Sometimes the Rich Have To Settle For a Tad Less

Then there was this nugget from a couple of days ago:

Disney withdraws executive tax benefit amid criticism

Just days before investors would have their say on Walt Disney Co.’s executive pay, the entertainment giant changed the contracts of its top executives to remove a generous perk that had come under fire from an influential shareholder advisory firm.

The company said it would no longer pay the taxes on any severance package for Chief Executive Robert A. Iger and three other senior executives in the event they lost their jobs in a sale or merger of the Burbank entertainment company.

Sometimes the corruption becomes so ludicrous that even the Mouse has to back off.

"It's interesting that they ended up caving," Steven Hall, managing director for executive compensation consultant Steven Hall & Partners, said about Disney. "We were surprised by how violently they reacted against ISS. It was the kind of thing companies gripe about in boardrooms but don't do anything about."

Hodgson said Disney has been working hard to improve the public perception of its executive compensation since the days of former Chief Executive Michael D. Eisner, who in fiscal 1998 reaped $576 million when he exercised stock options he had accumulated for years.

There is no reason, none, for stockholders to pay richly compensated execs' taxes. I would love to hear why this is a good thing for Diz Co. to do. I mean, if executives bail out of the corporate aircraft on their Golden Parachutes, they should at least have the good grace to pay their own freaking taxes, shouldn't they?

On the other hand, I can see why Bob Iger and the other guys getting the platinum benefits might have "reacted violently" about Investor Shareholder Services mucking up the sweet deal by recommending a vote against it. But honest to God, what arguments could they put forth defending it?

None that wouldn't make them look anything other than self-serving. A big fat paycheck isn't enough. Somebody else has to pay the taxes on it, too.

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Overseas Derby for Middle March

... where theatrical animated features continue to prosper.

Finishing No. 2 overall was Paramount's Rango, which was first the previous weekend. [The feature had] $20 million from 5,810 situations in 54 markets. The foreign take is $73 million since March 2. ...

Disney reported that Tangled drew $1.9 million from 326 locations in Japan, a 7% increase from the prior weekend's gross ... for an overseas gross total of $360.7 million. ...

The animated Gnomeo & Juliet has so far accumulated a foreign gross of $151.9 million via myriad distributors including Pathe and Disney. ... Disney's animation title Mars Needs Moms collected $3.4 million on its second weekend on the foreign circuit at 1,475 in 21 markets for a pallid foreign cume of $7.8 million. ...

Apparently foreign audiences aren't wild about pure, unadulterated mo-cap either. Who could have imagined?

(I think that the Reporter scrambled G & J's totals a bit. Box Office Mojo shows world-wide grosses of $147.2 million, while the trade paper cites $151.9 million as the foreign gross. A total gross of $151.9 million seems closer to the mark; it's unlikely the feature jumped $100 million in worldwide grosses in a week.)

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DWA's 2011 Movies

The Reporter reports on DreamWorks Animation's springtime release:

The first Kung Fu Panda, released in China in June 2008 in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, became the first animated film to gross more than 100 million yuan ($15 million) at the local box office. ...

The first film kicked off a heated round of debate and shined a harsh light on the state of China’s animation industry, which has never successfully made a big-budget feature. ... [T]he cultural synergy the first film tapped appears to be continuing in the buzz about the sequel. “This [newer] film has an even higher level of authenticity than the first one,” says Eugene Yang, Greater China chief representative for distributor Paramount, who will work closely with the China Film Group on the nationwide Imax 3D release. ...

Panda 2, I think, will perform solidly not just in China but in every other global marketplace. It is, after all, filled with well-loved furred characters, stuffed with action set-pieces, and arrives as the second installment of a highly popular first feature. (So how can it miss?)

Puss in Boots, the DreamWorks offering for the Fall season, has gotten positive early reaction, is a close cousin to DWA's biggest tent-pole, and also comes populated with adorable animals in (mythical) foreign settings. (A second 2011 bullseye?)

It appears DreamWorks is learning that human characters in American environments don't fare nearly as well as the hairy, four-legged creatures that caper in settings outside the United States. Since both Puss and Panda fall into the "Not U.S. of A., not human" categories, I'll climb out on the fragile limb of box office prognostication and declare that both movies pull down lots of bucks by the time 2012 rolls around.

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The Derby -- March 18-20

Now with chocolate-coated Add On.

Most everything takes a hit week-to-week, as new performers move in ...

1. Limitless (Relativity) NEW [2,756 Theaters] Friday $6M, Estimated Weekend $18M

2. Battle: Los Angeles (Sony Pictures) Week 2 [3,417 Theaters] Friday $4.5M (-67%), Estimated Weekend $15.5M, Estimated Cume $62M

3. Paul (Working Title/Universal) NEW [2,802 Theaters] Friday $4.5M, Estimated Weekend $12.5M

4. The Lincoln Lawyer* (Lionsgate) New [2,707 Theaters] Friday $4.4M, Estimated Weekend $12.5M

5. Rango (Paramount) Week 3 [3,843 Theaters] Friday $4.1M, Estimated Weekend $16M, Estimated Cume $93M

6. Red Riding Hood (Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,030 Theaters] Friday $2.4M (-51%), Estimated Weekend $7M, Estimated Cume $25.7M

7. The Adjustment Bureau (MRC/Universal) Week 3 [2,660 Theaters] Friday $1.7M (-49%), Estimated Weekend $5.7M, Estimated Cume $48.6M

8. Mars Needs Moms (Disney) Week 2 [3,117 Theaters] Friday $1.5M (-14%), Estimated Weekend $6.5M, Estimated Cume $17M

9. Beastly (CBS Films/Sony) Week 3 [1,810 Theaters] Friday $1M, Estimated Weekend $3M, Estimated Cume $22M

10. Hall Pass (New Line/Warner Bros) Week 4 [1,905 Theaters] Friday $825K, Estimated Weekend $2.7M, Estimated Cume $39.7M

Gnomeo and Juliet falls out of the Top Ten, while Rango closes in on the $100 million mark.

Add On: The Reporter reports:

... Paramount’s sleeper hit Rango grossed an estimated $15.3 million in its third weekend to come in No. 2, according to Rentrak. The toon fell a respectable 32%, finishing the weekend with a cume of $92.6 million. ...

Disney’s ill-fated Mars Needs Mom continued to struggle, grossing an estimated $5.3 million in its second weekend for a 10-day domestic cume of $15.4 million. Overseas, the motion-capture toon grossed a soft $3.4 million for an international take of $7.8 million and a worldwide total of $23.2 million. ...

On the happier side of the street for the Mouse, Box Office Mojo has Gnomeo and Juliet at #11. The feature fell 34.4%, and has accumulated $93.7 million domestically.

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March and rally for our communities and our jobs!

Click the poster for a full-page flyer.

Animation Guild and other IATSE members: meet us between 10:30 and 10:45 am at Staples Center between Chick Hearn Court and the corner of Figueroa St.. We'll have a group picture taken and then walk one block to the Convention Center where the main march will begin.

To avoid driving downtown, paying for parking and then walking back the march route after the rally, consider taking the Metro Red Line* towards Union Station to the 7th St/Metro stop, transfer to the Blue Line, get off at Pico/Chick Hearn Station (the first stop), and walk two blocks to Staples Center. From Pershing Square after the rally, take the Metro Red Line towards North Hollywood. To get to Staples Center and from Pershing Square from other areas or for further information, check here.

*The Red Line stations at North Hollywood and Universal City have free park-and-ride lots.

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Maybe Why Illumination Entertainment Produces Elsewhere?

From Les Times de Los Angeles:

French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand is asking Hollywood for its budget-weary producers, pressured directors and harried filmmakers yearning for a tax break. ... [Mitterand] visited Los Angeles this week ... to meet with senior studio executives, including Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger and Warner Bros. Chairman Barry Meyer.

... The French rebate, in effect for little more than a year, has already had some effect, Mitterrand said. Among the beneficiaries was Universal Pictures' hit animated movie "Despicable Me," produced with Paris-based animation studio Mac Guff Ligne and Santa Monica's Illumination Entertainment (the companies are now working on "The Lorax") ...

So there's a reason I.E. does a lot of its work in another land. It gets tax incentives.

