DreamWorks Animation Woos Investing Class

DreamWorks Animation (let's set aside DreamWorks the Original, which is snuggling up to Disney -- after getting disrespected and snubbed by Universal-GE) is doing a full court press on many fronts.

... DreamWorks Animation has begun the biggest expansion in its history. A television arm sprouted in recent months, with series built around “Madagascar” and “Kung Fu Panda” coming to Nickelodeon. “Shrek the Musical” opened on Broadway late last year. Theme parks are moving forward in Dubai and Singapore. And the company is making an all-or-nothing charge into 3-D movies, which could add $80 million in profit to a “Shrek”-size hit because of premium ticket prices. Every DreamWorks film from now on will be in 3-D.

Still, all of this growth is coming at a time when bigger is not viewed as better among media investors, creating a tough balancing act for Mr. Katzenberg ...

When you think about it, Jeffrey has pulled off an amazing hat trick.

In the last two years he's out-Pixared Pixar, with DWA's films outgrossing the Emeryville outfit's by $1.4 to $1.6 billion (depending on whose stats you buy.) You can argue who has the best films aesthetically until the flying monkeys come home to roost; the simple question Tinsel Town's front offices use to keep score is: "Who's raking in the most loot?"

Yet all is not rose petals and scented water:

...After years of blockbuster growth, DVD sales slumped badly in the fourth quarter because of the downturn and increasing home entertainment options, with some new releases falling 20 percent below expectations and sales over all down about 9 percent compared with the year earlier, according to Adams Media Research ...

I' ve always been nervous about stand-alone animation houses that rely on a limited number of 'toons to be successful. The days when Hanna-Barbera did it -- back in the days of teevee animation outfits owning and licensing their own product -- are long over. And Pixar, despite its decade of blockbusters, has now been swallowed whole by Disney. How much longer DreamWorks can sustain the magical feat of smash hit following smash hit is known but to God.

I can only hope that She gives Jeffrey another decade or two of success. By then the economic malaise should be over, and DreamWorks Animation's stock price way, way up.

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Weekend B.O. - Romantic Comedy and Coraline

Now with Add On.

The preliminary Friday numbers are in, and Coraline, the new animated feature on the block, lands in the third position behind He's Just Not That Into You and the holdover Taken ...

The all-star romantic comedy collected $10,550,000 on Friday afternoon and evening, while Coraline made off with $4.5 million. With all-day matinees on Saturday and Sunday, will see how the discontented little girl ... with her praiseworthy reviews ... fares during the next fifty-two hours.

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Layoffs ... Micro and Macro

Now with fine, stimululated Add On ... now including the fine chart above, from Calculated Risk.

While theatrical animation still employs many and the work situation hasn't declined precipitously (unlike other segment of the U.S. of A.), television staffing at many local studios remains spotty. Nick has a goodly number of projects, but other studios? Not so much.

TAG records show that 2,506 people are employed by contract studios, but of course those stats wouldn't reflect the 150 employees of Imagi who are recently unemployed.

Imagi's staff is still on layoff, the company still floundering. Word reaches us that some employees have been asked to come into work on Monday and will be paid, but misinformation is rampant. Some employees wonder if the studio will reopen.

Meanwhile, unemployment nationwide is grim and getting grimmer ...

• Total job losses since the recession started in December 2007: 3.6 million;

• Over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed persons has increased by 4.1 million;

• Losses over the last three months: 1.8 million (Jan = 598, Dec = 577k, Nov = 597k);

• Unemployment rate for full-time workers spiked to 8%;

• For the first time since records began in 1939, there were three consecutive months of 500k + job losses;

• Job losses were broad based, with the diffusion index down to an all-time low of 25.3%;

• Household survey showed a record 1.24 million job plunge (Since data began in 1950)

• The calendar year 2008 saw 3 Million Job Losses;

• The employment-population ratio fell to 60.5%, down from 62.7% at the beginning of the recession, — the lowest rate since 1986.

• Unemployment rate: 16-year high (1992);

• January’s payroll drop of 598,000: most since December 1974;

• Payroll Revisions for 2008 were 400,000 more than initially announced;

• The 3.5 million job loss since January 2008 is the largest 12-month decline since the government started compiling those figures in 1939;

• U-6 Marginally attached and involuntary part-time workers: 13.9% last month — up almost five percent;

• The employment-to-population ratio was the lowest since 1986.

Happily, it looks like a stimulus bill is near at hand. Unhappily, it will probably need to be larger than it is.

Add On: Short Stimulus Tutorial.

There's a lot of hot air wafting through Congress right now as left and right battle over what kind of "Stimulus Package" provides the best stimulus. The GOP argues that tax cuts will do the trick; the Dems feel that direct government spending is the way to go.

