Film Roman South

Film Roman, which was located on Hollywood Way near the Bob Hope-Hollywood-Burbank Airport for some years, has moved to the West Valley. But there are also some newer digs, as a press release tells us:

Film Roman has entered into a joint venture with Baja California-based animation facility Boxel Studios to create Film Roman Baja J.V.

Boxel co-founder and creative director Uriel Reyes Botello and co-founder and director Andres Reyes Botello are overseeing day-to-day operations, with Film Roman founder Phil Roman and Film Roman CEO Steve Waterman providing senior management and oversight of the Baja studio.

“The venture’s driving purpose is to execute high-quality, cost-effective animated properties across a broad spectrum of platforms including features, television and new media productions,” Waterman commented in a statement. ...

A lot of animation studios today use Canadian studios. But a Mexican studio? It isn't new. Gamma Studios of Mexico City was used by Jay Ward Productions five-plus decades ago. At the time, most television animation was done in Los Angeles, soup to nuts. Outsourcing to Asia hadn't started yet.

But Jay Ward pioneered the outsourcing of animation to foreign locales. All those Rocky and Bullwinkle shorts, all those Fractured Fairy Tales pieces, they were produced in Mexico City.

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Ron Thornton, RIP

From the Reporter.

Ron Thornton, an Emmy-winning visual effects designer, supervisor and producer who worked on such shows as Babylon 5 and Star Trek: Voyager, has died. He was 59.

Thornton, often credited with bringing the power of CGI to television visual effects, died Monday at his home in Albuquerque, N.M., after a short battle with liver disease, his friend, veteran VFX supervisor Emile Smith, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Thornton received his Emmy for the 1993 telefilm Babylon 5: The Gathering (the pilot for the series) and also was nominated for his work on episodes of Star Trek: Voyager and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and on the 2002 telefilm Superfire. ...

Mr. Thornton was working as a visual effects specialist all the way back to the 1970s. Star Trek, the Movie, Babylonf 5, Star Trek, Voyager and the immortal Space Balls.

Fifty-nine is far too early to depart, but stuff happens. Condolences to Mr. Thornton's family and friends. Click here to read entire post

Thirty Years On

Three decades ago, An American Tail was released to positive reviews and solid box office. It was Don Bluth's second animated feature away from Disney, and Steven Spielberg's start as a producer of full-length, theatrical cartoons.

[No animated feature] presented the whole lost child scenario as effectively as An American Tail. Released in 1986, it was the apex of unique family-friendly films created by director-animator Don Bluth–a diverse batch which also includes beloved classics like The Secret of NIMH (1982), The Land Before Time (1988), All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989), Rock-a-Doodle (1991), A Troll in Central Park (1994), and Anastasia (1997).

Disney–specifically Pixar’s Finding Nemo (2003)–owes a lot to little Fievel Mousekewitz. This film–with Steven Spielberg as the executive producer and presenter–was ahead of its time for establishing serious issues under a G rating, and 30 years later, with the current immigration crisis at hand, An American Tail is an especially relevant animated film for children and adults today. ...

Don Bluth had a long, notable career in animation.

He started at Disney in the 1950s, working on Sleeping Beauty, then departed to pursue other goals. A decade later, after a stint at Filmation, he returned to the House of Mouse and quickly rose through the ranks. In the mid-seventies he was a directing animator, then the animation supervisor for (the first) Pete's Dragon, then the director of the holiday featurette The Small One.

Management was grooming Don to take over the department, but Don put together a deal to direct and produce The Secret of NIMH as an independent feature, and left in the middle of The Fox and the Hound.

NIMH was the first feature in a string of long-form animated productions that ended with Titan A.E. in 2000. Nobody has made more independent hand-drawn features than Mr. Bluth; American Tail was the second that he directed ... and (after Land Before Time) the most successful. American Tail was made by Don and his staff after NIMH and the production of some pioneering, hand-drawn video games. The budget for the feature was not large, but Don, always good at getting a lot of production value up on the screen, made the feature look more expensive than it was.

Hard to believe it's been thirty years since its release.

H/t President Emeritus Tom Sito.

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Two Animated Features -- Year Over Year

Alrighty then. A year ago, Blue Sky Studios (of Fox-News Corp.) released The Peanuts Movie. It's domestic opening weekend went like this:

$44,213,073 in 3,897 theaters.

Twelve months later, DreamWorks Animation's Trolls rolled out. And its opening numbers went this way:

$46,581,142 in 4,060 theaters

The two cartoons had pretty similar three-day windows. But then the roads diverged. ...

The second weekend drop for Trolls was a mere 25%, while The Peanuts Movie declined an alarming 46%.

TPM's final global box office was $246,233,113, with a domestic gross of $116,054,702. This total came at the end of twenty-one weeks of theatrical release.

Now consider Trolls.

The DreamWorks picture's been out since early November, and has already grossed $262,371,439 worldwide. (This, after 17 days of release). It's domestic tally stands at $116,163,206, 44.3% of its world gross, and will obviously climb higher.

In retrospect, The Peanuts Movie had the disadvantage of being a well-worn American property that didn't play as well overseas as Fox might have hoped. (The recent Ice Age: Collision Course performed only half as well as Peanuts domestically, but has beaten the Charlie Brown movie hollow overseas. To date it's worldwide cume is $407,168,056. These days, foreign markets are real important).

The lesson here: American companies need their animated movies to play in foreign markets, since they contribute 60%-80% of the total take, and too often American-centric features don't cut it in the rest of the world. It also helps to have lots of comical non-humans populating your productions.



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SAG-AFTRA Strike Continues

Per Deadline:

SAG-AFTRA will launch a virtual picket line on social media tomorrow to “show that our greatest strength is our unity.” ...

“Beginning at noon,” the union is telling its members, “show your support on social media by sharing the tweets below and these images; retweet and share SAG-AFTRA’s Facebook and Twitter posts; take a solidarity selfie or group photo, use the hashtag #PerformanceMatters and post it to Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.” ...

SAG-AFTRA has been picketing video game companies in southern California (with other unions -- including TAG -- assisting) but now they've moving to the virtual world.

We'll see what kind of leverage is brought to bear.

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Cars Forever

It's a good thing Pixar is unenthusiastic about sequels ...



Because otherwise, we might already be seeing a teaser trailer for Cars V.

From the hyper-ventilating press release:

Blindsided by a new generation of blazing-fast racers, the legendary Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson) is suddenly pushed out of the sport he loves. To get back in the game, he will need the help of an eager young race technician, Cruz Ramirez, with her own plan to win, plus inspiration from the late Fabulous Hudson Hornet and a few unexpected turns. Proving that #95 isn’t through yet will test the heart of a champion on Piston Cup Racing’s biggest stage!

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El Smurfos

Sony renews the short blue people franchise with an April 2017 release: Smurfs: The Lost Village



From the breathless press release:

In this fully animated, all-new take on the Smurfs, a mysterious map sets Smurfette and her best friends Brainy, Clumsy and Hefty on an exciting and thrilling race through the Forbidden Forest filled with magical creatures to find a mysterious lost village before the evil wizard Gargamel does. Embarking on a rollercoaster journey full of action and danger, the Smurfs are on a course that leads to the discovery of the biggest secret in Smurf history!

Animation veteran Kelly Asbury is directing The Lost Village. Mr. Asbury has a long and successful track record in the land of cartoons: story artist on The Little Mermaid and Toy Story; the directors on Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Shrek 2, Gnomeo and Juliet. He had this to say about his upcoming feature:

How different is SMURFS: THE LOST VILLAGE from the previous two Smurfs features?

KA: Sony Pictures Animation’s previous two SMURFS movies were live action films in which real humans interacted with more realistically designed and animated Smurfs, and the stories centered as much around the human characters’ issues. SMURFS: THE LOST VILLAGE has nothing to do with those other films. It is a radically different take on the Smurfs and their imaginary world, fully computer animated, and much closer to the tone and style that creator Peyo initially envisioned.

What was the inspiration for this film?

KA: Many things inspired the type of movie we wanted to make. Everyone involved agreed that the story should be a high-adventure journey, so classic movies like RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and GOONIES came to mind. The richness in color was influenced by the great French Impressionists painters. The Forbidden Forest where the Smurfs venture was envisioned as equal parts Oz, Pandora and Wonderland, filled with dangerous and magical creatures like Smurf-eating Flowers or Boxing and Kissing Plants, to name a few. ...

The feature rolls out across the fruited plain on April 7th. It will likely do brisk business at the box office.

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Asset Allocation Plans (Or ... Putting Enough Away For When You Decide To Hang It Up)

The end of another year is fast upon us, so it's time for another look at investing for retirement.

TAG members have two automatic pension plans -- the Defined Benefit Plan that gives you a monthly payout at retirement, and an Individual Account Plan. Think of the IAP as a big basket of money earning interest and stock income that the Motion Picture Pension Plan will pay to you when you are ready to ride off into the setting sun and leave the 9-to-5 deal behind.

And if you know little about where to stash part of each paycheck, not a problem. You can use Vanguard Retirement Date Funds, and let the giganto mutual fund company do the heavy investment lifting (and deep choices) for you, or you can do some reconnoitering and decide on your own where you want to put your investment dollars to work.