(On a related note, the state of California held hearings today on extending its own credits. Our representative Mr. Kaplan was there, along with reps from most of the other Hollywood unions and guilds. The head of the sound local, veteran business representative Jim Osburn, was pretty adamant about getting state incentives extended for another year, saying the film biz would suffer if the tax breaks went away.)

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Four Out Of Sixteen

Four animation titles, three of which have had good runs, are embedded in Thursday's box office rankings. They are as follows:.

1) Rango -- $77,262,114.

4) Mars Needs Moms -- $10,088,083,814

5) Gnomeo and Juliet -- $91,288,382

16) Yogi Bear -- $98,965,017

All but Mars is likely to lurch over the $100 million marker. Somebody is obviously going to these entertainments, which is why our conglomerates keep putting them in the marketplace. Their batting averages are pretty good.

(One other number: TAG blog goes over 2,000,000 visits this weekend. Maybe if blog were snazzier, we would have gotten their quicker. Sadly, I am low on snazz.)

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Cross-Platform Advertising

Two years ago at the industry negotiations I attended, the congloms were complaining about how they didn't know exactly how to deal with all the new media platforms, that they were eating some of their old business models, it was awful, etc.

Now, it seems the studios are catching on about how to use different media platforms to promote other, older media. For example:

Since "Angry Birds" is one of the hot Android apps, why not use it to boost your new animated feature about birds? (Makes sense to me.) If Charlie Sheen can use the Twitter to sell out his concert tour, Fox can use a bird game to promote its latest big-budget, silver-screen production.

Clever, no? Click here to read entire post

Illumination Entertainment Expanding

The Nikkster tells the tale:

Illumination Entertainment chief Chris Meledandri has hired Ashley Kramer to be EVP of Production and Gail Harrison to oversee Creative Marketing. The move signals expansion plans for the 4-year-old Universal Pictures-based company, whose first release Despicable Me grossed $540 million worldwide. ...

Meledandri is adding executives with the intention of doubling Illumination's output to two films per year by 2012 or 2013. ... "With Despicable Me behind us, the impending release of Hop, The Lorax in production and a Despicable Me sequel in early stages, it was time to properly scale the company and begin to solidify the team that will lead us as we move forward," Meledandri [said] ...

Which means there is one more successful, L.A.-based animation producer in the run for gold. Of course, Meledandri produced Despicable Me offshore in the very low-cost France. ("Is it all going to Paris?!") The upcoming hybrid Hop, however, was created in L.A.

Whether Illumination Entertainment's future plans include opening a studio here or (more likely) using existing facilities*, it's always good to give the Mouse and DreamWorks a little serious competition, since it means more jobs for artists and technicians. To date, the ceiling for animated features in the marketplace does not appear to have been reached.

Add On: And Illumination E. isn't wasting time moving ahead on its next project:

... [C]ountry music powerhouse [Taylor Swift] has joined the cast of Universal’s upcoming 3-D animated feature, “The Lorax,” based on the famous Dr. Seuss children’s book.

... Taylor will lend her voice to Audrey ...

So will Ms. Swift be singing? Writing songs for the pic? Inquiring Illumination Entertainment fanboys want to know.

* "Hop" was animated at Rhythm and Hues.

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Climbing to Numero Uno

Always good to see animation climb higher:

... After debuting in second place the previous weekend behind Oscar-fueled "The King's Speech," the animated family film [Rango] moved into first and has $120.4 million in global box office revenue to date. American-made animated family films have gained broad acceptance overseas, with "Gnomeo and Juliet" and "Tangled" also finding favor ...

Thus far, Romeo and Juliet has gathered up $144.3 million from world turnstiles while Tangled has collected $551.5 million.

Apparently it's "mocap animation" that's not getting much love.

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Information and Disinformation

We're currently working with the IATSE to organize various visual effects houses, the one part of Hollywood that (mostly) works without benefit of union contracts or accompanying pension and health benefits. One of these effects houses recently handed out the following letter with the following information ...

(We've inserted clarifications between the indented info.)

... Even if the Union manages to gather enough authorization cards to petition the Labor Board for an election, and thereafter wins that election, all they win is the right to negotiate -- the right to ask the Company for what they want ...

True enough. The Union triumphs, the union goes in with a set of proposals, and the haggling begins. The company is under no compulstion to do anything other than "bargain in good faith." (Which of course it will do, like all law-abiding corporations.)

No one knows and no one can predict what will happen as a result of bargaining. The Union cannot guarantee the outcome of negotiations, which means that they cannot make and keep promises about health care, retirement or leave benefits. ... Collective bargaining is a process of give and take. As a result of bargaining, your wages and working conditions could go down, up, or stay the same.

Sort of true, in a theoretical sense. In a real-world sense, not so much. Employees, you see, have the right to ratify negotiated contracts, and if they don't like the specimen that's negotiated, they vote it down. (This is what we call in the labor biz a "ratification vote.") So it's kind of difficult for a bad deal to end up as a contract under which employees are worse off. The employees give it the big "thumbs down."

The only thing the Union can guarantee is you would pay Union dues every month -- which according to the Union's last filing with the federal government is $76.50-$101.11 per quarter, per employee.

Sadly, this one is false. In that real world thing again, the union would collect no dues if there is no contract. (After all, who would pay them if they're getting nothing in return?) So, if union and company don't reach agreement, or union and company reach agreement and the employees says "ixnay, no way," then there are no dues because there is no contract for them to work under.

Hope this clears up a little of the disinformation found above. Thanks for your time.

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TAG Interviews Now On iTunes

In a recent post where Steve Hulett answers some regular questions about the TAG Interviews, commenter Michael Cawood asked that we post the interviews to iTunes.

I'm happy to announce that I've been able to fulfill that request.

Doing a search for Animation Guild was able to find the listing. However, we are still performing a few tweaks and the listing may disappear and reappear for that reason. You can find the listing page at this link. We will also provide the link on the Interview Page on the website.

Enjoy!

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Around the Mouse

So I went to the Hat Building today and found out that Ed, John and Andrew held a town meeting on the main lot yesterday.

Where they announced that, because Tangled did so well, WDAS employees will be getting bonuses. This is a good thing ...

One staffer informed me that management acknowledges that story development is thin. As another staffer said:

"Yeah, there's not much in work. Lots of people are developing shorts ideas, but there's not much feature development. They should have a whole bunch of stuff going, with small crews, so they can pick and choose from the best of it. ..."

Feature development is thin? Where have I heard that before?

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Dale Baer and the Art (Also the Business) of Animation -- Part III

Some of Mr. Baer's handiwork on behalf of the Disney Co. and General Motors.

In our final installment, Dale talks about forming his own animation studio and jumping into the world of animated commercials ...

TAG Interview with Dale Baer

*Click to listen in your browser. Right-Click and Save to download to your computer to listen later.

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

... And he speaks about returning to Disney Feature in the late 1990s to work on the last of the hand-drawn features and the first of Disney's computer generated efforts Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons.

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Another Pass With Limpet

Warner Bros resurrects (again) an old property.

Oscar-nominated writer/director Richard Linklater (Before Sunset) is reportedly the leading candidate to take over the director’s chair for the Warner Bros. remake of the 1964 animation/live-action hybrid The Incredible Mr. Limpet. ...

Warners has been toying with the idea of doing Mr. Limpet for fifteen years. Back in the mid-nineties, it was a property in development at Warner Bros. Feature Animation (the corporate division that died a few years after birth.) For a few halcyon months, Jim Carrey was attached to the old Don Knotts role, but the movie never got to ignition for launch.

Perhaps this time they'll reach lift off.

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MoCap Factoids

Per the trade papers:

... With its budget at a reported $150 million, Mars seemed to have the deck stacked against it almost from the start. The pic, from Zemeckis' ImageMovers, was an orphaned project, grandfathered into the Disney pipeline as the Dick Cook regime ended. ...

A summary of Imagemovers' MoCap box office:

Mars Needs Moms -- $15.9 million (world cume) -- cost -- $150 million

A Christmas Carol -- $321.5 million -- cost - $180 million

Beowulf -- $195.3 million -- cost - $150 million

Monster House -- $140.2 million -- cost - $90 million

The Polar Express -- $270.8 million -- cost $170 million

Although Christmas Carol and Polar Express picked up considerable coin, the movies' production costs were high. The Mouse (and before it Sony and Warner Bros.) were probably looking for higher profit margins. Or in some cases, just plain profits.

