Saturday, September 01, 2012

At Warner Bros. Animation

I spent a big chunk of my Friday at Warner Bros. Animation, watching artists work on Tom and Jerry, MAD TV, Teen Titans Go! and Looney Tunes (the series) among others ...



Although it's been announced, the new Scooby Doo direct-to-video is only now starting development. Much of the crew is shifting to a different part of the studio and boxes of personal and drawing items sit on desks waiting for owners to arrive. One Scoob artist told me:

We're going back to the old days with this one. They used to do episodes with the Harlem Globe Trotters and others as guest stars. This time around it will be World Wrestling personalities. ...

(In case you don't habituate show biz or animation sites, Warners announced the new feature a couple of weeks ago. And like the Warners employee said, it's only a new wrinkle in the Scoob franchise if you don't know the history of the big dog.)

A director stopped me in the hall and voiced the opinion that he didn't think WBA would be doing a lot more CG super hero shows like Green Lantern because "They're expensive, and they don't get bigger ratings than hand-drawn super heroes."

His viewpoint, of course, and it might be wrong, but hey. If the extra production money and extra headaches don't earn the studio more dollars, then why do Batman, Superman and the rest of the D.C. universe in CGI? Warners is in the cartoon business for profits, not providing Indian studios with a bigger cash flow.

Tom and Jerry, a non CGI show now in work, is being animated in Glendale at animation veteran's Darrel Van Citter's shop. (Who says you can't do television animation in California?)

3 comments:

Chris Sobieniak said...

Well at least something's being done in-town this time around.

Unknown said...

Animation is my best subject and further I want to go for this and make this as my carrier.It have vast future.Moreover I love the work where I get to see cgi backgrounds in sites.

Mesterius said...

The new "Tom and Jerry" series is actually being animated in California, and in Darrel Van Citter's studio, no less?? Ooooo!... Do they know yet when this show will hit the air? :)

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