Thursday, July 27, 2006

Mid-Week Studio Reconaissance

The march of Yours Truly through various signator shops goes on (like always). The report: At the Fox Studios on Wilshire (where work continues on "Family Guy" and "American Dad"), we find "American Dad" artists rolling onto hiatuses of three to six weeks. "AD" is now working on its third season... At Disney Toons, which now occupies part of the second and third floors of the Frank G. Wells Building on the Disney Burbank lot and the second floor of the Disney Sonora Building in Glendale, work wraps up on "Cinderella III" and continues on "Mermaid III". Earlier in the week, artists told me that Toons top kick Sharon Morrill came through, holding meetings with Toons personnel; I'm informed that she said there would be cutbacks in the number of Toons releases going forward, but that nobody was going to be laid off of current productions. Rather, staff would be reduced through attrition as the number of projects shrink. (Disney Toons has been on a roll of late, what with "Bambi II" exceeding the studio's expectations as regards units sold. But Disney, per the trades, is in the midst of a down-sizing cycle.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The artistic staff may be reduced through attrition, but there are massive layoffs everywhere else at DTS. Some execs, lots of their assistants, people in casting, music, and IT , all given their walking papers.

Anonymous said...

I received a communication to that regard from a Diz exec a few weeks ago.

Having attended the stockholders meeting last Spring, I think you'll see a greater emphasis on animation by Iger. I doubt that there will be reductions in animation anytime soon. In fact, two years from now, I bet there will be MORE artists working, not less.

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