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Dale Baer and the Art of Animation -- Part II

Ralph Bakshi's "Lord of the Rings" -- Mr. Baer's first non-Disney project after leaving the House of Mouse in the late seventies.

We continue with Dale's recollections of the boom-and-bust world of cartoons...

TAG Interview with Dale Baer

*Click to listen in your browser. Right-Click and Save to download to your computer to listen later.

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

... talking today about the lost animation secrets of Disney veterans Walt Stanchfield and Dale Oliver, failing to please the animation director of Pete's Dragon, and going to work for Ralph Bakshi on Lord of the Rings.

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This Is Unsurprising

... when you think about it.

The Walt Disney Co. has scuttled a planned remake of the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" being developed by the producer of its costly bomb "Mars Needs Moms," sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. ...

The so-so performance of Christmas Carol put IM Digital on thin ice. The rough cut of Mars Needs Moms finished it off. And Mars' opening weekend appears to have blown up the next feature sitting (uneasily) on the tarmac.

I can sort of see what Robert Zemeckis likes about c.g.i./mo-cap features, but I don't think the genre is resonating well with the viewing public. Maybe it's time for Mr. Zemeckis to return to his roots and direct an old-fashioned live-action movie.

Add On: The New York Times analyzes the failure of a major studio release:

... {T]he 3-D animated adventure [Mars Needs Moms is] on track to become one of the biggest box-office bombs in movie history ...

“Scary” is how Chuck Viane, president of distribution for Walt Disney Studios, described the audience rejection of the film. “Was it the idea? The execution? The timing? There are a lot of excuses being floated.”

The financial impact on Disney’s studio will be severe. ...

Demoralizing.

Add On Too: The Nikkster's site has a different take on Yellow Submarine's demise.

Insiders at Disney are denying a Hollywood Reporter story that a lousy opening weekend for the Robert Zemeckis-produced animated film Mars Needs Moms sank Yellow Submarine, the 3D remake of the psychedelic animated Beatles film that Zemeckis had set up to direct at the studio in August, 2009. ...

Editorial! Get me rewrite!

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More silly arguments against unions

Just a few minutes after I posted my reply on this blog to a particularly silly anti-union rant from someone claiming that no one from the union ever responds to them, I saw this post on the Crooks and Liars blog.

Public service employees should give up their pensions because of the resentment from private sector workers who don't have pensions. Truly, the mind boggles.

(Read the linked post, it makes the argument against this better than I could.)

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A Talk With Dale Baer About the Art of Animation -- Part I

Animator Dale Baer has spent four decades in the cartoon business. He's an animation pro who's been many places and done almost everything ...

TAG Interview with Dale Baer

*Click to listen in your browser. Right-Click and Save to download to your computer to listen later.

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

Dale, like many in the biz, yearned to jump into cartoons at an early age. He was among the first of the wave of young talent that rolled into the House of Mouse in the early seventies, and learned his craft from the old masters (Reitherman, Thomas, Johnston, Larson, etc..)

There is an excellent interview of Dale here and here, presented by The Animation Podcast. Think of this effort as an extension and addendum to that one, where Dale focuses on the art and day-to-day challenges of being a working animator. (This conversation is divided into three half-hour segments. You will find a ten-second overlap at the fronts and backs of Parts II and III.)

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Overseas Derby

Box office was less robust than usual due to an unforeseen natural event.

In a drab box office stanza on the foreign theatrical circuit – down a full 60% from the 2010’s comparable weekend largely due to Japan’s earthquake ordeal – Paramount’s Rango claimed the No. 1 spot, snaring $23 million from 4,963 locations in 46 markets, and pushing its early overseas gross total to $46 million. ...

Disney said it went ahead with its market opening of Tangled at 156 screens “despite the ongoing tragic conditions.” Reported two-day gross for the 3D reworking of the Rapunzel tale came in at $1.6 million. ... The film’s offshore gross totals $354.8 million, and its worldwide tally is $551.5 million. ...

Worldwide ticket sales are well over the half-billion mark for Tangled. I think we're close to break-even, don't you?

And as for the newbie Rango, it now has a worldwide gross of $114.7 million.

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Your Class Warfare Moment

Since we are a union blog, we do have to give you one of these once in a while. From Bill Maher via the Nikkster:

I'll say it again: I don't believe in the "Too Big to Fail" doctrine. I don't agree (and never agreed) with Greenspan, Paulsen, Summers and Geithner and their prescriptions for saving the banks and the attendant billionaires.

If free enterprise is good enough for the rest of us, it should be good enough for the top one percent as well.

As Ritholtz at the Washington Post wrote yesterday:

... You might be surprised to learn that ... [b]efore these firms [big banks] went public in the 1970s and 1980s, bank management had full liability for their firm's losses. During the era of Wall Street partnerships, if employees were so reckless as to lose billions of dollars, the partners were on the hook for the full amount. This meant that after the firm was liquidated to pay its debts, the partners' personal assets were next on the auction block: Houses, cars, boats, even watches were sold to satisfy the debt. ...

Sounds fair to me. You lose a lot of money because you're reckless, you ought to have a consequence.

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Red Riding Hood's Effx

Below the Line's interview with effects supervisor Jeff Okun:

[Okun:] ... For the wolf, [director] Catherine [Hardwicke] had collected images of every werewolf that has ever appeared in a motion picture, TV show and in books that we could find. The design of the wolf was brought along by Catherine, her concept designer, me, and an artist at Digital Domain who sculpted it for us. It became a collage of bits and pieces of feelings that we drew upon to come up with this wolf. We also built it based off of things that she hated. We had lots of round-table discussions.

The wolf was then animated by Craig Talmy, the director of animation at Rhythm and Hues. ...

Even the most live action of live-action pictures today has animation in it. Guys in wolf suits and gorilla suits are so 1970s ...

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About the TAG Interviews

Since I've gotten various reactions and queries, here are a few answers to a few questions ...

How did you come to do these things?

I got the idea for interviewing animation veterans for TAG blog last Fall, when I was running for re-election as Business Representative. Since I wasn't posting at the time, I put the execution of the idea off until after ballots were counted.

The original thought was to interview people who were somewhat younger than the "old-timers," but had been in the business twenty-five or thirty years. That policy has now been broadened, because we realize it's important to hear from artists who might not be around to interview a few years hence. (I kick myself I didn't start this up three or four years ago.)

Who are you interviewing?

We strive to interview a broad cross-section of people in the cartoon industry, folks working on the theatrical and/or television side who have made big contributions to the art form. Folks in different classifications. (Animators and directors have one story to tell, background and storyboard artists another. Kind of important, we think, to get a variety of experiences.)

How often are the interviews going to be put up on the blog?

As often as we do them, but no more than once a week. At the start, it was going to be "whenever," but we've gotten into a rhythm of putting them up on Monday or Tuesday, in thirty to forty-minute chunks. We'll work to continue that.

So where do you record these?

In studio offices. In the Animation Guild conference room. At private homes. Wherever it's most convenient for the interviewee. The sound quality varies because of the acoustics of different spaces. I use a small digital recorder placed close to the interviewed person.

How much time does it take to do an interview?

The length you hear is the length it takes. We perform minimal editing. (This is kind of obvious, yes?) I do research beforehand, and mouthe a short introduction afterhand, which Steve Kaplan (our in-house technical wiz) puts onto the front. That's pretty much it. No written questions, no windy formalities, just the ebb and flow of conversation.

How long will these interviews go on?

Two or three years. Beyond that, who knows? The over-arching idea is to put a lot of these oral histories onto the blog and the Animation Guild website and build a mosaic of recorded information about the animation industry that will be accessible to people. In the past, the guild has recorded interviews onto magnetic tape and the tape sat on a shelf somewhere, gathering dust. (Not super useful.)

Anyway, that's some of the thinking behind why we're doing these. We hope you find value in the project.

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Lasseter Animosity?

A commenter below asks:

.. [W]hat is this whole deal about John Lasseter being a hated man anyway? ...

Say what? I've got minimal clues about any "deal" regarding negative feelings toward Mr. Lasseter.