First, let's hear from left-leaning Nobel economist Paul Krugman on where we are:

According to the CBO’s estimates, we’re facing an output shortfall of almost 14% of GDP over the next two years, or around $2 trillion. Others, such as Goldman Sachs, are even more pessimistic. So the original $800 billion plan was too small, especially because a substantial share consisted of tax cuts that probably would have added little to demand. The plan should have been at least 50% larger.

Now the centrists have shaved off $86 billion in spending — much of it among the most effective and most needed parts of the plan. In particular, aid to state governments, which are in desperate straits, is both fast — because it prevents spending cuts rather than having to start up new projects — and effective, because it would in fact be spent; plus state and local governments are cutting back on essentials, so the social value of this spending would be high.

The more conservative Mark Zandi agrees the stimulus by the government must be large, but he's not as adament as Krugman regarding the size and spending/taxing breakdown:

The stimulus must be large, approximately $750 billion, equal to a little less than 5% of GDP ... The mix of tax cuts and spending boosts ... should be designed to provde both quick relief and a substantial boost to the struggling economy ...

Of course, Zandi wrote his piece a month ago, and the economy has continued to deteriorate. So what packs a bigger punch? Tax cuts or government spending. This Moody's chart -- also from Zandi -- is instructive.

Fiscal Bang For the Buck

One-year $ change in real GDP per dollar ($) reduction in federal tax revenue or increase in spending.

Tax Cuts

Non-refundable lump sum tax rebate: $1.02

Refundable Lump sum Tax Rebate: $1.26

Spending Increase

Extend Unemployment Insurance Benefits: $1.64

Temporarily Increase Food Stamps: $1.73

Increase Infrastructure Spending: $1.59

Me, I come down on the side of spending, because that's what is going to lift us out of this fetid trench and get us back on a growth track ... get people back to work. The data is pretty compelling. When you get two high-powered economists -- one a liberal and one an advisor to John McCain's recent presidential campaign -- in agreement about the stats, how could it be otherwise?

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Doug

And now a swerve away from animation ... to Douglas Fairbanks Sr.

But it's only a small swerve, since Doug's screen persona had lots in common with the cartoon characters that came along a decade after Fairbanks's heyday. In fact, the first Mickey Mouse short Gallopin' Gaucho was a riff on one of Doug's classic swashbucklers. The brief clip below demonstrates why animators stole from him, also what they stole:

I bring these things up because a) We're closing in on the 125th anniversary of Fairbanks's birth, and b) There is a nifty new biography out on the man:

Of all the great silent stars, Fairbanks may have given the vast movie audience the purest pleasure—pleasure untinged by the pathos of Chaplin or Keaton or Pickford. What he offered the world was the fun and vigor of healthy, joyous youth ...

Ninety years further on, Douglas Fairbanks suffers the fate of many ancient movie icons: His films are antiques out of a different era and mind-set: black-and-white, silent, often clunky. But if you peer past the pre-historic technology, the charisma and athleticism and high spirits will pull you in and transport you.

Douglas Fairbanks, you see, built the template for modern action films. (All you need to know is that the creator of Batman constructed Bruce Wayne and the Caped Crusader on the foundation of The Mark of Zorro).

So whether you know Douglas Fairbanks's work or not, when you watch The Dark Knight, Pirates of the Caribbean or Indiana Jones, you're peering into mirrors that reflect Robin Hood, The Thief of Baghdad and all the other works in the Fairbanks canon.

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A Different Kind of SPA Feature

Sony has had some challenges with its animation division. Mr. Sarnoff departed after eleven years. The forest animals and black-and-white flightless birds haven't performed as hoped. So now there's this:

Sony Pictures Animation wants a new animated feature from the character library of comic book publisher Platinum Studios. Sony, who also partnered with Platinum CEO Scott Mitchell Rosenberg on 1997’s “Men in Black,” revealed that they will tap at least one of Platinum’s 5,600 characters to jump onto the big screen.

So there's got to be something in the vast Platinum library that will click with the public, correct? Sony just has to figure out which property it is.

But what happened to Cowboys and Aliens? I thought that comic book was a high concept property on its way to big time franchise ... but I guess not. No tentpole status for the saddle tramps and men from Planet X.

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At Nicky Nick in the Mid Week

I went through Nickelodeon Wednesday afternoon, and unlike other studios I've visited recently, I didn't hear a lot of complaints ....

I've done this walk-through-the-facility thing for a while now, and I can usually get an idea of the general morale via anecdotal evidence.

Like, if a management-type reiterates multiple times over a period of months that "everybody is REALLY happy here!" it means the opposite is occurring. (This happened to me at a studio or two in the mid-nineties.)

If the employees with whom I have a long-standing relationship say things are "pretty good," then work conditions are (usually) fair to tolerable.

If several people whisper to me that things "suck," I deduce there is trouble, and low morale.