Here's a place to start. ...

150 Portfolios Better Than Yours

... No one knows which [investment] portfolio is going to outperform in the future. You can change all the factors you want- more or less diversification, additional risks/factors, lower costs vs additional risk or diversification, more of this and less of that. Does it matter? Absolutely. Take a look at Madsinger’s Monthly Report some time. But it doesn’t matter that much. No diversified portfolio in that report has done better than 1-2% per year more than a similarly risky portfolio over the last 15 years. Now 1-2% does matter, especially over long periods of time, but keep in mind the edge that a very complex portfolio might provide over a very simple one can easily be eaten up by advisory fees, behavioral errors, and poor tax management.

I suggest you pick a portfolio you like and think you can stick with for a few decades, and then do so. Eventually, any given portfolio will have its day in the sun. Just don’t continually change your portfolio in response to changes in the investment winds. This is the equivalent of driving while looking through the rear view mirror, or, as Dr. Bernstein likes to phrase it, skating to where the puck was. ...

Portfolio 1: The S&P 500 Portfolio

100% Vanguard S&P 500 Index Fund

Don’t laugh. I know a very successful two-physician couple who invest in nothing but this, are 7 years out of residency, have a net worth in the $1-2 Million range. Their investment plan is working fine. Every investment dollar, whether in a retirement account or a taxable account, goes into this single fund. It is simple, very low cost, diversified among 500 different companies, and has a long track record of exceptional returns.

Portfolio 2: Total Stock Market Portfolio

100% Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund

Perhaps one step up on the S&P 500 portfolio, for about the same cost you get another 5000+ stocks in the portfolio.

Portfolio 3: Total World Stock Market Portfolio

100% Vanguard Total World Index Fund

This 100% stock portfolio has the advantage of not only holding all the US Stocks like the Total Stock Market Portfolio, but also holding all of the stocks in pretty much all the other countries in the world that matter. It is a little more expensive (and in fact it is actually cheaper to build this fund yourself from its components), but it still weighs in at less than 20 basis points if you buy the ETF.

Portfolios 4 and 5: Balanced Index Fund

100% Vanguard Balanced Index Fund

Prefer to diversify out of stocks? Actually want some bonds in the portfolio? How about this one? For less than 10 basis points you get all the stocks in the US and all the bonds in the US in a 60/40 balance. Still just one fund. If you’re in a high tax bracket, you may prefer the Tax-Managed Balanced Fund, a 48/52 blend of US Stocks and Municipal bonds, all for just 12 basis points.

Portfolios 6-9: Life Strategy Moderate Growth Portfolio

100% Vanguard Life Strategy Moderate Growth Fund

For just 16 basis points, you get all the US (32%) and international (18%) stocks and all the US (42%) and international (8%) bonds wrapped up in a handy, fixed asset allocation. Want to be a little more (or a little less) aggressive? Then check out the “aggressive growth” (80/20), “conservative growth” (41/59) or “income” (30/70)version with a slightly different allocation of the same asset classes. ...

And so on and so forth. Here's the rub: You can use any number of the portfolios shown above (and many more), stick with them, and you will have a sizable nest egg by the time you become a seasoned citizen.

There are really only a few simple rules:

1) Keep costs low.

2) Keep your portfolio diversified.

3) Stick with the program.

And understand that there will ALWAYS be a portfolio better than yours, but that it doesn't matter. What matters is saving and investing for the day when you'll need the money to live comfortably without a regular paycheck.

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International Box Office

Trolls runs up a nice tally, but nothing compared to the continuing Dr. Strange or Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them or the Chinese release I Am Not Madame Bovary.

WEEKEND FOREIGN BOX OFFICE -- (WORLD TOTALS)

Fantastic Beasts -- $143,300,000 -- ($218,300,000)

I Am Not Madame Bovary -- $27,900,000 -- ($28,400,000)

Doctor Strange -- $26,000,000 -- ($571,500,000)

Trolls -- $11,400,000 -- ($261,300,000)

Arrival -- $6,500,000 -- ($54,215,853)

Inferno -- $3,800,000 -- ($211,873,473)

Jack Reacher -- $3,800,000 -- ($136,869,185)

The Girl On The Train -- $1,600,000 -- ($161,100,000)

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children -- $758,000 -- ($259,862,899)

The Secret Life of Pets -- $400,000 -- ($873,372,980) ...

And a trade paper tells us:

With an $11.4M weekend in 66 markets, DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls has grossed $145.1M overseas. The overall session was 42% down with good holds in the UK, Spain, Germany and Mexico. The UK leads overseas at $26M, followed by France with $17.3M and Russia at $12M. ...

The Denis Villeneuve sci-fi drama [Arrival] added $6.41M in combined Sony and Film Nation markets in its 2nd outing. In five FNE hubs, it beamed up $2.91M and in 22 for Sony, it garnered $3.5M. The total offshore cume thus far is $21.8M. ...

[Dr. Strange] cast a $26M spell in offshore markets this weekend — its 4th. That takes the international cume to $390M and the worldwide tally to $571.5M as the film closes in on Iron Man’s $585M global. ...

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Woman Supervisor

Animator Amy Smeed is the first female animator at the House of Mouse to be the co-captain of animation on the latest Diz Co. cartoon.

Amy Lawson Smeed ... is a head of animation (along with her colleague Hyrum Osmond) for the action-filled story of "Moana". ...

She got her break on 2005's "Chicken Little," where she moved to the animator training program and was assigned a mentor. She has gone on to work in animation on movies like "Meet the Robinsons," "Bolt," "Tangled," "Wreck-It Ralph" and "Frozen," where she worked with Jennifer Lee, the first female director of a Disney animated movie.

While technical chops and understanding the mechanics of movement are key to good animation, she cites her time on the Rapunzel adaptation "Tangled," with directors Nathan Greno and Byron Howard and animation supervisor Glen Keane, as helping her learn the importance of the acting side of animation.

"It's very easy in computer animation to just always be moving the characters and doing things. With good acting, it's not about just moving the character because you can. It's figuring out what that performance is and really getting the thought behind the character, and that was something they taught us on that film." ...

Amy Smeed estimates there are about a dozen woman animators at Disney, out of a crew of 100.

This is half the percentage of women that now hold jobs in Guild studios (23%). But the fact that a woman has now been put in one more top position is a stride in the right direction.

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Your American Box Office

Trolls, it clings to second place on the List.

WEEKEND DOMESTIC GROSSES

1). Fantastic Beasts… (WB), 4,144 theaters / $29.8M Fri. (includes $8.75M)/ 3-day cume: $76M /Wk 1

2.) Trolls (DWA/20th Century Fox), 3,945 theaters (-121) / $3.9M Fri. (-68%) / 3-day cume: $16.9M (-52%) /Total Cume: $115.7M/Wk 3

3.) Doctor Strange (DIS), 3,694 theaters (-188) / $4.8M Fri. (-68%)/ 3-day cume: $16.7M(-61%) /Total cume: $180.6M/Wk 3

4). Arrival (PAR), 2,335 theaters (+18) / $3.4M Fri. (-63%) / 3-day cume: $11.2M (-53%)/Total:$42.8M/ Wk 2

5). Almost Christmas (UNI), 2,379 theaters (+3) / $2M Fri. (-66%) / 3-day cume: $6.6M (-53%)/Total: $25M/ Wk 2

6). Hacksaw Ridge (Lionsgate), 2,883 theaters (-88) / $1.9M Fri. (-50%) /$6.4M 3-day (-40%)/Total: $42.5M/ Wk 3

7.) The Edge of Seventeen (STX) 1,945 theaters/ $1.7M Fri./3-day: $4.8M/wk 1

8.) Bleed For This (OR) 1,549 theaters/ $882K Fri./3-day: $2.6M/wk 1

9.)The Accountant (WB), 1,423 theaters (-919) / $603K Fri. (-60%)/3-day cume: $2M (-55%) / Total cume: $81.1M / Wk 6

10.) Shut In (Euro), 2,006 theaters (-52)/ $501K (-70%) Fri. / 3-day cume: $1.6M (-66%)/Total: $6m/ Wk 2 ...

The DWA picture should be close to $150 million by the end of its run, yes?

On the other hand, Moana will take a bite out of Trolls when the Disney feature sails into the marketplace, so who knows the actual steepness of the inevitable drop? Or how solid a bet the $150 mill might actually be?

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Diretcor Out, Director In

Deadline tells us:

... David Leitch has signed on to direct Deadpool 2.

Leitch beat out a host of competitors that included the likes of Drew Goddard and Magnus Martens after Deadpool director Tim Miller departed the superhero sequel over creative differences in late-October. Leitch spent more than 20 years as a stunt coordinator and stuntman before he teamed as a director with Chad Stahelski on John Wick. The Keanu Reeves-starring neo noir action pic went on to earn $86 million on a $20 million budget but became an instant cult favorite. ...

Deadpool Uno was a huge hit with large swaths of animation stitching the movie together. :

After stepping away from Deadpool, director Tim Miller has set his sights on a new gig: developing an adaptation of Sonic the Hedgehog for Sony Pictures.

