Linkage in Mid-November

Linked bits of Animationland, just for you.

Mr. Newman admits it's just not the same.

[Princess and the Frog] composer Randy Newman ... said writing for traditional animation was a little different from writing for Pixar's GC toons. "The music has a diifferent movement. You can't really play too long because the mood will change ..."

("GC toons". It is the french "Graphique de Computer," in case you're wondering.)

The Globes catch up to the Oscars:

The Golden Globes' animated feature category has been expanded from three to five after a vote last week by the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.

Fantastic Mr. Fox, an actor's paradise?

... The voice performances rank among the most richly nuanced ever captured for an animated feature, with Clooney (speaking slightly below his usual register, as if everything were a self-conscious aside) and Streep (resplendent as a former wildcat turned nurturing Earth mother) doing some of the best work of their illustrious careers. Among the movie's many virtues, they render an unusually convincing portrait of a marriage, a reminder that the most unexpected thing about Anderson's film is — underneath all the carefully affixed, wind-sensitive whiskers and fur — how deeply human it is.

And here's a story that makes me tingle. Mass Animation, the wonderful folks you brought you this ... are now inviting animators to join them for this:

Now Mass Animation is involved in another Facebook project with Sony Online Entertainment and DC Comics. This week the DC Universe Online Animation Contest was announced. This is being called version 2.0 of the Mass Animation FB app and will give DC fans, gamers, and animators a chance to animate characters from the DC Universe online game that Sony is developing. This is another example of Mass Animation allowing fans to collaborate on a big product. The contest will launch on December 7.

Exciting, no? It's the brave new world of indentured servitude.

And Sean Connery's come-back to film-making has been ricocheting around the intertubes, to wit:

Connery is making a semi-return as he’s voicing the lead character in the animated film, Sir Billi. Connery is a producer on the project and has been heavily involved with its production.

Lastly, Mr. Ross continues his winter house-cleaning at the Disney Co.

... Walt Disney Studios chief Rich Ross has pulled the plug on a planned $150-million production of "Captain Nemo: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" -- the last project approved by his predecessor Dick Cook.

The family adventure movie -- a high priority for Disney that the studio had envisioned as a potential franchise along the lines of "Pirates of the Caribbean" -- was scheduled to begin shooting in February in Mexico. Disney had already spent about $10 million hiring crews, who were prepping the movie and planning to build elaborate sets in Rosarito Beach. Artwork and construction of models were underway. ...

It appears that mny of the projects beloved by Dick Cook now have the stink of death about them. Ah well. That's Hollywood.

Have a fine time plowing through the middle of your week.

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TV Animation's Beginnings

A couple of years after I morphed out of my fetal stage, I remember watching a cartoon rabbit with a big. slow-witted sidekick on the family's small, black-and-white set.

The cartoon characters' names were Crusader Rabbit and Rags the Tiger.

I didn't realize that I was watching teevee animation's pioneer show ...

"[Jay Ward] and a childhood friend from pre-kindergarten, Alex Anderson, who was an artist, got together and created Crusader Rabbit," says Tiffany Ward, Jay’s daughter, who has run the family business for the past 20 years. "Crusader Rabbit was the first cartoon ever created for television. They did the show for a couple of years and then they lost the rights in a lawsuit.

"Alex went back into an advertising career, and my dad, who had a real-estate office in Berkeley, Calif., tried many different things, like marketing gourmet coffees from around the world. But he still loved the idea of cartoons and animation."

... "If you look at Crusader Rabbit, who was a plucky little hero, and at Rags the Tiger, who was the big, dumb sidekick, you can sort of see Rocky and Bullwinkle, the same kind of duo, just as different animals," Tiffany Ward says. "They put the show together, went on the air with it, and they had a big hit." ...

Consider the above. A Harvard MBA [Mr. Ward] jumps into the cartoon business, sets up shop in the San Francisco Bay area, and pretty much invents the template for television animation. (Eight years later, the unemployed cartoonists Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera jump in and get the lion's share of credit for inventing television animation, but Jay Ward is there first.)

As a kid in the late fifties and early sixties, I kicked around the edges of the industry. As I look back I'm amazed at how small, casual and interconnected it all was.

Almost everybody knew everybody, either personally or by reputation. Artists jumped around from studio to studio, going from Disney to Snowball to Hanna-Barbera. Gate-keepers and administrators were few and far between. (Disney Animation had a production-support staff of three in the 1970s.)

So the fact that Jay Ward could drift in and out of the t.v. animation business and make for himself two cartoon hits -- Crusader Rabbit, then Rocky and Bullwinkle -- isn't particulalry amazing, given the times. Fifty years back the stakes were low. Cartoons were a sleepy little sub-set of the motion picture industry to which only elementary school kids paid attention. Outside of their peers, nobody had heard of Chuck Jones or Tex Avery or Jay Ward.

Today, of course, the stakes (and grosses) are huge, and Hollywood pays close attention to Animationland. Cartoon studio bureaucracies are bloated, artists need to navigate batteries of tests and have their digitized portfolios and demo reels at the ready. The world has changed, and Jay Ward would probably find it a bit more complicated to gain entrance to the kingdom.

But his Harvard MBA would come in handy.

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Guiding Star, by Ralph Hulett

Guided by the Christmas Star, the Three Kings seek the Christ Child.

© 1955 by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image.

See Ralph Hulett Christmas card designs at TAG's art gallery, open weekdays 8:30 am-5 pm.

Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

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Home-Grown Toons Across the Seas

The reality of which we often lose sight is that the U.S. of A. is not the Alpha and Omega of the animated feature. There are any number of countries that create toonage for their home markets, work that seldom sees the light of a projection lamp on other continents.

France, Germany, India and others create local animation; the list is long. India, with a huge domestic film industry, is now working to break its product out of a regional straitjacket and expand it onto world markets:

... With changing global trends, Indian animation motion pictures are ready for a makeover. Taking cue from Hollywood’s animation movies on superheroes, Indian production companies are now growing out of mythological subjects to make films on larger-than-life superheroes of Indian cinema.

... “Animation films in India do not have a good market at present. They mainly rely on mythological characters, a niche market limiting the films largely to an Indian audience. In Hollywood, over 60 animated films have been made in 10 years and more are on the anvil” said the Vijay Paranjpe, Chief Financial Officer of Crest Animation Studios.

The revenue out of animation feature films, DVD licensing and TV licensing for movies is huge, which makes Hollywood the best destination for any animation film. For instance, US filmmaker gets, on an average, $ 300 million for an animated movie, as they are instant hit among the audience, he says.

Mr. Paranjpe -- whose studio long ago purchased Rich Animation in Burbank, California -- is just a tad optimistic regarding the financial power or American animated features. But he's on the money about foreign cartoons peforming weakly in the world film market.

Since World War I, American films have been major crowd-pleasers around the globe. I've never been entirely sure why this is, since there are certainly excellent foreign films that get made on a regular basis. Maybe it's our mongrel American culture, maybe it's economic muscle, or maybe it's plain old good luck. Whatever the reason, the long tentacles of Hollywood product reach everywhere, and the animated sub-set is no exception.

There's DreamWorks, there's Pixar, and the American cartoonist name Disney is known everywhere. Most foreign animation artists' fame -- with the possible exception of Miyazaki -- stops at their home-country's border.

Maybe this will change as we grope our way into the 21st century, or maybe not. Me, I think that India has major challenges in becoming a big-time player in the animation marketplace, but I'm not one to never say never.

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Heinz 57 Wage Minimums

Back in the Good Old Days (1995?), TAG had one contract, and one set of wage minimum scales that were all tucked into our handy dandy contract in a few pages at the back of our little book.

But times have changed ...

We now have different wage minimums for various studios we represent. Some minimums are increasing at 3.5% per year ... some at 3% ... and others at 2%. (Why is this? Different demands, different negotiations for different agreements.)

Here are the various wage minimums at employers we represent. Some (such as the recently ratified TSL/TTL and IM Digital contracts) have been agreed to in writing and ratified, but the actual dollars and cents tables haven't been set in stone; we'll post the new numbers for these contracts as soon as we have them from the IATSE which negotiated them.*

And then there's the standard bargaining-unit contract that TAG negotiates. Although it was ratified in September, we're still awaiting the final word from the employers on the wage minimum calculations we sent them over two months ago. We're confident that the "version 1.0" numbers we've posted are entirely correct, but we want to qualify that although the Powers That Be have long since agreed in writing to the increases that the membership ratified, they haven't put their Official Stamp Of Approval on our calculations.

With more and more people working at these minimum rates (and remember, they are minimums), we think it's important to keep you informed about what you should be making.

