The Monday Simpsons

Morning and afternoon were spent at Starz Media -- the land of the yellow family...

The "Simpsons" series continues apace, still a little behind its normal production schedule but expecting to catch up when the feature wraps and regular staffers on detached duty return to the Mother Ship.

On the feature, work still hums along. There's a crew of board artists on the Fox lot (over the hill on Pico) that stays close to the writers' offices, visualizing continuity for digital story reel as those writers make script changes.

Most of the big changes appear to be done. The Tempe, Arizona screening went well, (much better than an earlier unspooling in the northwest, I'm told. But that makes sense because the first screening was back near the start of the year, when the picture was a lot rougher around the edges.)

The producers have now relaxed a bit as everyone rounds the clubhouse turn and drives to the finish line. "No more big changes," an animator said. "Only little ones."

I talked to a couple of artists who asked me the perennial question: "What's going on around town?" (Translation: "Any other hand-drawn features out there?") I said that "Frog Princess" at Disney is the only one I know about. They asked if the Mouse House is going to hire the crew at scale or close to, and I was happy to answer them promptly.

I told them I didn't know.

(Tuesday Addendum: The New York Times had a nice piece on "The Simpsons Movie" a couple of days back. Here it is.)