Miller and his longtime Blur Studio collaborator Jeff Fowler have been tapped to work on the project, on which Fowler would make his feature directorial debut.

The duo are working with Neal H. Moritz (the Fast and Furious franchise), who is producing the adaptation. Miller will act as an executive producer on it.

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Anniversary

A future corporate symbol was launched into the world on this day, as TAG President Emeritus Tom Sito recounts:

Nov 18, 1928- HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICKEY MOUSE- At Universal’s Colony Theater in New York, Walt Disney’s cartoon "Steamboat Willie" debuted before a movie called Gang War.

The first major sound cartoon success and the official birth of Mickey Mouse. Two earlier silent Mickey's had been done, but when Walt saw Jolson speak in the Jazz Singer, he held those two back so the sound experiment could go ahead. ...

Steamboat Willie, of course, was an animated riff on Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill Jr., just as the previously made (though later released Gallopin' Gauchos was a spoof of Douglas Fairbanks's The Gaucho.

Hard to believe that the Diz Co. empire of today started in a small storefront on Hyperion Avenue back in the 1920s. Walt Disney had a habit of rolling the dice on commercial enterprises, whether it was the first sound cartoon, the first color cartoon, the first feature-length cartoon, or an amusement park that few through would work.

But it all paid off in spades. ...

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CTN animation eXpo starts TOMORROW!

Now with Add On!

The last couple of days, there's been a whirl of activity in and around the Burbank Marriot Hotel (directly across the street from the renowned Bob Hope/Burbank Airport).

CTN eXpo has been setting up its monster exhibition tent (seen above) in Marriot's parking lot, directly across the way from Marriot's convention center.

What's different this year is that all the vendors and exhibits previously housed in the convention hall, are now in the big fat tent. It's not really a problem, because the BFT is generous in its square footage and air conditioned on a par with the climate and temperature of Gnome, Alaska. (No doubt the temp will rise once there are a few thousand bodies jammed inside the canvas walls).

Beyond the exhibition hall, CTN will be packed with presentations and events, including:

"Behind the Scenes of Disney's Moana" -- (Disney Panel Discussion)

"Finding Clarity In Your Storyboards" -- (Adam Cootes - Blue Sky Studios)

"Jam Packed With Story" -- (Panel Discussion)

"Create or Die: How Living the 5 Pillars of Creativity Can Change Your Life" -- (Jake Parker)

"The Art of Making Trolls" -- (DWA Panel Discussion)

"Colorful Language: Ever Palette Tells a Story" -- (Brian McEntee)

And this is only a fragment of the first day. So as you can see, it's going to be a fast-moving weekend.

Add On: CTN eXpo is expanding in a variety of ways:

... This year, it will open its doors to the public, offering speaker sessions, workshops, art demonstrations, book signings, studio recruitment, portfolio reviews, vendors and more at the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel and Convention Center running Friday through Sunday Nov. 18-20.

“I was at Disney for 23 years, and when I left, I wanted to provide an arena to help promote what these particular group of artists do because I realized when you’re at a studio for that long, when you leave, it’s a challenge trying to identify yourself as not working for ‘fill in the blank,’ ” said Tina Price, founder and owner of Creative Talent Network and producer of CTN eXpo.

Price decided to change things because, as a networking event, a big part of the convention is exposing the artists to future generations and the general public. Students and youths will have the opportunity to learn more about the animation industry as a career choice, while animation fans can shop and meet some of their favorite artists. ...

When: Noon to 7 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, plus CTNX After Dark gathering 8 p.m. to midnight tonight and Saturday.

Where: Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel and Convention Center, 2500 N. Hollywood Way, Burbank.

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Another Negotiatin' Season Commences

The IATSE (our mother international) goes into negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers at the end of each negotiation cycle. The IA and The Animation Guild negotiated their latest contracts last year. But you will be pleased to know that a whole new season is starting up once more.

The Directors Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have agreed to enter into formal contract negotiations on Dec. 5.

The DGA and the AMPTP also said that they have also agreed that neither organization will comment further to the press until negotiations have concluded.

The DGA tapped secretary-treasurer Michael Apted and third VP Thomas Schlamme in February as co-chairs of its negotiating committee for the successor deal to its master contract. The guild’s current three-year deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers expires on June 30, 2017. The DGA has over 16,000 members.

Jay D. Roth, longtime national executive director of the DGA, will be the lead negotiator for the guild.

SAG-AFTRA’s current master contract with the AMPTP also expires on June 30, 2017, while the Writers Guild of America’s deal will expire on May 1, 2017. The WGA usually goes into negotiations after DGA and SAG-AFTRA have completed their deals. ...

The way industry negotiating works is, one of the above-the-line guilds (usually the DGA, but not always) is the first into the arena and arm-wrestles the conglomerates and various production companies until a deal is reached.

And that deal lays down various markers: wage increases; pension contributions; New Media provisions. Naturally enough, the details of various contracts have differences but many of the broader brush strokes are the same. This is called pattern bargaining.

Guilds and unions end up achieving similar monetary gains, though pies are carved up in differing ways. (One group might take higher pension contributions and lesser wage hikes). It all depends on where each labor organization's priorities lie.

The Directors Guild usually goes into talks with a focused set of objectives, and often gets many of them. When the DGA's contract talks are over and the agreement between the parties is announced, we'll have some idea about the bargaining template from which every other union ... WGA, SAG-AFTRA, IATSE ... will be working.

And the Animation Guild, Local 839 IATSE, will be among the last labor unions to march into the arena, sometime in the Spring of 2018.

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WAG Feature

Warner Animatin Group, which has a number of animated projects in development, appears to be moving ahead with this one:

Mark Osborne, fresh off directing The Little Prince, has come aboard to tackle Warner Bros.’ animated adaptation of Bone, the Eisner-winning comic series from Jeff Smith.

Adam Kline has been tapped to co-write the script with Osborne, who is developing the project as a directing vehicle. The moves re-energize the adaptation for the studio, which first picked up the rights around 2008.

Dan Lin’s Lin Pictures is producing with Animal Logic’s Zareh Nalbandian with the goal of making a trilogy of animated feature films. ...

Bone has been in the development hopper for a bunch of years. (These things take time -- Disney's Tangled was in the oven for a over a decade). But now it looks like the Jeff Smith project is close to ignition and lift off.

Warner Animation Group ... otherwise known as WAG ... focuses on theatrical features and has several studios in Los Angels. One is on the Warner Bros. Burbank main lot, another is in a trailer at the Warner Ranch (also located in burbank) and a third is in Hollywood.

Only pre-production development will take place in California. Production will happen in Australia.
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Animation Pool Gets Deeper (Again)

Fox won't be releasing DreamWorks Animation features much longer, but it's staying in the feature-length cartoon business in a major way.

... 20th Century Fox is making it a priority to snap up various children's books and develop more live-action hybrids.

It looks like 20th Century Fox under Stacey Snider is going to be an all-in-the-family studio.

On Nov. 10, Fox Animation bought children's book Momotaro: Xander and The Lost Island of Monsters by Margaret Dilloway, which followed pickups of Kelly Barnhill's The Girl Who Drank the Moon, Ben Hatke's Zita the Spacegirl, Jennifer Weiner's The Littlest Bigfoot and Garth Nix's Princess and the Frog tale Frogkisser! And on Wednesday, Fox also revealed it is developing a theatrical feature based on the 2014 Oscar-nominated animated short The Dam Keeper from two former Pixar art directors.

The new projects won't all be straight animation plays. At least two — Girl Who Drank the Moon and Littlest Bigfoot — will be CG/live-action hybrids, a priority area for the studio, which hired executive Nate Hopper in September to build the initiative. ...

Fox is like every other big entertainment conglomerate. It knows that animation is one of the high-margin corners of the movie biz, and it needs to be in that corner in order to maximize profits. Even though the latest production in its Ice Age franchise had an anemic box office return of a mere $64 million in the U.S. of A., it has collected $343,105,048, giving it a world-wide total of $407,168,056, four times its production cost.

So there is no way that Fox will be getting out of making the cartoons

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Blending Formats, Gaining Ideas

VFX super Stephane Ceretti speaks about Doc Strange, the Movie:

CS: You’ve been working with Marvel for awhile now. Does each project feel like it’s own world or does it feel like building one giant universe?

Stephane Ceretti: It’s funny. It’s one world, but it’s also many worlds. I’ve been lucky enough to explore a lot of them. I worked second unit on “Captain America,” which was setting up that character. I got to work with Joe Johnston, which was really great. ...

CS: Doctor Strange is getting a lot of notice for its innovative visuals. Where did those begin as far as realizing the look you wanted?

Stephane Ceretti: It’s been a long process. We started in September of 2014, just after I finished “Guardians.” Scott [Derrickson] was already on the project. He had started to write the script and he had a list of visual that he wanted to use in the film. Some were from other films, others were from photographs or paintings. He kind of collected together a list of things that we looked at. Charlie Wood, the production designer, came to LA and we did a kind of brainstorming bootcamp to figure out what we were going to do for the film visually. ...