But things are never simply good or bad. I learned long ago that there are always three groups at any studio: 1) The happy "Everything is fine!" crowd, 2) the "I've seen better, I've worse" crowd, and 3) the Truly Miserable congregation.

The group that is largest is generally the best indicator of how that workplace actually is. (Note: Morale and working conditions are always subject to change.) I judge Nick to be drifting in the 1) and 2) categories, because here in February 2009, work is tense all over due to studios tightening schedules and budgets. But as many at Nick and other places tell me over and over: "Hey, how bad can it be? I'm working."

Nickelodeon has more work than most cartoon studios right now. The place is cranking out episodes of a lot of long running series, everything from Sponge Bob to Ni Hao Kai-lan. New episodes of Fairly Odd Parents are in work, the Madagascar Penguins are in high gear (along with Fanboy). Also, the Mighty B is in season deux. (I'm not being comprehensive about all that's in production here, just giving highlights.)

Lastly, Nick has a new series in development from one of their lead creators, and six episodes are now rolling downtrack. But since I haven't found a mention of it on the intertubes, I will keep my yap shut about it.

The operative theme for the above: Nick's a busier teevee cartoon studio than most, and people are hap-hap-happy (or at least marginally content) to have a job.

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400 Hours

Today was Disney Animation Studios Day (again), with me going room to room with IA reps. The big issue that came up with several people was the changes negotiated for benefits in the newer Basic Agreement, specifically The Motion Picture Industry Health Plan.

They were concerned with the changes in the number of hours needed to qualify. More than concerned, actually. More like way unhappy ...

The first set of blue letters up above link to a detailed breakdown of the benefits package, but allow me to summarize:

* Higher doctor and hospital charges for participants going out of network.

* Somewhat higher charges ($5-$15) for prescription drugs.

* A $5 fee for visits to the Motion Picture and Television Fund clinics (up from $0).

These are the broad brush strokes. The problem was, a $500 million shortfall* stared the Health Plan in the face, and the bargaining parties had to find a way to plug that big hole.

The solution turned out to be:

1) Hundred of millions of additional bucks from the companies,

2) A Health Plan redesign (in other words, cuts),

3) Reducing the Plan reserves by a few months,

4) Upping the number of qualifying hours for the Health Plan.

That last item -- the qualifying hours component -- has kicked up controversy. Some members would prefer co-pays as the method for closing the Health Plan's funding gap,. Moving through the first floor of the hat building, members gave us an earful about it.

We answered that there were no great solutions, only a choice of unappealing ones. And the union representatives participating in the contract negotiations told the I.A. that raising the threshhold of qualifying hours to 400 from 300, was preferable to co-pays for health insurance.

Like I say, not the most wonderful of outcomes, but have you noticed we're not living in the best of times?

Me too.

* The shortfall came about due to investment losses in the Plan trust funds, a decline in residuals, a lengthy writers' strike, and sharply rising health care costs.

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"In Matters of Taste..."

John and Billy, together again ...

... it's like kinda hard to argue, innit?.

The problem with coming up with "best" is that, somebody always disagrees.

For instance I think that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the best film of 1937, but the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science picked You Can't Take It With You, a film little seen or remembered today.

Beauty and the Beast got itself nominated as best film of 1991, but it didn't win. The light-hearted, family-oriented Silence of the Lambs took the prize.

No doubt about it. The annual Oscar handout is just flat-out prejudiced against cartoons. Sadly, there is no law against it.

And now there are screams of outrage that Kung Fu Panda skunked Wall-E at the recent Annies, so obviously the fix is in (even though John Lasseter swung by to pick up the Windsor McKay Award. What was John thinking?)

But I'm here to say, maybe it isn't the rigging of a jury, theft, or other chicanery. Maybe it is as those wacky Romans said: "De gustibus non est disputandum."

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A Coraline Linkorama

Now with crackle-fresh Add On.

The newest animated feature in town rolls out Friday, so why not tiptoe through a few articles of lasting interest?

Henry speaks again, this time in a more interesting interview than TAG blog unspooled down below ...

Henry Selick: You know, I love stop-motion. I've done almost all the styles of animation: I was a 2D animator. I've done cutout animation. I did a CG short a few years ago, "Moongirl," for young kids. Stop-motion is what I keep coming back to, because it has a primal nature. It can never be perfect. There's always something like—[Points to the Coraline puppet on the table.] Coraline's sweater, you can notice here that it's sort of boiling. And that's because people are touching it and moving it for every frame. There's an undeniable reality that I don't think any of the other mediums give you. You know these things are real even if you don't know exactly how they move, how big they are.

