Thursday, July 12, 2007

The Mid-Week Animation Studio Roundabout

I'm back in full harness after the July 4th hiatus. Film Roman/Starz Media and Disney TVA were my destinations of choice...

Up at Starz Media, the only work for the remnants of The Simpsons Movie crew to do are a few Homer/Bart/Marge promos. (Of which a Simpson's director told me: "Well, those have gotta be done by the end of the month, because the picture comes out...")

I got some nervous questions from artists about 1) a WGA strike being imminent (I thought no, but possibly when -- and if -- SAG walks in Spring '08.) And 2: If a lengthy strike happens, would it impact The Simpsons artistic staff? (I thought yes.*)

At Disney TVA @ Frank Wells (that's a building on the studio's Buena Vista Street lot), Phineas and Ferb is percolating along, and Secret Agent Oso is proceeding with 26 half-hour episodes.

DTVA board artists are also working on the second 13 episodes of Ying Yang Yo (The flash animation and design work are being done -- I'm told -- in Canada.)

There are a goodly number of new episodes for The Replacements now in work.

There are a bunch of empty offices and cubes where DisneyToons crew once worked. The Toons people have decamped to the digs in Glendale.

* Kindly note that my opinion can be just as valuable...or worthless, as the next person's.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is Disney TVA under Lasseter's authority like DisneyToons jus became? I've heard he's consolidating his power over all the animation but I didn't remember if DTVA was part of it as well.

Anonymous said...

Under the current corporate structure, DTVA is under the umbrella of ABC Networks and not subject to Lasseter's oversight.

Anonymous said...

"Under the current corporate structure, DTVA is under the umbrella of ABC Networks and not subject to Lasseter's oversight."

Riiiight.... that's what DisneyToons thought. Consider a sure bet that Lasseter will soon be in control of DTVA as well.

Anonymous said...

I disagree--I don't think John wants to have control or for that matter anything to do with TV.

He knows he's got a HUGE plate already with features, Pixar and the Parks. TV isn't his bag, and I'd bet he considers it downmarket. The only TV connection I'd imagine would be tacit agreements between him and Cook for TVA NOT to do any Pixar/feature-serived shows, and that seems to be that way they're going.

Anonymous said...

I agree JL has way too much on his plate to worry about TV, not now. He has to sure up the features at Disney's and protect Pixar. Not to mention imagineering obligations.

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