Disney film animators say a magical era is coming to a not-so-happy computer-generated ending.
[Times photo: Michael Rondou]
Craig Grasso and his wife, Jodi, along with 9-month-old Eden, decorate their Christmas tree at home in Orlando. “The Florida studio is the closest you’re going to get to what Disney’s dream was originally,” Grasso says.
[Illustration: Craig Grasso]
Craig Grasso expressed his feelings about his employer and his dream job in this cartoon. The Disney animation artist of 10 years is among 250 Florida animation studio employees who were encouraged on Nov. 14 to move on. Disney had already closed its Tokyo and Paris studios.
Grasso’s last movie was Brother Bear. He was at work on a project called A Few Good Ghosts when production was halted.
ORLANDO - When Craig Grasso was a little boy, he saw Bambi and knew right then what he wanted to do when he grew up: work on Disney animated films.
"And I wasn't thinking I wanted to draw Bambi," Grasso says. "I was looking at the backgrounds and thinking, I want to do that."
As Jiminy Cricket sang in Pinocchio, dreams come true. For 10 years, Grasso has been an artist at Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida. He is part of the team that made Mulan, Lilo & Stitch and the latest Disney animated release, Brother Bear.
He and his wife, Jodi, a freelance graphic designer, live in a handsome house in Orlando that hums with the chatter of four kids. Daughters Sable, 31/2, and Eden, 9 months, play with a rag doll version of Woody, the cowpoke from Toy Story, as their father talks.
Grasso, an intense, articulate man who looks a decade younger than his 40 years, says, "The Florida studio is the closest you're going to get to what Disney's dream was originally.
"You talk to anybody (at the studio), and they expected to be here for 30 years."
But now he is watching the only job he ever wanted fade to black. On Nov. 14, production was halted on the Florida studio's only project, A Few Good Ghosts.
David Stainton, Disney president of feature animation, told about 250 employees of the studio, located in the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park, that they would be paid through Jan. 12.
"Stainton told us they're keeping their options open," Grasso says, "that there was no final decision about the animation studio.
"But we were encouraged to seek other employment."
This year, Disney closed its feature animation studios in Tokyo and Paris and laid off more than 100 staffers in its California and Florida studios. Animation desks from the California studio that were relics of the days of the Nine Old Men, Walt Disney's legendary animation team, were auctioned off in December.
The Disney empire was born 75 years ago when an animated mouse first strutted across movie screens in Steamboat Willie. Disney produced the first animated full-length feature film when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs whistled while they worked in 1937, and the company parlayed its animated characters into theme parks to become one of the giants of the entertainment industry.
Now the company seems poised to turn its back on the art form that first made its fortunes: 2-D animated feature films.
That stance is a major reason for the very public rift between Disney chairman and chief executive Michael Eisner and board member Roy E. Disney, who until his resignation Nov. 30 was the only remaining Disney family member involved in running the corporation. (He is the nephew of company founder Walt Disney.)
In his resignation letter, Roy Disney, who had been chairman of the animation department, slammed Eisner for causing a "creative brain drain" and held him responsible for creating a perception that the company is "rapacious, soul-less and always looking for the "quick buck.' "
In a Dec. 3 e-mail to all "cast members," as employees are called, Disney charged that Eisner "has lost sight of the vision upon which this Company was founded" and blamed him for "the exodus of too many of our most creative and inspired employees."
Eisner tried to close down the animation studios when he first came to Disney in 1984. Roy Disney won that battle. This time around, he retreated.
Eisner has shifted what remains of the company's feature animation department toward computer-generated technology. In October, Eisner told the Wall Street Journal, "We are very interested in turning animation back into the enormous profit center that it used to be."
But for a company that once dominated the industry, Disney has few animated movies of either kind in the works.
The company is reluctant to talk about its long-term plans for animation. Disney spokeswoman Heidi Trotta says the company has one traditional animated feature, Home on the Range, ready for April release, but no others in production. The California studio is working on two 3-D films, Chicken Little for 2005 and Rapunzel, which has no release date.
Trotta says other 2-D and 3-D films are in the planning stages, but she can't discuss titles or release dates. With the animation staff slashed by nearly half since 1999 and the Florida studio on the block, it isn't clear who might make them.
Generations of children have grown up with Disney's animated features. From boomers who watched Lady and Tramp follow that strand of spaghetti to a kiss, to boomers' grandkids who wish they had a cute and fluffy little monster like Stitch, Disney's animated classics have shaped our imaginations - and sold us untold millions of dollars' worth of products.
But an era seems to be coming to an end. Grasso says, "The public doesn't realize we're going away."
Disney magic, Pixar quality
Some of the biggest blockbusters of recent years have been animated films. Toy Story was the top-grossing film of 1995, and Finding Nemo is on track to take that title for 2003. In between came Monsters Inc., Toy Story 2 and Shrek.