Mr. Selick gives a second interview here about Coraline's early development:

... Initially I was actually following the book too closely. The screenplay wasn't working; it didn't feel like a movie. Neil [Gaiman] encouraged me to go off--to not show him everything and just do what I needed to do. That's when I set it in the U.S., because I was more comfortable writing American English than British English. I introduced this other character, Wybie, to give Coraline someone to go up against in the real world. I made lots and lots of other adjustments, and he responded so well that that just sort of encouraged further explorations. So I learned with Neil that it was better to go off and do a lot of work, and then check in with him from time to time ...

Teri Hatcher is pleased that her first animation voice-work was for a trippy stop-motion 'toon.

"I've always wanted to be in an animated movie, but I never dreamed that I would be in this level of artistry," Hatcher says ...

"Henry had such a beautiful, imaginative, visual thing happening in his mind, as to how the look of the film was going to be, that he really wanted the voices to behind it to be seamlessly real.

"So it ended up in a way being similar to what you would do with any acting job — that you would try to find the sort of motivations, needs, desires, the situations of who these three people were, and what they wanted and what they needed

Rotten Tomatoes catalogues the cascade of reviews for Coraline, and they are not half bad:

... [T]his is a marvelous family story, tapping into all sorts of childhood dreams and nightmares involving Mommy, monsters and heroic youngsters. Selick's imaginative sets and puppets are in perfect pitch with Gaiman's fantasy. The 3-D effects aren't overdone but are used intelligently to make this world come brilliantly to life. -- The Hollywood Reporter

Ain't It Cool News points out that the 3-D version of Coraline wasn't shot with a 3-D camera (which Selick also mentions in a linked interview up above):

... Henry mentioned at the Q&A an even more amazing aspect of the film. A single camera lens shot the film in 3D. For every frame of the film, two separate photos were taken, then interlaced later for the 3D. This way they could approximate our visual depth perception on a miniature scale, which no camera exists to do. So essentially, they shot the movie twice and there was no miraculous new 3D technology, they did it mathmatically and with precision of human effort. Pretty amazing if you ask me ....

The Boston Herald interviews Coraline author Neil Gaiman:

Gaiman says his stories follow G.K. Chesterton’s theory of fairy tales.

“They’re important not because they’re telling children about dragons, monsters and boogeymen,” he said. “The important thing is they tell children that dragons, monsters and the boogeymen can be defeated.

“ ‘Coraline’ is for brave little girls of all ages,” Gaiman said. “It doesn’t say bravery means not being scared either. There are not a lot of films with brave little girls. This is a film to take your daughter to, and that’s one of the things I’m most proud of with ‘Coraline.’ ”

So the publicity mill is grinding ... and we're doing our part. (For no particular reason, since we have no affiliation with the project. But hey. We are all part of the animation community, are we not?)

Add On: The L.A. TIMES puts up a fresh profile of Coraline and Mr. Selick here.

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Tuesday Studio Roundabout ...

At Film Roman, work proceeds apace with the current season of the Yellow Family. As staffers said to me:

"We're just past our production peak now, and things will start winding down and artists will start getting laid off." ... "We had fewer episodes this season because there were holdovers from last ..."

A couple weeks back, The Simpsons crew bid adieu to a line producer who was let go after a decade and a half of employment on the show. These days, everybody is fungible, no matter how long and honorable or lengthy your service ...

There is also buzz that scripts for a new Simpsons season are being worked on, although no new show episodes have been officially greenlit. (And what does an "official greenlight" mean anyway? Eight months ago, a third season of My Friends Tigger and Pooh was greenlit, and we know how that worked out: eight weeks later, everybody is laid off when Disney reverses itself.)

I'm told by artists that Simpson producer-writers over the hill like seeing paper storyboards before the animatics reach them; this allegedly conflicts with high execs who want everything digitized front to back ("who needs paper boards?"). Happily, the writer-producers are getting their paper storyboards. (Leverage is leverage. (Plus it's cheaper to have boards on wood-pulp sheets than an extra animatic.)

And there is buzz around the studio that scripts for a new Simpsons season are being worked on (over the hill, by those producer-writer guys), although no new show episodes have been officially greenlit. (And what does an "official greenlight" mean anyway? Eight months ago, a third season of My Friends Tigger and Pooh was greenlit, and we know how that worked out: eight weeks later, everybody is laid off when Disney reverses itself in its brilliant way.)

At Cartoon Network, Chowder, Flapjack, and Ben 10 continue on their merry way; Foster's is at an end but five episodes are still unseen by the general public.

The Cartoon Network Shorts program, called "Cartoonstitute" by those in the know, continues along. And a new series, Adventure Time, is up and in production. (AT is out of the Frederator shop. I remember seeing it as a short when it was part of Random Cartoons down at Nickelodeon. Edgy. An artist I talked to said it's a challenging show to draw because the characters are ... rubbery. Probably easier for Ub Iwerks to draw, since a lot more rubbery cartoon characters were being drawn in 1929 than now.)