CS: Do you need to make firm rules about what is and isn’t possible in the realm of sorcery?

Stephane Ceretti: That’s the big balance that we were trying to find throughout production. Even in post-production, to be honest. How much do you explain? How much do you show? You don’t want to explain everything, because then it gets tedious. You want the visuals to integrate into the story, but not to take over the story. ...

And then the quote that made me laugh:

CS: What about the Cloak of Levitation? I’m assuming that was a blend of both practical and visual effects.

Stephane Ceretti: There’s a lot of practical cloak in the film and the practical cloak is a beautiful thing. It’s a beautiful piece of fabric. Originally, the Cloak of Levitation was just the Cloak of Levitation. It was helping him fly. Then we figured out as we were doing pre-vis that it would be great if it was actually a character. We looked at the magic carpet in “Aladdin.” There was some cool stuff there. It could be the story of a cowboy and his horse. He finds that horse in nature and they don’t know each other. The horse has never been with a cowboy before. But then they kind of get to learn each other. They form that relationship by the end. That’s the arc we wanted to do. ...

Good ideas don't disintegrate with age.

They just go into hibernation and reappear in another place and time ... and end up being a good idea all over again.





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Ramping Up Moana

Diz Co. now drops clips fast and furiously ....



... as the picture's release date draws close. ...

And the reviews are coming in ...

“The film front-loads [Moana's] story with two exceptional original songs: The first conveys her father’s play-it-safe mantra, ‘Where We Are,’ while the other gives voice to Moana’s own horizon-challenging desires, ‘How Far I’ll Go’ — both the result of an inspired collaboration between Hamilton composer-lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda, longtime Disney music guru Mark Mancina, and Opetaia Foa’i, the lead singer of South Pacific fusion band Te Vaka.” ...

Here in the second decade of the 21st century, Diz Co. knows how to make and market animated features.

The picture wrapped last month, and now it's time for some of the dazzling bits of the movie to be drizzled out on YouTube, to have the cast and directors fan out to drumbeat that the feature is soon to arrive, and by and large build audience desire to rush to their neighborhood multiplex and goggle at the visual splendors on opening weekend ... and beyond.

Judging from the reviews and "want to see" quotient steadily building across the fruited plain, that shouldn't be hard to do.

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Stewart Animation

Jon Stewart, formerly of The Daily Show, is plunging into a new area of show biz.

Entertainment Weekly: Has the fate of Bill Simmons’ show, or the election of Donald Trump, impacted how you much you might be relying on Jon Stewart or John Oliver in the future? Could we be getting more of either?

HBO Programming President Casey Bloys: I’ll take as much John Oliver as I can get. In terms of Jon Stewart, he really is putting together a whole animation studio. My hope is that it’s up and running and putting out content in first quarter of ‘17. Does the election change things? I think it’s more important, now more than ever, that we have voices like that who will parse the information and call out what’s going on.

So if Stewart is setting up a studio, it's likely on the East Coast. Since that is where Jon Stewart lives.

If it were here, TAG would work assiduously to secure a contract. Even being in New York City (or wherever), we can strive to get a contract. Why not?

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The Animation Guild Election

The Animation Guild's officer elections have been taking place by mail since October 11th. On Saturday, November 12th, the ballots for Business Representative, Sergeant-At-Arms, and eleven executive board seats were counted. Here are the results. ...

NEW ANIMATION GUILD OFFICERS

BUSINESS REPRESENTATIVE

Jason MacLeod

SERGEANT AT ARMS

Robert St. Pierre

EXECUTIVE BOARD

Bronwen Barry
Jeanette Moreno King
David Chlystek
Dave Thomas
Steve Kaplan
Bill Flores
Jason Mayer
Cathy Jones
Lisa Anderson
Candice Stephenson
David Woo

From Dave Robb at Deadline:

Jason MacLeod has been elected business rep of the Animation Guild, IATSE Local 839, succeeding Steve Hulett, who is retiring December 6 after 27 years at the helm of the union.

Hulett, currently the longest serving union leader in Hollywood, spent a decade as an animation writer at Walt Disney Animation Studios in the 1970s and 1980s before taking the leadership role at the guild in 1989. This election marks only the second turnover in the office since 1978.

“I’m very honored to be elected to represent the membership,” said MacLeod, whose credits as an animation lighting artist include Frozen and Zootopia. “Animation in all forms is doing spectacularly well in the marketplace, but this hasn’t translated to a work-life balance our members are happy with. I look forward to partnering with the executive board, listening to our members’ concerns, and working in union to achieve our goals in the next contract cycle.”

“Jason has a big job ahead of him,” Hulett said. “The guild has grown by leaps and bounds over the last decade, and animation continues to be a red hot sector of the entertainment industry. There will be plenty of challenges ahead, but I know Jason is up to them.”

Laura Hohman, a surfacing artist at DreamWorks Television, was elected president of the guild. ...

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Christmas Stop Motion

The Brits are going in for big-budget stop motion holiday ads, vocals provided by British TV host James Corden, currently working stateside for CBS on The Late Late Show.

... Sainsbury's [the British supermarket chain] will launch its three-minute ad, which took seven weeks to animate using hitech 3D-printing techniques never previously used in the UK, on Monday, making it the last of the major retailers to kick off its festive campaign. ...

Directed by Sam Fell, an alumni of Wallace and Gromit maker Aardman Animations who went on to make comedy zombie animation ParaNorman, the film does not feature any Sainsbury’s products directly. ... however, Sainsbury’s has found a way to link this year’s ad to its stores.

Animators created tiny versions of Sainsbury’s prosecco, Christmas cards and homewares to fill the houses of the multi-racial mix of families who are in Dave’s world.

Fell said work on creating and planning the film began in March and was only completed last week. It took 16 weeks to build the sets and create the 26 puppets used in the film. ...

You don't have a catchy ad on the teevee, you don't end up with audience eyeballs to watch it, as these days everybody fast-forwards through the commercials. So you have to up the ante by packing in razzle-dazzle entertainment.

Doing this in good old stop motion gives the piece a certain holiday charm, don't you think?

The Daily Mail features the Christmas ad here.

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Global Box Office

Marvel and DreamWorks Animation post nice three-day grosses in lands overseas.

Foreign Weekend Box Office -- (World Totals)

Doctor Strange -- $60,200,000 -- ($492,600,000)

Trolls -- $18,300,000 -- ($222,284,367)

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk -- $$13,200,000 -- ($13,200,000)

One Piece Film: Gold -- $10,450,000 -- ($58,450,000)

Storks -- $2,100,000 -- ($172,375,734)

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children -- $2,000,000 -- ($258,137,224)

The Secret Life of Pets -- $700,000 -- ($871,999,625) ...

Deadline noted:

Disney/Marvel’s Doctor Strange remained atop the international box office for the third frame in a row as it nears $500M in worldwide returns. The offshore total is $339.6M. ...

Ang Lee’s latest, [Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk], opened in nine offshore markets across Asia this weekend. ... The first frame was worth $13.2M. The majority of that came from China ($11.7M).

Tim Burton's [Peregrine] pic added $2M in 27 markets this weekend for a $173M international cume. This is ahead of openings in China, Italy and Japan. ...

[Trolls] went to an $18.3M happy place in 68 markets this frame. It held No. 1s in Spain, Mexico and Argentina kept dancing with soft drops in the UK, France, Germany and Italy. The top play is the UK at $24.7M after four sessions. ...

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The Big Box Office Ten

The animation is strong here on Veterans Day Weekend.

WEEKEND DOMESTIC BOX OFFICE

1). Doctor Strange (DIS), 3,882 theaters / $14.9M Fri. (-54%)/ 3-day cume: $43M (-49%) /Total cume: $153M/Wk 1

2). Trolls (DWA/20th Century Fox), 4.066 theaters (+6) / $12.3M Fri. (0%) / 3-day cume: $34.8M (-25%) /Total Cume: $93.7M/Wk 1

3). Arrival (PAR), 2,317 theaters / $9.3M Fri. (includes $1.45m previews) / 3-day cume: $23.4M/ Wk 1

4). Almost Christmas (UNI), 2,376 theaters / $5.9M Fri. (includes $500K previews) / 3-day cume: $15.3M/ Wk 1

5). Hacksaw Ridge (Lionsgate), 2,971 theaters / $3.8M Fri. (-28%) /$5.9M Sat./$3.5M Sun/ 3-day cume: $11.5M (-24%)/Total: $32.9M/ Wk 2

6). The Accountant (WB), 2,342 theaters (-346) / $1.5M Fri. (-14%)/3-day cume: $4.4M (-25%) / Total cume: $77.6M / Wk 5

7). Shut In (Euro), 2,886 theaters / $1.4M Fri. / 3-day cume: $3.8M/ Wk 1

8.) Tyler Perry’s Boo! A Madea Halloween (LG), 2,104 theaters (-130) / $1.2M Fri. (-43%) / 3-day cume: $3.5M (-55%) / Total cume: $70.4M / Wk 3

9.) Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (PAR), 3,079 theaters (-701) / $1.1M Fri. (-30%) / 3-day cume: $3.3M (-39%) / Total cume: $54.6M / Wk 4

10.) Inferno (SONY), 2,656 theaters (-920) / $1.1M Fri. (-41%) / 3-day cume: $3.25M (-48%) / Total cume: $31.6M / Wk 3 ...