With all those animated smashes, why would Eisner want to shut down Disney's animation units?
Not one of those movies was made by Disney studios.
"We get credit for every animated movie," Grasso says. But those four hits are computer-generated 3-D animation. Disney has never made an all-3-D animated feature.
For decades, 2-D was the dominant form of animation. Traditionally drawn and painted by hand, one frame at a time, it required teams of animators with classic artistic skills, people who could create characters, settings, an entire world on a blank page - and then bring it all to life on screen.
Though Walt Disney led the way in developing the animation industry, Disney's feature animation films have had their ups and downs. The 1940s and '50s were a golden age: Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi, Cinderella, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty.
The low point was the early '80s, when The Black Cauldron and The Fox and the Hound famously flopped. But Disney rebounded gloriously beginning in '89 with The Little Mermaid, followed by Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and, in 1994, The Lion King.
Then, in 1995, came Toy Story. The first fully computer-generated feature film was created not by Disney but by Pixar, a company formed in 1986 when the computer graphics division of Lucasfilms Inc. was purchased by Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computers.
For several years, Pixar honed its 3-D animation techniques in award-winning short films and commercials. Then it released Toy Story, co-written and directed by John Lasseter, who had once been a Disney animator.
The movie told a charming story, but what dazzled audiences was its revolutionary 3-D animation, created with Pixar's RenderMan software.
Next from Pixar came A Bug's Life, Monsters Inc., Toy Story 2 and Finding Nemo. The Incredibles is scheduled for release in 2004, Cars in 2005.
Pixar and Disney do have a deal to co-produce animated features. Many people see the Disney logo on screen and assume the company creates the films. It doesn't. Disney merely markets and distributes them. The ideas, the stories, the brilliant animation - they all come from the wonderful world of Pixar.
Even the marketing deal is now up in the air. Pixar is reported to be shopping for a new studio affiliation or considering operating independently, although talks with Disney continue.
Steven Argula of Pixar's publicity department said that because of "busy production schedules" no one from the company could comment for this story.
Clearly, Pixar has eclipsed Disney as the studio that sets the standard for animation. As Pixar's movies have cleaned up at the box office, Disney 2-D films such as Treasure Planet and Hercules have floundered.
Grasso recalls: "We had a meeting on A Few Good Ghosts, and one of the executives said, "We've got some good stuff, guys. This is Pixar quality.'
"And I thought, man, we're done. It hurt my heart."
Determined to make a bomb
Grasso says there were other discouraging signs for A Few Good Ghosts, a story about Appalachian folk art puppets that come to life to help out hapless humans.
"There were a lot of story changes. Just being in the business, you know that's a bad sign."
The Florida studio team had been working on A Few Good Ghosts for a year and a half. The team had received little input from executives, he says.
In November, several scenes finally received approval. The film's director, Barry Cook, who directed Mulan, met with the animation team, full of enthusiasm, on Nov. 13. "He was in a good mood. I know he had no idea" what was coming. The next day, the movie was shut down.
David Koenig, the author of three books about the Disney empire, says Disney executives have been itching to phase out animation. "A Few Good Ghosts was busywork. They knew they were going to shut down the studio.
"Disney's always looking for an excuse for bad news, a scapegoat. They thought Brother Bear was going to tank."
Brother Bear's opening date, Nov. 1, was a setup for failure, says Koenig, who writes a column on all things Disney at MousePlanet.com.
"This was a movie to open at Christmas or in the summer. But they opened it right after Halloween, and on a Saturday. Have you ever heard of a movie being released on a Saturday in your life?
"They were determined to make this thing bomb."
Somehow, it didn't. Brother Bear, which Grasso says cost about $100-million to make, grossed almost $78-million in its first month of release.
Koenig says the decision to shut down the Florida studio was made during the summer, but the company delayed the announcement to distance it from the closing of the studios in Paris and Tokyo. "If they had done it all at once, it would have looked terrible."
He says closing the Florida studio is particularly harsh because many of its artists transferred from California on the basis of "wild promises" from Disney that they would always have jobs. And Disney seems ready to close the studio in spite of its successes. "They did Mulan and Lilo & Stitch on their own. The movies were critical and financial successes. What else can they do?"
Disney artists "were the masters of traditional animation. Everyone has stopped doing it, so why not say, we're the only ones who can do this?"
Just like vinyl records
Perhaps 2-D animation is an art form that has simply lived out its time. Grasso isn't so sure. "We've done over 50 films. After Pixar has done 50 3-D films, will the public still be interested?"
He thinks 2-D and 3-D can co-exist: "People didn't stop painting when they invented the camera."
Disney has offered training classes in 3-D technology to Grasso and his colleagues. The animators aren't Luddites refusing to give up their pencils. Computers are used for many things in the studio, such as color application, and 3-D technology has been combined with 2-D in many movies, including Brother Bear and A Few Good Ghosts.