I've never heard very much about John Lasseter being "hated." I'm sure somebody somewhere in the business might possess strong dislike, but it seldom if ever reaches me. (I occasionally run into John at Disney; we exchange pleasantries and that's it. I have no other contact with him.)

Now, there are veteran animation artists to whom I've talked who are somewhat cynical and jaded about John's deification in the media, but most everybody I know respects his talent. John has an approach, sensibility and point of view regarding animation that has been very successful, and has helped make newer Disney features better than what came immediately before. His approach is not to everyone's taste, but what approach is?

Equally important, John Lasseter has instituted a policy at Walt Disney Animation Studios that has been a force for good: Creators now get to make the product, and administrators -- most of whom should be nowhere near the creative process -- are no longer giving dim-bulb notes that everyone needs to follow. This change alone is a huge improvement. (Disney Feature in the late nineties was exactly the opposite. Many of the division's twenty-three Vice Presidents weighed in on the direction of development and how features should go, and creative staff bitched about it constantly. And most of the features from that era speak for themselves.)

The unhappiness regarding Disney that's come to me the last few years is not about the movies or Lasseter per se. The unhappiness I've encountered revolves around staffing and personnel policies. There have been times when I've walked into the Hat Building and found the gloom in some departments pervasive. Everybody was working their backsides off on a project they liked and believed in, (Tangled is a recent example; there have been others), but many employees were staring layoff notices in the face. Hard as it is to believe, this isn't conducive to creating joy and gladness, no matter how high-quality the picture being worked on might be.

It's fine for management to mouth platitudes about how the goal is to make employees happier and more fulfilled, to keep most everybody on, etc., etc. But when, year after year, those fine things never happen, portions of the staff become ... what's the right phrasing? ... somewhat disenchanted. (Disney supervisors often say that they don't hear any of this negative stuff, but why would they? No lower level employees with survival instincts bitch to the people in charge, particularly when they see wave after wave of layoffs and want to be rehired one day. But they sure as hell bitch to me.)

My view about Walt Disney Animation Studios has been pretty consistent: the Mouse makes good animated movies, and has many employees with low morale because of the staffing policies. (Please note that a lot of the Disney workers with lower morale are currently laid off.)

But honestly, I don't see a lot of "Lasseter hate." The hate, such as it is, gets directed at others.

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The Domestic Derby -- March 11-13

Now with licorice-flavored Add On

The Friday numbers show live-action back on top, with animation running in the "Place" position.

1. Battle: Los Angeles (Sony) NEW [3,417 Theaters] -- Friday $13.5, Estimated Weekend $39M

2. Rango (Paramount) Week 2 [3,923 Theaters] -- Friday $5.5M (-43%), Estimated Weekend $23.5M, Estimated Cume $69M

3. Red Riding Hood (Warner Bros) NEW [3,030 Theaters] -- Friday $5.7M, Estimated Weekend $15.1M

4. The Adjustment Bureau (MRC/Universal) Week 2 [2,847 Theaters] -- Friday $3.4M (-48%), Estimated Weekend $11M, Estimated Cume $38.2M

5. Mars Needs Moms (Imagemovers/Disney) NEW [3,117 Theaters] -- Friday $1.8, Estimated Weekend $7.5M

Rango had a considerable drop, but by Sunday will be nudging against $70 million. Mars appears to be Dead On Arrival.

Add On: Down the home stretch, there are three (count 'em) animated movies in the Top Ten.

At #2, we have Rango ($23,050,000).

At #5, we find Mars Needs Moms ($6,800,000 ... ouch!)

And in the #10 spot, there is Gnomeo and Juliet ($3,546,000).

Despite overall box-office being down, the cartoon division is holding its own.

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Not a Happy Thing

From the Nikkster:

... [T]he movie that all of Hollywood is talking about tonight is Disney's Mars Needs Moms 3D. Why? Because the Dick Cook leftover is going to be one of the biggest money losers of all time. Costing $150M and, even with the higher 3D ticket prices, it'll be lucky to pull in $10M this weekend -- that's right all weekend. It's rare that any Disney 'toon flops at all, much less this badly. But my insiders say this movie is why, after Rich Ross screened it, Disney cut ties to Robert Zemeckis' Imagemovers Digital. ...

First point: I don't really consider Mars an "animated feature" in the way that we generally think of animated features. It's not animation but motion capture, rotoscope with a newer name.

Second point: I think mo cap is fine within the right environment. Certainly it worked like gangbusters in Avatar. And it's been kind of successful in other films. (We can't wave away Polar Express, a sizable commercial success after all the dollars were counted.) The problem is, I don't think the general public has ever embraced the technology. As much as I admired much about Zemeckis's Christmas Carol, I can understand why many were luke-warm to the feature. There was always that "I'm looking at dead people" aura about it.

But it's not Zemeckis or Disney for whom I feel badly. It's the (now former) IMD employees who poured their hearts and souls into this, even as they were being slipped the axe and IMD facility in northern California was closing.

There are more motion capture projects in the pipeline, Mr. Spielberg's Tin-Tin feature prominent among them. Later this year when the picture comes out, we'll see how Paramount does with it. I've got a queasy feeling about the movie, but maybe that's just me. This is Spielberg, right? How many flops does he have?

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Reminder: Meeting for LA VFX artists on Sunday

As we posted about earlier this week, Jim Goodman will be holding a picnic meeting for all visual effects artists at Johnny Carson Park at 1:pm this Sunday the 13th of March.

In his message to all interested parties, Jim made the following request:

The IATSE is specifically inviting visual effects artists working at Warner Bros., Disney, NBC/Universal, Stargate, and all independent visual effects studios in the San Fernando Valley/Burbank/Glendale/Pasadena area. Artists working at the six major motion picture studios should be aware that by signing a union authorization card, and the IATSE achieving majority status at your employer, the IATSE BASIC AGREEMENT would automatically go into effect. That's why we really want to see YOU there.

The IATSE is interested in speaking to any and all interested parties. Everyone is welcome to bring their questions and concerns and meet Jim to find answers. Feel free to send him an email at jgoodman@iatse-intl.com.

You can find the location of the park on a Google map at this link.

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A launch for Tim Walker's new book

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Los Angeles Rally for Worker's Rights

The denial of collective bargaining to public sector unions by the state of Wisconsin has been the spark of what has been described as the beginnings of an all-out assault on the middle class in our country. In response, Labor Organizations have begun to mobilize their members in rallys and marches to bring the struggle for worker's rights to the forefront of the attention of the general public.

IATSE International President Matthew D. Loeb implores all Los Angeles locals to support the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor's "Our Communities, Our Jobs" march and rally on March 26th. In his letter, he states:

America's working class is under attack and it's time to fight back and create our own hope and change. We need to mobilize our members, along with many other unions and the LA County Federation of Labor, and work together to maximize participation and energize working families across Los Angeles, Southern California and the entire country to fight back.

While this march will be stopping at Ralphs grocery stores to provide support for Ralphs employees whose contract soon expires, solidarity against the attacks on workers rights in the city of Los Angeles and across the country is imperative.

We encourage members of TAG, as well as readers of this blog who are appalled at the national attempts being made to strip the rights of workers to join us at the rally. We look forward to your support here and in future showings of solidarity toward the efforts to end the attack on working men and women.

A copy of the LA County Fed's flier on the march and rally can be found at this link.

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Foreign Levies

A quick, early-in-the-morning post regarding "foreign copyright royalties." ...

Yesterday I received a check for a few bucks from the Writers Guild. I've never been in the Writers Guild, but the organization collects copyright royalties from abroad for live-action and animation writers, and I got a small trickle of that for work performed in the 1980s, back before my biz rep days.

The money was for a Gummi Bear episode and an animated feature known as The Great Mouse Detective (and please don't get me started on the title.) I've received a slightly faster pace of incoming checks than before the settlement of a lawsuit between the Guild and various writers. So I'm supposing the settlement was a good thing for getting the money faster.

In these times, whenever an extra dollar comes my way, I strive to be grateful.

In case you're just hearing about this for the first time and wonder what the hell I'm talking about, a quick history:

In many industrialized countries, writers and directors are entitled to royalties for their creative work. So if you are an animation writer or an animation director, you could have cash coming your way, because the cash might be held by the WGAw or the Directors Guild of America (DGA).

