Double Diz at Sonora

Upstairs at Disney Toons in sun-kissed Glendale, there are more people than previously. (Or so it seems to me.)

"We're halfway through production on Tink 3, and doing pre-production work on T4. Tinkerbell 2 is done and ready to be released ..."

Compared to other studios, Toons is an island of stability. Said a board artist: "My assignment was over, and the studio found me work on another project to work on..."

The "find work for the valued employee" thing used to happen all the time, but in the 21st century it occurs less and less. Now, artists rolling over to a studio's newer project is pretty much the exception to the rule of "her'es your pink slip, thanks for being with us." A couple of other Toons artists complained about the current project-to-project environment in Toonland, the mad scrambles after the next job, the creeping agism. Everybody gets that long-term employment is as extinct as the wooly mammoth ...

Downstairs at Disney Television Animation, they are slooowly ramping up for a new season of Inspector Oso. Crew will be returning over the next several weeks.

Also slated for production in the next few months is the new series about pirates (mentioned here earlier) that has had a title change, and involves some well-loved Disney characters. (Since I don't spy any details for the project out on the internets, -- and let's stipulate that I may just have overlooked it -- I won't break detailed news about it here. I have problems enough without getting huffy corporate phone calls as it is.)

Crew will be coming to work on it after lengthy hiatuses on another completed series, and the Disney TVA section of the Sonora building (seen below) will be filling up after being as vacant as a Mojave housing development. (The long-term employment once enjoyed by Disney TVA artists -- back when they occupied buildings in North Hollywood -- is long gone.)

Nobody much likes these on-again, off-again engagements, but it's the reality of the 2009 workplace.