean II, etc.) don't qualify as "formal writers?" What do you have to do to get a membership card?

Who are we trying to kid, here? Click here to read entire post

The TV Show We've Been Waiting For

But maybe it was inevitable, now that Hangover III is in the can.

In the new animated comedy series Mike Tyson Mysteries, Mike Tyson is taking the fight from the boxing ring to the streets… by solving mysteries! Armed with a magical tattoo on his face and a trusty associate by his side — a talking pigeon — if you have a problem that needs solving, Iron Mike is in your corner. The series incorporates live-action appearances featuring Mighty Mike himself, and the gloves come off as the former heavyweight champ and his fowl-mouthed partner gear up for weekly adventures as they put unsolved mysteries — like how to defeat a super computer at chess or why a famous author/werewolf can’t finish his novel — down for the count. Animated quarter-hour from Warner Bros Animation. ...

Bad guys, protect your ears! Click here to read entire post

TAG 401(k) Plan Changes

Regarding America's favorite retirement plans, the Wall Street Journal tells us:

... Participants in 401(k) plans ended 2012 with less than half of their assets invested in stocks, down from 59% at the end of 2006, Chicago-based Spectrem Group reported on Tuesday. That's despite the fact that the S&P 500 stock index rose 6.4% over that period and has more than doubled since it hit bottom in March 2009.

"The population of participants has really remained a little more conservative and really hasn't benefited as much ... (as non-retirement investors) ... from the economic and stock market rallies of the last couple of years," said George H. Walper, Jr., president of Spectrem Group, a market research firm. ...

I spent Thursday afternoon barricaded in a Disney conference room with other trustees of the Animation Guild 401(k) Plan where we mapped out some new alterations to the Plan ...

1) The trustees of the Guild's plan have hired a new 401(k) advisor whose mission will be to get as many new cost efficiencies into the Plan as possible.

2) Trustees have voted to move to the lowest-cost share classes of the mutual funds on the TAG 401(k) Plan platform. (Actively managed stock funds, index stock funds, and SAGIC's bond fund.)

3) Plan administrative costs will become more equitable across the board. Instead of some participants paying large administrative fees and others paying none, starting July 1st costs will be shared by everyone on a pro rata basis.

(What does this mean in the real world? That fees will go up a few basis points for people in Vanguard index funds -- which now pay zero fees. For other funds, costs will go down ... or remain the same.)

More detailed information as it develops.
Click here to read entire post

Inside the Middle Kingdom

China Daily tells a tale of struggle.

In the summer of 2008, Hollywood's animation studios kicked their Chinese counterparts out of the ring in technique and power. To add insult to injury, they did it in true Chinese style.

That was Kung Fu Panda, which took $26 million to become the highest-grossing animation film released in China.
In true plucky underdog style, the humbled, undervalued but newly inspired Chinese animators fought back, and in the summer of 2011 released five features, including the first to use 3D - The Legend of a Rabbit.

Sadly, although they all showed marked improvement in quality of animation and special effects, like the hero bunny's ears, they flopped. The Legend of the Rabbit grossed only 20 million yuan ($3.2 million; 2.47 million euros) in China. It had cost around 150 million yuan to make.

Of course, it didn't help that the superior sequel Kung Fu Panda 2 was released a couple of months before, going on to take a record-breaking $93 million for an animation film in China. ...

It is not enough to do an animated movie cheaply. You must also do it well. Or nobody will come to see your movie ... and you won't be able to stop them.

There will come a time when China produces credible animated features that movie-goers will want to see. I'm just not convinced that the time is near at hand.

But you have to give China credit. It's building infrastructure and training technicians. THe barrier, as always, is creativity. Can the middle kingdom build a culture inside its spanking new facilities that will nurture experimentation and independent thinking. You can't make an animated feature by rote.

But let's give the Chinese credit for perseverance. They're not giving up.

... Dong Fachang is producing The Legend of a Rabbit 2, due for release next year. Perhaps this one will stand up to the might of Kung Fu Panda.

Click here to read entire post

Jesse Santos, 1928-2013

Comic artist and animation designer Jesse Santos died on April 27. A prolific comic-book artist in his native Philippines, he worked for Western Publishing on Dagar the Invincible and The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor. From 1980 until 1999 he worked for DePatie-Freleng, Filmation, Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros.