(When you have the dollars-and-cents numbers, you have more knowledge to negotiate your individual deal, correct?)

* Lacking the "official numbers", you can always just add two percent to the third-year rates from the previous IM Digital and TSL/TTL agreements.

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It's All About the C.G. Images

Computer generated cinema is where it's at this weekend.

Sony's Roland Emmerich disaster pic "2012" crushed the worldwide box office, grossing an estimated $160 million at the foreign box office and an estimated $65 million domestically for a total haul of $225 million. If those numbers hold, "2012" will have scored the 9th best global debut of all time. ...

I doubt I'l be seeing it, because I hold dear Charlton Heston's stirring performance in Earthquake, and don't want to sully the memory of that fine disaster flick.

Meantime, toonage is holding up okay around the globe.

Weekend brought some much-needed solace for the Mouse House as Robert Zemeckis' "Disney's A Christmas Carol" fell just 26% in its second frame to an estimated $22.3 million for a cume of $63.3 million ...

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Winter Wonderland, by Ralph Hulett

Winter's Wonderland of thick-coated deer, pungent pine and white spaces of snowy fields.

© 1955 by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image.

See Ralph Hulett Christmas card designs at TAG's art gallery, open weekdays 8:30 am-5 pm.

Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

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The Next Big Thing

So here comes the Game Changer.

... To observe Cameron directing "Avatar" is to witness filmmaking as it's never been done before. Whereas most movies add all of their visual effects in post-production, Cameron was able to see fully composited shots in real time: The actors he was directing may have been performing in front of a blank green screen, but Cameron's camera eyepiece -- not to mention giant 3-D television monitors -- immediately displayed lush, synthetic backgrounds ...

"The revolution, the change that Jim has brought about is that for the first time the CGI-created characters have a reality and an emotionality that completely conveys the actors' performances," said Tom Rothman, co-chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment. "That was the big leap -- that you would care about a CGI-created character."

Uh ... I guess these folks have never seen any other CGI-created characters before.

Maybe Avatar will be the greatest piece of movie-making since The Wizard of Oz, but when I saw the trailer in glorious Big Screen Three Dee, I thought:

"Gee. It's J. J. Abrams' Star Trek meets Bill Kroyer's Fern Gully."

Which, I donno, might catapult us to new new heights in feature-length entertainment, but swear to God, I just don't see it.

Somebody please educate me, quick. Because when I see moving foregrounds, moving backgrounds, and lots of tumbling actors all wrapped inside three dimensions, I get a headache.

OTOH, it will undoubtedly have a stupendous opening weekend, it might be totally enchanting despite the trailer, and it has put a hell of a lot of animators and technical directors to work.

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The Mid-Month Derby

Now with hot, buttered Add On.

The Nikkster informs us that animation continues to shine brightly.

... Disney's A Christmas Carol showed an excellent hold for No. 2, down just -38% from a week ago with $5.6 million Friday from 3,653 plays for what could be around $20M for the weekend ...

... Wes Anderson's "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" from, of course, Fox, got off to a good start in 2 theaters in NY and 2 in LA for $70K today and a location average of $17,500 per screen. This should put the animated pic comfortably over $200K for the weekend.

There are plenty of animated features rolling out in the near future, from The Princess and the Frog to the hybrid Avatar to the Spanish-made Planet 51. And the train keeps rolling ...

Add On: And the derby finishes with the two big C.G.I movies on top, with Christmas Carol declining a mere 25.7%:

1) 2012 -- $65 million

2) Christmas Carol -- $22.3 million

3) Men Who Stare at Goats -- $6.2 million

4) Precious -- $6.1 million

5) This Is It -- $5.1 million

There are no doubt cheerful faces in Burbank and Novato tonight.

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Why Animation Keeps Expanding -- Part 13

Rentrak announces the reasons animation keeps booming.

1) G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

2) Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

3) Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

4) Tinker Bell And The Lost Treasure

5) The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

6) The Proposal

7) Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

8) Aliens in the Attic

9) Twilight

10) Star Wars: The Clone Wars - The Complete Season One

So do the counting. Pure toonage occupies the 2nd, 4th, 7th and 10th positions. The semi-animated Transformers sits at #3, and there's dollops of animation sprinkled atop a couple of the others.

If you have the right skill sets, the odds are relatively high that you won't lack gainful employment.

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The Mouse in Foreign Lands

Disney is having its Ups and downs in various parts of the globe.

... “Kniga Masterov,” or “The Book of Masters” — is Disney’s first attempt at a film specifically for a Russian-speaking audience. With a Russian cast and Russian writers, directors and producers, the film reflects a new reality at Disney and in Hollywood generally that dubbed American blockbusters are no longer enough to maintain a foothold in lucrative foreign markets. Some local flavor is now required.

In Russia, India, China, Latin America and elsewhere, Disney has been battling a host of Hollywood studios and local production companies for the hearts — and cash — of viewers, with an increasing array of entertainment produced in those markets ...

The formula, so far, appears to have worked. Ticket sales for “The Book of Masters” topped $10 million at the end of its second week, comparable to American-made Disney films here, Disney officials said. The film ranked No. 1 at Russian box offices in its first two weekends ... “It is nice that Disney took part in this because it shows that they are not simply interested in their culture across the ocean, but are branching into other regions,” Maxim Minyaichev, 22, said after watching the film ...

Diz Co. gets that it needs to change its business business models to go with the times, and if that means going native, the House of Mouse is prepared to do that.

But then there is Disney's home-grown product. Some of it is getting embraced in foreign lands, and some of it only lightly kissed ...

Robert Zemeckis’ family 3D entry “Disney’s A Christmas Carol” didn’t find much holiday spirit at the foreign box office over the Nov. 11-13 weekend, easily bested by holdover “Michael Jackson’s This Is It.” "Christmas Carol," bowing in 18 territories, grossed $12 million from 2,750 screens in 18 international territories.

Sony's "This Is It" grossed $29.5 million ...

... Opening foreign gross for "Christmas Carol" was led by the U.K., where it grossed a somewhat disappointing $2.9 million from 645 screens. ..."Carol" has the 3D market to itself in terms of new releases until 20th Century Fox opens "Avatar" day and date on Dec. 18. Of the film's total foreign opening, 62% came from 3D screens.

"Up" grossed almost as much as "Christmas Carol" in the U.K., earning $2.1 million from 762 for a cume of $51.6 million. Pic opens in Japan on Dec. 5.

Part of Carol's problem is there are zero story surprises in the feature. Zemeckis's script is a faithful rendition of Charles Dickens's novel, which means that most of humanity already knows all the story beats.

I mean, who's going to rush out to see a film that's a known quantity? Avatar, whatever its faults, has the aura of newness and originality about it, qualities not shared by a property that's been done on stage and in lots of different film versions. animated and otherwise.

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The Smell of Moolah

What with a new Winnie feature, and the huge sums at stake, is this any kind of surprise?

The family of Steven Slesinger, the marketer who brought Winnie the Pooh to American culture, has asked a federal court to help it recover what it says could be upwards of $1 billion in lost royalties from Disney.

"On Thursday, November 5, Stephen Slesinger, Inc. filed a notice of appeal to obtain unpaid past royalties from Disney as well as redress for Disney's past improper business practices," the family said in a written statement ...

Little did A. A. Milne know, back when he wrote those kid books, that he would be making a fine, multi-national conglomerate and several other people very rich (or richER, as the case may be.)

Disney, of course, swatted down a lawsuit by S. Slesinger, Inc. several months ago, and is now harumphing and tut-tutting:

Disney said the latest legal move was "baffling", given that on September 25 Judge Florence-Marie Cooper had ruled that Stephen Slesinger Inc. ''transferred all of its rights in the Pooh works to Disney, and may not now claim infringement of any retained rights.''

The Disney spokesman said: "In 19 years of litigation, every legal claim the Slesinger company has filed against Disney has been dismissed by the courts and Disney's position has been vindicated every step of the way."

It all goes back to the good old Golden Rule: "He who has the gold, makes the rules."

With the occasional exception:

... In 2002, Disney underwrote an attempt by the heirs of Pooh creator A.A. Milne and illustrator E.H. Shepard to regain control of the franchise. That suit was rejected in federal court and was upheld by the Supreme Court ...

Disney, I'm sure, calculated that the Milne family would be less a pain in the backside than the Slesinger family. The strategy just didn't work out according to plan. Oh well. Win some and lose some ...

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Country Chapel, by Ralph Hulett

Shimmering lights of the Aurora Borealis dramatically illuminate the tall spire of the country church.

© 1955 by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image.

See Ralph Hulett Christmas card designs at TAG's art gallery, open weekdays 8:30 am-5 pm.

Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

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Good News For Disney Stockholders

Disney has good news in the corporate profit department:

Walt Disney Co.'s (DIS) fiscal fourth-quarter profit grew 18% amid a merger-related gain while the company's network business reported strength thanks to cable channels ESPN and ABC Family.

Shares gained 3.9% to $30.15 in after-hours trading as the entertainment and media giant's results topped Wall Street's expectations. The stock, which reached its 52-week high last month, has almost doubled from a seven-year low in March.

President and Chief Executive Robert Iger said he was pleased with how the company's businesses responded to the recession. "We've stayed focused on our long-term strategy, efficiently managed costs, and continued to invest in initiatives to deliver future growth." ...

I know my family is elated. All that Disney stock we purchased back in the days of $32 stock shares? We're only down $2 per share. But it's not all carnations and champagne:

The film and TV production studio swung to a loss, its second straight after four-straight years of profit.

Mr. Ross continues to use elbow grease cleaning out the Mouse's corporate hierarchy, and I'm thinking our stock will be back to even in no time.

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Black-Listing Fears Never Die

When I was young and un-schooled, I used to marvel at how a group of dull-witted congressmen on the House of Un-American adctivities committee could cow an entire industry into firing the liberal and commies in their midst.

I used to wonder: Why did the unions, the movie executives, and all the other high-rollers in the movie business go along with this? Why didn't movie people tell the third-rate government know-nothings to buzz off, they'd hire whoever they felt was right for the job?

But now I'm older, and have long since figured it out. The motivator was fear. Fear of losing their exalted positions, fear of facing angry boycotts, fear of losing comfortable salaries. It was easier to go along than stand up and take risks, so go along everyone did ...

... until the ever feisty Kirk Douglas broke the Black List by giving Dalton Trumbo, longtime Tinsel Town Leftie and one of the Hollywood Ten, a screen credit on one of the biggest films of 1960. When the sky didn't fall, and nobody east of San Gabriel cared, and (most important) movie grosses didn't tank, the blanklist imploded.

I occasionally think about those things in this job, because I often get to see fear and paranoia close up. Take uncompensated overtime. It's a fact of life in the industry, a fact of life at animation studios. And over the past twenty years it's been an issue with employees at Warners, Disney, DreamWorks Animation, Fox, Film Roman, etc.

The last few weeks, it's percolated up at yet another employer. (Nothing new in that; u.c. is ubiquitous and goes in cycles, studio to studio.) Just yesterday an artist said to me:

"We've gotten slammed by difficult shows lately and everybody is working until eight o'clock at night and part of the weekend to keep up. The directors understand they need to have some simpler shows sprinkled in there so the crews can keep up. They didn't do that before, but they say they'll change things now. Meantime everybody is working their butts off to hit the deadlines ..."

Another artist came in last week with the same complaint. I asked her to round up his unhappy colleagues and we'd do a lunch meeting, get some ducks in a row, and I could go to management with the (collective) complaints. But this morning she calls to say:

"Nobody wants to do anything, Steve. Nobody wants to go to lunch, they're afraid somebody might see them. The guy I thought was right there with me now says, 'Hey, I've got a kid and wife. This isn't a good thing for me to do right now, this taking on the company. I'm just going to roll with the punches, do the extra work, not make trouble' ..."

None of this is new. It happens in waves, year after year, in good times and bad. Sometimes there are people who push back, more times there are folks who go with the flow.

The psychological dynamic is fairly constant: fear. Fear of being labeled "troublemaker," fear of not being a team player, fear of getting laid off or terminated if they are in any way militant, and maybe put on some kind of "blacklist."

Sound familiar at all?

Years ago I pleaded with a production assistant at the now-defunct Klasky-Csupo to push back against the company, since she was making below minimum wage with all the free overtime that she was putting in. (It was illegal then, it's illegal now.) Her response?

"Oh, I couldn't do anything like that! I'm working on The Simpsons! And Gabor will get me blacklisted! I'll never work again!

All I could think at the time was "Wow. Blacklisted from a job paying less than the minimum wage ..." But from her perspective, the job had status, and she was willing to take abuse if it meant she could stay with the Yellow Family. It was a strong motivator for her, and who am I to say she was wrong?

Now it's my belief, based on long experience, that horrible repercussions are, in actuality, a lot less than frightened animation employees imagine. But who am I to say that an artist making $1600 or $1900 a week is wrong to knuckle under and work weekends for free? The risk of "doing something" isn't zero, and they have a job they love, so they will bend over backward to hang onto it, even if there is abuse. Because fear is a powerful motivator, even when it means undermining your own best interests.

Yeah, I totally get how the blacklist happened, because I still see smaller versions of it, sixty years farther on.

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Congratulations, Stan.

Stan Berkowitz, who has had a lengthy writing career in animation, picks up a well-deserved award:

Emmy-winning writer Stan Berkowitz has been chosen to receive the WGA West Animation Writers Caucus' animation writing award.

The lifetime achievement honor will be presented Thursday night at the AWC's annual awards ceremony at WGAw headquarters in Los Angeles.

Berkowitz's animated TV writing credits include "Legion of Super Heroes," "The Batman," "Transformers: Animated," "Superman," "Spider-Man," "Justice League," "Static Shock," "Ben 10" and "The Brave and the Bold."

Stan has been a long-time dual card holder (WGAw and TAG), and served on TAG's 2000 negotiating committee. We applaud his lifetime achievement award. He's earned it.

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Why Animation Keeps Expanding -- Part 12

This will help explain why animation jobs coninue in Los Angeles even as pieces of it are outsourced. The overall pie keeps expanding.

...[F]ilmmakers themselves may still think of their projects as "live action," the way James Cameron does "Avatar," but for those working below the line, there's no denying how dependent these films are on the discipline of animation. Speaking about "Avatar," co-production designer Rick Carter insists: "It's an absolute hybrid. It's got animation, and it's got live-action performances that are being recorded both with a camera and in a digital volume space (using) performance capture. Those two realms have come together to the sense where there's no real sense of pre-production, production, post-production." ...

See, many jobs stay close to production headquarters because A) schedules are tight and nobody can afford an overseas' screwup. (There is no time for a do-over.) B) On big-budget films, quality counts and if something costs $400,000 less, it's not crucial. But making a final product to the exacting specification of the movie's creator(s) is.

Southern California might have less of the overall production pyramid than it did forty-five years ago, but that pyramid is geometrically bigger, so overall there are more jobs than before.

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Writers' Foreign Levies Settlement!

Over the last few years of the TAG Blog, I've dwelt occasionally on the subject of foreign levies, and the fact that the WGA and DGA distribute these European "royalties" (which are derived from taxes collected on behalf of writers and directors working in film and television) to scribes and directors in the U.S. of A.

Ever since the WGA and DGA started distributing these monies, the DGA has worked closely with us to identify and contact current and past animation directors about monies they might be owed. Meanwhile, some little while ago, disgruntled American screenwriters sued the WGA over the slowness of its royalty distributions.

But now, there is a settlement percolating out in Litigation Land, because a few days ago I received a "Notice of Proposed Settlement" in the mail and put two and two together. The notice starts like this:

"There is now pending in the Superior Court of the County of Los Angeles a class action lawsuit entitled Richert, et al. v. Writers Guild of America west, Inc. Case No BC339972 (the "Litigation"). This Notice explains the nature of the Litigation, general terms of a proposed settlement, and informs you of your legal rights and obligations ...

This settlement encompasses "All writers, including members of the WGAw and non-members of the WGAw, whose works, whether or not written under any WGAw collective bargaining agreement, earned Foreign Levy Funds that were paid to the WGAw by foreign collection societies ..."

If you're a current or past animation writer who falls under the description directly above and you have not received a Notice of Class Action and Proposed Settlement, read this link. If after reading it you need further details, you might want to get in touch with one of the plaintiff co-counsels on the case, Neville Johnson of Johnson & Johnson, or Paul Kiesel of Kiesel, Boucher and Larson, LLP. Here's is a webpage from the WGAw website on the subject.

I've certainly done my share of griping about how the WGA has handled distribution of levies, going all the way back to the reign of Brian Walton at the WGAw back in the 1990s. Happily, it now appears that my long nightmare is over, and I will once more be able to keep solid food down.

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Armistice Linkage

As we celebrate the anniversary of "the war to end all wars" (and aren't you glad we got that out of our system?) here is your Armistice Day linkorama.

Our long period of nail-biting is over. Animation has a poop-load of Oscar contenders and the longer list of cartoon nominees prevails.

