El Lakeside building ...
As I've noted previously, DreamWorks Animation has expanded the Lakeside Building on its Glendale campus, almost doubling the square footage. A goodly portion of the campus's animation production is now inside Lakeside, and it's a challenge to navigate all of the hallways, cubicles and offices without getting hopelessly lost (at least for me.)
So yesterday I concocted a plan ...
Instead of strolling through the front entrance and blundering aimlessly between cubes and office spaces in my usual stumble bum way ("Wasn't I here fifteen minutes ago? I knew your face and table lamp looked familiar ...") I stepped off the elevator and made a conscious effort to turn hard right, then work my way counter-clockwise through the maze of work areas until I got back to where I started.
It worked. (Kind of.) I saw a lot more people than during earlier visits and even ran across a bunch of former Disney Feature Animation employees -- all of whom, for some strange reason, were down on their previous employer:
"I was there three years and didn't have a good experience. Everybody in production gets treated like temporary hires."
"When the new management came in, they wanted to the studio to do Princess movies, hand-drawn movies, have everything styled like Disney features from the late forties and early fifties. The Princess movies didn't go over too well ..."
"They got rid of the Personal Service Contracts, and everything got worse. Nobody knew how long they'd be there. I have friends there now who have gotten their layoff notices. And nobody else knows how long they'll be staying. There's not much in the production pipeline."
Like I say, disgruntled folks.
As I've mentioned before, one of the differences between Walt Disney Animation Studios and DreamWorks Animation over the last few years is the level and depth of development. DreamWorks Animation just has a lot of project development going on with a lot of story artists, while WDAS has relatively little. (This, I'm happy to report, is changing a bit. More Disney development appears to be going on, but the Mouse still has a big gap between current projects -- Tangled, Winnie the Pooh -- and the next set of features that will roll into the production chute.)
Meanwhile, Disney/Pixar's and DreamWorks Animation's current releases churn through the World Box Office:
Toy Story 3 grossed more in four days [in Hong Kong] than its main competitor, Dreamworks Animation’s “Shrek Forever After”, did in more than two weeks. The green ogre’s fourth and final appearance at multiplexes managed to take HK$3.5 million in its third weekend and came in third in the top 10, with a combined gross of HK$25.1 million. ...
Disney's Pixar subsidiary makes profitable features; Jeffrey K.'s DreamWorks Animation makes profitable features. The challenge going forward is getting Walt Disney Animation Studios back into the profits game.
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8 comments:
I guess only time will tell -
But, but, but...! Pixar's campus is soooo much cooler!!!
Sorry, just wanted to get that out of the way and clear a path for an on topic discussion.
Believe it or not, there's a really cool campus across the street. It even has a cool building with a really neat sign that says, "Animation."
I have a couple of friends who interned at Disney a while ago (wouldn't mention when to keep their identity), and some of them think Disney has a better environment than Pixar, but job security wise, Yeah Disney is just not stable at all with the temporary hires. It's not fun feeling like you are going to be out of job really soon while still in the middle of a production. It kills the spirit.
If it's so great, why did John and Ed want to move it off site to Glendale a while back, Floyd?
Worked at the Mouse and at Dreamworks, and I've got to say that there's nothing like walking on that old Disney Lot. Now if they'd only put animation back in the Old Animation building...
"If it's so great, why did John and Ed want to move it off site to Glendale a while back, Floyd?"
I think Floyd was talking about the "Old Animation Building" on the main lot.
they should just demo the big hat so i can watch it on youtube. ka-fooom! crumble, crunch, implode...wooo!
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