But the artists may not stick around for much training. Other studios are eager to hire away Disney talent.
CORE Studios in Toronto had representatives on Disney property doing interviews within days, Grasso says. DreamWorks SKG (Shrek) rented the Matrix nightclub in Orlando to give the animators a party and a pitch. Soon Pixar and Blue Sky (Ice Age) were in town as well.
Ron Estey is managing director for CORE. (Its CEO is actor William Shatner.) "It's always distressing to see any enterprise shut down," he says, "but it's great for the studios that are hiring."
CORE Digital Pictures has been in business since 1994, creating effects and animation for films (The Time Machine, SimOne) and television (Angela Anaconda). This year, it created a new division, CORE Feature Animation, and is making its first film.
The untitled project will be "our first fully animated 3-D movie, Pixar style," Estey says. "The number of animators and other staff we need for a project like this far outreaches the staff we have."
But these new jobs will be in 3-D animation, not 2-D. Estey expects 3-D's dominance of the industry to continue. "You can look at things like anime, which is certainly based in 2-D. There are niches that are fruitful. And there are niches that have had their day."
He says 2-D "may end up being like vinyl records. Vinyl records went away, but now for a very specialized kind of audiophile, they serve a need."
But traditional animation skills are needed in 3-D studios, he says. "It's essential to be able to understand and draw animated movement. The computer training is almost incidental.
"In our experience a number of our very best computer animators have backgrounds in sculpture, in drawing, in traditional animation. The computer is just a different tool, a different brush."
Some Disney artists already have job offers from other studios, while some are flying around the country for follow-up interviews. A few have their houses on the market and are packing, Grasso says. "A lot of them are waiting on this Jan. 12 thing, hoping they won't have to leave."
What goes on the T-shirts?
There are rumors the studio shutdown might be temporary, Grasso says. Disney's animators work on contract, for the duration of a movie project, and there is some talk one might come through.
But Grasso says he and many of his colleagues can't wait for weeks or months.
"If I was single, I'd go work at Starbucks for four months. But I can't do that. I look at Sable and Eden, and I have to do what's right for them. Disney is going to lose."
Grasso was raised in Hollywood, Fla. He has always wanted to be an artist. His parents couldn't afford college, so he went into the military for four years. He married, had kids (daughter Samantha and son Clayton, now college students) and worked as an artist part time. After his military service, he took community college art courses while working as a veterinary technician.
"After I got my associate's degree, my wife had a good job. So I left them in Hollywood and went to Ringling" - Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota - "because I knew Disney interviewed there."
After graduating, Grasso worked briefly for a comics studio before applying to Disney. "I went through five interviews just for the portfolio internship."
But, he says, it was worth it to get his dream job. "I've learned more than any other studio could ever teach me."
Though animators have specialties, many of them have multiple skills, developing characters for one movie, creating backgrounds for another. "You get cast to do certain things on each movie," he says. "On Brother Bear, I did all the action stuff. But on Mulan, I was the sappy guy."
It wasn't just Disney's prestige and work conditions that attracted him, he says. Nor was it the pay. Animators start around $35,000, and a handful of top artists make six figures. "We make a good living, but it took me 10 years to pay off my school loans."
Animators' pay took a serious hit two years ago, when Disney cut their salaries by 30 percent. Some of the highest-paid staff were cut as much as 50 percent.
"The same year," Grasso says, "some of the executives got $400,000 bonuses, and Eisner went and bought ABC.
"Fifty percent of the people at the studio had to sell their houses. Animation was making money. It just didn't make sense."
Although individual animators will find jobs, Grasso says, the history of Disney's animation studios is an invaluable resource that will be lost forever. "Every time you do a film you compound knowledge. When you have people in your studio who know how to do these things, it costs less to do them again."
But the Florida studio team is likely to be scattered to jobs in California, New York and other places, Grasso says. "There is no other work in Florida for them."
Closing the studio will have little immediate impact on all those straight-to-video sequels that follow hit animated films. The sequels are made in such places as India, Korea and Australia, Grasso says.
"They're lower quality. On the first film, you do all the development, the story, the characters. To make Lilo & Stitch 2, you just say, "Copy this.' "
Grasso wonders what Disney will be without original animated films.
"If the studios go away," he says, "if the movies go away, what are they going to put in the parks? What are they going to put on their T-shirts and backpacks? Where will those characters come from?"
Grasso is talking to other studios and has several job offers. He's trying to deal with an ending not nearly so happy as the ones in the movies he has made. And he wants people to know what is happening.
"When you tell Americans something is going away forever, they want it. But (Disney's) attitude is that the public will never know. They have films slotted to come out up to 2010.
"So no one will know the heartbreak we're feeling."
- Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Contact Colette Bancroft at bancroft@sptimes.com or 727 893-8435.