Mark Evanier eulogizes him on his blog.


Click here to read entire post

Commerce!

A big reason that animation is being produced in great abundance just now? It's coveted by many distributors.

Netflix has reached an agreement with the Disney/ABC Television group to become the only subscription streaming service to offer the popular children's shows "Jake and the Never Land Pirates" and the animated "Tron: Uprising."

The multiyear licensing deal also brings "Handy Manny," "Special Agent Oso" and "JoJo's Circus" to the movie and television service on a non-exclusive basis. ...

Netflix has been courting families, especially younger viewers, for whom streaming video services come as second nature. It created a "Just for Kids" interface that relies heavily on images, to remove any barriers to finding shows. In February, it partnered with DreamWorks Animation to create an original animated series for the service based on the forthcoming summer family film, "Turbo." ...

Decades ago, employment for t.v. cartoons revolved around seasonal pickups by the Big Three broadcast networks. Most television animation employment was six months on, six months off. You learned to live small and shave your expenses, because you were going to be unemployed at "the end of the broadcast season" for a long stretch of time.

Today, a lot of that has gone away. "Seasons" are what prime-time cartoons go through. Everything else is tied to "orders." As in, "6 episode order," "13 episode order," "24 episode order." The old "Saturday morning cartoon" model is long over. Now it's time-shifting, cable, hand-held devices, and all the rest. And Turbo is being done for Netflix, the well-loved subscription service.

Happily, the speed snail is providing jobs on DWA's t.v. side even as its theatrical side is down-sizing. Click here to read entire post

Starz' Profits Sag

The owner of animation studio Film Roman hits a rough patch.

Starz reported lower earnings as its Netflix deal ended and new affiliation agreements call for smaller subscriber fees.

First quarter net income fell to $57.9 million, or 47 cents per share, from $77.8 million, or 65 cents per share a year ago.

Revenue fell 1% to $399 million primarily because the company's affiliation agreement with Netflix was not renewed. Affiliation agreement with two other distributors renewed in the fourth quarter called for less favorable financial terms. ...

Starz purchased Film Roman several years ago in a stock deal with IDT Entertainment. The company has since decided to spin its cartoon unit off as a separate company. (FR has done The Simpsons for decades now, and also produces Marvel's Spider Man series.) Click here to read entire post

News Corp.'s Little Helper

Rupert and his minions had a good year.

... For the quarter ended March 31, News Corp. earned $2.85 billion, or $1.22 a share, compared with $937 million, or 38 cents a share, in the year earlier period.

Revenue for the quarter increased 14% to $9.54 billion, beating Wall Street estimates. ...

Filmed entertainment, the company's second-largest unit, generated 17% higher revenue, rising to $2 billion. The division posted $289 million in operating income, an increase of 6.3%. The company benefited from the home entertainment releases of "Life of Pi," "Taken 2" and "Ice Age: Continental Drift." ...

Fox is beefing up animation. They're doing more prime time half-hours, and they now distribute DreamWorks Animation's output, the first feature of which is climbing past $500 million.

Company knows how to make money. Click here to read entire post

Royalties?

Good luck.

Harvey Weinstein's hopes of getting Congress to enact a royalty-based compensation system for movie clips played on the web so far appears to be a long shot.

None of the movie industry trade associations are rushing to champion Weinstein's idea.

"While Harvey's ideas are characteristically interesting and provocative, the topic isn't something that we're able to comment on at this time," said Chris Green, supervisor of communications for the Producers Guild of America.

... Weinstein attacked Silicon Valley for profiting from the work of the movie industry without payment to the creative that created the work.

"Look at 'Chicago.' If you go to YouTube, you can download nine songs. There are 13 songs in the entire movie, pretty much 70 or 80 minutes of it. Nobody is getting paid for that. Neither Rob Marshall who directed, me, nor the studio. Nothing," ...

And there are Disney shorts that play on YouTube. And Disney clips. Also a host of other copyrighted material. But nobody seems to ask why companies should collect a big chunk of the money they are currently losing out on. Why not the people who actually created it?