On the Imagi front, there is no news. Since I got back into town, I've gotten a stream of phone calls from ticked-off employees. Some of them, apparently, are ticked off about quotes like this:

[Imagi U.S. President Erin] Corbett explained "We had this money secured in the late fall. We had bridge money to take us through February, when we knew that bridge money was not going to [materialize]... we could not have people come in and not be sure [we'd be able to pay them.)"

As one artist said to me: Didn't want us to come in? We came in and they still haven't paid us for the week!"

They're also griped that they are owed pay in lieu of notice of layoff, and vacation pay. Who'd have thought?

Tuesday was the date the company told employees they'd inform them about when (and if) they were returning to work. But no dice. Imagi execs weren't returning phone calls.

I tried twice but got no answers. Employees told me all they got were recorded messages. I'm still hoping management's assertion to Variety that Imagi has secured financing is true, but I'm not laying down bets on it.

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Happy Birthday Pixar

It dawns on us that a birthday has crept up:

On February 3rd 1986, 23 years ago today, Pixar was founded. Technically speaking, Pixar began in 1979 as a Graphics Group in the Computer Division of Lucasfilm. But the company did not get named “Pixar” until it was bought by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 1986.

Pixar, of course, had a bumpy adolescence, being born of the Lucas empire, adopted by Steve Jobs, and finally embraced by the Mighty Mouse.

Though it now a Bay Area outpost of the Disney conglomerate, we salute its birth. And admire its progeny, each of them movie money spinners.

Here's Tin Toy, a 1988 Pixar short that was a precursor to Toy Story:

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Disney Doldrums

I wandered through the Disney Animation Studio this afternoon. Maybe the mood I encountered was associated with this:

Walt Disney (DIS) ... contributed to the Dow’s downturn in the session as shares fell nearly 3% on economic data that showed consumer spending fell for the sixth consecutive month in December, capping the worst year for the reading since 1961 ...

Okay, maybe it isn't the declining stock price. But the first thing I encounter on the first floor of the hat building was a grimace from a veteran Disneyite.

"Morale around here isn't too good ... like it's tense ..."

Nobody I talked to is unhappy with the films now in work. The discontent comes from the continuing waves of layoffs.

Also the wage reductions.

Up on the second floor a c.g. person stopped me in the hall and asked: Is there anything we can do about the 45 hour workweek at the same pay?" He wasn't pleased when I told him "No."

Another artist, when I asked how work was going, replied: I'm having 18% less fun." (referencing her 18% pay cut.)

And a mid-building group wanted an impromptu meeting, so we held one in their room. As one of them said: "After a big round of layoffs, management told us that there wasn't going to be anymore, then there was more layoffs. We just don't believe a lot of what we get told..." I didn't have much in the way of a pithy reply.

There's belt-tightening going on at lots of L.A. animation studios. It isn't just Disney. I told this to a number of Disney employees. For some reason spirits weren't buoyed.

It isn't just Disney stock that's down.

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Henry Speaks

The next animated feature into the marketplace is Coraline, out next Friday. Director Henry Selick holds forth about the project:

... [T]he tone of it is different than what's been made by Pixar and DreamWorks, certainly. But it's not really so different from the first features that Walt Disney did. Snow White, where a queen wants the heart of a young girl delivered to her in a box. . . . Pinocchio sees his best friend turned into an animal, and it could happen to him. . . . Fantasia, Night on Bald Mountain, or even The Sorcerer's Apprentice. . . .

"We have a very long tradition of like Grimm's fairy tales, or cautionary tales, that our tribal elders were telling around the campfire, and saying, 'Don't go out in the woods, you're going to get eaten.' And eventually someone was better at telling those stories than someone else, and they were the tales that lived on. They're cautionary fairy tales, life lessons.

"We're still in tune with that, we just haven't made those sort of animated films in this country since the early Disney, but there is a tradition. We're just reviving that."

When I first met Henry S., he was working at the Mouse House, sharing a room with another future director named Bill Kroyer.

Henry was a passionate guy then, and he seems to be a passionate guy now. Coraline is Portland-based Laika's first animated feature out of the starting blocks, and obviously there's a lot riding on it.

If Mr. Selick's picture makes a splash, then Laika gains credibility and market traction, at least in the near term. And it's always nice to have another player in the animation business, especially during these times of woe.

So here's hoping for some box office skyrockets.

(Coraline's author Neil Gaiman talks about his creation here.)

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Winter Linkage ...

Three Dee!

... of the extra frosty kind.

Fred Seibert explains Frederator's long cavalcade of teevee shorts:

Random! Cartoons was a series unique to its moment in time. Like with all the others, we relied primarily on artists and animators who wrote their own films. Common to all of the shorts series was my production companion, veteran Larry Huber.

