The Final Name

... We think. From the Disney Press Release:

Wreck-It Ralph (voice of Reilly) longs to be as beloved as his game’s perfect Good Guy, Fix-It Felix (voice of McBrayer). Problem is, nobody loves a Bad Guy. But they do love heroes… so when a modern, first-person shooter game arrives featuring tough-as-nails Sergeant Calhoun (voice of Lynch), Ralph sees it as his ticket to heroism and happiness. He sneaks into the game with a simple plan—win a medal—but soon wrecks everything, and accidentally unleashes a deadly enemy that threatens every game in the arcade. ...

For those keeping score at home: This feature began life as Joe Jump, back in the David Stainton days, then went into hibernation, then got revived (and revised) as Reboot Ralph and is now Wreck-It Ralph.

I'm informed that as of last week, there were three layout artists on the picture, and that the goal is to get an inventory of layouts before hiring a crew of animators.

On another front, I was at DreamWorks Animation this A.M. and today I did get questions about "gap time," with animators and some other artists taking sabbaticals, and a number of production people (who we don't represent) getting laid off. The company is doing some restructuring and repositioning, since Croods is still holding sequences back for story work, and DreamWorks is doing a bit less animation with its reduced number of scheduled features (five features over two years, instead of six.)

I'm told that the animation for Puss in Boots is scheduled for completion in July, but some artists figure it will slop over into August.

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The Mark Dindal Interview -- Part I

Mark Dindal began his professional life in animation as an effects animator, but for the last two decades he's worked as a director of animated features ...

TAG Interview with Mark Dindal

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

Like a lot of artists working in the biz, Mark was bitten by the bug when he was watching a Disney animated feature:

"It was Sword and the Stone and it was the witches' duel. We had a black-and-white set at home and the colors were so vibrant. As I watched it, I knew what I wanted to do for a career ..."

.

He's been pursuing that career for the last few decades with quite satisfactory results ...

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In A Box?

The Wrap points to what's kind of obvious ... and has been for awhile.

... “Katzenberg started this business hoping to create a Disney,” Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities, told TheWrap, referring to DreamWorks. “It’s 10 years later, and it’s not quite Disney yet.” ...

It's not even Pixar. ...

Oh ... snap!

DreamWorks Animation isn't Pixar for two reasons: 1) Some of its films haven't been the monster hits equal to the Emeryville studio's output, and 2) DreamWorks Animation has produced a lot more animated features, year over year, than Pixar.

Seven or eight years ago, Pixar and DWA had similar profiles. Both were stand-alone animation houses, and both had business models that stipulated each studio's animated features would be hits. Otherwise DreamWorks Animation and/or Pixar would be in waist-deep doo doo.

In 2011 the situation is different. Pixar is now just another division of the Disney empire (a magical transformation from indie to subsidiary that has made Steve Jobs Disney's largest stock-holder, and also one of the richest.)

But DreamWorks Animation still flies solo. Despite energetic denials, I don't doubt that Jeffrey K. would sell the Glendale and Redwood City units for the right price. Trouble is, the "right price" is probably near Pixar's sell point, which is probably more than our fine, entertainment conglomerates want to pay. (Viacom might be willing, but doesn't have the bread; Time-Warner continues to muck about with Animal Logic, Disney is obviously out; Comcast-Universal has its own new feature animation group with Illumination Entertainment.)

What then, is an independent cartoon factory to do? Probably, for the moment, more of what it's been doing. Features will continue to flow forth from Glendale, earning profitable sums that aren't profitable enough for finicky Wall Street. And Mr. Katzenberg will keep casting about for more and larger cash streams.

In short, the high-wire act will continue, and DWA's feature library will keep on growing. And when some large, hungry entertainment conglomerate is willing enough and eager enough, DreamWorks Animation will go on the sales block.

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The Derby Abroad

... for the weekend of June 10-12. And it looks like KFP 2 is our winner.

... Kung Fu Panda 2 made its debut in the weekend’s No. 1 box office spot on the foreign theatrical circuit, grossing $56.5 million from 11,025 screens in 45 territories.

The tally was buoyed by the 3D animation sequel’s solid openings in 17 overseas markets. Total foreign gross for Panda 2 has exceeded the $200-million mark (cume is $205 million) ...

Meantime, the bear is just shy of $127 million stateside, so that gives the latest DWA release a running total of $332 million three weeks into its global release cycle.

And of course, Fox's Rio is still out in the foreign multiplexes, with $329.5 million in its tote bag thus far, which gives it a grand total of $467.3 million.