Trolls looks to gross $34.8M from 4,066 screens this weekend. If it makes $300k more than that, the picture will beat DreamWorks Animation's Megamind for the best second weekend hold during November.

The way the feature is playing, it will likely run up a healthy domestic gross before Moana shows up near the end of the month and sucks much of the wind out of the little creatures' sails.

Add On: Regarding the strength of box office this weekend, the Mojo tells us:

Disney and Marvel's Doctor Strange, topped the weekend box office for the second week in a row as 2016 became Disney's largest year ever at the domestic box office. In addition to that story, strong holdovers from the likes of Strange, Trolls and Hacksaw Ridge, along with the performance of newcomers such as Arrival and Almost Christmas, contributed to a weekend top twelve that combined for over $150 million, up 56% compared to last year. ...

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Deep Pool of Competitors

Old news; still worth noting:

A record 27 animated features have been submitted for consideration for the animated feature film Oscar, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Friday.

The crowded lists reflects the fact that most of the major studios are now all-in when it comes to animation, with Disney represented by Pixar's Finding Dory and Disney Animation's Zootopia and Moana; Universal/Illumination's The Secret Life of Pets and Sing; Dreamworks Animation/Fox's Kung Fu Panda 3 and Trolls and Fox/Blue Sky's Ice Age: Collision Course; Sony's The Angry Birds Movie as well as the R-rated Sausage Party; and Warner Bros.' Storks. ...

There was a time when animated features were few and far between. Disney rolled out a picture every few years. There was the occasional theatrical adaptation of a TV cartoon. And you had the infrequent independent feature.

But nobody got excited about long-form cartoons. Large studios pretty much ignored them. The smart money believed that Walt Disney Productions could make some money with the occasional offering; for every other studio on the planet animated features were minimal-profit endeavors.

Then The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King happened in rapid succession, transforming animation from a small Hollywood sideshow to a business of blockbusters. Because Hollywood is a town full of sedulous apes, it wasn't long before every movie conglomerate non-named Disney was making its own version of a Disney hand-drawn feature.

Sadly, most of the specimens made weren't particularly riveting; almost all crashed and burned shortly after launch.
And a half-dozen years after the animation boom started, it was limping to a close. Even the Disney Company wasn't turning out super hits any more.

But in the middle of this downturn, a wondrous thing happened. Pixar made a Computer Graphics animated feature named Toy Story, then another named A Bug's Life, and yet another titled Monster's Inc..

Each one made Pixar and Disney (Pixar's partner) millions upon millions of dollars, and lo! Competitors were seduced into giving animated features of the CG variety yet another try.

And this time, rival studios produced long-form cartoons that enabled them to open their own mints. Shrek was a blockbuster for indy studio DreamWorks Animation. Ice Age put Fox Animation on the map. Soon other studios jumped into the cartoon bonanza, until today, in 2016, the Motion Picture Academy will onsider a list of cartoon features longer than an orangutan's arm:

“The Angry Birds Movie”
“April and the Extraordinary World”
“Bilal”
“Finding Dory”
“Ice Age: Collision Course”
“Kingsglaive Final Fantasy XV”
“Kubo and the Two Strings”
“Kung Fu Panda 3”
“The Little Prince”
“Long Way North”
“Miss Hokusai”
“Moana”
“Monkey King: Hero Is Back”
“Mune”
“Mustafa & the Magician”
“My Life as a Zucchini”
“Phantom Boy”
“The Red Turtle”
“Sausage Party”
“The Secret Life of Pets”
“Sing”
“Snowtime!”
“Storks”
“Trolls”
“25 April”
“Your Name.”
“Zootopia”

The business of animation has traveled a long way, don't you think?

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Emma and the Beast

The veins of animation gold are still plentiful, and the Mouse is eager to mine them.

Diz Co. is making dump trucks full of money converting animated features to live-action versions. You can complain about this development all you like, but the wisest course might be to buy some shares of Disney stock.

Because Walt's 21st century minions are going to go right on making them.

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Ixnay on "The Croods 2"?

Variety tells us:

DreamWorks Animation and its new parent, Universal Studios, have pulled the plug on the long-gestating sequel to the 2013 hit “The Croods.”

Universal Pictures Chairman Donna Langley met with workers at DreamWorks Animation’s Glendale headquarters Thursday to confirm that production of “The Croods 2” was being stopped immediately.

Some 30 employees who have been working on the film, launched 3 1/2 years ago, will be looking for new jobs. The workers were told DreamWorks Animation hopes to keep them at the company. Some could be shifted to other film projects, while others might be put into training or “artistic development” programs, according to an individual at Universal, who asked not to be named. ...

As we said yesterday, Universal has been telling DWA's artistic staff about changes that are rolling down the pike.

The deep sixing of The Croods 2 was part of the changes. Others (per Guild employees) is the uncoupling of projects in development to specific release dates. DWA-Universal wants to make the pictures that are in work to be as ship-shape as possible before setting a release date.

There are other developments, but mum's the word until The Reporter or Deadline or Variety sniff them out. Then we'll comment. Maybe. ... Click here to read entire post

Trouble in Mumbai

It appears an animation studio of some renown will be closing its doors.

MUMBAI: A pall of gloom has been cast over the Indian animation industry. Late last evening, an announcement was made in the Technicolor facilities in Whitefiled, Bengaluru which house the DreamWorks Dedicated Unit (DDU) by general manager Damien de Froberville. Sources say that de Frobeville addressed the 300-odd assembled artists and animators and regretfully announced that the DDU would be ceasing operations come early -2017. At least that’s what he had been informed by the company’s headquarters in the US. ...

Folks have been expecting change to happen at the studio ever since Jeffrey Katzenberg exited DreamWorks Animation with the acquisition. But no one expected it to happen so suddenly. It was not too long ago that DreamWorks Animation had announced that it would be lopping off 200 jobs from its Glendale unit. And now the news has emerged that the Indian dedicated DreamWorks Animation unit would get the axe. ...

Source indicated that the Indian Technicolor management was awaiting official word from Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Dreamworks’ headquarters before deciding on the way forward. ...

The Brew has posted about this, as has VFX Soldier.

Today there was a townhall for staff at DreamWorks Animation's Glendale campus. Managers outlined upcoming changes in productions and production schedules. They also talked about other restructuring DWA will be undergoing.

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Robert Iger Speaks

The profit numbers are out for the House of Mouse, and Chairman Iger was on the horn with financial reporters.

... The magnitude of our Studio's success in fiscal 2016 is simply stunning. We released four films that broke $1 billion in worldwide box office, The Force Awakens, Captain America: Civil War, Finding Dory, and Zootopia. And Jungle Book came very close with $966 million. Our Studio slate topped a record-breaking $7.5 billion in total box office for the year. Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm all contributed to this remarkable achievement, and their creative momentum continues.

Doctor Strange just opened to great numbers, Marvel's 14th consecutive movie to open at number one at the U.S. box office. And it has already surpassed $377 million worldwide. Our next animated musical, Moana, is already generating great buzz ahead of its opening later this month. And we expect it will join the pantheon of recent hits from Disney Animation alongside Zootopia and Frozen. ...

Sadly, today's earning report was a long way from being all lollipops and ice cream:

... [The Disney Company] posted adjusted earnings of $1.10 per share on revenue of $13.14 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter. Revenue slid 3 percent from the prior year, which Disney said included an extra week of operations.

Analysts expected Disney to report earnings of about $1.16 a share on $13.52 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters. ...

ESPN, the Disney cable sports network, continues to be a drag on company profits. Revenues at other cable outposts came to $3.96 bill, which was down 7%.

SO, some divisions are marching along smartly, while others are stumbling. Cable networks continue to deflate as more and more people switch to streaming on the internet. The movie studio continues to thrive, as do the various amusement parks girdling the globe.

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It's The Fiber, Stupid

Indie Wire tells us: How DreamWorks Unified the Divided, Fiber Art World of ‘Trolls’

... Veteran production designer Kendal Cronkhite-Shaindlin (“Madagascar”) had plenty of hair, fuzz and felt to work with in weaving a psychedelic world divided between the joyous Trolls and hateful Bergens.

“We wanted to create a hand-made kind of world made of fiber art…carpeted floors, houses made of hair, even fire made of hair…and Kendal was essential to doing that and getting our teams [in sync],” said director Mike Mitchell. ...

One of the production designer’s first decisions was hiring Portland-based fiber artist Sayuri Sasaki Hemann to build a six-foot forest model so they could analyze its properties. And an early aha moment was basing the Troll hair on wool.

“We broke it all down,” said Cronkhite-Shaindlin. “How does fuzz respond to light? What choice would you make for grass? How would you craft a mushroom?” This provided textures and a palette to emulate in CG. ...

After five days of release, Trolls has rolled up $159,237,239 in global revenues, and has raked in $54,404,682 domestically. The picture has a high Cinemascore and a 73% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The fiber likely has some thing to do with that.