Think you might be somebody who's eligible for these royalties? Contact us or the other listed labor unions, because the Directors or Writers Guild just might have your name on a printout with dollar signs beside it.

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Cartoon Orders at Nick

The t.v. animation landscape has been steady of late. Most every contract studio is keeping a steady or rising number of series on their slates. (TAG's recent employment breakdown between theatrical features and television is close to fifty-fifty.)

Nick Toons Studios, one of L.A.'s larger animation employers, is increasing its cartoon commitment ...

Nickelodeon is adding four new animated series to its preschool roster including a new edition of the Beatrix Potter classic Peter Rabbit. ... The animation initiative includes more episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants, The Penguins of Madagascar, Fanboy and Chum Chum and T.U.F.F. Puppy. ...

Nick has been a relatively steady employer over the last few years. Disney and Warners have had bigger swings in the amount of work going through their studios; Nickelodeon's up and downs have been narrower.

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Animation Roll Outs

Movie promotion never ends. When one film is launched, laying the groundwork for the next release is already underway. And so it was for the next two DWA features.

... The small New York audience included an assortment of journalists, theater owners and other promotional targets. In the “Kung Fu Panda” sequel, Black’s rotund Po character finds out why his father happens to be a goose. ...

["Puss in Boots"] tells Puss’s origin story, but yesterday’s preview showcased the cat’s trademark mix of swagger and cuddly vulnerability. (In a saloon scene, Puss gently laps milk from a shot glass.) As he tries to steal magic beans from the grotesque outlaw couple Jack and Jill (voiced by Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris), he meets a rival, Miss Kitty Soft Paws (Salma Hayek). Instead of a swordfight, they duel in a dance off. ...

Of course, there's lot of animation tumbling down the movie pipeline. Illumination Entertainment's Hop will soon be bouncing along, and this summer will bring us some of our old, old friends:

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Glen K. Speaks

I had occasion to be at the Hat Building this morning, and by accident I had a long talk with Glen Keane. (We bumped into each other in the first-floor hallway.) He said the following:

"My contract is up at Disney in May, and I'm doing due diligence, looking around, seeing what's out there. I'm 57 years old and I want to make the rest of my career count.

"I've known Jeffrey Katzenberg for a long time, and like him. And DreamWorks Animation is a dynamic studio. I also like what's happening at Disney. I think Tangled was one of our best features, and I did more drawings on it than I did working on Tarzan. It was great working with the animators on the crew, helping them take the work to the next level ..."

Glen didn't say whether he was moving on to another studio or not. He related that he likes the people he's working with at the Mouse House a lot, but said he's interested in "working without walls," which I took to mean he's going to look at his options and decide what he wants his next project(s) and/or studio(s) to be.

He informed me that he hadn't seen the Blue Sky piece regarding talks with DWA, hadn't seen the L.A. Times story, wasn't aware of them until I brought them up. And he was okay with me putting this post up, which is why you see it here now.

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Animated Features #1 and #2

Also 68 years apart.

... The two-disc "diamond edition" combo pack [of Bambi], which includes the film on Blu-ray Disc as well as standard DVD, easily debuted at No. 1 on the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert and Blu-ray Disc sales charts for the week ending March 6.

The previous week's top seller, Paramount/DreamWorks' Megamind, dropped to No. 2 on both charts, selling 75% as many copies its sophomore week as Bambi.

It's worth remembering that Bambi was an underperformer in its first domestic release back in 1942. It ended up being the last of Disney's pre-war features, even though it went into development soon after Snow White's completion.

So why is Bambi a hot seller sixty-eight years later? Screenwriter William Goldman catalogues the reasons in Adventures in the Screen Trade: The feature has heart, comedy, thrills and chills, but it's actually about the important elements of existence -- love, death, and choices made.

(And it's good to see two animated titles take the "Win" and "Show" positions.)

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Another Milestone?

Maybe ... but I'm wondering how quickly it actually arrives.

Gay families in Disney animated cartoon to be seen soon

There’s just a matter of time for our children to watch animations with gay family plot ... Disney direction has moved far away from its conservative pattern in recent years, and is considered to be “an extremely gay-friendly company” ...

I doubt that Disney will go out of its way to make animated features with on-the-nose gay themes anytime soon. Wild Life, a c.g. feature that got pretty edgy before Roy Disney pulled the plug on production, was considered by some staffers to have gay elements in it. I knew gay artists at the studio who thought it ended up pretty weird and twisted before finally being killed in the cradle during the Schumacher era. (I'll take their word for it. Beyond a few sketches, I never saw much of the feature's development.)

The Disney Co, ran into problems about being "pro gay" when it offered same-sex couples employed by the company health benefits. A large, Christian denomination mounted a Disney boycott to get the House of Mouse to change its mind. But Disney stood its ground, and ultimately the boycott fizzled out. So is the conglomerate anxious to court controversy now if controversy can be avoided? I don't know the answer, but I can't imagine that most people under twenty-five would care about gay characters being animated pictures. Most of the individuals who get knotted up over that kind of thing are far outside the target demographic anyway.

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Now That the Release Dates Are Announced ...

Wall Street works its magic.

Analyst trims view on DreamWorks Animation's slate

Shares in DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. fell slightly Tuesday after an analyst trimmed his earnings estimates for the studio based on the film slate that will take it through 2014. ...

Cowen & Co. analyst Doug Creutz said ... delays, plus one fewer film in 2012 feeding into the following year's home video revenue, would hurt earnings, he wrote in a research note.

And if one of the upcoming animated movies under-performs in the world marketplace, earnings will suffer more. On the other hand, if one or more features knocks audiences' socks off, the turnstyles will spin smartly and company earnings will shoot skyward.

But right now, none of the experts have seen any of the product, so they don't know how the oncoming 3-D extravaganzas will do. Which means the projections are -- to a large degree -- guesswork illustrated with pretty graphs.

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Viewer Demand? Not Much

The Mouse tried an experiment that didn't deliver.

... [O]nly six weeks after Disney's Tangled was released in theaters in [Portugal], the animated film was offered for a limited time on Video On Demand for 24.99 euros ($32.73 U.S.). Disney declined to discuss the results, but by all accounts, it wasn't considered a success, attracting fewer than 1,000 hits. ...

I think our fine entertainment conglomerates are in a conundrum, trying to exploit product in the most efficient (and lucrative) way possible. Piracy is always breathing down large companies' necks, so it's understandable for them to try different delivery systems.

But apparently the thirty-two buck price point was a trifle high. Even when you have a hot entertainment item -- and Tangled was clearly hot -- people are only going to shell out so much cash to see it. (Just ask all the record companies that discovered their $16 CDs didn't go over when there were other, cheaper ways for customers to acquire the music.)

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The Schedule

A bunch of upcoming movies at Jeffrey's place, now with release dates!

DreamWorks Animation has announced its release calendar through 2014, setting dates for seven toons, including How To Train Your Dragon 2 and Mr. Peabody & Sherman.

The place has a lot of stuff in development and/or production.

It's relatively sleepy at some other studios, but not at the facility next to the lovely Los Angeles River. Nobody is twiddling their thumbs in the Lakeside Building.

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Conversing with Kathy Altieri -- Part II

A moment from How to Train Your Dragon.

We continue with our Kathy Altieri interview ...

TAG Interview with Kathy Altieri

*Click to listen in your browser. Right-Click and Save to download to your computer to listen later.

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

... wherein Kathy regales us with tales of the early DreamWorks Animation, when everyone was getting fat eating fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies every afternoon at 3 o'clock. (And here she talks about the artwork for and challenges of How to Train Your Dragon.)

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At the Afternoon of Remembrance

On Saturday afternoon, friends and associates of our animation community came together at the Hollywood Heritage Museum to honor fifty-eight veterans who passed away in the last twelve months.

Below the fold, snapshots of the event.

1. Tom Sito, TAG President Emeritus and our master of ceremonies.
2. Waiting for the ceremony to begin.
3. Martha and Sol Sigall.
4. Bob Kurtz.
5. During the memorials.
6. John Kimball and Larry Huber.
7. Executive Board members Jan Browning, Nicole Dubuc and Gordon Kent, and Board member emeritus Stephan Zupkas.

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Glen Keane Trucking On?

