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June 2000
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Fox Out of the
Animated Movie Race
The Mad Hatter
Tue Jun 27 17:49:57 2000
Looks like Titan A.E. was the last chance for Fox's cel division. Apparently, it's no more, and Don Bluth is out of a job.
Here's the news from the wire services.
Hatter
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - In the wake of the disappointing box office results for the space cartoon ``Titan A.E.,'' 20th Century Fox said Monday it will close its 6-year-old animation facility in
Phoenix, Ariz.
In February, Fox laid off about two-thirds of the 320 employees at the Phoenix unit, but now the studio is
shuttering the outpost entirely.
The move is a further sign that the animated world, while full of cuddly creatures, is also highly treacherous for
pretenders to the Disney throne.
``It clearly is a tough marketplace,'' said Fox Animation president Chris Meledandri.
Fox isn't abandoning animation entirely -- it has computer animation and
projects that mix live action and animation in the works -- but it is exiting the
traditional cel animation business it tried to get into starting with 1997's
''Anastasia.''
In its six years in business, the Phoenix unit produced only two pictures, ``Anastasia'' and ``Titan.'' ``Anastasia''
won respectful reviews but earned a middling $58.4 million at the domestic box office. ``Titan'' has pulled in a
paltry $16.9 million after two weekends, and the $80 million plus picture looks to be on its way to becoming a
significant money loser for Fox. The weakness of ``Titan'' -- and more generally, the millions of dollars the
studio surely lost in its overall investment in Phoenix -- was probably a factor in the abrupt exit last week of
studio chairman Bill Mechanic.
Like other studios, such as DreamWorks, which have tried to encroach upon Disney's lucrative hold on animated
films aimed at kids and families, Fox found the competition intense and Disney fierce. For instance, in what was
widely viewed as an aggressive move to protect its territory, the Mouse House
re-released its 1989 opus ``The Little Mermaid'' in theaters just a week before Fox bowed ``Anastasia.''
Both ``Titan'' and ``Anastasia'' were directed by the animation team of Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, who ran
the Phoenix facility. Meledandri said he couldn't comment on what sort of end had been negotiated in the duo's
contracts.
``At this time we don't have any plans to make any more movies with them,'' Meledandri said.
The surviving animation operations include the studio's computer animation facility in Harrison, N.Y., Blue Sky
Studios, which has been increasing staff recently as it prepares to start production on ``Ice Age,'' a
comedy-adventure about a woolly mammoth, a saber-toothed tiger and a sloth.
Fox is also in post-production on ``Monkeybone,'' a comedy that mixes live-action and stop-motion animation. It
stars Brendan Fraser, Bridget Fonda and Whoopi Goldberg.
The animation division is also overseeing ``The Dubbed Action Movie: Enter the Fist'' from writer-director
Steve Oedekerk (''Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls''). The spoof mixes digital effects into a 1970s Asian martial
arts film. The division also has a Farrelly brothers animated pic, ``Frisco Pigeon Mambo,'' in development;
under consideration are five other feature projects to be made at Blue Sky.
(Image from The
Don Bluth Shrine)
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