I spent Friday at Disney Feature Animation and Cartoon Network. Disney's third floor story department hums with development beyond "American Dog," "Joe Jump" and "Rapunzel"...
I think it's safe to say that Diz Features won't be stepping aside to become a subsidiary to Pixar. But I don't think Features is necessarily going to remain in the Burbank hat building. Disney owns a lot of property on the east side of Glendale -- the Grand Central Industrial Park acreage -- and I keep hearing rumors of a move to Circle Seven Drive, Glendale at some point in the future. (But as a supervisor said to me Friday: "Why not just relocate in the original animation building on the main lot?")
On a subject closer to hand: Disney Feature Animation works under an IATSE contract called "The Secret Lab" agreement (named after the now defunct internal effects house Disney set up in 1999...and disbanded a few years later). The current term of that agreement is up in October, and Disney has been talking about negotiations for a new term happening in June. But per a Disney executive, it now looks like negotiations will most likely happen in July.
(If they happened in September, the small cynical side of Hulett wouldn't be a bit surprised.)
Saturday, June 03, 2006
End of Week Studio Tour
I spent Friday at Disney Feature Animation and Cartoon Network. Disney's third floor story department hums with development beyond "American Dog," "Joe Jump" and "Rapunzel"...
I think it's safe to say that Diz Features won't be stepping aside to become a subsidiary to Pixar. But I don't think Features is necessarily going to remain in the Burbank hat building. Disney owns a lot of property on the east side of Glendale -- the Grand Central Industrial Park acreage -- and I keep hearing rumors of a move to Circle Seven Drive, Glendale at some point in the future. (But as a supervisor said to me Friday: "Why not just relocate in the original animation building on the main lot?")
On a subject closer to hand: Disney Feature Animation works under an IATSE contract called "The Secret Lab" agreement (named after the now defunct internal effects house Disney set up in 1999...and disbanded a few years later). The current term of that agreement is up in October, and Disney has been talking about negotiations for a new term happening in June. But per a Disney executive, it now looks like negotiations will most likely happen in July.
(If they happened in September, the small cynical side of Hulett wouldn't be a bit surprised.)
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7 comments:
Sorry, could you explain that last sentence--is there a contextual meaning there I'm missing? Why is September more cynically advantageous to Disney, other than that it's closer to when the current contract expires?
what is "Joe Jump"?
1st Question: The last sentence refers to Disney's previous propensity to negotiating this contract close to the end date.
They did this last time. In fact, the last time they asked the IA for an extension, which irritated the Disney animation staff. (Although the negotiations came out okay in the end.)
Most IA-producer negotiations occur months before the end-date of the collective bargaining agreement. For instance, the IA Basic Agreement was renegotiated eight months early. The 839 agreement was negotiated five months before its end.
2nd Question: "Joe Jump" is a CGI feature in development at Disney. Concerns a "fish out of water" premise.
What *is* Joe Jump? I keep seeing that mentioned but it hasn't been publicised at all like Robinsons, Dog, or Rapunzel.
Wonder what they have up their sleeves after that...
I was also under the impression that the hat building was generally reviled by the animators (not that I have any real knowledge of this). I think it'd be a nice touch to go back to the original animation buildings...
Doh... the question got answered whilst I was posting. Sorry bout that!
Thanks for the news. Needless to say that I'm mesmerized by what's up at Disney these days. I wish there was a master list of the animators/creative staff that had returned to the fold there since the... um, 'reorganization'. I keep seeing names pop up here and there and I'm just so glad to see everyone making it back from the wilderness.
OT, but I just happened upon 'The Brave Little Toaster' on TV earlier and tivo'ed it. How freaking underrated is this movie?
"Brave Little Toaster" was directed by Jerry Reese, storied by Joe Ranft (among others), art directed by Brian McEntee (who also did the same for "Beauty and the Beast" and "Ice Age.")
There were plenty of others involved, but these are the names that come to mind without having to think to hard.
"BLT" was initially developed at Disney, but dropped by the studio and ultimately produced by Tom Wilhite -- former Diz production head. As I remember, the Disney Channel co-financed. The flick only cost $3 or $4 million to make, as I remember (animated in Taiwan with some American leads.)
John Lasseter was involved in some of the early development.
'Joe Jump' is an animated feature in development about a video game character from the pacman era who is no longer played. He finds a way to 'jump' into todays high-tech games and the 'fish out of water' story begins.
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