What a Cartoon! was nurtured inside of an existing studio, Hanna-Barbera, and depended on the support of the great staff that had built the company. We made 48 shorts with 40 different creators across the world. Veterans like Bruno Bozzetto and Ralph Bakshi, newcomers, including Genndy Tartakovsky, Craig McCraken and Butch Hartman ...

Disney's other c.g. animated doggie picture is up for ... an award!

Indian film industry has just bagged its first nomination at the prestigious Visual Effects Society (VES) awards, known as the Oscars of the animation and visual effects industry.

India’s first full length animation 3D film, Roadside Romeo, co-produced by Yash Raj Films and Disney, has been nominated in the ‘Outstanding Animation in an Animated Motion Picture’ category alongside big Hollywood animation films such as Dreamworks’ Kung-fu Panda and Disney’s Wall-E ...

Probably not the front runner, but if an award helps boost Romeo's grosses, that's a good thing, right?

Connecticut welcomes Blue Sky Animation Studios to the Land of tax breaks.

More than 300 creative Blue Sky staff are beginning to fill 105,000 square feet of leased space of the 605,000-square-foot Greenwich American Center office facility west of Westchester Airport, and the group's innovative and productive capacity, coupled with the state's alluring tax credit for movie makers, could turn this corner of Greenwich into a veritable "Disneyland." ...

Problem is, the good times might be short-lived.

... Whether the state's film industry tax credits will continue remains to be seen. The state faces a budget shortfall of $343 million, and the $6 billion estimated deficit over the next two years has some state senators reassessing the TV/film tax credits to determine their value to the state's unsettled economy.

It's bum how financial disasters wreck beautiful parties.

In the meantime, 3-D marches on ... and on (and it's not just the DreamWorks ad today on Super bowl Sunday.):

DURING the title sequence of “Coraline,” Henry Selick’s latest stop-action animated movie, two hands disembowel a doll and then reassemble it with needle and thread. While not the most warm and fuzzy scene in any cinematic form, what makes it particularly ghoulish is the feeling that you could run your fingers through the doll’s sawdust innards and touch its button eyes.

As the 3-D experience becomes an increasingly regular part of moviegoing, scenes like this one will be impossible to resist for directors eager to play with the technology ...

Time to book a flight to Stuttgart, where a smorgasbord of German animation is getting served up.

As part of this year's Stuttgart Festival, the retrospective with the title "Cheers! 100 Years of German Animation Film" documents the versatility of Animated Film in Germany. The topical range stretches from the first German animated film PROSIT NEUJAHR of 1909 to the works of early avant-gardists of the 1920s and 1930s such as Walter Ruttmann and Hans Richter, featuring current productions like Oscar-winning short films BALANCE (1989) by Christoph and Wolfgang Lauenstein and QUEST (1996) by Tyron Montgomery and Thomas Stellmach.

Have a restful sabbath.

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Six days from now, we'll be doing what we have done every year for the past decade: celebrate the lives of those who have graced animation and now moved on. Our annual gathering at the Lasky-DeMille Barn across from the Hollywood Bowl, takes place next Saturday.

The Animation Guild, ASIFA Hollywood and Women In Animation present

AN AFTERNOON OF REMEMBRANCE

a non-denominational celebration of departed friends from our animation community:

• John Ahern
• Bob Allen
• Gus Arriola
• Phyllis Barnhart
• Gordon Bellamy
• Harriet Burns
• Greg Burson
• John W. Burton, Jr.
• Vivian Byrne
• Joyce Carlson
• Bob Carr
• Rose Di Bucci
• Charlie Downs
• Ray Ellis
• Joni Jones Fitts
• Etsuko Fujioka
• Steve Gerber
• Fernando Gonzalez
• Yoo Sik Ham
• Larry Harmon
• Margie Hermanson
• Ollie Johnston
• Ted Key
• Eartha Kitt
• Andy Knight
• Harvey Korman
• Lyn Kroeger
• Brice Mack
• Bill Melendez
• David Mitton
• Gary Mooney
• Jim Mueller
• June Nam
• Ethan Ormsby
• Bill Perez
• Richard Pimm
• Oliver Postgate
• Denis Rich
• Dodie Roberts
• Irma Rosien
• Gerard Salvio
• Gina Sheppherd
• Robert Smith
• Jim Snider
• Al Stetter
• Dave Stevens
• Morris Sullivan
• Emru Townsend
• Pat Raine Webb
• Chiyoko Wergles
• Bob Winquist
• Justin Wright

Saturday, February 7, 2009 Food and refreshments, 1 pm Memoriams, 2 pm

Hollywood Heritage Museum (Lasky-DeMille Barn) 2100 N. Highland (across from Hollywood Bowl), Hollywood The Afternoon is free of charge and is open to all; no RSVPs necessary.

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End of Month B.O.

With Add Ons.