The intertube rumors percolate up to The Media:

Is Disney animation legend Glen Keane being wooed by DreamWorks Animation? -- L.A. Times ...

... [L]egendary Disney animator Glen Keane is reportedly not too happy with Disney’s upcoming slate of animated films and is being actively wooed by DreamWorks Animation. ... -- Slash Film

I've got no idea if the rumors are true or not. I'm just a simple union rep, stumbling around various workplaces. (I saw Glen on the second floor of the hat building, and he gave no hint of departure. Of course, this was months ago, and he was mainly talking to other people about other stuff.)

As you can see, I'm right in the loop.

Add On:So I bopped over to the hat building a bit of a while ago to see what's up about Glen. Came up empty, but one of the animators told me this:

"I haven't heard a thing about Glen leaving. He's off in another part of the building. But it wouldn't surprise me. There's not much for animators to do around here, and it drives people nuts. Mike Surrey left. And Glen? Like I say, wouldn't surprise me ..."

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A Conversation with Kathy Altieri -- Part I

TAG Interview with Kathy Altieri

*Click to listen in your browser. Right-Click and Save to download to your computer to listen later.

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

Kathy Altieri has so much energy and enthusiasm for animation, it's hard to believe she's worked at the craft as long as she has. (Jaded, she is not ...)

Plunging into television cartoons in the 1980s, Kathy worked on dozens of small-screen shows before joining Disney Feature Animation to participate in a string of Disney hits running from Little Mermaid to Hunchback of Notre Dame. (She was background supervisor on Aladdin.) Among the first artists hired by Jeffrey Katzenberg when DreamWorks was set up, she today works as a production designer on DWA features.

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Regarding DreamWorks Animation

They've got a new trailer up (teaser, and two days old. But what the hey.)

And while on the subject of DWA, I had occasion to talk to a former DreamWorks staffer last week. Among other things he mentioned:

"Have you noticed how in the press, it's always kind of the same thing? Pixar makes animated features for everybody, and they're all high quality. DreamWorks Animation makes dumb-downed entertainment for kids, with lots of fart jokes. That's kind of the way the story always goes."

I observed how the media gets hold of a through-line and hangs onto it, whether the evidence supports the story or not ... because it's clean, it's simple, and journalists can be lazy, so why not opt for the time-tested tale? I told him I thought Toy Story 3 was terrific, but How to Train Your Dragon* was more terrific. (* Obviously opinions will differ on this, but that's my outlook. "TS3" won the Academy Award, so I must be wrong.). And I noted how Wall-E was outstanding ... until it shifted to the giant spacecraft and turned into 2001 with fat people.

DWA has two features out this year: Panda Bear in the Spring and Puss in the Fall. Both will do respectable to very good business worldwide. Per DreamWorks' CEO, the company has not produced a money-loser in some time. However, being a stand-alone in the age of the sprawling conglomerate is not an easy task, and it's better than likely that DreamWorks Animation will (Ultimately? Inevitably?) get swallowed up.

* In the next few hours, we'll be revisiting How to Train Your Dragon in a TAG interview.

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The International Tally Sheet

As Rango tops domestic box office, so does it triumph in foreign lands.

... Rango boasted of No. 1 openings in the U.K. and Ireland ($3.1 million from 472 locations), Mexico ($2.7 million from 511 venues), Spain ($1.9 million from 369 spots) and Argentina ($450,000 from 106 situations).

Overall, the Rango openings bested in many markets those of Megamind, a DreamWorks Animation title that Paramount opened overseas last Oct. 28, and which has accumulated a foreign gross total of $171.1 million so far. ...

(And it's useful to point out that the chameleon was not presented in moving View Master, so it's victory is even more impressive, yes?)

Elsewhere on the animated front, Yogi Bear is now just shy of $100 million in foreign accumulations.

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Animation's Tipping Point

Here's something you never hear or read:

"Only Warner Bros. can make money doing live action features ..."

Kind of stupid, right? But there was a remarkably similar conventional corporate wisdom that lasted for fifty years ...

"Only Disney can make money producing animated features."

This was pretty much what was heard from Culver City to Burbank from the time I was a teenager (and my old man was painting backgrounds for Sword in the Stone and Jungle Book), until the period when Jeffrey Katzenberg started to oversee new Disney blockbusters in the late eighties and early nineties. (The exception to this long-term rule being the Don Bluth-Steven Spielberg features American Tale and Land Before Time.)

But at the point where Jeffrey's band of Disney animators were creating mega-blockbusters one after the other, rival conglomerates threw long-time conventional wisdom over the rail and commenced making animated features for themselves. (Disney's billion-dollar grosses being too hard to resist.)

And whattayaknow? Every one of the big corporations, from Warners to Paramount to Ted Turner, performed multi-million dollar face-plants, cranking out flop after feature-length flop. And one by one, they exited the animation business.

Ah, but that was the 1990s and the age of the Number Two pencil. Now we are deep in the 21st century where c.g. feature-length cartoons are the new coin of the realm, and every conglomerate rakes in the long green with their own brands of computer-generated toonage. Universal has Chris Meladandri's Despicable Me. Disney has Pixar and its traditional house brand (Toy Story 3, Tangled.). Fox has Blue Sky Animation and the Ice Age franchise. Lastly, Viacom owns Nickelodeon and its DreamWorks Animation distribution deal. (Even though that deal may now be in jeopardy.)

With the release of Rango from yet another "new" animation studio (the visual effects shop Industrial Light and Magic), we are light-years past the moldy idea that only a chosen few can make animation. The genre is now the highest flying sector of long-form motion pictures for every big entertainment company, with a higher rate of success, more lucrative overseas grosses, and bigger sales in the DVD and Blu-ray markets than any other product Hollywood makes.

Little wonder then that more and more companies are tripping over themselves to set up animated production slates and create their own ninety minutes of box office magic. The axiom that "Only Disney can make any money doing animation" is more outdated than black-and-white silent melodramas.

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March Horse Race

Now with electric Add On.

With the first weekend in March, it appears another animated feature has climbed to the top of the box office chart. As the Nikkster tells us:

... Paramount's Rango appears headed to $11 million Friday going to $40 million and probably more. That's a feat considering it's a non-summer 2D toon and the kiddies aren't even out of school today. ...

Note: When Nikke says "2D", she means you don't put on the plastic goggles to watch the picture in Genuine Moving View Master..

Add On: Rango now looks as though it will end up in the high thirties. The breakdown:

1. Rango (Paramount) NEW [3,917 Theaters] -- Friday $9.6M, Estimated Weekend $38M

2. The Adjustment Bureau (MRC/Universal) NEW [2,840 Theaters] -- Friday $6.7M, Estimated Weekend $21M

3. Beastly (CBS Films/Sony) NEW [1,952 Theaters] -- Friday $3.5M, Estimated Weekend $10M

4. Hall Pass (New Line/Warner Bros) Week 2 [2,950 Theaters] -- Friday $2.7M (-41%), Estimated Weekend $8.5M, Estimated Cume $26.5M

5. Just Go With It (Sony) Week 4 [2,920 Theaters] -- Friday $1.9M, Estimated Weekend $6.7M, Estimated Cume $88.4M

6. Unknown (Dark Castle/Warner Bros) Week 3 [2,913 Theaters] -- Friday $1.8M, Estimated Weekend $6.5M, Estimated Cume $53M

7. The King's Speech (The Weinstein Co) Week 15 [2,240 Theaters] -- Friday $1.6M, Estimated Weekend $6.5M, Estimated Cume $123.8M

8. I Am Number 4 (DreamWorks/Touchstone/Disney) Week 3 [2,903 Theaters] -- Friday $1.6M, Estimated Weekend $6M, Estimated Cume $46.7M

9. Gnomeo & Juliet (Disney) Week 4 [2,984 Theaters] -- Friday $1.5M, Estimated Weekend $6.5M, Estimated Cume $83.3M

10. Take Me Home (Rogue/Relativity) NEW [2,003 Theaters] -- Friday $1.2M, Estimated Weekend $3.5M

So. We've got two animated features in the Top Ten, and both of them performing admirably. Not shabby.

Add On Too: Despite Rango's robust debut, the L.A. Times is pessimistic about domestic box office:

A diverse crop of four new movies premiering this weekend wasn't enough to bring the box office out of its recent slump. ... [t]hat worsened a severe downward trend, with box office receipts down 21% year to date ...

