With award season for 2005 winding down and the mega-merger of Pixar and Disney on the fast-track, CartoonBrew looks ahead to 2006 and the veritable glut of animated films we’ll be enduring as audience members.
2006 will be the great shake-out of computer animated features. More CG
films are planned for release in 2006 than ever before, and most of
them (at first glance) range in quality from mediocre to awful. …it’s a virtual guarantee that there’s going to be a lot of animated
flops this year. We feel that these poorly conceived, hastily executed,
unoriginal CG features will erode the cachet of CG animation, while at
the same time leveling the playing field and creating new and exciting
opportunities for films of different techniques, styles and stories.
I’m afraid they’re dead-on with these predictions. Even if there are a few nuggest of juicy independent animated goodness, it will be hard for them to be rise above the clamor of all the pretenders to Pixar’s throne.
Other predictions include the spin-off of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim to its own network; the strong pull of gravity in the Bay Area moving Animations epicenter to the north; and, of course, Pixar’s Cars will be a huge success proving that you can’t beat quality story telling.
Btw, I’ve heard quite a few rumbles coming from the WDI offices in Glendale about the arrival of Lasseter at their doorstep. (Hint: If you’re responsible for the mess that is California Adventure, start cleaning out your desk.) I’ve also heard the rumor that all production at WDFA has been stopped for review by the Pixar management team. More later, I’m sure.
[ Tags: disney, pixar, animation, wdi, wdfa, walt+disney, feature+animation, cg+animation, computer+animation, 2005, 2006, predictions, cartoon+network, cars, cars+movie, john+lasseter, imagineering ]
Wow, I can see all sides. From the employees’ point of view, it always sucks to have outsiders come in and tell you how you should be running things. But from our perspective, they’re the best in the business and quality has been inconsistent for years in WDI so it’s better for the company, the public and the long run.
What it boils down to is the people involved in the main decision making at WDI (from the mid-level up – I’m sure there are plenty of quality folks working in the trenches) have screwed up, and now they’re paying for it. It’s hard when a corporate culture is forced to change suddenly, but when it’s broken it needs to be fixed. And I think we just hired Scotty to fix this broken warp engine :)
I’m all for it as the Pixar folk certainly know how to make great movies. WDFA is in good hands, that’s for sure. I’m excited just thinking of the possibilities that this deal will produce!
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