Commentary 21 Mar 2010 08:10 am
Outta Biz Photo
- In case you were wondering what happens to old animation studios, I thought I’d post this flyer I received in the mail yesterday. It arrived just in time for the release this week of the Astroboy DVD.
1(Click any image to enlarge.)
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Not a pretty site. All those cubicles (on pg. 3) were once filled with people manipulating images of Astroboy and Ninja Turtles. Now they’re just piles of objects to be sold. Perhaps another adventurous producer will buy it all to start a new production.
But then, I was searching to see if there was a tilted desktop pictured in the whole. Of course not. Lots of G5s though. Wonder if they have any software on them.
Oh wait. Not that one.
That one.
At least, it’ll live on in DVD.
on 21 Mar 2010 at 9:59 am 1.richard o'connor said …
I’ve been to a few of the auction when post houses were shuttering earlier this decade.
Saddest of all, the owners of the companies are usually on hand to witness their investments sell for a fraction of what they paid. I vividly recall tears welling in the eyes of one man as the auctioneer kept dropping the starting bid on his Paintbox system to $2500.
on 21 Mar 2010 at 11:56 am 2.Mark Mayerson said …
Hardware and software depreciate faster than cars do.
on 22 Mar 2010 at 6:10 am 3.slowtiger said …
I’ve been in such a folding company (from 550 down to 50), so I know this look: acres of empty office space, and some two rooms crammed with equipment for sale. Part of my equipment stems from that, and the G5 still is a fine production machine (for 2D).
And I’ve seen the production rooms of that “Happily N’ever after” failure in its last days: the employees weren’t even allowed to use the xerox or get a new pencil. When millions have been sank, companies notoriously want to save pennies.
on 22 Mar 2010 at 4:45 pm 4.akira said …
does anybody know if gatchaman got completed?
on 23 Mar 2010 at 1:29 pm 5.Joe Strike said …
The ad reminds me of the one reprinted in Leslie Carbarga’s Fleischer book when they closed their Florida studio down & were selling off their animation tables etc.
on 23 Mar 2010 at 8:29 pm 6.Laughing Dragon said …
This is so sad. Astro Boy was a wonderful little film. I lurk at Twitter, and have read posting after posting of raves and accolades from people who have recently watched the film on DVD. They’re delighted, astonished, even tearful, and glad that they gave it a chance. Imagi did a fine job. It just got let down by a crappy distributing company (Summit) and a public that has seen too many bad non-Pixar cartoons to give an actually good one a look. I wish the best for the crew behind that film. They’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.
on 23 Sep 2010 at 5:27 pm 7.Animation Fan said …
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