The Little Silver Disk

Is it going away? And will direct-to-video animated features be going out the door marked "Exit" with it. Wanrer Brothers Animation supervising producer John Tucker makes his prediction:

Are the animated D-T-V an endangered species as the market changes and streaming moves to the forefront?

Tucker: My specific knowledge on that particular subject is limited but from what I gather, the DVD market is struggling but it's holding on. It's like network tv, the demise of network tv has been forecast for a while now and they're still holding on.

I think there will always be a need for people to have a tangible object in their hand when they buy stuff. But having said that, I know that [WB] Home Video is really happy with the downloadable market. The numbers on that appear to be pretty good. With DVD's some do better than others, there's really no accounting for that really.

With downloadable, I don't know if the overhead on that is a little cheaper, but I'm hoping it will afford us the chance to do lesser known characters down the line. Even the whole direct to Netflix or direct to "whoever" or even direct to the WB website, I think that's in the future, I just don't know how far in the future. ...

Our fine, entertainment conglomerates have been lamenting about the decline of the Little Silver Disk in contract negotiations for the better part of a decade. Animation, interestingly enough, has held up better than other segments of the movie market. Still in all, the DVD/Blu-Ray market has taken hits.

Me, I think that animated long-forms for the home flat-screen will continue into the foreseeable future, but I think the platforms for them will change over time. There will be more streaming video. There will be more downloadable files. But there will still be a market (albeit smaller) for the shiny round things in the jewel boxes. We still have network radio and network t.v. and live theater, after all. And people still drive to their neighborhood multi-plexes (many of them owned by China) for their weekly dose of raunchy comedy or a muscled actor kicking somebody's head to mushy pulp.

In other words, I don't think the world's entertainment needs are going to be changing in significant ways anytime soon, although some of the delivery systems will change. It's going to be up to the conglomerates that rule us to find the best ways to monetize all those delivery systems, but the creation of fresh content (I think) will continue.