Thursday, September 15, 2011

Renovations and Relocations

I journeyed to Disney TVA Sonora today, and discovered that the place was a noisy construction zone. Staffers told me:

"The construction crews have picked up their pace around here. All the Disney Television Animation artists and directors at the Frank Wells Building on the lot move over to Sonora early next week. The noise is pretty disruptive ..."

They're completely remaking the second floor of Sonora. It was configured for two or three direct-to video features, now they'll be making two series up there." ... "Cement has been falling off the first-floor ceiling where theyre jack-hammering the second floor. ..."

"Richard Ross wanted all the units who report to him on the Burbank lot. Disney TVA reports to the Channel, not Ross, so they're vacating their third floor space in Frank Wells ..."

While I was there, the noise and foot-traffic was intense. A Glendale fire marshal was going around with the hard-hat guys, checking things off his list. And as I left, artists told me that management had told them they could go home, since the work environment was ... not really optimum.

The Sonora remodel is the second in four years. (Might be more than that, depending on how you count. Each floor has gone through one or two renovations prior to this one.)

So Disney is moving along, expanding its animation production for the small screen. But unlike DreamWorks Animation, its going in a different direction overseas:

... Disney backed away from its strategy of producing local language films with local actors and made the decision to close the small Burbank office overseeing the effort in June.

... When Ross saw big box office returns on Pirates 4 ($65M in Russia) and Cars 2 in those same countries, he decided it made more sense to spend the money on marketing and distributing the studios’ franchise films than to bank on local talent. ...

Apparently no more Roadside Romeos for Diz Co. (Or maybe this applies only to live-action?)

10 comments:

Phineas A. Ferb said...

Waiting for the inevitable "What is happening with Snow Queen, Steve?" question to come up in...

3...

2...

1...

Anonymous said...

What's happening with "Snow Queen", Steve? Are they working out the story problems?

Anonymous said...

Steve, do you know if DisneyToon studios will make more TinkerBell movies after "Secret of the Wings" (the fith one, out in 2012)?

Anonymous said...

I'm waiting for someone to throw in a few political rants. This blog is a few steps away from becoming a bingo game. Make a board that has

Snow Queen
Floyd Norman bashing
Greedy Republican scum
Dream Works sucks
Tangled lost money
Astro-boy rocked

and a few others I'll rely on others to offer up on a bingo card and mark them off during the week come Friday I bet you'll have a bingo of not a black out card.

Anonymous said...

What's happening with "Snow Queen", Steve? Are they working out the story problems?

John Lasseter said it will be made "over his comatose body" or words similar to those words. ( I wasn't anywhere around when they were spoken, but I heard it from a guy who heard it from a street person who heard if fourth hand.)

The "Snow Queen" story crew committed mass binge eating.

Ed Catmull endorsed all the actions and decisions made above.

What else you want to know?

Anonymous said...

What? Floyd Norman's awesome. Who the heck bashes him?

Anonymous said...

^Lots of trolls that frequent this blog and for no apparent reason.

Anonymous said...

Ed Catmull endorsed all the actions and decisions made above.

LOL! So true. That's all he ever does. He just agrees with whatever Lasseter decides.

Anonymous said...

Steve, since this post is about Disney Television Animation, could you tell us anything about the upcoming Disney Jr. shows "Sofia the First" and "7D"?

stevenem said...

@4:24,

You left Rango off your bingo card.

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