And Add On the Third: New York Mag weighs in with its analysis:

How It All Went Down: Equal parts Chuck Jones and Chuck Norris, Gore Verbinski’s animated nod to the spaghetti Western hardly seems appropriate for the youngest of kids, but that hasn’t stopped parents from loading the minivan anyway. And if you think Rango is cleaning up now, when just 3 percent of kids are on spring break, imagine how it’s going to be doing in two weeks' time when a third of all schools are on vacation. ...

So I guess the experts assume the lizard will have holding power, yes?

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A sneak preview ..

... below the fold, of tonight's Women In Animation show, opening at Gallery 839 this evening.

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A TAG Member Writes

We have a number of multi-hyphenates in The Animation Guild, but animation veteran Dave Smith is one of the few (Tom Sito would be another) who's written and published historical non-fiction. ...

Lifting the Silence tells the story of Canadian bomber pilot Sydney Smith (Dave's father) who, shot down over occupied Europe, makes his way across France to neutral Spain. He would never have made it without the assistance of a group of young women from the Belgian Resistance Evasion Line -- who put themselves at high risk guiding downed fliers through France and the Pyrenees mountains to the safety of Spain. If not for these fearless women, many allied fliers would have perished in prison camps.

As author and veteran Murray Peden writes:

... [U]ntil S.P. Smith was shot down and began his trek back to freedom with friends of the resistance movement, his story, to me, was an account I could easily visualize, studded as it was with experiences I later duplicated.

The second half of the book covered experiences of a type we had been alerted to, but which I, fortunately, had never had to undergo. The details of Smith’s experiences with the underground, particularly the arduous tramp through the Pyrenees etc. I found even more interesting. The writing, throughout, is of high calibre, making the book a joy to read.

... I really do appreciate the combination we have here, namely, a story with an abundance of human interest, told in a competent, disciplined style that flows like a brook.

The concluding portions of the book were doubly satisfying in that S.P. Smith was actually able to contact his guardian angels again, and the joyous satisfaction of that highly desirable accomplishment flows out to the reader. ...

Congratulations to Dave for creating some compelling World War II history, and double congrats for getting the book published.

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High Flying Cartoons

... of both the live-action and computer-generated variety. (And how it's just so aw-ful that the things are getting made!):

As the trades speculate whether Rango will collect $40 million this weekend (or will it be $50 million?), Mark Harris at GQ whines about how American films have gone to hell in a cast-iron handcart, and it's all little more than comic book movies and animated features now.

... [I]t is technically possible that some years hence, a magazine article will begin with the sentence, "Stretch Armstrong's surprising journey to a Best Picture nomination began when..." But for now, let's just admit it: Hollywood has become an institution that is more interested in launching the next rubberized action figure than in making the next interesting movie. ...

We can all acknowledge that the world of American movies is an infinitely richer place because of Pixar and that the very best comic-book movies, from Iron Man to The Dark Knight, are pretty terrific, but the degree to which children's genres have colonized the entire movie industry goes beyond overkill. More often than not, these collectively infantilizing movies are breeding an audience—not to mention a generation of future filmmakers and studio executives—who will grow up believing that movies aimed at adults should be considered a peculiar and antique art.

Wah and waah.

Earth to Harris: Hollywood has been interested infantalizing the viewing public for decades, especially if there are Big Bucks involved. And if, in 2011, the public flocks to live-action or actual cartoons, that is what Tinsel Town will give them, because the place is not a Florentine art shop but a lot of big, international conglomerates that are interested in making the most money in the shortest amount of time ...

But the caricature that Mr. Harris paints isn't exactly true. As he mentions the exception of Ben Affleck's The Town to the popcorn movie rule, so are there films like Black Swan, True Grit and The Fighter that were made on small budgets yet have raked in large profits. And whatever else they might be, they are distinctly not cartoons. (And some executive or other had to greenlight the things to get them produced.)

To yearn for the glory days of 1973, whem small films had leverage, Peter Bogdanavich was in full flower, and a big release was 300 prints circulating west of the Mississippi, is just silly. In the 21st century, young eyeballs occupy themselves with computer screens and and smart phones and fifty-inch flat panels with surround sound in the family recreation room. Nobody who counts themselves non-delusional should expect the movie industry to cling to business models forty years out of date. (The music business attempted the feat and the music business is now in receivership.)

Guaranteed money-spinners platformed worldwide are now the norm, except there are no guarantees anymore, as smarter motion picture execs acknowledge. Movie stars used to insure higher returns, but nowadays? Not so much. ("Cancel our bowling night, sugar pie! Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie have just opened at the Bijou in 'The Tourist'!") Today, studios place many of their bets on animated features because animated features are currently profitable. For much the same reason, directors with a high-grossing film under their belts, and a story they want to get up onto the screen, are getting their pictures made.

In the case of the Coen brothers, the picture was True Grit. For Darren Aronofsky, it was Black Swan. And for Gore Verbinksi, it was an animated feature about a chameleon (a two-fer!) Film-makers with track records will usually find a way to muscle the movies they want to get made into production, even if the movies are quirky and don't look like a sure bet.

Because, despite the conglomerates' best efforts, there are no sure bets. And enough of the powers-that-be know it to enable off-beat features to get made.

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The New Pretender

Now with rich, creamy Add On.

... to the animation throne.

Success for Paramount's 'Rango' could lead to end of deal with DreamWorks... Computer animation is one of Hollywood's few growth industries, with nearly every major studio now wanting to stake a claim ... It's a landscape that few foresaw as recently as 2006, when Paramount and DreamWorks entered into a seven-year pact for the Viacom Inc.-owned studio to distribute the movies of the newly independent animation company.

... Paramount has two animated movies following "Rango": Steven Spielberg's ... "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn," ... and another "SpongeBob" picture.

When animated features are pulling down five hundred ... seven hundred ... or a billion dollars at the world box office, every conglomerate wants to get into the act.

I'm not totally sure that Rango is going to be this season's animated blockbuster, but so far the reviews are encouraging, so what do I know? Maybe Gore Verbinski's latest movie will be the next $200 million darling.

If it is, you can plunk down money on a future that will see even more corporate players jumping into the long-form cartoon business.

Add On: The Hollywood Reporter tells us that Rango is shooting for a REALLY BIG weekend:

Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount's "Rango", voiced by Johnny Depp, is expected to score the best debut of the year when rolling out Friday in 3,917 theaters.

Most believe that "Rango" -- reteaming Depp with Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski -- will gross north of $40 million for the weekend ...

We'll see how the grosses pan out, won't we?

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Starz Unloads

... a large piece of its Canadian digital studio.

A Canadian group is buying control of Starz Animation Toronto, a digital media studio that created the recently released feature film "Gnomeo & Juliet."

Financial terms of the transaction aren't being disclosed.

Starz LLC will continue to own a minority stake in the studio but plans to focus on live action-TV programming. ...

Starz has been looking to get out of the animation business for some little while. What the company really wants to pursue is movies and t.v. with flesh and blood actors, not animated stuff. When it ended up with California and Ontario cartoon studios after a stock swap with IDT Entertainment a few years ago, parts of Starz's freshly-acquired animation subsidiaries shuttered almost immediately. (The company's fledgling feature animation division closed within months.)

Starz's California studio was close to being sold until a disagreement over corporate financial obligations scotched the deal. But we're betting that the big cable company won't be running any cartoon businesses for very much longer.

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The Rich Get ...

In this case, arrested.

A friendly correspondent directed our attention to this:

Quebec provincial police have issued an arrest warrant for Ronald Weinberg, the former head of defunct children's television production company Cinar, in connection with a $120-million fraud.

Warrants have also been issued for the arrest of two asset management executives. John Xanthoudakis, president of Norshield Financial Group, and Lino Pasquale Matteo, president of Mount Real, are sought by police in connection with the alleged fraud.

So maybe these folks will end up in a fine Canadian jail ...

But that's Canada for you. Down here, they'd get a government bailout and a nice plaque from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

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Your Wednesday Night Linkage

A little mid-week reading and viewing matter:

20th-Century Fox's new international trailer (and short featurette here.)