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Storyboards By Ranft

An older but excellent post from Temple of the Seven Golden Camels.

... [T]his old handout by Disney/Pixar legend Joe Ranft [is] about how to pitch storyboards. It's from an old manual about how to do story at Disney. ... I really want people to remember Joe and what a great, fantastic board artist and teacher he was. ...

We don't pitch like this anymore because we don't really board on paper anymore. So we don't really have to stand in front of an audience while pitching, we get to sit in the back of the room while our boards are projected onto a big screen. Those days of standing in front of a big group, pitching drawings you weren't happy about, and bombing in front of an audience are over forever, it seems. It's still nerve-wracking to me every time I pitch though. Some things never change. ...

Almost all of Joe's advice is still very relevant to pitching in the digital age. The main point of pitching boards is to give a sense of what the sequence will feel like when it's turned into a film, and that means not slowing down to over-explain anything or get off-track from communicating the story and characters to the audience. ...

Joe Ranft was one of the warmest, funniest human beings going. Talented board artist. Talented writer. Screamingly funny voice actor.

Joe had a fabulous career in animated features that was cut short by an early death. But his golden touch can be felt in both Disney and Pixar features.

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It Was Written

The Book of Bart foretold this night long, long ago.



And so Donald Trump becomes 45th President of the United States. As of January 20 of next year, he will be our Commander-In-Chief.

My hope is the President-elect Trump will be, unlike the prediction of The Simpsons, a wise and wildly successful leader.


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Ratification Vote -- The Trades

The Hollywood Reporter tells us:

... Employees of Nickelodeon Animation Studios “strongly ratified” a new two-year contract between Nickelodeon and the Animation Guild, the guild announced Tuesday. The agreement was reached between representatives of the guild and the Viacom unit a week ago and was voted up at in-person meetings Monday.

The new collective bargaining agreement includes 10 sick days per year. It also contains the package reached in the 2015 AMPTP-Animation Guild negotiations: 3 percent wage minimum increases and hikes in the Motion Picture Industry Pension Plan, in addition to larger pension and health plan contributions. The guild has had a contract with Nickelodeon since 2002.

“We want to congratulate Nickelodeon on the productive contract talks,” said Animation Guild business representative Steve Hulett. “The discussions would not have gone as well as they did without the input and assistance of IATSE vice president Mike Miller. There were issues to resolve and both sides, working together, resolved them. Nick[elodeon] employees recognized the value and improvements in the new deal and voted accordingly.” ...

The vote went smoothly and lots of employees showed up to vote. The was a wee bit of confusion at one building because TAG was in a different room than the one expected, but employees found the polling place and all was well.

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Lord and Miller

Two animation (and live-action) creators make a new deal.

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have re-upped their television pod deal at 20th Century TV for another 3 years. Under the new pact, the duo will continue to develop, write and direct their own comedy projects — both live action and animation — as well as supervise other writers’ projects for network and cable under their Lord Miller banner. Lord Miller head of television Seth Cohen will continue to oversee all television projects and executive produce alongside Lord and Miller. Katie Newman will continue on as director of development and production. ...

Lord Miller has three series on Fox developed through the company’s first 20th TV pod deal, the Emmy-nominated Last Man On Earth, now in its third season, new animation/live-action hybrid Son of Zorn and the upcoming time-travel comedy Making History. They also have a project in development at Fox 21 Television Studios based on the podcast phenom Serial. ...

In features, The Lego Movie and 21/22 Jump Street helmers Lord and Miller are directing the Han Solo Star Wars anthology movie. ...

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, two talented comedy writers, were brought in by Sony management to adapt and direct a feature from a book that Amy Pascal was high on: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.

Nobody before them had created a compelling take on the property, but Lord and Miller succeeded where others had failed. In fact, they made the most successful Sony animated feature to that time. Cloudy cost $100 million and earned $243 million. Not chickenfeed.

Since then, Phil Lord and Chris Miller have moved from victory to victory. The Lego Movie was a smash hit. Ditto the live-action reboot of 21 Jump Street. So now Fox extends their TV deal with them.

Smart company, that Fox-News Corp.

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Nick Contract Ratification

Today the employees of Nickelodeon Animation Studio voted overwhelming to ratify a new two-year contract between Nickelodeon and The Animation Guild, Local 839, IATSE. ...

The new Nick-TAG Collective Bargaining Agreement includes:

1) Ten sick days per year.

2) The Animation Guild/AMPTP 2015 package (10% pension increase; 3% minimum wage increases; 30% increases for Pension and Health contributions for Unit Rate storyboard artists.

3) Two-year contract term, ending on July 31, 2018 with other 839 Collective Bargaining Agreements.

The previous contract ended on July 31, 2016.

Nick-Viacom, the Guild and the IATSE have been in ongoing discussions since then, and reached agreement on a new deal a week ago. Both sides felt it was important that the new contract finis at the same time as TAG's 2015 agreements, so a July 31, 2016 end date is part of the 2016-2018 contract.

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Third Season Revival

Per Deadline:

Three years after Young Justice was cancelled by Cartoon Network, the cult action-animated series is coming back. Warner Bros. Animation just announced that it has begun production on a third season of all-new episodes of the series based on the characters from DC Entertainment.

There is no network for the revival yet. There had been a lot of chatter over the past 10 months about a new season of Young Justice, possibly on Netflix, fueled in large part by comments made by the show’s creators Brandon Vietti and Greg Weisman. The streaming service carries the existing two seasons of Young Justice and is considered a suitable home as it has successfully revived several cult series already, though sources note that the animated show is in the marketplace and no decision has been made on a network partner yet. ...

If the new season does end up with Netflix, Warners could exercise the New Media Side letter in the contract and pay less than minimum scale, since the side letter allows it.

The trouble with that is, right now WBA has no distribution partner so ... who knows? (Kind of difficult to lower a crew's wages in mid-flight after the work has commenced, though it's legally possible).

Regardless of what platform on which Young Justice ends up, Warners is adding several new series, just like several other studios. And the problem now is there are not enough experienced artists* in certain classifications to do all the work waiting to be done.

This is going to be an ongoing challenge for the next few years. And it's a damned nice problem to have.

* Understand that there are many newbies beating at employers' doors, but what many shows want right now are seasoned board artists and timing directors and writers and animation checkers ... but experienced employees are in short supply, since most of them are working.


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International Box Office

Here's a surprise. There's super heroes attracting eyeballs in lands beyond our shores. Also cartoons.

WEEKEND FOREIGN BOX OFFICE -- (WORLD TOTALS)

Doctor Strange -- $118,700,000 -- ($325,400,000

Trolls -- $30,300,000 -- ($149,600,000)

The Accountant -- $13,100,000 -- ($109,400,000)

Inferno -- $11,400,000 -- ($185,400,000)

Miss Peregrine's Home -- $3,600,000 -- ($253,470,302)

Storks -- $2,900,000 -- ($168,208,504)

Finding Dory -- $1,600,000 -- ($1,024,018,426)

Kubo and the Two Strings -- $300,000 -- ($68,676,521) ...

As an entertainment journal informs us:

... Great word-of-mouth is encouraging folks to make an appointment with Doctor Strange as the film continues to conjure mystical numbers in its 2nd frame. The sophomore weekend was worth $118.7M in 53 material territories. The overall international cume is now $240.4M after 13 days and $325.4M globally

Trolls keeps dancing with a $30.3M weekend to bring the offshore total to $104M. Poppy power was in force in 67 markets including the top new play of Mexico with a $2.7M start for No. 1. ...

Inferno added $11.4M this weekend for an international cume of $159.3M as the Tom Hanks-starrer continues to play with international auds. The latest in Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Dan Brown franchise is currently in 61 total markets and has France on deck next weekend. ...

A futher $3.6M for the Fox release of Tim Burton’s fantasy Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children brings the total to $170M overseas in 30 markets. The total offshore has surpassed the lifetimes of Snow White And The Huntsman and Oz: The Great And Powerful in the same bucket of markets. ...

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Medium-Budget Canadian/U.S. Feature

From a heralded trade paper:

Laurent Zeitoun and Yann Zenou, the producers behind ... the upcoming animated feature “Ballerina,” have enlisted Hollywood animation vet Rodolphe Guenoden to direct “The Bravest,” a 40 million euros ($44 miillion) animated feature exploring the world of firefighters in New York. ...

“The Bravest” will bring together a creative team that includes animation director Ted Ty, whose credits include “Mulan,” “The Lion King,” “Rise of the Guardians,” “Kung Fu Panda,” and “Ballerina”; and Canadian screenwriter Jennica Harper. ...

Director Guenoden has been in the animation industry since the 1980s, first at Amblimation in London, then at DreamWorks Animation, where he storyboarded, animated and directed.

The Bravest is budgeted as a middle-range animated feature, with production work done in Canada. Features in the $35-$40 million bracket can be profitable endeavors, even if they don't get a broad American release.

But it sounds like producers Zeitoun and Zenou have ambitions for The Bravest, since it's set in New York City and features with American settings don't necessarily travel quite as well overseas.

