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After the credits rolled. Film documents the trials, triumphs of fired animators who had given their hearts to Disney
By Sean Mussenden | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted January 31, 2005
WALT DISNEY FEATURE ANIMATION FLORIDA
Opened: 1989, part of a tour at Disney-MGM Studios
Closed: 2004
Projects: Among others, three major films -- Mulan, 1998; Lilo & Stitch, 2002; Brother Bear, 2003
The memory is one most Disney animators want to forget.
A year ago, the Walt Disney Co. abruptly announced plans to shut down its local feature animation operation, showing the door to hundreds of artists who had produced some of its most memorable cartoon hits.
As the artists moved on -- succeeding or failing at starting their own companies, joining smaller animation houses, freelancing or turning to new careers -- many have tried, with difficulty, to closet painful memories of the studio's closure.
Not Tony West and Dan Lund.
The two ex-Disney animators have focused on little else for the past year, chronicling the demise of Disney's once-signature animation style from the viewpoint of the people who produced it.
The result is Dream on, Silly Dreamer, a new documentary comprised of original animation and interviews with dozens of laid-off Disney artists. It records the good times, the mid-'90s heyday of 2-D Disney movies that made some animators very wealthy. It delves heavily into the bad times for Disney's feature animators, the company's shift toward 3-D computer-generated movies and layoffs at studios on both coasts.
"I was afraid this whole thing would go down and no one would remember us. Seinfeld had a big final episode. Friends had a big final episode. I felt like we needed a big, splashy final episode," said Lund, who directed the film, which premieres today at the Animex International Festival of Animation in England.
While it's not a completely objective view -- two insiders produced it -- ex-Disney animators who have seen the movie say it accurately portrays the uncertainty, disbelief, anger and sorrow that surrounded the layoffs and closing of the studio. Many interviews were shot right after pink slips were handed out, capturing unchecked emotion.
"It's an honest accounting of how the artists felt about what happened to them. When you watch it, it's not a happy ending, but you do feel a sense of love. We loved what we did," said West, who produced the documentary.
The local animation operation, housed at Disney-MGM Studios, officially shut down in March, though layoffs began months earlier as movie projects were scrapped.
A year removed, some animators say they have come to view the closing as a blessing in disguise, giving them a needed push to start their own ventures. Other say they remain deeply affected by their dismissal.
"I have dreams that the studio reopens and they're taking us all back. Then I wake up," said Kathy Schoeppner, who specialized in animated backgrounds for Disney.
After being laid off, she opened an art gallery in Orlando to sell the work of ex-Disney artists. It started well, but a drop-off in business during the hurricanes forced her to close. Now she sets up audiovisual equipment for a local presentations company. "Ironically enough, I spend most of my time at Disney," she said, setting up for meetings at its hotels.
Some, though, have come to see the shutdown in a positive light. For five ex-Disney animators, the abrupt closing jump-started plans to open their own animation studio, Project Firefly, on the back lot of Universal Studios. Business has grown steadily, executives said.
Firefly has done work for Disney, Universal and other companies. Firefly animators produced their own pilot for an original animated comedy series called Farm Force, starring a pig, chicken and fish as superheroes. And last week, they began moving into a larger office space on Universal's back lot and expect to almost double their 30-person work force as they start on a new feature for Universal Pictures.
"For us, it was all about taking a moment in history that seemed like a problem and turning it into an opportunity," said Firefly president Dominic Carola.
That's how EA Tiburon viewed it. The Maitland-based subsidiary of Electronic Arts Inc., the world's largest video-game maker, hired about 160 people during the past fiscal year. Twenty-five came from Disney -- character animators, modelers, animated lighting specialists -- to work on the company's line of sports games.
"It's had a huge impact on EA. . . . They're some of the most outstanding talent in the industry," said Craig Hagen, the company's human resources director.
Jamie Kirschenbaum, who did special-effects animation for Disney, said he sensed the change coming at the studios and left a few months before he would have been laid off. He found a similar job in the video-game industry, working for EA in California.
The switch has been tough.
He had to leave his girlfriend behind in Orlando. And the work environment has been much more intense, he said, with longer days.
"I miss it a lot. It was an atmosphere where they really appreciated artists. It was like the country club of animation," he said.
Some hand-drawn animators are looking to branch into digital animation, with varying degrees of success.
At Genesis Orlando, a Celebration-based animation house that is producing a film that stars Donny Osmond as a Jeep named Tugger, founder Jeffrey Varab said that a veteran hand-drawn animator came looking for work.
"He came to us and said he wanted to learn digital animation. We taught him how to do it in two months. He went from basically not knowing how to use a computer to drawing these great characters," Varab said, referring to two animated gas pumps named Ma and Pa.
"I think a lot of them want to do this, but not all of them have been able to make the transition."
When word of the layoffs came down in January, Sean Ramirez, an effects artist at Disney, said most shared his reaction. "People dream of doing this job their whole life, and to have the rug pulled out from under you is pretty hard," he said.
A year later, he said, "things have a way of working themselves out." He's doing freelance work that he finds more satisfying than the work he was doing at Disney. The flexible schedule has allowed him to spend more time with his baby daughter.
His freelancing takes him regularly to the MGM Studios back lot, where he worked for seven years as a Disney animator. "It hits me there, that I'm not allowed to go back to my workplace," he said. "It makes me sad when I think about it, especially the way it ended."
Lund and West hope their film, which is scheduled to be shown at the Florida Film Festival in Orlando in April, will guide many people to think about the way it ended.
And not forget.