No tentpoles are showing up on Super Bowl Weekend because studios aren't stupid. But 20th Century Fox was pleasantly surprised with the movie atop the Friday list:

1. TAKEN (20th Century Fox) OPENER --> $9.5M [3,183 theaters]

2. THE UNINVITED (DreamWorks/Paramount) OPENER --> $4.4M [2,344]

3. PAUL BLART: MALL COP (Sony) 3RD WEEK --> $4.1M [3,206]

4. GRAN TORINO (Warner Bros) 8TH WEEK --> $2.6M [3,015]

5. (tied) NEW IN TOWN (Lionsgate) OPENER --> $2.5M [1,941]

5. (tied) UNDERWORLD 3 (Sony) 2ND WEEK --> $2.5M (-65%) [2,942]

7. SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE (Fox Searchlight) 12TH WEEK --> $2.2M [1,633]

8. HOTEL FOR DOGS (DreamWorks/Paramount) 3RD WEEK --> $1.9M [3,160]

9. MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3-D (Lionsgate) 3RD WEEK --> $1.4M [1,406]

10. BRIDE WARS (20th Century Fox) 4TH WEEK --> $1.1M [1,985]

No animated film is anywhere near the Top Ten at present, but of three recent inhabitants of the list, all are still out in the world spinning bucks. Current worldwide grosses for selected toonage is:

Madagascar 2 -- $567.5 million

Bolt -- $202,154,010

The Tale or Despereaux -- $71 million.

Add On: The Weekened is in, and Liam's the Man:

1. TAKEN (20th Century Fox) OPENER --> $24.6M Weekend [3,183 theaters]

2. PAUL BLART: MALL COP (Sony) 3rd week --> $14M [3,206] cume $83.3M

3. THE UNINVITED (DreamWorks/Paramount) OPENER --> $10.5M [2,344]

4. HOTEL FOR DOGS (Paramount) 3rd week --> $8.7M [3,160] cume $48.2M

5. GRAN TORINO (Warner Bros) 8th week --> $8.6M [3,015] cume $110.5M

6. SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE (Fox SL) 12th week --> $7.6M [1,633] cume $67.2M

7. UNDERWORLD 3 (Sony) 2nd week --> $7.2M [2,942] cume $32.7M

8. NEW IN TOWN (Lionsgate) OPENER --> $7M [1,941]

9. MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3-D (LG) 3rd week --> $4.2M [1,406] cume $44.6M

10. INKHEART (New Line/Warner Bros) 2nd week --> $3.7M [2,665] cume $12.7M

So Fox went against Conventional Wisdom and programmed a Guy Film on Superbowl Sunday and got itself a #1 film that came in way above smart-money estimates.

Next week, Coraline is released, and we have animation in the Contenders Column again. Meantime, here's running totals and analyses for toons recently in the domestic Top Ten:

Madagascar 2 stands at $567.9 million in worldwide grosses, almost 70% of that total from overseas. (The domestic gross was not shabby; over $179 million and still ticking, although faintly.)

Bolt's world grosses stand at $202.1 million, of which 44.2% comes from foreign venues. Domestically, it opened on the weak side, but had a box ofice multiplier of over 4 to 1, which ain't bad. I continue to believe that Twilight smothered the white doggie on the first weekend, eating into a chunk of its potential demographic. Others will, no doubt, disagree.

Lastly, if Universal-GE's pickup costs were reasonable, they probably will make money on their distribution of The Tale of Despereaux, the French feature that got fair to middling traction with its American release: opening weekend, $10 million, box office multiplier 5 to 1.

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Executive Board Meeting -- The Wrap Up

My Take Away from the five-day IATSE executive board meeting is that times are tough all over, and the International was fortunate to get the deal it did when talks wrapped in November..

The anecdotal conversations I've had with other union reps is that employment is down across the board. Most of my fellow reps have laid the blame with the slo-mo semi strike that the dysfunctional Screen Actors Guild has gifted the industry, but the deepening recession has also played a major role. (And now that SAG looks like it's going to move toward a deal, perhaps the sole role ...)

One thing I know is, we're not out of the deep pools of excrement, not by a long shot. Hollywood labor is going to have to stay on top of the ever-changing delivery systems for content if it's to survive in anything resembling good health.

Attorney Jonathan Handel thinks nobody should wait another three years until the next contract talks, since technology is moving fast:

I suggest that Hollywood guilds, unions and management form a joint New Media Working Group. This body should have members from management and from the Writers Guild (WGA), Directors Guild (DGA), Screen Actors Guild (SAG), AFTRA, IATSE, and management ...

The function of the Working Group would be to analyze and report on developments in new media and the possible resulting effect on existing labor agreements and relationships. The goal would be to track those changes on an ongoing basis and generate various options for addressing them in the collective bargaining agreements.