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TV Land

Cartoon Network and Warner Bros. Animation continue to thunder along nicely in the ratings game:

... Earning dramatic double-digit gains vs. the same week last year, Cartoon Network’s weekly early evening (7-9 p.m.) delivery increased between 30-40% across key kid demos: kids 6-11 delivery (623,000) increased by 34%, kids 2-11 delivery (917,000) increased by 30%, and kids 9-14 delivery (447,000) increased by 40%. In Total Day, kids 6-11 average delivery (396,000) grew by 7%, kids 2-11 delivery (594,000) grew by 2% and kids 9-14 delivery (303,000) grew by 10%.

As I've said before, this is a dandy turn around from a couple of years ago, when CN's live-action offerings were falling flat and other shows didn't appear to be gaining much traction.

What a difference thirty-six months make:

Adventure Time (8 p.m.), Regular Show (8:15 p.m.), and MAD (8:30 p.m.)—also ranked #1 in their timeslots among kids 2-11 and kids 6-11. Tuesday night’s The Looney Tunes Show (8 p.m.) stood out as the #1 ranked show in its timeslot on all television among all kids and boys demos ages 2-11, 6-11 and 9-14. ...

Sucesses and failures seem to go in cycles. In the course of the two decades, most every studio in L.A. has ridden high and then come crashing back to earth. But it's nice to see a couple of time-honored cartoon factories doing well. (Scuttlebutt has it that Cartoon Network is looking at space inside the Yahoo Building next to the Burbank Airport. Disney Television Animation is already in residence.)

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The June 10-12 Derby

Deadline H. tells the story:

1. Super 8 (Bad Robot/Amblin/Paramount) NEW [3,379 Runs] Friday $12.2M, Estimated Weekend $35M

2. X-Men: First Class (Fox) Week 2 [3,692 Runs] Friday $8M (-64%), Estimated Weekend $27M, Estimated Cume $99M

3. The Hangover Part II (Warner Bros) Week 3 [3,644 Runs] Friday $5.7M, Estimated Weekend $17.5M, Estimated Cume $215.3M

4. Kung Fu Panda 2 (DWA/Paramount) Week 3 [3,929 Runs] Friday $4.6M, Estimated Weekend $17.5M, Estimated Cume $128M

5. Pirates Of The Caribbean 4 (Disney) Week 4 [3,433 Runs] Friday $3.1M, Estimated Weekend $11.5M, Estimated Cume $209.3M

6. Bridesmaids (Universal) Week 5 [2,922 Runs] Friday $3.1M, Estimated Weekend $10.5M, Estimated Cume $124M

7. Judy Moody (Relativity) NEW [2,524] Friday $2.2M, Estimated Weekend $5.5M

8. Midnight In Paris (Sony Classics) Week 4 [944 Theaters] $1.8M, Estimated Weekend $7M, Estimated Cume $15.5M

9. Thor (Marvel/Paramount) Week 6 [1,782 Runs] Friday $700K, Estimated Cume $2M, Estimated Cume $173.3M

10. Fast Five (Universal) Week 7 [1,329 Runs] Friday $550K, Estimated Cume $1.8M, Estimated Cume $205.2M ...

The fifth place Panda 2 has now collected $264.7 million from around the world, with more openings this weekend. But the 3D premium seems to be receding in many venues. As Britain's Daily Mail notes:

Kung Fu Panda 2 opens in cinemas this weekend and the industry is praying that the chubby panda with a knack for martial arts will kickstart box office takings for 3D films, which like many cinema-goers are beginning to give film studios a headache. ...

Kung Fu Panda 2 was released in the US on Memorial Day weekend at the end of May, a popular time to see films at the cinema in America, but more people watched in 2D rather than 3D ...

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More Belt Tightening

It's not just Disney that's handing out pink slips.

Warner Bros Lays Off 50 In Home Entertainment & Consumer Products

That's about 1% of the Warner Bros' total domestic work force. ... “As part of the continual review of our business operations, Warner Bros. Entertainment will be undertaking limited staff reductions in our home entertainment and consumer products divisions."

Happily, Warner Bros. Animation has been expanding for the past year and a half, but as an artist at another (large) studio said to me on the phone today:

"We just got told there's not going to be anymore authorization for overtime. So what are we supposed to do? We can't get the work done in forty hours. Our unit doesn't want to do uncompensated o.t., but the guys across the building our willing to do it. What are we supposed to do?"