Turns out that 20 films have been submitted for consideration in the Oscar race for best animated feature. That means there will probably be five nominees, since 16 eligible entries must be submitted. Fewer eligible entries means that there will be just three nominees in the category, which has been the case seven times over the last eight contests since the category was created.

"Eligible" is a key word. According to the academy Rule Seven, that means an entry must score 7.5 or better when evaluated by members of an academy committee who will rank each one from 6 (lowest) to 10 (highest). There's also the issue of production technique, which must utilize "frame by frame" animation. Using computer-generated imagery is a cloudy matter.

What the above reflects, of course, is the reality that animation is a growing segment of the movie biz. (Like you didn't already know that ...)

The Indian animation industry finds itself diversifying as it grows out of the recession:

Indian animation charts new course on route to recovery

... [Indian] industries have had to reshape the way they go about their business. The Rs 17.4 billion Indian animation industry has also found an alternate revenue stream in what was hitherto dubbed as ‘allied’ applications of animation.

... Industry estimates put media and entertainment as still providing over 70% of the [animation] industry’s revenue. But it is specialized animation that is growing faster, at about 40% (compared to media and entertainment’s 25% annual growth rate), and is powering the industry ..

...[There are] nearly 8,000 specialised animation studios across India that are faring well thanks to increased demand for their services from diverse industries. ET Spoke to at least five such specialized animation studios- all testifying to about 30% growth in business.

ASIFA announces its McCay awards:

The International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood has announced the Winsor McCay Award recipients for 2009: Tim Burton, Bruce Timm and Jeffrey Katzenberg ... Named in honor of animator Winsor McCay, best known as a prolific artist and pioneer in the art of comic strips and animation, the Winsor McCay Award stands as one of the highest honors given to an individual in the animation industry in recognition for career contributions to the art of animation ...

The voice actors answer questions regarding their thesping in The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Meryl Streep proves she knows a lot more about acting than animation:

Streep: [...] It's sort of like recording a musical piece almost because Wes is so specific about the nuance of the sound of it. He feels like the sound calls up a whole set of expressions. And since the animatronics are so limited in what they can express, it all had to be in our voices.

Laika, the newer cartoon studio in Portalnd, clearly plans to be around for awhile:

Laika, Phil Knight's Portland animation studio, named a Hollywood studio executive chief financial officer on Monday.

Gary Raksis had been in charge of strategic planning and corporate finance at DreamWorks Animation SKG in California. He moved to Portland to join Laika, according to the studio.

Mr. Raksis Probably wouldn't pack his bags and move north if he didn't think Laika has staying power. (Or is it Big Bucks that lured him to Portland?)

The sweeping of Disney's Big Broom picks up speed as the house-cleaning continues:

The reorganization under way at the Walt Disney Studios accelerated on Wednesday with the promotion of several lieutenants and the jettisoning of over a dozen midlevel marketing, distribution and operations officials. The move comes after the dismissal of three top executives at the studio within the last two months ...

Rich Ross, who succeeded Mr. Cook as chairman last month, has moved quickly to begin an overhaul of the studio, which lost money in the most recent quarter and recently suffered the disappointing debut of its $175 million version of “A Christmas Carol.” It’s no surprise that marketing has been Mr. Ross’s first target: The department was filled with job redundancies and has been criticized by Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, for leaning too heavily on old-fashioned marketing practices ...

You will note that, by and large, the slate of films overseen by Mr. Cook continues to underperform. I would submit that's a large part of why Mr. Cook is now enjoying retirement.

Have a splendiforous Veteran's Day.

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Mousie, by Ralph Hulett

"Mousie" branches out as an artist as he gilds the pine cones on this Christmas bough.

This is one of Hulett's "character cards" -- vaguely styled after Disney-type characters, which is understandable, since many of these designs were painted on Disney lunch breaks, where Ralph worked as a background artist for three decades ...

© 1961 by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image. See Ralph Hulett Christmas card designs at TAG's art gallery, open weekdays 8:30 am-5 pm. Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

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Sony Ticks Off Theatre Owners

Gee. For some reason Sony has irritated AMC and others.

Exhibitors are hot over Sony's decision to release animated feature "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" digitally on Dec. 8, or less than three months after its theatrical opening.

Sony stirred the "Meatballs" controversy by announcing this week that the $121 million domestic grosser would be made available for early home entertainment viewing by owners of Internet-enabled TV sets and certain Blu-ray Disc players ...

I can understand theatre chains not liking early DVD releases of hit films still in circulation. It smothers grosses as soon as the news gets out. And theatre owners, of course, have ways of fighting back.

... "Meatballs" ... played last weekend in a total 1,126 venues and was expected to shed at least a few hundred engagements starting Friday. As a result of the exhib protest, "Meatballs" could play in as few as 300 theaters beginning this weekend.

"Meatballs" rung up $1.3 million last weekend. So the accelerated wind-down to the pic's theatrical campaign likely will cause a modest but quantifiable revenue loss for Sony.

I hope Sony makes up in DVDs sales what it loses in theatrical revenues. (Christmas comes but once a year.) This kind of wheeling and dealing is probably going to increase as we move deeper into the 21st century.

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Disneyana

The hat building is lovely in November, with the fall foliage on Riverside Drive in full force.

Storywork and production on Pooh are moving along. As a staffer told me:

"We had our third screening of Winnie the Pooh with John Lasseter, and the picture's in good shape. John loves the characters. In fact, some sequences go to workbook next week and animation will be starting up. There's already been some test animation in color.

"This picture has just zipped along. We took dialogue out of the Milne books, the storyboard artists added some of their own, then the directors Don Hall and Steve Anderson polished it. We didn't have an outside writer on it, just the board artists and the directors. I think the whole picture will be done by next summer ..."

The stereo conversion of Beauty and the Beast is coming to a close. A couple of people down on the first floor said that there's one more week to go and then they're done.

Originally B and B was supposed to come out on Valentine's Day, but now it's set up for a twentieth anniversary release.

"The 3-D conversion came out well, I think. We got the characters rounded and shaded. They don't look like cardboard cutouts in a ViewMaster ..."

I suppose we'll get to see for ourselves in 2001. Meanwhile, Disney and IM Digital would like to have the surviving Beatles participate in its Yellow Submarine remake:

... In an interview with MTV News, [Robert] Zemeckis indicated that Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have been approached to participate in the film, although he did not say in what capacity ...

The Mouse charges ahead on many fronts.

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More Rolling Heads

As Dick Cook goes, so goes his associate Mark Z.:

Mark Zoradi, president of the Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group, has resigned effective immediately.

Zoradi oversaw the worldwide marketing and distribution for all Disney films, including Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Disneynature.

“Mark has done an outstanding job over his many years with the Studio," Walt Disney Studios Chairman Rich Ross said in a statement. "He’s a respected leader throughout the entertainment industry and we wish him the very best.”

Zoradi's is the latest domino to fall since Dick Cook's sudden ouster as Walt Disney Studios chairman on Sept. 18 ...

"We wish him the best." I'm sure they do. As long as it happens someplace else.

This is what happens in the unending game of Hollywood musical chairs. When house-cleaning begins, it continues until the Chief Executive Officer determines that everything is satisfactorily spic and span.

The Nikkster has Mr. Zoradi's parting statement here, written shortly before he walked the plank.

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The Doings at DreamWorks Animation

DWA's Lakeside Buildings was humming today. The Shrek Goes Fourth animators are bending to their tasks of getting animation for the feature completed by February. The matte department finishes it work the following month ...

And the company continues to install new cash-flow spigots.

Kung Fu Panda World, a virtual world designed for ages 8 to 12, is being developed by DreamWorks Animation and is due to go live early next year.

The Web browser-based world, inspired by the 2008 film, will launch with dozens of arcade-style games and other activities. (A range of subscription levels is planned ...)

Lastly, DreamWorks Animation lawyer Katherine Kendrick, who has been with the company from its beginning, is packing her suitcase and moving on:

... Kendrick will ankle the animation biz to pursue philanthropic activities when her contract expires in December. Kendrick's decision comes after 14 years with DreamWorks, which she joined in 1996. She helped steer the animation division through its IPO in 2004.

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Conventional Wisdom That's Not

Here's some CW that's come my way recently (Conventional Wisdom in bold, my snark in regular):

"The union has missed the boat organizing (non-union company, non-union industry segment; choose one)."

Yes, boats are often missed. But the thing about boats ... and non-union work ... is, if you miss one sea-going craft, there is always another ... and another ... and another. Because there is always one more boat and/or chunk of non-union work sliding into the dock.

Like for instance in 1991, we got our butts handed to us in an election at Film Roman. FR was doing Garfield at the time, and we lost the election resoundingly, by 82% to 18%.