There's an easy answer, of course. Most of the product comes about via "work for hire," and companies own the copyrights. In the U.S. of A., companies hold the power and they line their wallets. The pockets of authors, artists and the rest remain relatively empty.

But now we're in the age of the internet, and everything is free, free, FREEE! All the looting and pillaging must piss off our fine, entertainment conglomerates something fierce. It certainly pisses off entertainment unions since they have a symbiotic relationship with movie companies: they get paid when the Big Boys get paid.

But let's not kid ourselves. If Disney, Viacom, News Corp. and the rest could figure out a way to keep ALL the cash for themselves, they would do it. In the 21st century, however, the big Hollywood players bump up against the technology giants, which (face it) don't share Old Media's interest in paying for what they now distribute (and profit from) for free. Click here to read entire post

Studio Rounds at WBA and WDAS

Now with Add On!

Today was a double studio day, starting at Walt Disney Animation Studios where I had a long talk with a staffer.

We've ramped up to doing one film a year, and the movies are overlapping now. Big Hero Six is taking a story pause, but it'll probably be in production by August or September. Artists are pitching their ideas to to John [Lasseter], and people who are starting to develop something now will have to get at the back of a long line, because there's lots of pictures in development. ... John likes to have environments and worlds and character ideas pitched to him, not honed down plots. ...

It's a good thing that there's so many different projects happening. Not too many years ago there was a lot less movies in work. Another employee told me that Big Hero Six has a couple of Marvel reps who sit in some of the story meetings and kick in suggestions (although Disney artists are doing the boarding and scripting.)

In the afternoon I was at Warner Bros. Animation for a 401(k) enrollment meeting and my usual walk around. WBA's cartoon studion the Warner Ranch is pretty quiet. Most of its current shows have wrapped, and although a couple of new shows are close to greenlight, no crews have been hired. Said one artist:

I keep reading on the internet how Bruce Timm is leaving. But he's not going anywhere. He just stepped down from his executive producer position. He's still here. Still working on his projects. ...

Speaking of projects ...

... [I]t’s no secret that the studio worked for years on a new iteration of the character before both Man of Steel and Bryan Singer’s 2006 film Superman Returns came to fruition. A number of screenwriters and directors tried to crack Superman, and one of the better-known versions that never made it to the screen is the J.J. Abrams-scripted Superman: Flyby. Abrams’ take was an origin story that saw Krypton besieged by a civil war that spills over onto Earth, but it was eventually passed over in favor of Singer’s Returns story.

Steve recently landed an exclusive interview with DC Comics Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, and during the course of their conversation Steve asked Johns if DC would ever consider turning one of the many Warner Bros.-owned unproduced screenplays for a superhero movie into a direct-to-video animated feature. Johns revealed that, in fact, that notion has come up before. ...

I think the odds of the above happening is nil. But it's pretty to think that it might. (There are, at present, video features centered around a Great Dane. But then, there are always video features going on that are centered around a Great Dane. Their production will be continuing until the sun reaches its red star phase.

Add On: Disney officially announces Big Hero 6:

Walt Disney Animation Studios is announcing its first movie inspired by a Marvel comic Thursday, an adaptation of a lesser known crime fighter series called “Big Hero 6.”

Directed by Don Hall (“Winnie the Pooh”) and due in 2014, the CG-animated movie will center on a robotics prodigy named Hiro Hamada and his robot companion BayMax, who join a team of superheroes in a high-tech city called San Fransokyo.

(For a closer look at the city of San Fransokyo, see the video above).

Even die-hard comic book fans may have trouble recalling the Marvel series, which was created by Steven T. Seagle and Duncan Rouleau in 1998 and is something of a whimsical love letter to Japanese culture. Characters in the original comic include a samurai, an agent who invented a nanotechnology-based Power Purse and a monster born from a child’s drawings. ...

Disney says that "Marvel Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada has been participating in brainstorming sessions about the project." (Which is what one of the artists on the third floor of the hat building told me yesterday.)
Click here to read entire post

"Above Expectations"

The Mouse frolics.

Disney reported earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street expectations for the latest quarter on strength in its parks and recreation and studio businesses. The stock shot higher in extended hours trading.

