Saturday, July 11, 2009

Gossip Guys

What with cleaning out my office and preparing for the next round of TAG contract negotiations, I didn't get out to as many studios as usual over the past week. However, I motor to a couple of larger cartoon facilities, and fell into conversation with animation artists and a director who were interested in sharing scuttlebutt, which they proceeded to do (And let's list this under scuttlebutt, not gospel truth.  Some of it is circulating on the intertubes already):

* Upper management at Cartoon Network is coming to the realization that -- gawrsh -- animation is more cost-effective and generates more profits over time than much of CN's live-action efforts. (This flies in the face of some published rumors -- see link below -- that Cartoon Network is going for more reality, sports and live action in the hear future. But how many reality shows are the small-fry supposed to gobble up, after all?)

* CN's Chowder is finished, and so probably is Flapjack. And not all of CN's management is crazy about their new, glass-walled digs in the skyscraper next to the older, CN studio in Burbank Village.

* John Lasseter wants to do more classical fairy tales with songs, of the type Walt used to do.

* The plan of Disney Animation Studio management is to have all of the hand-drawn crew from Princess and the Frog return for the Winnie the Pooh feature in several months. (And some will be retained at the end of P and F to work on a hand-drawn short or two ...)

* Fox/Gracie isn't going to be thrilled with all the new cost-cutting measures on The Simpsons because ... the show doesn't look as good as it did before the cost-cutting measures. But Richard Reynis got a raise anyway.

Like I say, some of the above is scurrilous rumor, but it's what's going around at different studios.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

And what does "reynis" rhyme with?

Unknown said...

Flapjack is getting its budget approved for a third season, which I'm happy for. The cast and crew will be able to keep their jobs and the upcoming seasons will continue to be amazing. As for Chowder, that link you showed stated that Chowder's fate will be known next week. If it does get renewed, then it may come back with a completely different crew.

Mike Milo said...

I'm not sure any of this is true... but I sure hope it is!

Anonymous said...

Steve Hulett,

Again. Will you do us a favor and resist announcing the demise of Flapjack and crew because you overheard some staffers tell you it was so. At this time we are still here and waiting to find out what will happen next. You don't know yet and so stirring the rumor mill still doesn't help. It only raises the stress level. Please be a better representative of our business and wait till you know something official instead of whispering about it on your gossip blog.

Thanks,

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