Animation Moves & News

The article linked to the title above says Disney Feature Animation might be moving to the Grand Central Industrial Park in Glendale... There might be something to the story. It's almost touted as Gospel fact that John Lasseter and Ed Catmull don't care for the "hat building", but that's not the only buzz about animation studios changing location. For instance, other gossip says that: Warners Animation -- now housed in a large building at the Sherman Oaks Galleria -- will move back to either A) some new building on the "Warner Ranch" in Burbank, or B) the new office building next to NBC. Cartoon Network Studios -- now tucked inside a three-story building next to the Burbank Fire/Police Departments on Third Street in Burbank, will move to the same facility that will soon house Warner Animation. DPS-Film Roman will have to find additional space for its relocated staff as that staff continues to grow...and grow. But to return to Disney Feature Animation: When I was an elementary school kid, the Disney lot was a place of sound stages, graceful low-slung buildings and green ball-fields. My old man played touch football on the wide grass field that is now filled with the Team Disney/Michael Eisner building (you know, that big square structure with the seven dwarfs holding up the roof?). Today the Disney lot has all the charm of Warner Bros. or Paramount, little more than a cramped chunk of real estate with mismatched buildings and sound stages that hold all the charm of the garment district in South-Central L.A. What a hoot if Disney Animation abandons the "hat building" and moves to Glendale...with a ball field out the back door.