I told him I would file grievances if he wanted. He said nobody was up for something like that. I allowed how it was kind of impractical for me to sit at the studio for ten hours, chair tilted against a wall, making sure nobody was working unpaid o.t.

He got my point.

The reality is, studios will do whatever they can to keep expenses down. Another artist complained recently that an exec said to him: "You know how lucky you are to be working here?" And the artist resented it. I let him know that Disney manager Ed Hansen told me the same thing in 1977.

Tried and true techniques seldom change. The overarching goal is to keep employees uncertain ... and willing to work without complaining or asking for a raise. Which is why the strategy is used, over and over. It's about squeezing costs until they all bleed out.

Belt tightening.

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J. K. Explains 3D's Dip

It's really quite simple:

... I think 3D is right smack in the middle of its terrible twos. We have disappointed our audience multiple times now, and because of that I think there is genuine distrust -- whereas a year and a half ago, there was genuine excitement, enthusiasm and reward for the first group of 3D films that actually delivered a quality experience. Now that's been seriously undermined. ...

Or maybe there's a simpler explanation. Although there are 3-D films that are relatively well done (and DWA's would be high on that list) the whole format smacks of overpriced gimmickry. If you don't see IMAX, the images are dim. And nobody sees reality the way they see a 3D film, with floating objects and flat, cardboard pop-up effects. Color, on the other hand, has a grounding in the real world. You might have more saturation than you'd like, or too little, but good color films work to draw you in rather than push you away.

For me, 3D has its moments, but overall its distracting. Because forty-five years ago a famous old-timer was saying this about another film format:

"I hated Cinemascope. You've never seen a painter use that kind of composition. Even in the great murals, it still wasn't this huge tennis court. Your eyes pop back and forth, and it's very difficult to get a close up."

-- John Ford

So I don't know. Maybe 3D is the greatest thing since talkies. Maybe it's me and I'm just looking at it wrong, and it's way more than moving View Master.

Add On: Apparently Wall Street is losing its love for Dimensional Cinema:

... RealD's stock price fell 13.2% to $20.90 the day after executives responded to the Street's concerns with talking points that simply urged people not to read too much into disappointing 3D sales for just a few films. RealD shares now have lost 41.3% of their value since May 19. ...

Exhibitors also are losing patience. Regal Entertainment's stock price is down 16.7% since mid-May. Cinemark is down 12.6% since this beginning of this month. ...

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The wage survey questionnaire is on its way

Today we are mailing the questionnaires for our latest annual wage survey. Returning this survey is the easiest, the cheapest and perhaps the most important thing you can do for your Guild this year.

For those who aren't familiar: The Guild compiles an annual Wage Survey, a compilation of data from anonymous questionnaires sent to active and inactive members. We poll members to learn how much they have been paid for their most recent work in animation or CG. The results are compiled and printed in the Peg-Board and are available online. Here is our most recent wage survey.

Today the survey is being mailed to anyone who has worked under our jurisdiction in the last two years and for whom we have a mailing address, regardless of their current membership status. If you do not receive the questionnaire in the time it should have reached you by mail, call us at (818) 845-7500 and we'll mail another one to you. Next week we'll also provide a link to get a copy online. (However, please do not return more than one questionnaire.)

The questionnaire is totally anonymous. That being said, remember that under California state law no employer can discipline, intimidate or fire you for revealing your wages.

The need for this data to be available in a public forum is self-evident. First and most importantly, our employers already have this information, which makes it important for us to have it as well. (Here's to a more level playing field, say what?) Those of us applying for jobs or renegotiating their deals need the survey as a guideline to what to ask for. The Guild office frequently cites our surveys in everything from training grant applications to visa consultations, and it has been used in numerous publications.

We've made no secret that in the last few years the percentages of survey participation have been declining. At this point I'm still confident that the results are a reliable indicator of industry conditions, but I can also see it reaching a point where we have to decide whether releasing incomplete and therefore inaccurate data becomes self-defeating. To quote from a comment on a TAG Blog thread about the low response on a previous survey:

Oh yeah, be careful here fellow artists. If we actually took this seriously, discussed your wages with one another, understood the union is your advocate rather than your adversary, you just might just make better deals at negotiation time. I'll never understand why this survey isn't well into the eighty percentile or above in returns. Nobody would buy a car without researching the invoices, destination fees, taxes, licensing, and cost to insure before buying. All that information is available on line. The only way we get this kind of information for wage negotiations is from each other. So blow it off, throw it out, or draw turkeys on it. Way to take a stand against yourself. That's Genius.

