On a rainy Southern California morning a Southwest Airlines jet approached the Bob Hope airport. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Aircraft had been taking off and landing in spite of the inclement weather that day. However, as this particular aircraft attempted to land, the jetliner skidded off the runway, crashed through the fence, and ended up on the boulevard of Hollywood Way narrowly missing a gasoline station and the morning traffic.
I was at work that morning, only a few blocks away in Walt Disney Feature Animation’s digital facility known by various names as, Feature Animation Northside or The Secret Lab. I quickly emailed photos of the spectacular crash to friends around the country. Thankfully, there were no fatalities or even injuries in this early morning mishap. Yet, as I look back on this event I couldn’t help but think of other “crashes” I experienced, and they happened only a few blocks away from the same Bob Hope Airport.
The first crash landing began some years ago when I worked for start up movie company. This fledgling studio purchased a large industrial facility near the Bob Hope airport in Burbank. This was to be the future home of a new animation studio. Although the building appeared to be a grungy former factory, we were told not to worry. The bosses’ top architects were going to give the facility a complete rehab, and once done, it was going to be a first class state of the art movie studio.
Late in the summer of 1982 the first cartoon unit moved into the industrial building on Winnona Street near the Bob Hope airport. Another small group of artists remained in our Studio City office supposedly continuing work on a feature film during the rehab. With problems of over-crowding solved, development on the feature film could continue without interruption. The art staff would complete the storyboards and overall production design of the film, and the unit in Burbank focused on completing the first short cartoon and started production on two additional films. By this time, the studio staff in Burbank alone had grown to nearly sixty people.
Then, in an odd twist of fate, the company bosses showed up one Friday morning in January with pink slips for the entire staff. It seems the studio managers had decided to completely abandon the idea of an animation studio in Burbank. They moved the studio operation to Newport Beach, and what happened there is a story for another time. Anyway, the new studio had suddenly been shut down, even though the facility’s warehouse size storerooms were filled with nearly one hundred brand new never used animation desks. In the animation business it seems studios can appear and disappear overnight.
One might think such flakey behavior could only come from a brand new studio where management is blissfully unaware of the realities of the animation business. If this is your view, you’re wrong because the second studio crash landing was orchestrated by no less than the Walt Disney Company itself.
The huge facility opened with a gala holiday party. Music, food and drink were lavished on the staff of Disney Feature Animation and their families. Disney had reason to be proud. They had just opened what they knew would become the premiere digital studio in the Southland. Oddly enough, Walt Disney Feature Animation Northside had once been the home of Lockheed’s research and development operation. Insiders knew the building as “Skunk Works”. Weapons of war were created and nurtured at this top-secret facility, and who could ever guess that one day it would become a cartoon factory producing chaos and casualties of a different sort.
I arrived at North side to continue work on Disney’s first digitally animated feature, “Dinosaur.” Of course, since Disney does revisionist history so well, “Dinosaur” is not the first digital feature — “Chicken Little” is Disney’s first digital feature. “Dinosaur,” though digitally animated, used live-action plates. Okay. Whatever. Anyway, Once this first digital film was completed, we moved on to our next digital feature film that, to hear the Disney bosses tell it, was going to blow everyone out of the water. “WildLife” was going to be Disney’s break out movie. Everyone would be taken by surprise when they saw this animated feature. Well, you can bet the movie took vice chairman, Roy Edward Disney by surprise — and he promptly shut the movie down.
The Disney bosses immediately moved into damage control mode, and prepared a number of “explanations” as to why the brilliant film was suddenly shuttered. Of course, none of this saved the jobs of a lot of talented people who were quickly shown the door. Slowly but surely the new digital studio was dismantled, and this included the staff of what had been DreamQuest Images. This state of the art special effects crew had been folded into “The Secret Lab,” Disney’s proud new digital effects studio. But now, the bloom was off the rose, and even The Secret Lab was targeted for destruction. The mouse house moved out of Feature Animation Northside, and one might have thought, out of the digital business altogether. But, don’t look for logic in the entertainment business. In short order, Disney dismantled their traditional animation units in Japan, Canada, Burbank, Orlando and finally Australia. After getting out of the digital animation business — Disney suddenly announced they were back in. It’s stuff like this that makes me realize I’m not cut out for top-level management. The idea of spending millions to set up a digital facility, recruit talent, and then shut the whole thing down — only to start it up again makes no sense to me. That’s why I know I’m not cut out for management. If I had an MBA, I’m sure the logic in these decisions would be perfectly clear. Anyway, I was on hand to watch another studio facility be shut down, along with the loss of hundreds of jobs.
So, what does all this have in common with a Southwest Airlines jetliner “parked” on Hollywood Way? All these events happened within blocks of each other, and I was on hand to witness each event. The fledgling Carter Studio, Disney’s Northside digital studio, and a “crashed” jetliner were all within walking distance. I don’t think you’d be surprised if I told you our executives waxed eloquent about the fantastic things we were going to accomplish in these new, state of the art production facilities. The former bosses had some big ideas and some pretty impressive plans. All wanted to soar — yet came down with a thud. I admit being in control and taking off is pretty heady stuff.
However, if one wants to fly, it might be wise to first consider learning how to land.
Did you enjoy Floyd’s high flying tale today? well, if so, please be aware that there are three great collections of Norman’s writings & cartoons currently on the market: his original collection of cartoons and stories — “Faster! Cheaper! The Flip Side of the Art of Animation” (which is available for sale over at John Cawley’s excellent www.cataroo.com web site) as well as two follow-ups to that book, “Son of Faster, Cheaper” & “How the Grinch Stole Disney.” Which you can purchase by heading over to the Afrokids.com website.