But maybe this production will hit the sweet spot: kick up interest across fifty states and wow them on other continents.

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Songs For Animation

At the DWA panel for "The Contenders" today:

Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” ... was composed for DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls, and occupies a huge emotional point in the film. Timberlake, who also co-stars in the animated pic, not only wrote the song but served as the film’s music executive producer. ...

He successfully made himself tear up while watching a scene featuring a performance of the Cyndi Lauper classic “True Colors,” as he explained this afternoon while talking with Deadline’s Dominic Patten during the DreamWorks Animation panel at Deadline’s the Contenders event in West Hollywood.

“‘True Colors’ [is] a beautiful song, and it’s a huge emotional moment in the film,” said Timberlake. “And so I’m watching it and I’m like, ‘Am I … crying? At myself?’ I thought my only opportunity to do that was like a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and a mirror!” ...

Songs for animated musicals can often be tricky. Great songs can be tossed when plot lines change, as happened in Aladdin back in the day. The Great Mouse Detective had a song recorded and animated when Jeffrey Katzenberg, fresh from Paramount, took over the department and ordered it redone, and a new performer was brought in to sing it.

That's what happens with the creative process, people on the movie gallop up pathways that don't lead to the Promised Land and then have to back track. Good to see that Mr. Timberlake had the process well in hand during DreamWorks Animation's latest feature.

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On the Making of "Sausage Party"

Deadline reports:

Today at Deadline’s the Contenders event at the DGA Theatre, Sausage Party scribe/producer/voice-over star Seth Rogen told Deadline’s editor-in-chief Mike Fleming that he had been developing an R-rated toon for a while. When he felt it was ready, he approached animation director Conrad Venron. ...

“I wanted to do an R-rated cartoon since I watched 1981’s Heavy Metal,” said Vernon, “Seth said, ‘We have a movie where sausages leave their packages and screw the buns,’ and I said, ‘I’m in.'” ...

“We wanted to show how different aisles believe different things and don’t get along with one another, and really show the true personification of everyone coming together,” joked Rogen. “Sometimes, if the bun fits…”

As stated, SP had themes about not hating "the Other" that were similar to Zootopia. Except Sausage Party was a lot more filthy.

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Your American Box Office

Trolls opens well. Dr. Strange opens weller.

DOMESTIC WEEKEND GROSSES

1). Doctor Strange (SONY), 3,882 theaters / $32.6M Fri. (includes $9.4M previews) / 3-day cume: $81M to $83M+ /Wk 1

2). Trolls (DWA/20th Century Fox), 4.060 theaters / $12.3M Fri. (includes $900K previews) / 3-day cume: $42.8M to $43M+ /Wk 1

3). Hacksaw Ridge (Lionsgate), 2,886 theaters / $5.2M Fri. (includes $750K previews) / 3-day cume: $14.5M to $15M / Wk 1

4). Tyler Perry’s Boo! A Madea Halloween (LG), 2,234 theaters (-65) / $2.1M Fri. (-54%) / 3-day cume: $7.6M to $8M (-56%) / Total cume: $64.9M to $65.2M / Wk 3

5). Inferno (SONY), 3,576 theaters / $1.8M (-65%) / 3-day cume: $6.1M to $6.4M (-56% to 59%) / Total cume: $25.9M to $26.2M / Wk 2

6). The Accountant (WB), 2,688 theaters (-714) / $1.7M Fri. (-31%) / 3-day cume: $5.7M (-32%) / Total cume: $70.69M / Wk 4

7). Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (PAR), 3,079 theaters (-701) / $1.6M Fri. (-46%) / 3-day cume: $5.3M (-45%) / Total cume: $48.9M / Wk 3

8). Ouija: Origin of Evil (UNI), 2,380 theaters (-788) / $1.1M Fri. (-50%) / 3-day cume: $3.7M (-51%) / Total cume: $31M+ / Wk 3

9). The Girl on the Train (UNI/DW), 1,572theaters (-1,186) / $833K Fri. (-40%) / 3-day cume: $2.7M (-38%) / Total: $70.6M / Wk 5

10). Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children (FOX), 1,710 theaters (-1,087) / $502K Fri. (-51%) / 3-day cume: $1.9M (-50%) / Total: $83.2M / Wk 6

...

Trolls will likely end up with a multiple between 3 and 4 times its opening weekend. It received an A Cinemascore, but Moana enters the marketplace on November 23, so Trolls has two-and-a-half week window before competition rises sharply and week-to-week earnings shrink.

But DreamWorks Animation's latest is off to a solid start, so that's encouragining.

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Cartoons Hither and Yon

What's forgotten when the focus is on animation in the United States, is that there's a whole lot of cartoons being made in various parts of the world that residents of the U.S. seldom hear about. Like for instance south of the border ...

... Animators in Latin America are mining indigenous elements – rites, mythological characters, lush landscapes – to create animation which highlights key issues – ecology, diversity – in a region where animation is seen as part of a natural culture while setting their works apart in industrial terms from Hollywood blockbusters. ...

Select Latin America’s animated features are breaking out to standout box office results. Mexican title “Un gallo con muchos huevos” grossed $9.1 million in the U.S. for Pantelion Films and $10.0 million for Televisa’s Videocine in Mexico. Alberto Rodriguez’s Mexican feature “La leyenda del chupacabras” near bested ‘Ouija: “Origin of Evil” in its opening weekend on Oct. 21. Argentina’s new Promotion Plan for Cinema offers development and production support for animation.

“The challenge is now how companies which are about to complete a first project set up a permanent structure to sustain a slate of productions, and how they strengthen a still-developing sector,” Animation! co-ordinator Silvina Cornillon. ...

Or Britain ...

David Sproxton of Aardman Animations: Animation as we knew it was kids’ stuff, mostly American imports. But there was this small slot on TV, a buffer between BBC kids TV and the news. We thought that’s the height of our ambitions. In the 70s, it was a very tiny world. ...

Aside from British films like Animal Farm and Yellow Submarine, only Disney made feature films, as far as we were aware. And it was all drawn animation. That’s the way the world seemed to be. We didn’t dream of making a feature film for a long time. We actually had a meeting with Disney when they were the only game in town, as they were at pains to point out to us. ...

We have no doubts about what we do because we do it really well and we love it. I’m realistic to know that in the corridors of Hollywood we’re obviously regarded as small scale – good, classy, but small-scale because no stop-motion film has ever made as much money as any of the big CG films. ...

We always knew there was a more European interest in what we were doing. If you can find someone with the clout and the risk taking and the money, it’s going to be a happier marriage for us than trying to understand Middle America. We do know our European audience. ...

And the Middle East ...

Turkey’s animation industry is blooming—the country currently counts over 30 animation studios, 13 feature-length animated films produced to date in the country, and four festivals dedicated to animation. ...

Also, too, Russia ...

Russian animation producer Wizart has signed a raft of agreements for its animated feature franchise Snow Queen and cartoon movie Sheep & Wolves in early sales activity at the ongoing AFM in Santa Monica.

The Moscow-based company has sold home entertainment rights to Sheep and Wolves to Germany's Koch Media for Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the South Tyrol. It also sold the film to Denmark (Angel Scandinavia A/S) in the first Scandinavian deal for the franchise. ...

Animation is a network of interlocking enterprises girdling the globe.

There are the big player with the big grosses (Pixar, DreamWorks, Disney, Blue Sky). There are subcontractors armed with government subsidies (players in Canada, Britain, France, etc.) And then you have regional studios. The companies in Russia, China, India, Brazil, France, and Argentina create less expensive home-grown home-grown products that do well in their home markets and get limited distribution around the world, and end up making small but tidy profits. (And sometimes losses).

Beyond the animated features, animated shorts, and animated commercials being produced, there are video games and visual effects that utilize some of the same talent pool, the best of which move to wherever the highest-paying jobs are.

Animation, more than ever before, is an art form that gets created in all corners of the globe at widely diverse price-points. That reality will only increase over time.

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Longest, Biggest, TV Cash Cow Ever

This will please a hard-working crew:

Fox has renewed The Simpsons for an unprecedented 29th and 30th seasons. The renewal takes the long-running hit animated series to 669 episodes, the largest number of episodes for any scripted television series ever, and breaks the record previously set by Gunsmoke (635 episodes). ...

Currently in production on its 28th season, The Simpsons has won 32 Emmy Awards, 34 Annie Awards, a 2016 People’s Choice Award and a 2016 Environmental Media Award. It was the first animated series to win a Peabody Award and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2012 for the theatrical short The Longest Daycare. The Simpsons Movie was a hit feature film, the mega-attraction The Simpsons Ride at Universal Studios has received historic expansion updates with the addition of “Springfield”. ...

A few signposts in the show's production history:

The Simpsons started as interstitials on The Tracey Ullman show back when saber-toothed tigers were frequenting the La Brea tar pits. The Animation Guild first tried to organize the series in its early days at Klasky-Csupo, but no luck. The crew wasn't interested.

Years passed.

The writers became fed up with working non-union in 1997 and staged a revolt. Fox blustered, threatened, then caved, and the WGAw had its first animated show under contract.