For the three minutes it will take you to fill out and return the survey in its postpaid envelope, there is really no excuse. Please, return the wage survey ... for purely selfish reasons.

Add On by Hulett: We'll be firing off a lot of reminders over the next several weeks, begging and cajoling people to get the surveys in. We'll be doing a running percentage total here on the blog, letting people know how many survey forms have come back to us.

So look for further notifications and developments in and around this space, because we really, really want a higher total than the pathetic 25-30% we've gotten over the last few years. This whole exercise helps you, slaving away out there in Animationland, so get the forms back in. It's important.

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Non-Unionism

An anonymous friend (or friends) states:

[I]f I opt out of the union, the major studios will not be 'allowed' to hire me. That's not really much of a choice. ... if you're non-union the bigger studios simply won't hire you. I call that 'trapped.' ...

From my point of view, it would certainly be delightful if this were true. Sadly, it's not true.

Here's the reality: If you don't like unions, you can elect to take "financial core," status, meaning that you "opt out" of union/guild membership, but pay those parts of dues and initiation fees that go to administering and enforcing contracts, negotiating contracts, etc. Costs of political activities by the union are excluded from fees or dues paid. (In our case, "financial core" TAG participants pay around 96% of fees, as we don't donate to many political causes.)

What does "financial core" status get you?

TAG wage floors, overtime rules, dismissal pay, and everything else covered by TAG contracts. Also all pension and health benefits.

What does it exclude you from?

Participating in union elections, holding union office, or having to follow union rules (like going out on strike.)

There have been assertions that nobody gets hired by union studios if they're not "in the union." Again, I wish to God it were true, but in my time in Local 839 -- thirty-five years -- I've seen loads of financial core people working for different studios. (At Disney in the 1980s, after the '82 strike, there was over a hundred.)

There are far fewer financial core status employees at Disney and elsewhere now than twenty years ago. Some f.c.s.ers have left the business, some have returned to the union fold, some are still financial core but have forgotten they opted out thirty years ago and now assume they are union members in good standing. They're not, but I don't bring up the subject with them very much. If they think their members, who am I to argue that it's otherwise?

There's enough non-unionism and "union hate" out there. I'm not going to add to it.

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Happiest Man

... in Burbank. And worth every penny.

Walt Disney boss Robert Iger took home ... $54,917,238 last year to lead the pay table for America’s CEOs ... The ‘average’ pay for the nation’s top CEOs was $12 million last year, benefiting from a 28% median hike from 2009 ...

And as long as we're referencing Burbank:

... [T]he [Burbank] City Council this week voted to outsource all 25 crossing-guard jobs currently being overseen by the Burbank Police Department.

Police Adminstrator Josephine Wilson assured the council that even though the guards would be overseen and paid via an outside firm, they would maintain their current wages and remain at their assigned crosswalks.

But they will likely lose the health and pension benefits they currently receive as being part of the Burbank City Employees Assn. ...

The guards, of course, should be thankful they have jobs in these trying times. Because we all need to sacrifice.

Well, except for a chosen few.

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MGM's Punk Farm

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was last in animation before the Dodgers moved out of Booklyn to L.A. But everything old is new again.

M-G-M is developing an animated movie based on Punk Farm, a children’s book by Jarrett J. Krosoczka, as one of its first new projects.

David Silverman, who helmed The Simpsons movie for Fox in 2007, has been tapped to direct the feature from a script by David Stern and Jim Hecht

It's funny how things work out. Metro spent over a quarter century being the Hollywood power-house. The company had the most theatres, the biggest stars, the glossiest movies. Then it withered away to bankruptcy and nothing, while a little cartoon studio run by a guy who couldn't break into live-action films when young grew into a monster conglomerate.

And now the mighty studio that was will commence playing on Walt's turf. But why not? Everybody and their Aunt Fanny wants to get into animation.

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Employment Then, Employment Now

We put together this handy chart to point out how animation ... and animation employment ... can change in the course of 34 short months ...

For instance, three years back, DreamWorks Animation hadn't yet embarked on its ambitious "three features per year" schedule, and so had fewer employees. They've ramped up since, of course, but now have backed off their robust release pattern a bit. (Rumors circulate that DWA has "big layoffs" on the horizon. The word we get from some staffers is that there will be some targeted layoffs, but nothing major.)

Disney, which had more union employees than DreamWorks Animation in 2008 but fewer now, is comprised of three different animation units: Disney Toon Studios (the smallest), Disney Television Animation, and Walt Disney Animation Studios (the largest -- although its staffing bounces around a lot: up when a feature goes into full production and down when work is completed.)