Yipes.

But fast forward to 2004, when we hold another election at Film Roman. And this second time, TAG carries the day, winning by the same percentage that we lost thirteen years previously.

So the boat sailed, but hey, it returned to port. And a bunch of years later we caught a ride on it. So no, it's never too late to climb aboard. If the company is there, there's a chance to organize it ...

But you've missed the boat because it's all going away! To India! To China! To Texas!

That's not true either. Work began "going away" in 1970. TAG fought run-away production with a strike in 1979, and got a clause in the contract that protected staffing levels. We lost the clause after a ten-week strike in 1982.

At the time, we had 1500 active, dues-paying members. Seventeen years later, after more outsourcing and a lot more technological change in the animation industry, TAG has 2,450 active, dues-paying members. (So obviously some work remains in California.)

All the animation and effects work will be going away in the next ten years, off to India, China and Texas (those places again!)

Uh, no. I've been listening to the dire warnings since I entered the biz in 1976. In that time, various categories of work migrated overseas, to be replaced by newer categories of animation work. (For example, TV animation went away, some TV flash animation came back.)

Here's what happens going forward:

Work will shift overseas. And work will come here. (Electronic Arts' Playa Vista studio is sort of big ... and not in a low-cost area, like say, Shanghai or Bangladesh.))

The amount of animation will continue to grow; the talent pool will grow faster.

The congloms will send some animation and effects work to the lowest cost providers, see some of that low-rent product blow up in their faces, and decide that, because of tight schedules and quality control issues, they'll have to keep a big chunk of the work closer to home.. (Yours truly blathers at length about these things here.)

TAG doesn't stop uncompensated overtime.

This is true, but needs an explanation. Just last week an artist came in complaining about uncomped o.t. He said his crew couldn't keep up with the workload, and so worked late and on weekends. But nobody wanted to complain ... or stop working the extra hours.

I said I would be pleased to file a grievance on his behalf. He said, "No thanks."

See, it's hard for the Animation Guild to successfully press the issue of unpaid overtime unless people allow us to offer specifics in a grievance. Otherwise, we don't prevail.

But here's my promise to board artists, designers, and anybody else working under a TAG contract: I will happily come to your studio, night or day, and check up on uncompensated overtime. Just let me know. (And everyone reading this should know that falsifying a time card is, as we say in Unionland, unlawful. It's also unlawful in Non-union land)

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Forest Madonna, by Ralph Hulett

In the vast cathedral of the forest, the Blessed Light shines upon the Madonna and the Child.

© 1955 by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image.

See Ralph Hulett Christmas card designs at TAG's art gallery, open weekdays 8:30 am-5 pm.

Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

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Foreign B.O.

Animation continues to boogie on overseas.

... Finishing No. 2 on the weekend was director Robert Zemeckis' 3D performance-capture version of Disney's "A Christmas Carol" starring Jim Carrey as Ebenezer Scrooge, which drew $12 million in its opener at 2,750 screens in 18 territories for a per-screen average of $4,364.

Disney said that "3D was a significant factor, accounting for 62% of our total result from only 37% of the screens." The latest version of Charles Dickens' frequently filmed 1843 novella opened at No. 1 domestically and has collected a worldwide tally of $43 million so far.

Driving "Christmas Carol" were strong opening numbers in the U.K. and in Mexico. Disney says that "on a consolidated basis in the same bucket of territories, the $12 million take was the best ever achieved by a Robert Zemeckis film." The take was 50% bigger than that of "The Polar Express," Zemeckis' 2004 Christmas season title in 3D. ...

So that seems clear enough. The Mouse is shooting to replicate The Polar Express magic. Meanwhile, the magic in other territories of Disney's empire is functioning just fine.

Third on the weekend was Pixar/Disney's "Up," which boosted its international total to $367 million -- $48 million shy of the total recorded by Pixar/Disney's "Ratatouille" - thanks to an $8.4 million weekend at 4,278 screens in 26 markets. A Japan opening is set for Dec. 5.

When all the receipts come in, Walt's place will have raked in significant coin from its various animated franchises: the c.g. product, the mo-cap features, the hand-drawn cartoons. Profits are important, but cash flow is also a big deal.

Moolah is the name of the game, first and last and forever.

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Christmas -- Live/Vid Game -- Carol

Critics are split pretty much down the middle over Robert Zemeckis's new rendering of the Dickens novella. Half like it:

... [T]he surprise of this movie — a welcome one — is that, in the midst of obeying the rules of modern-day spectacle, it sticks close to some of the sturdy virtues of the source material. Mr. Zemeckis’s script retains much of the flavor of Dickens’s prose — not just the catchphrases like “Bah, humbug” and “God bless us everyone,” but also the formal diction and the moral concern. The specters that pop out at poor Scrooge on his nightlong ordeal are certainly frightening (parents of young children, consider yourselves warned), but the dread derives much of its force from the cruelty and selfishness that define Scrooge’s world ...

And half (give or take) dislike it:

Zemeckis has taken a festive classic, tarnished it with his horrendously unattractive motion-capture animation, and increased the unsightliness tenfold with 3D sequences so distracting and persistent that the headache I endured post-viewing was nothing short of brutal ...

I saw the movie over the weekend, and taking it on its own terms, I think the feature works. But let me be, as R.M. Nixon used to say, perfectly clear: Ice Age, Finding Nemo, Lion King, Up and Aladdin it ain't. However, I don't think it's trying to be anything like those other kinds of entertainments.

When you look at CC, you have to get those traditionally-crafted animated features out of your head. You have to look at Christmas Carol for what it is: a retelling of a Dickensian classic as a live-action/ video game hybrid. Zemeckis knows the audience he's pitching this movie to, and it isn't middle-aged crapheads like me. He's going after teenagers who spend hours at video game consoles, who are comfortable with almost-human actors, who expect sweeping camera moves and epic grandeur and hell-for-leather chases.

All these things Zemeckis spins out in spades, and I think (by and large) he's successful. Sure, some of the supporting players and dress extras come across like dead-eyed automatons, and yes, the falls and flying through 1843 London come whisker-close to being overlong and overly repetitive. But Carrey's Scrooge comes across, the tension and basic tale remain in place, and much of Dickens' dialogue is intact (and in the Public Domain, too!).

You can call me wrong, but I got caught up in it. I found myself immersed in that world and enjoying the experience. Maybe it was the 3-D, maybe it was the sweep of the enterprise, maybe it was the underlying sturdiness of Dickens' story-telling. Who the hell knows?

Whatever the combination was, I think Zemeckis achieved the goal he set out for himself. (Others, of course, may disagree ... and disagree with my premise. That's what makes America great -- diversity of opinion.)

Whether CC makes any money, of course, is a separate question.

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The Links of Fall

Your end-of-week linkage.

Welcome to the Anaheim of the Middle Kingdom.

Shanghai Farmers Lose Fields as Disney Builds Magic Kingdom

... Walt Disney Co.’s newest castle may rise from the Shanghai fields where retired farmer Jin Xinmei and her husband grow Chinese cabbage, potatoes and strawberries to supplement their $103 monthly pension.

Jin, 72, said the local government already told her that she and her husband will have to relocate from their native Qigan Village in the Pudong district so Disney can build its newest theme park. Jin wasn’t told how much the government will pay for her 30-square-meter (323-square-foot) house and its backyard vegetable patch, she said ....

But at least they're not tearing out orange groves ...

The DWA gang in Glendale launches a new theatrical trailer, and I'm sniffing box office success.

... [DreamWorks Animation] has now released the first trailer for How to Train Your Dragon, which features the voice talents of McLovin (that'll be Christopher Mintz-Plasse), Gerard Butler and Jonah Hill ...

Newsarama profiles Pixar:

“When we develop these films we look for themes that guide us in how we tell the story." ...

The Chinese are getting serious about toonage, since party bigwigs are now talking about it.

Senior Chinese official Li Changchun Thursday called for reform and innovation in promoting the development and prosperity of the country's animation industry.

Li, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remark during his visit to the first China Animation and Cartoon Arts Exhibition held in Beijing ...

Antonio Banderas becomes an animation producer.

Antonio Banderas, producer Enrique Posner and Kandor Graphics have launched pre-production on Spanish animation feature "Goleor, the Scale and the Sword." Banderas will voice a character and will cast and direct voice talent. Budgeted at E22 million ($33 million), the pic is Spain's first higher-bracket digital 3D movie. The English-language epic adventure depicts, in a lighthearted, comedic tone, the fantasy medieval land of Gabilonia ...

Rupert and Friends acquire a South American long-form 'toon.