More years passed.

The Simpsons, now an institution, was also a massive cash cow. Writers, show producers, and studio execs got rich off the torrent of dollars spewing into the coffers of Gracie Films and Fox News Corp (as it was then called).

Sadly, the board artists, designers, timing directors and layouts artists were not participating in the profits in any significant way. All the folks doing visual pre-production remained non-union, many of them at salaries below minimum rates. Most remained committed to the show (there's loyalty for you). But in the middle oughts, loyalties were tested. The Simpsons's voice actors staged a wild-cat strike for more money, and were out for months. The animation crew was laid off, and it was then that board artists, designers, timing directors and layouts artists decided not to be loyal anymore, but to exercise their workplace rights and ORGANIZE.

The Simpsons crew has been under a Guild contract for over a decade, and we salute each and every one of the artists and director for achieving the milestone of thirty season, 669 episodes. Well done!

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Hitting the Bricks

SAG-AFTRA continues its job action against video game companies.

Over 350 SAG-AFTRA performers and their supporters picketed Warner Bros.’ WB Games unit Thursday in Burbank, marching under a blazing sun along a residential street in the shadow of the studio’s famed water tower and shouting chants that included "Death screams are on strike!" The union’s video game job action edged into its third week with no resolution in sight.

The picketers, who included actors responsible for voicing the death screams, creature noises and battle cries of such top games as the Batman: Arkham series, as well as those who do performance-capture work for such games, are focused on a handful of issues, notably a proposal for residual-like back-end compensation. The companies have refused that demand, and both sides are dug in. ...

A contingent of Animation Guild members joined the SAG-AFTRA picket at Warner Bros. today. There were a lot of voice actors on the line, many of whom work in video games making a fraction of what they earn on theatrical and television cartoons, or on commercials.

SAG-ATRA has been negotiating for months with large video games companies over a new pay deal that includes residuals. To date, the companies have dug in their heels and refused to consider any cash transfers labeled "residuals". As always, the outcome will depend on how much leverage the actors can bring to bear. Whatever happens, the Guild will continue to support the actors' strike.

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Trailer Drop

Today. Of all the singing animals.



Illumination Entertainment has a sterling track record when it comes to creating animated features to which movie audiences flock.

Sing rolls out across the fruited plain on December 21; it's last major animated feature to be released domestically in 2016.

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Assisting the Second Largest Movie Industry

Canada is going to aid and abet a huge movie industry build more and better cartoons.

... The Canadian government has offered to sponsor the training of no fewer than 1,000 Nigerian film makers on animation films, the Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed disclosed on Wednesday.

The minister disclosed this at the opening of the French, Japanese and Nigerian animated films festival in Abuja.

Mohammed said that his ministry was also collaborating with the French government on capacity building for Nigerian film makers also in the area of animation and children films. ...

Nigeria, located on the west coast of sub-Saharan Africa, is a nation of 186 million people ... with a sprawling and inefficient movie industry nicknamed "Nollywood" (cute, huh?) By sheer volume of product, it's the second biggest in the world, but it has a few ... ahm ... small troubles.

... Pirating of Nollywood productions is a big problem in Nigeria and throughout Africa. Nigeria’s film regulatory agency now posts existing laws, enforcement actions, and arrest details for film copyright infringement online, but many in the industry, including Nollywood producer Kunle Afolayan, say that’s not enough. ...

Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics data also highlights Nollywood’s greatest shortcoming: severe revenue bleed. Of the industry’s $3 billion valuation less than 1 percent was tracked from official ticket sales and royalties. The rest came from pirated reproductions sold by unauthorized vendors for roughly $2 each. ...

The piracy drainage could be change over time as digital video on demand slowly takes hold and more revenue finds its way into filmmakers' hands. But internet delivery is still spotty and reliable band width is lacking, but this will likely change over time.

In the meanwhile, Canada and Europe is going to help Nigerians develop a local animation industry. Who knows? In ten or thirty years, the new cry from American cartoonists will be "Will everything be going to Nigeria?"

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One More Record Year

Okay, ESPN is taking on huge amounts of water, but there's good news in other parts of the Diz Co. kingdom.

... “For the second year in a row, the Walt Disney Studios has reached a new high at the box office thanks to an absolutely stellar collection of releases from Disney, Disney Animation, Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm,” Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn said Wednesday in a statement. “This success is a testament to the refined talent and innovative work the entire studio team puts into making these world-class cinematic experiences.”

Disney boasts no fewer than four of the top-grossing 2016 movies so far (three earned north of $1 billion) — Captain America: Civil War ($1.15 billion), Zootopia ($1.023 billion), Finding Dory ($1.022 billion) and The Jungle Book ($966 billion).

Revenue for 2016 also includes $736.6 million carryover ticket sales for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which was released in December 2015 and earned $2.068 billion worldwide. ...

So lessee. Three pictures with over a billion dollars in grosses, and another that's an eyelash away from ten figures.

The Mouse is going to pay close attention to muscle men in spandex and animated characters. And since cartoons are a major driver of profits, we can expect robust employment for animation artists working for Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Television Animation, Disney Toon Studios, and Pixar.

Unsurprisingly, Diz Co. expects to end the year with a high kick, rolling out Dr. Strange, Moana, and Rogue One in the last quarter of 2016.

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The Animation Guild Election

It's going on right now, and has been going on since October 12th.

For active Guild members in good standing, their ballot MUST be received by the American Arbitration Association by November 11, 2016. If a member has misplace their ballot or never received one, they should contact:

Robi Rivera
American Arbitration Association
(626) 260-7700

And a new ballot will be mailed out.

(All the candidates in competitive races listed below). ...

BUSINESS REPRESENTATIVE/ INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION DELEGATE

1. MacLeod, Jason
2. Smith, Larry (incumbent Executive Board Member)
3. Tataranowicz, Tom

SERGEANT- AT- ARMS

1. Leong, Ray
2. St. Pierre, Robert (incumbent Sergeant-At-Arms)

EXECUTIVE BOARD

(vote for no more than eleven).

1. Anderson, Lisa
2. Atkinson, Zachary
3. Banker, Mark
4. Barry, Bronwen (incumbent Executive Board Member)
5. Chlystek, David (incumbent Executive Board Member)
6. Conway, John
7. Flores, Bill (incumbent Executive Board Member)
8. Hecht, Lauren
9. Hunter, Llyn
10. Jarratt, Brandon
11. Jennings, Andrew
12. Jones, Cathy (incumbent Executive Board Member)
13. Kaplan, Steven
14. King, Jeanette Moreno (incumbent Executive Board Member)
15. Knapp, Spencer
16. Mayer, Jason (incumbent Executive Board Member)
17. Moore, Kevin
18. Morris, Michael
19. Polcino, Dominic
20. Shair, David
21. Smith, Myoung
22. Stephenson, Candice
23. Thomas, Dave (incumbent Executive Board Member)
24. Weinstein, Phil
25. Woo, David

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Best Animated Feature

... at Oscar time, per the Bible of Hollywood.

CANDIDATES FOR THE LITTLE GOLD MAN

FRONTRUNNERS

Zootopia (Disney)
Kubo and the Two Strings (Focus Features)
Moana (Disney)
Finding Dory (Pixar)
My Life As a Zucchini (GKIDS)

MAJOR THREATS

The Little Prince (Netflix)
Sausage Party (Sony Animation)
The Red Turtle (Sony Classics)
Trolls (DreamWorks Animation) [pictured above]
April and the Extraordinary World (GKIDS)

POSSIBILITIES

Sing (Illumination/Universal)
Tower (Kino Lorber) NEW
Kung Fu Panda 3 (DreamWorks Animation)
The Secret Life of Pets (Illumination/Universal)
Long Way North (Shout!)

LONG SHOTS

Miss Hokusai (GKIDS)
Ice Age: Collision Course (Fox Animation)
Angry Birds (Sony Animation)
Storks (Warner Bros.)
Phantom Boy (GKIDS)...

I'm putting all my chips on Sausage Party. Because when has the academy not stampeded for a raunchy comedy?

(A "major threat"? Really??)

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Mining the Vaults (Part XXIII)

Sure, why not?

... Erin Cressida Wilson, who penned the adaptation of The Girl on the Train, is in negotiations to write the script for [a live-action version of Snow White And the Seven Dwarfs], which will expand upon the story and music from the beloved animated classic.

The movie will include new songs, with songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who most recently wrote the lyrics for La La Land, attached to pen the new music. ...

Makes perfect sense.

If you're an entertainment conglomerate that's had an exceedingly lucrative run of hits remade from decades of animated features, why would you avoid reworking one of the most successful animated blockbusters of all time.

Consider. Snow White And the Seven Dwarfs was the most successful feature in movie history at the time of its release, earning a record $8,000,000 at a time when films making a fraction of that amount were considered huge hits. (In multiple releases, Snow White has taken in an inflation adjusted $1,633,582,523.

So yeah, it makes sense that Diz Co. is at last getting around to remaking it. Given that they've already cashed in on Cinderella, an animated feature with similar story contours, the mystery is what took the Mouse of Mouse so long.

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