Three Studios Near Flower Street

Because the rattle trap Ford Taurus I drive around in wouldn't start in a Disney parking lot this afternoon, I ended up doing three studios in the p.m. All in Glendale. All near Flower Street.

They're Disney Toons. Disney Television Animation. And DreamWorks.

The Disney factories -- housed in the Sonora building in Glendale -- I drove to. For DreamWorks, I walked. And not because I wanted to.

In the way of product, there is nothing new to report at any of the studios that I didn't report a couple of weeks ago. In the way of conversations with employees, there's a few more things.

At Disney Toons, I got into a lively discussion about work getting outsourced overseas? ("Is all the work here going away?" "Where will the jobs be three years ... five years ... eight years from now?")

I opined that technological infrastructure and the sizable pool of talent in L.A. will keep a lot of the work here, pointing to Electronic Arts big facility in Playa Vista as an example. One of the computer guys countered that E.A. has closed its Chicago Studio, and that Rhythm and Hues management has told crew that it keeps the doors open at its South Bay facility by outsourcing some of the work to its overseas studio.

Downstairs at Disney TVA, an artist wanted to know how vibrant the teevee animation biz is just now. I said I've seen it better. And bigger. ("Adelaide used to have two hundred employees, Warner Bros. had about as many. Now they've got a couple of dozen.") The artist said he has a bunch of friends looking for work.

The Crew on My Friends Tigger and Pooh are delighted to be working. DreamWorks employees were focused on getting the new feature out.

I finally got my car started. As it ages, the thing takes its own sweet time to fire up. Drives me crazy.