20th Century Fox has picked up the North American rights to Peruvian CGI animated pic "The Dolphin, Story of a dreamer." Fox released pic across Latin America and Brazil since October where it scored the biggest opening weekend for a local film in Peru. ...

And there is the growing animation industry in the rest of South America:

... Latin America is expanding with co-production and animation service deals. Argentina's Illusion Studios, for example, is partnering with India's Toonz Animation for "Gaturro," a stereoscopic 3D animated feature about a cheeky cat. Another deal is with Canada's Cookie Jar and Germany's Optix for a toon-series version of "Doodlebops Rocking Road Show." ...

Lastly, the "lost" but now "found' Chaplin short ... with genuine 1916 animation ...

The film features footage of Zeppelin airships flying over England during the First World War, and out-takes from three pictures that Chaplin shot with the film company Essanay

An animated scene shows Chaplin wishing he could leave America to join his British countrymen in the war, before being taken on a cloud and deposited on an English church spire ....

Have a safe and sane sabbath.

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The Weekend Derby

With crisp Up Date.

Out of the gate, it's Christmas Carol ...but not by as much as the Mouse would probably like. As the Nikkster relates:

... [A]nalysts think the Jim Carrey starrer (he plays lotsa roles, including all 3 ghosts) directed by Robert Zemeckis (who used the same motion capture technology as Polar Express and Beowulf) may only make $31M after opening with an underperforming $8.9 million Friday despite the higher ticket prices ....

It's going to come down to Saturday and Sunday ....

Update: Christmas Carol ends up at the lower range of what Diz Co. was hoping for; Men Who Stare at Goats comes in third, but second on a per-screen basis. Michael Jackson moon-walks on ...

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Christmas Time, by Ralph Hulett

On Christmas Eve, Santa summons the reindeer from out a forest of NOEL trees.

© 1955 by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image.

See Ralph Hulett Christmas card designs at TAG's art gallery, open weekdays 8:30 am-5 pm.

Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

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Layoffs and Hirings

Warners employees called today to explain:

"The series Laff Riot is laying off most of its artists. They told us today that the show is retooling, going in a different direction, and won't be carrying staff while it takes eight or ten weeks to revamp. They expect to ramp back up mid to late January. How many of us will be coming back, they didn't say."

I know this is a big disappointment to designers and board artists who were anticipating a year or more of steady work on the twenty-six half-hours of Laff Riot. "Wanted you to know what's going on over here," a production board artist said to me on the phone. "This caught us all by surprise. It's only been four months. Nothing to do now but go look for another job."

I was at Warners earlier this week and had no inkling of this ...

Down the freeway at Disney TVA Sonora, crews on two show are slowly returning to work.

And at the Walt Disney Animation Studio, they have laid off all but two of the cleanup artists who came aboard for The Princess and the Frog. At the same time, animators are being hired for Rapunzel and sequences are being put in work. (They kind of have to jump into action. The picture has a release date that's only a year away.)

The rest of the cartoon business? It's like the pistons in a 12-cylinder engine: one is going up while another's moving down, which is nerve-wracking for a whole lot of people.

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Nick Counter, Rest in Peace

Whoa. This took me by surprise:

Nick Counter, the long-standing former negotiator for the major studios who squared off against Hollywood's writers during a 100-day strike in 2008, died Friday night. He was 69.

The former president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers was taken to West Hills Hospital earlier this week after collapsing in his Los Angeles home. His family declined to specify the cause of death ...

TAG representatives sat in negotiations with Nick Counter at every IA Basic negotiation, even though Nick pushed TAG out of the bargaining unit in 1982. He was always calm, always prepared, and I was sure he would go on forever.

Shows what I know.

Nick was always a tough negotiator, and disliked by newer bargaining representatives from SAG and the WGA. Yet it was a studio rep who told me several months ago: "I wasn't a big fan. Nick would have walked over his mother to nail down a deal ..."

I found him likable. What many didn't realize was that, on his side of the table, Nick had to forge a consensus among the studios before any deal got done, something akin to herding cats. I was startled to learn he was only 69.

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Box Office Prognostications

Leave it to Moviephone to beat around the bush:

Disney's A Christmas Carol' cost upwards of $150 million to make and will earn that back and a lot more.

Unlike your ordinary blockbuster, early Christmas movies tend to play well through the holiday itself. Add the appeal of Jim Carrey, in the multiple roles of Scrooge and the three ghosts, and the appeal to parents of the Disney label and you have a movie for every demographic.

Opening domestically in more than 3,500 theaters -- in flat, 3D and IMAX 3D formats -- the movie should gross more than $40 million this weekend and top $200 million by the end of the year ...

The Hollywood Reporter comes to the same conclusion:

Disney executives believe the PG-rated "Carol" will play strongly well past Turkey Day. Zemeckis' success with his first animated holiday outing -- 2004's "The Polar Express," a $305 million worldwide grosser for Warner Bros. -- has helped Disney rally exhibitor support for his latest seasonal venture, Disney distribution president Chuck Viane said.

"The exhibitors have been looking at Bob Zemeckis' track record, and they're saying, 'I have to have this,' " Viane said. "It's not just a kids movie. It should be a four-quadrant picture for everybody." ...

"Carol" should top the weekend rankings easily with a first-frame tally in the $35 million-$45 million range ...

My bet is that the stereo versions of the film will be SRO, with the flat-screen versions playing somewhat less strongly.

If Carol hits $40 million or above, champagne will flow on Buena Vista Street.

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The End of Civilization ...

... as we know it.

... [Dan] Aykroyd will voice Yogi, and Justin Timberlake could supply the voice of Yogi's constant companion, Boo Boo ...

We can only be grateful that Bill and Joe didn't live to see it happen ...

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At Starz Media

This is Thursday, so it's Starz day on TAG's unending studio tour.

The Simpsons crew is pared down now, with lots of empty cubes in the layout department now that the show's budget has been ... ah ... constrained. Do it faster, better, cheaper. Those are the watch words.

"We've all adjusted to the higher demands. The artists just stay at their desks and get the work done. There's no time for complaining ..."

The question I got over and over: So what's going on in the rest of the animation biz? Who's working?"

I've given the answer so many times I have it down pat. "Less traditional, hand-drawn employment happening, but more c.g. work. Warners has come back from hibernation, but Disney TVA's Sonora studio is mostly empty, with two shows coming into production ..." Etcetera.

One Simpson staffer mentioned:

The writers are doing a retreat to get rolling on another thirteen episodes. And I've heard Al Jean say he'd be happy to do The Simpsons for another twenty years ... [pause] I'd be okay with working on the show another twenty years."

Al Jean (one of the show's topkicks, if you don't know) had this to say about the Yellow Family.

Working with brainy guests like Stephen Hawking and Thomas Pynchon is truly priceless

But the nub of the matter:

The Simpsons is the sixth highest earner on television. "We're still vital."

Which is, after all the poker chips get counted and hauled off to the cashier's cage, why The Simpsons' diminished artistic staff could be working on the show for some years to come. Simpsons = Number Six.

"Only thirteen new episodes being written? For next season? I wonder how many hold-over half hours we've got? I bet that's how they plan on rounding out the order. With episodes they didn't use this year."

Did I mention that Fox is ... ah ... cost conscious?

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Covered Bridge, by Ralph Hulett

Winter is caught for a lovely moment in the ice-mirror of a frost-clear night ...

This is one of my favorite designs from the R.H. canon. Ralph did a lot of New England winter scenes over the years, and the stuff he did with covered bridges and small New England villages and clapboard churches are among his best. -- S.H.

© 1955 by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image. See Ralph Hulett Christmas card designs at TAG's art gallery, open weekdays 8:30 am-5 pm. Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

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Why Animated Features Multiply -- Reason #423

Don't expect long form animation to go the way of the movie Western anytime soon.

... [Fox] Filmed entertainment posted operating income of $391 million compared with $251 million a year ago, thanks to the box-office performance of "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," which News Corp. said was the highest-grossing film of all time internationally with more than $880 million in ticket sales ...

Then there was Ice Age 2, The Simpsons Movie, Alvin and the Chipmunks .... and of course all the MacFarlane franchises ...

Rupert and his minions know good thing$ when they see them. Which is why they make so much animation.

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Town Hall!

Today as I stumbled into the Walt Disney Animation hat building, employees were streaming out.

"They're holding a town hall at the equestrian center in Griffith Park! ..."

Which I understood to mean, "John [Lasseter], Ed [Catmull], and Andrew [Millstein] are holding a big employees' meeting down Riverside Drive at the big horse building ..."

I went into the studio anyway. A layout artist asked: "Aren't you going?" I said, "Only if Bob Iger comes along and invites me ..."