Mouse Planet's two-part report on the animated feature it claims "saved the Disney feature animation department." (Maybe it did, maybe it didn't.)

Woody and Buzz, together again.

... [Tom Hanks and Tim Allen] are attached to star in the live-action adaptation of the Disney theme park ride, being produced by Mandeville’s David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman, riding high as part of the producing team behind The Fighter. ...

The Weinsteins face a new lawsuit. (Again.)

Protocol Pictures partners Tony Leech and Brian Inerfeld filed a 60-page legal claim today against The Weinstein Company in New York State Supreme Court. The $50 million suit is over their removal from the animated film "Escape From Planet Earth", and it is a colorful document containing a litany of volatile charges ranging from the assertion that Harvey and Bob Weinstein were out of control, and tried to hush up the plaintiffs by giving them $500,000 to keep quiet the complaint until the Oscars were over. ...

Speaking of Animation has a new podcast up of Mike Mitchell and Walt Dohrn, director and head of story for Shrek Forever After.

Megamind rockets to the top of the charts.

"Megamind" has become the first cartoon this year to score a triple play on all three home video charts.

DreamWorks Animation's superhero comedy, a relative disappointment at the worldwide box office with sales of $319 million, debuted at No. 1 on both Nielsen VideoScan's DVD and Blu-ray Disc sales charts and on Home Media Magazine's rental chart for the week ending February 27.

What made this feat all the more amazing was that the disc was released on a Friday instead of a Tuesday, so sales and rental data are drawn from just three days instead of the usual six. ...

Hasbro is making changes in its L.A. animation unit:

... Hasbro Studios, the L.A.-based production and distribution arm of Hasbro, Inc., has split its creative teams into separate series development and current programming groups, the studio announced Wednesday. ...

Have yourselves a fine and productive Thursday and Friday.

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Adult Animation, Derivative Animation

Andrew O'Hehir of Salon thinks adult animation is upon us.

... [A]s the kidult, media-saturated generations raised since the '70s have grown in consumption power and produced their own offspring, the polarity of animated films has gradually but decisively shifted. ... Pixar has understood for years that its principal demographic is adult viewers, and not necessarily just parents. The studio itself has grown up alongside two or three generations of viewers who have no animus against animation, and who are happy to engage with "cartoons" both as a nostalgic exercise and a valid storytelling medium. ...

In-between praising the animation staff of Emeryville, labeling DreamWorks Animation's output as "purposefully idiotic" and "kid-oriented," and observing that ILM's spanking new animated Rango is filled with references to classic Westerns, O'Hehir notes:

[My six-year-old son] correctly observed afterward, ["Toy Story 3's"] story has a great deal in common with "The Brave Little Toaster," ... (Indeed, the striking similarities might provoke a lawsuit -- if both movies weren't Disney properties.) ...

Of course, John Lasseter was involved with Toaster when it was in development at Disney Feature Animation in the early 1980s, so plot points might have been percolating in his head. Who knows?

I bring it up to highlight the reality that good, newer features often share plots, story-points and dialogue with older movies. As How to Train Your Dragon has similarities to E.T. and other "Boy and his X" motion pictures all the way back to The Yearling, so does the latest Toy Story resemble a hand-drawn feature from a quarter century ago. That happened to have lots of input from Mr. Lasseter and the late Pixar story wizard Joe Ranft.

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IATSE VFX Organizer announces another public meeting

Jim Goodman has announced a public and open meeting for visual effects artists on March 13th at the Johnnie Carson Park in Burbank. In an email sent to interested parties, Jim writes:

In light of the great turnout for our last picnic at the beach (in spite of the fog rolling in), numerous shout outs during awards season acknowledging the important role Unions and Guilds have played in advancing the careers of the winners, pilot season, increased traffic in the blogosphere (and the soon-to-be-unveiled IATSE sites); we will be holding another picnic on Sunday March 13 at 1:00 pm at Johnny Carson Park in Burbank. The park is located on Bob Hope Drive; equidistant between Alameda and Riverside Drive; just to the east of NBC.

The IATSE is specifically inviting visual effects artists working at Warner Bros., Disney, NBC/Universal, Stargate, and all independent visual effects studios in the San Fernando Valley/Burbank/Glendale/Pasadena area. Artists working at the six major motion picture studios should be aware that by signing a union authorization card, and the IATSE achieving majority status at your employer, the IATSE BASIC AGREEMENT would automatically go into effect. That's why we really want to see YOU there.

If you have friends who live or work in the San Fernando Valley, or at any of the Major Studios, please let them know that we really want to see them there. There will be a simultaneous meeting in Vancouver and we hope to coordinate our requests for recognition to eliminate any incentives for employers to move work from the US to Canada.

Should you have any questions, you can contact the IATSE at jgoodman@iatse-intl.com

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You can find the location of the park at this link. Look forward to seeing you there!

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A new era for ASIFA Hollywood?

From a press release we received this morning:

ASIFA-Hollywood has announced the selection of its new President, Frank Gladstone, at its February board meeting. Gladstone replaces Antran Manoogian who held the position for over 20 years.

Longtime ASIFA Hollywood vp [and TAG President Emeritus] Tom Sito chose not to run for re-election; taking his place is Jerry Beck.

Also joining Gladstone as a new board officer is Jeff Wike as treasurer; Bill Turner returns as secretary.

“First and foremost, we owe Antran Manoogian an enormous amount of respect and admiration for his many years of selfless devotion to ASIFA-Hollywood,” says Gladstone. “Antran has seen the organization through a period of unparalleled growth and success, going from a small club to an organization of over 4000 members. During his stewardship, Antran established, among many achievements, a digital archive, and built the Annie Award into the most important honor in animation.”

Gladstone continued, “Though I’ve been part of ASIFA and the animation community for a long time, I am looking forward to being the ‘new face’ of the organization and to making some significant changes to the status quo. For starters, this includes updating our membership qualifications, establishing a representative voice for every animation studio and creative technique, building an advisory board of animation luminaries and revising the voting structure of the annual Annie Awards.”

In the next few weeks ASIFA-Hollywood will be holding meetings with executives from all the major studios to get their input on how we can improve our infrastructure. ASIFA-Hollywood will take this time to ask its members, both individual and corporate, to come together and advise them on how best to chart the course for decades to come. In addition they will invite many of its members to join the executive board.

Frank Gladstone has been a professional animator, producer, director, writer and teacher, first managing his own studio, and then working in management positions for Disney, Warner Bros. and DreamWorks, among others. He is currently the CEO of the animation consulting firm, Gladstone Film, teaches worldwide and is the ‘artist-in-residence’ for the ACME Network.

Jerry Beck, former Nickelodeon and Disney studio exec, cartoon producer and animation historian is taking his place. Beck has written 15 books on animation, and has programmed many major retrospectives. He currently co-writes the industry blog, “Cartoon Brew” and teaches animation history at Woodbury University in Burbank.

Bill Turner is a Production Supervisor at Disney Television Animation. He has been active in ASIFA-Hollywood since 1978 and has served as the organization’s secretary since the 1990s. In 2009 he was presented with the June Foray Award for his decades of service.

Today, ASIFA-Hollywood, founded by renowned voice actress June Foray and animators Bill Littlejohn, Carl Bell and Ward Kimball, among others, is the largest of an international network of chapters and supports a range of animation initiatives through its membership. In addition to the annual Annie Awards honoring the best in animation, current projects include an animation archive, library and museum, classes and screenings, and animated film preservation.

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Talking to Jerry Eisenberg -- Part II

One of Jerry Eisenberg's fondest work experiences was the above. ... And we continue with our interview with Mr. E. ...

TAG Interview with Jerry Eisenberg

*Click to listen in your browser. Right-Click and Save to download to your computer to listen later.

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

After we finished the interview, Jerry told me a story that bears repeating:

"I'd been with a studio working as a supervisor, and I had a contract that was up for re-negotiation. But things weren't going well with the negotiation, we kept hitting snags, the managers I was dealing with wouldn't finalize a deal and I couldn't figure out why.

"So one day one of the heads of the studio comes into my office, and I tell him the negotiations aren't going well and what is going on? And he says to me: 'You really want to know? And this time I'll tell you the truth ...'

"'This time' he'll tell the truth? It made me wonder what he'd been telling me all the other times." ...

The players change, but few things really ever change.

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