The media giant posted fiscal second-quarter net income of $1.51 billion, a 32 percent increase from the $1.14 billion earned a year earlier. Earnings excluding items were 79 cents a share, up 36 percent from 58 cents a share in the year-earlier period. ...

Robert Iger has done a good job cranking up cash flow and profits for the House of Mouse. Disney has become kind of an entertainment Berkshire-Hathaway (the Warren Buffet conglomerate) that has a lot of different businesses and a lot of moving parts.

Disney today is a lot like Time-Warner. TW still has "Warner" in its corporate title, but it has only a bit less to do with Jack L. Warner and his big brothers than "The Walt Disney Company" has to do with Walt.

Time marches on. Click here to read entire post

Sometimes Rainy, Sometimes Sunny

Visual effects is in melt-down mode in Southern California. But not for everyone.

Shade VFX is the rare California-based visual-effects company today that says it is expanding.

The boutique firm relocated to a new facility in Santa Monica this week that doubles the company's space and includes areas that can accommodate greenscreen shoots.

What makes the move notable is that Shade says its business is thriving at a time when other visual-effects companies are teetering on the brink of financial ruin. ...

It's a funny thing about animation, visual effects, and say, the game industry. Much of it has melded together in the computer age, and as one part is going down the chutes, another is climbing up.

Take the Animation Guild as an example: DreamWorks Animation has gone through major downsizing in the past few months. You'd expect that our membership ranks -- since DWA is a large TAG employer -- would have withered. But such is not the case, because as DreamWorks Animation has become smaller, other animation studios under Guild contract have become larger.

* Walt Disney Animation Studios has two features in production.

* TV animation studios are ramping up work.

* Animation sub-contractors are working on their own projects plus productions from Disney, DreamWorks, Marvel, and others.

Animation has been a boom-and-bust business since the 1930s, with expansion and frenzied hiring followed by lay-offs and bankrupt animation studios. As I've said multiple times before, Disney is the only studio that has been continuously under an IA contract over the last sixty-one years. Even Warner Bros. Animation, which was among the first Hollywood cartoon studios to be unionized, disappeared for a stretch of years.

There is no doubt that the animation/visual effects industry in California is getting tough competition from states and countries offering lower wages and/or government subsidies. But there remains a huge number of designers, animators and programmers working in Los Angeles County, to wit:

TAG Employment -- First Quarter

2010 -- 2,586

2011 -- 2,533

2012 -- 2,669

2013 -- 2,750

Why the upward trendline? Because animation has grown by leaps and bounds for twenty years, and though Southern California has lost market share, the overall market for animated product is immensely bigger. In fact, cartoons are the most dynamic profit center of movie-making, which explains why the employment/production pie has gotten steadily larger.


Click here to read entire post

Ray Harryhuasen, RIP

There's few on the planet who haven't seen his work ... or the work of his direct descendants.

ay Harryhausen, the stop-motion animation legend whose work on "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms," "Jason and the Argonauts" and other science fiction and fantasy film classics made him a cult figure who inspired later generations of filmmakers and special-effects artists, has died. He was 92.

Harryhausen died Tuesday in London, where he had lived for decades. His death was confirmed by Kenneth Kleinberg, his longtime legal representative in the United States.

In the pre-computer-generated-imagery era in which he worked, Harryhausen used the painstaking process of making slight adjustments to the position of his three-dimensional, ball-and-socket-jointed scale models and then shooting them frame-by-frame to create the illusion of movement. Footage of his exotic beasts and creatures was later often combined with live action. ...

In my long-ago youth, Mr. Harryhausen was THE man. You were an adolescent male, you dug the belligerent skeletons, the cyclops, the flying monsters and all the rest. You didn't know exactly how it was done but you sure as shit knew it grabbed you by the neck hairs.

"Anyone in the world of animation, SFX, or fantasy owes everything to Ray Harryhausen," Andrew Stanton, director of "John Carter," said on Twitter. "A true legend. RIP Sir." ...

Harryhausen was "a source of inspiration, the master of stop motion, and even a voice actor in Elf. His work still holds up." -- John Favreau

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