Upstairs, a staffer told me that King of the Elves is going through some changes, and that one of the directors has departed. (Nothing new there; Woolfgang Reithermann was displace by Art Stevens on Fox and the Hound; Chris Sanders exited American Dog. Stuff happens.)

Finally, since there's been discussion here about what The Princess and the Frog really cost (the Wall Street Journal quotes a $150 million figure), I went to a Wise Old Disneyite who is in a position to know. She said:

"Management's told us that they want to 'do Winnie the Pooh for $35 million, which they said was one third of the P and F budget. Do the math. Thirty-five times three is $105 million."

One hundred and five million dollars. That pretty much sounds right to me. Disney's new, hand-drawn feature had a smaller crew, inbetweens and cleanups outsourced to Yowza in Toronto, and a focused schedule.

Sadly, I don't think the large staffs that populated Walt Disney Animation Studio in the halcyon days of Aladdin and Lion King are returning in the near term. But the Mouse House as a steady stream of product rolling down the pike, and if the big, round ball of fickle fate bounces right, they'll be profit centers.

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On Organizing

Back in the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer, we put up this crumpet:

... I remember [the Sony Imageworks organizing drive] as though it were yesterday. There we were, the IA reps and the Animation Guild officers (President Koch and I) in the Imageworks theater, rolling out the IATSE contract, Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plan and TAG 401(k) Plan (without a match) that we hoped to sell to the Imageworkers.

Organizing, what a concept. A couple of days ago a self-alleged Imageworker added insights to the summertime post that I think are worthwhile ... and you will most likely miss unless you're in the habit of nosing through old posts on medium-sized blogs.

So here it is, with responses from Yours Truly:

- At the time of Imageworks union vote, there was a concerted and collective effort on the part of many artists to analyze and compare the (then) Sony benefits vs. the (then) union benefits. I do remember people asking 839 (and other union local) members about what they liked/disliked about the unions. Most artists came to the conclusion that the Sony benefits were superior ...

I think this is right. The Sony bennies were superior ... for permanent employees. However, our information was that production hires had a lower level of benefits and would be better off with the IA package. The IA's assumption was that the union would carry the day because production hires outnumbered permanent hires and would automatically vote to "go union." This turned out to be wrong.

- Most Imageworks artists that I know were and are fully aware that the good benefits provided by Sony could also be unilaterally revised.

Aware, maybe. But not really believing that the top-drawer benefits would be scaled back. (People are usually starry-eyed optimists about their personal conditions. What good is it to mope around thinking ... "Well, I'm healthy now, but someday, I'm going to get old, then be sick, and then die ..." Nobody would ever get out of bed.)

- While there certainly were more than a few spirited discussions concerning yes/no - I personally did not see or hear about or experience any managerial pressure regarding the vote. Considering that the vote was a secret ballot with Union reps present, it would be silly to think that anyone was personally afraid to vote yes for the union ...

Points taken. And I don't think there was any overt management pressure. There didn't have to be. The permanent employees ran a campaign to scuttle unionization. From their perspective, they were losing more than they gained by unionizing and so worked in their own self-interest. Like most people do.

- As mentioned in the body of the blog - "Everything --the good, the bad, and the indifferent-- is temporary." This applies equally to the fat (seriously, they were/are very very good) Sony benefits AS WELL AS those great union benefits ...

One major difference: union benefits have longer life-spans because they only change every three or four years, at contract renegotiation time. Company benefits can change annually, semi-annually or monthly, whenever the company wants to change them.

(And yeah, if the industry collapses -- think General Motors or Chrysler -- benefits are going to change before the end of collective bargaining agreement term. But I would submit that the entertainment industry is not G.M. or Chrysler.)

- Re: Tim Sarnoff b.s. - I don't personally know anyone who ever "lapped" up his b.s. Most artists that I know were and are too experienced/cynical to take at face value any statements by any company's management.

But some were influenced, no? Here's my suggestion: Listen to all sides, do independent research, then make up your own mind. Because what we need are independent minds who come to their own conclusions and take everyone -- me, Tim Sarnoff, Sarah Palin, Joe Biden, you -- with a healthy dose of skepticism.

- Most artists that I know thought that the Union reps that came to speak at Imageworks were a collection of arrogant and condescending idiots. They had the attitude that they were here to rescue a bunch of poor exploited factory workers or something. Clearly THEY had not compared the then Sony benefits with the union offer. ... Hey, did Mr. Union Rep here tell you that our collective bargaining agreement would not have allowed us to strike. Boy, that's some strong union you got there. And YOU want to represent ME?

The campaign was not artfully run. And I knew by the second meeting that the organizing drive was in trouble. (It's not useful to have a Plan Administrator show up and yell at people, nor have union reps in suits not being open to questions.)

But here's the rub: If the union reps had walked in wearing t-shirts, shorts and flip flops and come off like Mr. Rogers, the union would still have lost the organizing election. Because the permanent employees were convinced that what they had was better than what they would get. (And they were no doubt right. But the production hires -- most of whom aspired to permanent status -- would have been better off.)

- As stated in the blog, the Union got absolutely pasted in the vote because their proposal and presentation sucked. Really, you can spin it all you want, but that is the bottom line.

Yep, the presentation was bad. The proposal, however, didn't suck. It was simply less than what permanent employees were getting.

- Ah, but that was then, this is now. As stated in the blog, now probably is a good time to try to get another union drive going again.

Why? Are Sony benefits and wages that much worse? Profit sharing all gone? (And I'm asking, because I don't know ...)

But the union has already missed the big boat. More and more digital work is going out of state and out of country (egs. Imageworks India and New Mexico). The union is just fighting for crumbs that remain. IA/TAG didn't do so well with keeping all those traditional cell animation jobs here in socal back in the 90's did they. And then they were slow to (try) to organize the digital workers and mostly failed. And now they will try to organize what's left when most of the good work will be long gone ....

Sounds like compelling points, except for this: TAG is larger today than when all the work was "here" and "union." How can that be, if all the work is going away?

Simple. The animation pie has continually expanded. Visual effects, games, animated features and TV shows are products created in all parts of the globe. Sony builds a studio in Albuquerque (and sub-contracts to Texas) at the same time Electronic Arts builds a big honking studio in Playa Vista, even though it's far cheaper to throw one up in Mumbai.

Why the hell is this?

Because labor costs are only one part of the picture. You must also have salable content and the quality to achieve sales. There is a huge and growing talent pool in Los Angeles, which is why work -- and studios -- continue to grow here.

So even if unions have a smaller slice of the overall work, they still have more unionized jobs than in the days of Disney, Hanna-Barbera and paint being slapped onto cells.

But of course, nothing is forever. We'll see what the morrow brings.

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Better Luck Next Time, J. L.

We were disappointed to see this:

Voters have narrowly elected a Democrat to lead Charlotte, North Carolina's largest city.

With most of the votes counted, Anthony Foxx was leading challenger John Lassiter, a Republican, by nearly 3,000 votes out of 105,000 cast. But Lassiter conceded defeat before the final, unofficial results were released by the Mecklenburg Board of Elections.

Open message to John:

Don't lose too much sleep over this. You still have Pixar, the Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Disney Toons. You still have ...

Oh, wait ...

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The Warners Exprience

I whiled away my afternoon at the Warner ranch, ambling through the gbuilding and cluster of trailers that comprise Warner Bros. Animation. One board artists remarked:

"I was really lucky to land this job at Warners. The studio where I was working laid off a lot of their staff when they lost shows ...

The third floor of WB Animation is filled to capacity with artists working on the Batman and Looney Tunes series, while the fabled Scooby Doo gets made across the parking lot in the trailer pod. Scoob staffer said:

The look of the new Scooby series is definitely retro. We go back to the early seventies styling and backgrounds, and forget that all the dvd features were even made...

Casey Kasem came in last week to record Shaggy's Dad. [Kasem used to play Shaggy. Time moves on. -- SH] Casey looks good, but he moves a little slower than he used to. But he's out there doing it, you know? Still working.

Casey Kasem is 78 years old. The fact that he's recording cartoon characters I find to be ... dare I say it? ... inspiring.

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Rabbit's Progress

Robert Zemeckis, in the course of beating the tom tom for Christmas Carol, tells us this:

"There's a script that's being developed [for a Roger Rabbit sequel.] We've got the original writers that are working on it now — Seaman and Price ..."

"I think there was a time right after the movie came out that the Disney regime at the time — it was a point in the life of the studio where if you made a successful movie they could no longer afford to hire you back. ... I guess there were some projects that I don't know anything about ...."