Sean Mussenden can be reached at smussenden@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5664.
By Sean Mussenden | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted January 31, 2005
WALT DISNEY FEATURE ANIMATION FLORIDA
Opened: 1989, part of a tour at Disney-MGM Studios
Closed: 2004
Projects: Among others, three major films -- Mulan, 1998; Lilo & Stitch, 2002; Brother Bear, 2003
The memory is one most Disney animators want to forget.
A year ago, the Walt Disney Co. abruptly announced plans to shut down its local feature animation operation, showing the door to hundreds of artists who had produced some of its most memorable cartoon hits.
As the artists moved on -- succeeding or failing at starting their own companies, joining smaller animation houses, freelancing or turning to new careers -- many have tried, with difficulty, to closet painful memories of the studio's closure.
Not Tony West and Dan Lund.
The two ex-Disney animators have focused on little else for the past year, chronicling the demise of Disney's once-signature animation style from the viewpoint of the people who produced it.
The result is Dream on, Silly Dreamer, a new documentary comprised of original animation and interviews with dozens of laid-off Disney artists. It records the good times, the mid-'90s heyday of 2-D Disney movies that made some animators very wealthy. It delves heavily into the bad times for Disney's feature animators, the company's shift toward 3-D computer-generated movies and layoffs at studios on both coasts.
"I was afraid this whole thing would go down and no one would remember us. Seinfeld had a big final episode. Friends had a big final episode. I felt like we needed a big, splashy final episode," said Lund, who directed the film, which premieres today at the Animex International Festival of Animation in England.
While it's not a completely objective view -- two insiders produced it -- ex-Disney animators who have seen the movie say it accurately portrays the uncertainty, disbelief, anger and sorrow that surrounded the layoffs and closing of the studio. Many interviews were shot right after pink slips were handed out, capturing unchecked emotion.
"It's an honest accounting of how the artists felt about what happened to them. When you watch it, it's not a happy ending, but you do feel a sense of love. We loved what we did," said West, who produced the documentary.
The local animation operation, housed at Disney-MGM Studios, officially shut down in March, though layoffs began months earlier as movie projects were scrapped.
A year removed, some animators say they have come to view the closing as a blessing in disguise, giving them a needed push to start their own ventures. Other say they remain deeply affected by their dismissal.
"I have dreams that the studio reopens and they're taking us all back. Then I wake up," said Kathy Schoeppner, who specialized in animated backgrounds for Disney.
After being laid off, she opened an art gallery in Orlando to sell the work of ex-Disney artists. It started well, but a drop-off in business during the hurricanes forced her to close. Now she sets up audiovisual equipment for a local presentations company. "Ironically enough, I spend most of my time at Disney," she said, setting up for meetings at its hotels.
Some, though, have come to see the shutdown in a positive light. For five ex-Disney animators, the abrupt closing jump-started plans to open their own animation studio, Project Firefly, on the back lot of Universal Studios. Business has grown steadily, executives said.
Firefly has done work for Disney, Universal and other companies. Firefly animators produced their own pilot for an original animated comedy series called Farm Force, starring a pig, chicken and fish as superheroes. And last week, they began moving into a larger office space on Universal's back lot and expect to almost double their 30-person work force as they start on a new feature for Universal Pictures.
"For us, it was all about taking a moment in history that seemed like a problem and turning it into an opportunity," said Firefly president Dominic Carola.
That's how EA Tiburon viewed it. The Maitland-based subsidiary of Electronic Arts Inc., the world's largest video-game maker, hired about 160 people during the past fiscal year. Twenty-five came from Disney -- character animators, modelers, animated lighting specialists -- to work on the company's line of sports games.
"It's had a huge impact on EA. . . . They're some of the most outstanding talent in the industry," said Craig Hagen, the company's human resources director.
Jamie Kirschenbaum, who did special-effects animation for Disney, said he sensed the change coming at the studios and left a few months before he would have been laid off. He found a similar job in the video-game industry, working for EA in California.
The switch has been tough.
He had to leave his girlfriend behind in Orlando. And the work environment has been much more intense, he said, with longer days.
"I miss it a lot. It was an atmosphere where they really appreciated artists. It was like the country club of animation," he said.
Some hand-drawn animators are looking to branch into digital animation, with varying degrees of success.
At Genesis Orlando, a Celebration-based animation house that is producing a film that stars Donny Osmond as a Jeep named Tugger, founder Jeffrey Varab said that a veteran hand-drawn animator came looking for work.
"He came to us and said he wanted to learn digital animation. We taught him how to do it in two months. He went from basically not knowing how to use a computer to drawing these great characters," Varab said, referring to two animated gas pumps named Ma and Pa.
"I think a lot of them want to do this, but not all of them have been able to make the transition."
When word of the layoffs came down in January, Sean Ramirez, an effects artist at Disney, said most shared his reaction. "People dream of doing this job their whole life, and to have the rug pulled out from under you is pretty hard," he said.
A year later, he said, "things have a way of working themselves out." He's doing freelance work that he finds more satisfying than the work he was doing at Disney. The flexible schedule has allowed him to spend more time with his baby daughter.
His freelancing takes him regularly to the MGM Studios back lot, where he worked for seven years as a Disney animator. "It hits me there, that I'm not allowed to go back to my workplace," he said. "It makes me sad when I think about it, especially the way it ended."
Lund and West hope their film, which is scheduled to be shown at the Florida Film Festival in Orlando in April, will guide many people to think about the way it ended.
And not forget.
Sean Mussenden can be reached at smussenden@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5664.
