Wednesday, May 05, 2010

May Studio Rounds

Recently, I've gotten inquiries along the lines of "Hey, Why don't you give us more studio reports? What's happened to those?"

Good question.

And here's the answer. There's not much that goes on that's very different from week to week. (I can't really keep typing: "Went through Disney/DreamWorks/Warner Bros. Animation today. Again. Lots of people in cubicles and offices, working at desks." That would get kind of boring, yes?)

So let me be semi-boring ...

Tuesday I was at the Walt Disney Animation Studio, and the two productions going full bore (Tangled, Winnie the Pooh) are still going along. (You're shocked, I know, but they do have release dates to meet.) As to future projects, one of the animators said:

"Ron and John have pitched John Lasseter one feature idea, and they've got another pitch coming up. I don't know if it's a completely different idea or the first idea with changes. There's some overtime going on with Tangled, but I don't think there's tons of people working Saturdays and Sundays yet ..."

Today at Starz Media, a lot of Simpsons cubicles and offices were empty due to the hiatuses (hiati?) of a lot of timers, designers and layout artists. One designer still there informed me, "I was off for three weeks, but a lot of other artists have four, five and eight weeks off."

I can't remember seeing so many Yellow Family work spaces so empty, but other parts of the studio are filling up, with the Marvel/Disney animated shows humming, a new show on the second floor ramping up and a couple of new productions soon to come onto the third floor.

Meanwhile, remodeling of the Hasbro part of the building goes on. How close are they to finishing? I've no idea. Some smart monkey said to me a couple months ago that the company was moving personnel in at the start of April, and we know how that worked out. Here we are in May already, and not a soul in sight.

When it finally happens, I'll let you know. (Like I said, a semi-boring report. What you going to do?)

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you tho, nonetheless.

Matt DeWater said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
AnimationStudent said...

Not that my voice counts for much on here, being a student, but I have to say I do like reading these studio reports, however boring they are. Gives me just a tiny little insight of what the studios are up to, since I'm obviously not in the industry yet. Keep 'em coming!

Anonymous said...

A new project fron ROn&John?

Please... Fraidy Cat or Velveteen Rabbitt.

Steve Hulett said...

Perhaps ...

Anonymous said...

hopefully Fraidy Cat olease! Based on a German novel, "Felidae". Disney Animation needs a completely new films away from the typical legacy music and songs.

Disney needs a thriller (Fraidy), a philosophical drama (Elves), adventure and action (Joe Jump), a period epic (Smow Queen or Ramayana), and a good family comedy and intimate to the 50's (Velveteen Rabbitt or My Peoples).

Anonymous said...

In other words, they need to revive all those "martyred" projects fans talk about, yada-three... (Oh lord, did someone actually talk about bringing back the Broom Movie?)

But Fraidy might deserve a second chance: It would've been 100% unmarketable under Eisner and Stainton--who wouldn't have made head or tail what to do with it and dumped it in March--but with the hindsight of coming in after Bolt and Lasseter-stories, it wouldn't miss a beat.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, give R&J another chance! they've only had 3 bombs in a row. I'm sure they can recapture the magic they had of thir first 2 films under Jeffrey...wait...maybe they should go work at DW.

Anonymous said...

"Fraidy Cat" is not based on "Felidae". Totally different. Plus, there was already an animated film made based on that book.

Anonymous said...

There's some overtime going on with Tangled, but I don't think there's tons of people working Saturdays and Sundays yet ..."

This sounds like it came from someone not working on the project. There is a lot of overtime happening.

Locall said...

give R&J another chance! they've only had 3 bombs in a row.

Princess actually made a profit ^-^*

Anonymous said...

Yeah, and that profit amounted to the price of a trrip to McDonalds to Disney...I'm sure that 'profit' is what they wamted.
My guess is they will string R&J along for awhile, but they won't get another chance to hammer another nail in the 2D coffin. Even if JL feels like he hasn't gotten his need to be their boss over yet I doubt the board will go along with putting them at the helm of another film.

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