The great animation myth is that Little Mermaid was the animated feature that kicked off "The Second Golden Age," of Toonage. But face it, there was a slow and steady accumulation before Mermaid happened.

Mr. Spielberg and Don Bluth produced American Tale for a pittance and it was a sizable hit. Land Before Time (the first one, not the 552 sequels) did well, and Disney's Oliver & Co., the first Disney animated feature of the Eisner-Jeffrey Katzenberg era, performed nicely.

Then Little Mermaid was released in November 1989 and did way more than nicely.

But before Disney's Burbank animation division took flight, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? one of the last animation-live action hybrids of the hand-drawn era, became one of the Mouse House's biggest grossers.

I would even say that RR, as much as the young mermaid, kicked off the heightened consciousness everyone has today about animation, so it's nice to see that there might soon be a sequel to this 1980s tent-pole.

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Joy Ride, by Ralph Hulett

Santa Claus and his reindeer off to a flying start to the world of waiting children.

© 1955 by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image. See Ralph Hulett Christmas card designs at TAG's art gallery, open weekdays 8:30 am-5 pm. Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

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Mouse Reboot

The return of Mickey.

The Mouse House will reintroduce its famous mascot in "Epic Mickey," a videogame due late next year that will revive several of the character's key personality traits that have been dulled or forgotten ...

(You know, traits like egomaniacal temper tantrums, general sadism, and dislike of small children. You haven't forgotten those personality tics, have you?)

... "I want to remind Mickey that he's a hero -- and to be a hero, we need to give him purpose. We need to throw him up against problems worthy of a hero -- not just trying to give Pluto a bath," [Warren Spector, VP and creative director of Junction Point Studios] said. "I want him to be funny. I want him to struggle. I want to 'age him up' a little." ...

Years ago, I knew a story guy at Disney who pitched Mickey as Aladdin in an Arabian Nights feature. No soap.

Mr. Spector, however, is optimistic.

... [A]ll we're trying to do is make Mickey the game hero he deserves to be," [Spector] said. "In my secret heart of hearts, I would love to see a movie or a comicbook ..."

Me, I'm holding out for a c.g. feature that shows Mick off in all his round and three-dimensional goodness. When the game becomes a big hit, it's bound to happen, yes?

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I Can Breathe Easier Now ...

The Times gives us the good news:

It opened on Friday but didn’t wind up on any weekend boxoffice charts ...

It’s a kid-friendly movie, but it only screens once daily: 1 p.m. on school days, 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday...

But in the world of animation, “The Missing Lynx: Paws on the Run” could prove to be one of the year’s most significant releases ... The news is crucial because for the last couple of weeks, the number of entries in the category appeared to have stalled at 15. If 15 movies qualify, the category will have three nominees; if 16 do so, it’ll jump to five ...

I'm a guy who thinks they need more animated feature nominees.

Because I'm a guy who thinks the Academy Awards are very, very important.

For commerce.

The more animated nominees there are, the wider the race, the higher the profiles of all the competitors, and the bigger the publicity.

And publicity, animation fans and laborers, is what drives the grosses of animated features to greater heights*, thereby inspiring our corporate masters to make more long-form cartoons and throw a few crumbs our way by employing the artists, writers, and technicians who make them.

* The quality of the product also has something to do with it, but we're talking tonight about the Oscars!

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Hand Drawn

Walt Disney Animation is going to be doing more hand-drawn features regardless of how The Princess and the Frog turns out.

...[I]t was two of the biggest names in computer animation—Pixar cofounders John Lasseter and Ed Catmull ... who were behind the decision to return to the hand-drawn technique, and to rehire filmmakers who use it.

"We in no way wanted to be thought of as advocates" of computer graphics only, Mr. Catmull said. "We wanted to make great films; great films are independent of technology." ...

This isn't about "hand drawn" versus "computer graphics."

It's about making movies that an audience wants to see. (Duh.) The reason that studio managers have glommed on to c.g.i. as the magic bullet is that they look around and see pictures like Up or Ice Age 3 or even Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs picking up a goodly amount of coin and think:

"Ah, that computer generated stuff! That's the ticket!"

Forgetting, of course, that The Simpsons Movie made a great deal of money while Surf's Up and Astro Boy didn't.

Lasseter might be stating the obvious when he says movie-goers want to see good films and not bad films, but movie companies are looking for winners. And in the congloms' minds, c.g. animated features are proven crowd pleasers, while hand-drawn features are not.

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The Derby in Foreign Lands

A quick overview of animation's recent performance in overseas venues:

Disney's "Up" came in No. 2, grossing $12.8 million from 4,700 runs in 27 territories for a cume of $352.7 million and a boffo worldwide haul of $645.6 million.

Mouse House's "G-Force" stayed high up on the chart as well, grossing $6.1 million from 2,735 playdates in 32 territories for a foreign cume of $148 million and worldwide total of $267 million.

In the U.K., Fox's "Fantastic Mr. Fox" grossed $2.4 million from 486 in its second sesh to place No. 3 behind "This Is It" and "Up," respectively. "Mr. Fox" ended the frame with a cume of $9 million.

Animation is becoming a steadily larger global presence. Sure, a lot of it is Disney-Pixar, but there's a lot of other players too. And big ones.

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From Synchrolux

Kevin has seen a chunk of How to Train Your Dragon and has this reaction:

... I just saw a couple of sequences [of How to Train Your Dragon], and what I saw was simply the best CG feature animation I’ve ever seen. And by that I don’t mean just the animation, but everything about the film.

... [T]here isn’t anything out there that remotely shows what the film really looks like. Dean De Blois and Chris Saunders writing and directing. Roger Deakins consulting on cinematography. Nico Marlet’s designs. Simon Otto obsessively supervising the animation. An experienced, talented crew hitting on all cylinders ...

What Kevin says tracks what DWA employees have told me:

"This is the best thing we've done since Kung Fu Panda. Everybody thinks it's good ..."

Which would meqn that DreamWorks Animation is looking at a minimum of two big hits in 2010, because after Dragons on March 26th comes a Major Tentpole starring a green ogre.

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Hollywood's Oncoming Health Care Fustercluck

Dave McNary in Variety overviews one of the major flash points for movie employees.

Hollywood faces several issues -- some distant ... and some not -- that are causing headaches for the trustees of the health and pension plans:

* With the decline in the amount of work in Hollywood comes a decline in the contributions that employers put into the plans.

* There is uncertainty over the impact of federal government reforms, which may include taxing "Cadillac" plans -- the nickname for well-regarded health and retirement plans that provide a high level of coverage to well over 100,000 participants.

* There have been declines of more than 20% in the value of the plans' portfolio over the past year (although the plans have managed to recover slightly).

* Costs continue their inexorable rise ....

The pension/ health care tsunami is hitting both above-the-line and below-the-line entertainment workers. On a weekly basis, I encounter animation artists, writers and technicians who are wound tight about getting enough contribution hours to maintain health coverage, and although the crisis for industry pension and health plans is slightly less for TAG and IATSE members, big problems still loom:

... IATSE agreed to cuts in health plan by agreeing to a hike in the eligibility threshold during the final year of the pact. Members will have to work 400 hours over six months to qualify, up 33% from the previous 300-hour requirement, That change caused an uproar among below-the-line workers: "That should tell you something when IATSE rank-and-file get upset because it doesn't happen often," one insider notes ...

Older employees are having a particularly brutal time. Fifty-five-year-olds for whom the work has dried up are too young to draw retiree health benefits, yet find they're earning fewer contribution hours and don't qualify for active health coverage. As one vet said to me:

"I worked thirty-two years in the biz, twenty-six of them union, but steady work for me is gone. I took early retirement because I didn't have any choice, but I won't be old enough to get retiree health benefits for three more years. So I'm working a lower pay job to pay for the $800/month individual plan I've got to have to survive ..."

What do you do when you're fifty-nine years old with a "pre-existing condition," no higher paying gigs coming your way, and no group health plan in your future?

Whatever you can. Even if it means working somewhere for ten bucks an hour, and draining your bank and pension accounts to stay alive.

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Ralph Hulett Christmas cards, classes of 1955 and 1961

Starting today (and running through New Year's Day), we continue our annual tradition of sharing Ralph Hulett Christmas cards. There is a show of Hulett's work at the art gallery at TAG's new headquarters; drop by during our office hours (Monday-Friday 8:30 am to 5).

This season's posts comprise the bulk of Hulett's 1955 and 1961 catalogues for the California Artists greeting card company, complete with their original titles and the (occasionally kitschy) catalogue captions.

Your favorite butler, Cheerio, bows graciously at your threshold and extends a hospitable holiday greeting to your friends.

© 1961 by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image. Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

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