For the rest, Nickelodeon has a few more shows and a bit higher employment; Fox Animation has added the Cleveland Show while Film Roman has lost King of the Hill. And Warner Bros. Animation, almost a ghost town in mid-2008, has revitalized itself with direct-to-video features, theatrical shorts, and a plethora of new television series.

We have some new studios on board (Bento Box and Hasbro), and some big employers (Imagi, IM Digital) that have folded their tents and gone away.

What all this demonstrates is that animation is an ever-changing landscape. There are always non-signator facilities that we're working to organize. There are never studios not in danger of shrinking, growing or vanishing altogether. Filmation was the largest L.A.-based animation studio in 1985; it was gone in February of 1989.

And though The Simpsons is the longest-lived scripted series ever, it's been through two animation studios controlled by -- at one time or another -- five different owners.

"Everything changes a little and it should,

Good ain't forever and bad ain't for good."

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The Deja Blog

Andreas Deja has gotten around to diving into the web::

... I've been meaning to start blogging for a long time. The reason is that I want to share with you my collection of classic animation artwork.

So it will be useful to visit his site from time to time, yes?

Andreas has always been devoted to hand-drawn animation. He's far less enthusiastic about its cgi cousin, but times being what they are, hand-drawn features are on the ebb and so Mr. Deja has taken a sabbatical from his long-time Disney job.

(Thanks to Tom Sito and Jamie Bolio for pointing "Deja View" our way.)

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Videos of art are magic

Below the fold, courtesy of André Nieves, his video of the opening of his "Art Is Magic" show, last Friday at Gallery 839.

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A Conversation with Willie Ito (Part II)

Caricature of Willie Ito by Jim Franzen.

Following his Disney stint, Willie found himself working for every major animation studio in town ...

TAG Interview with Willie Ito

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

A six-year run at Warner Bros. Animation (where he labored at the old "Termite Terrace" for the last twelve months of its life) was followed by a turn at Snow Ball Productions and and then fourteen years in design and layout at Hanna-Barbera. Finally wearying of the animation grind, he veered into character merchandising work with the Disney Co. in the late 1970s. And there he spent twenty-three years designing toys and collectibles, with only one trip back into animation as a key player of the small artistic team that launched Disney Television Animation.

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

"Hello, Maggie!" by Shigeru Yabu, with illustrations by Willie Ito.
The above link points to the only source we could find to purchase the book.

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Downsizing

The Mouse's studio operations continue to shrink.

Walt Disney Studios plans to cut as much as 5% of its worldwide workforce as early as next week, according to people familiar with the matter.

The movie studio would eliminate as many as 250 jobs from its staff of about 5,000 people globally, said the people, who did not want to be identified because they had not been authorized to discuss the matter. Several Disney insiders say the bulk of the cuts will be in Burbank. ...

What this means for Walt Disney Animation Studios, I donno. But probably not that management will do a permanent expansion of the feature crew anytime soon. Lean staffing seems to be the order of the day: Hire when production on a show ramps up; lay off when production (generally in 9 to 13-month increments) comes to an end.

The Visual Effects model works, of course. But I continue to believe that a deeper development slate would trigger a continuity of employment in the production end, and ultimately make a stronger, more cohesive crew. However, it doesn't look as if the studio is going that way.

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The streak continues

What streak, you ask?

Since we opened Gallery 839 in December 2009, every show that has had art for sale has sold at least one piece ...

... up to and including André Nieves's show, "Art Is Magic!", that had its successful opening last Friday night.

André's show at the Gallery will be open on Friday, June 10, 17 and 27, from 11 am to 2 pm.

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Inspired by Snow White -- A Conversation With Willie Ito (Part I)

From the moment he saw the Technicolored splendors of Disney's first animated feature, Willie Ito knew what he wanted to do by way of a career ....

TAG Interview with Willie Ito

*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

"I saw those dwarfs marching across that log bridge, and I was hooked. I knew I wanted cartooning to be my life's work."

Willie Ito grew up in San Francisco (with a two-and-a-half year residency at a World War II internment camp), but when he finished high school Mr. Ito headed for Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles to pursue his passion for drawing. However, his art education was cut short when he found himself hired by Walt Disney Productions to work on Lady and the Tramp.

From that day on, full-time college attendance was a thing of Willie's past ...

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Overseas Competition

It's not just an American rumpus room anymore (as if it ever was.) ...

Variety details how cartoon makers from beyond the seas are sniffing around the U.S. market.

(Variety link here.)

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