We'll see if something like the above comes to pass. I'm guessing, with all the bad blood gushing through the industry (and between unions and guilds) it will be tough.

But desperate times, as they say, call for newer creative measures.

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KFP Wallops Competition

So whattayaknow? Kung Fu Panda beats the little robot at the box office, and also at the Annies:

The DreamWorks Animation feature dominated the awards ceremony, held at UCLA's Royce Hall in Westwood and presented by ASIFA-Hollywood, the Los Angeles chapter of the International Animated Film Society.

Winning the top prize over such other nominees as the critical favorites "WALL-E" and "Waltz With Bashir," "Panda" swept the feature film categories as it picked up 10 trophies, bettering Pixar's "Ratatouille" run last year when it earned nine Annies, including best feature.

Additionally, DWA's "Secrets of the Furious Five," a 24-minute short that appears on the "Panda" DVD -- took four awards in the TV production/shortform categories, and Activision's "Kung Fu Panda" game won the award for best video game.

Whether this is an indicator for the Oscars remains to be seen. I think the wider world sees Wall-E as the odds-on favorite. But I'll be crass and self-serving here. It's nice to see the contract studio -- where the wages are better --walk away with the golden trophies.

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Robert Broughton, RIP

Another of the animation old-timers who was there at the beginning moves on:

Robert C. Broughton, 91, a pioneering camera effects artist for Walt Disney productions who worked on nearly every Disney motion picture from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in 1937 to "The Black Hole" in 1979, died Jan. 19 at a nursing facility in Rochester, Minn., according to his son Dan. Broughton's job was to create spectacular effects in a subtle way, according to a profile on the Disney legends website. By using color traveling matte composite cinematography, Broughton helped Dick Van Dyke dance with animated penguins in the movie "Mary Poppins." He also created the visual effect that made Hayley Mills appear as twins in "The Parent Trap," his son said. And he worked on the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds," providing the visual effects of the fluttering, menacing birds when Hitchcock contracted out the special effects work to Disney.

Born in Berkeley on Sept. 17, 1917, Broughton attended UCLA before starting in the Disney mail room in 1937. He eventually moved into the camera department and quickly graduated to the advanced multiplane camera, which gave depth to animated scenes in such features as "Pinocchio."

During World War II, Broughton was a cameraman in the field photographic branch of the Office of Strategic Services. The unit was headed by director John Ford

Bob lived three doors down from us for years and years, a half-dozen blocks from Disney's Burbank Studio.

He was always a smiling, upbeat guy. When the Mouse House relocated from its Hyperion address to Burbank, Bob's department was one of the first to move. After he hung up the nine-to-five thing, he was active in Disney's retiree group.

Bob took the long, philosophical view of changes at Walt Disney Productions. He was there for many of the studio's ups and downs, and now that he's departed, another witness to movie history is gone.

It was good knowing you, Mr. Broughton. Congratulations on your long and eventful life.

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This is the Holy Grail?

Okay, I admit I'm slow, but somebody explain to me why this is the end of the long quest:

The Holy Grail of Animation: Lifelike Humans

With a big assist from Silicon Valley technology, a movie superstar like Angelina Jolie could keep starring as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider sequels — forever.

Aided by increasingly powerful microprocessors and incredibly sophisticated software, moviemakers and video-game developers are getting closer to achieving the holy grail of animation: creating computer-generated actors that are visually indistinguishable from real people.

... [P]roducers have generally avoided even trying to make digital characters that look like actual people. And when they have, they’ve often blundered into what those in the industry call the “uncanny valley.” That’s where animated faces seem so devoid of normal human expressiveness they appear zombielike ...

Image Metrics ... used a device developed by the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies, which can digitally capture enormous amounts of visual detail about human actors, including their faces.

... [A]n actor in his 30s ... recently asked [the company] to capture the man’s image with LightStage so the actor can star in future animated films without ever looking a day older than he does now ...

I've been around long enough to remember when the purpose of animation was to create characters that didn't look like forever-young Brad Pitts and Jennifer Anistons. When the purpose was to, you know, create a movie-going experience that didn't slavishly replicate live-action.

But I can't think of anything better than to have animation technology keep a 28-year-old screen hottie forever hot. Even when they're seventy. They can creak around in their 28-year-old digital skin and pretend to be young. Should be a trip.

But the whole idea of it creeps me out. You want a twenty-something actor, go get a twenty-something actor. Because seeing Harrison Ford young again will not, I don't think, cause audiences to flock to theatres. It will instead creep them out too, for they will know it's a gimmick. And Harrison, as hard as he tries, will not be able to move like a twentyish version of himself.

No doubt I'm wrong about all this. No doubt the above will become all the rage, and sweep the country. In the meantime, I'll hold fast to my delusion that animation is better and far more useful doing other things.

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