Glut in animation?

[cellarhound]

I found this article today:

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=filmNews&storyID=2005-03-30T233126Z_01_N30203907_RTRIDST_0_FILM-MEDIA-DREAMWORKS-DC.XML

Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg said the "single greatest fiction" about animated films was that a possible glut of movies was looming.

"It's not as though all of these movies are the same," Katzenberg told analysts and investors at a media conference in New York. "It's not like they're all James Bond movies ... they couldn't be more distinctive.

So is Mr. Katzenberg right or wrong?

[dramaqueen]

Crap tends to weed itself out- the best will usually prevail.

[Gwyren]

I saw this article a while ago. I tend to agree that there is a glut in animation te=he same way there is a glut in movies. Too much crud.

To myself, animation's weakness in the US is due to the fact that it is seen as a kiddie medium. This is sad. Animation can be so many things (look at Hentai. I would NEVER show that to a child), and it is less limited by reality than movies are.

Glut? No. Poor attitude towards? Yes.

[Anders]

To myself, animation's weakness in the US is due to the fact that it is seen as a kiddie medium. This is sad. Animation can be so many things (look at Hentai. I would NEVER show that to a child), and it is less limited by reality than movies are.

Glut? No. Poor attitude towards? Yes.

I'm with you, I think animation has been looked at as a medium solely for children in this country, though I think the trend is maybe changing at least with primetime television animation (Family Guy, South Park, etc.) being animation that is directed at a more adult audience. Hopefully that can extend into the full-length animated release market in this country.

[cellarhound]

Independant Animation Studio?

Just found this little tidbit of comentary on Katzenburg's coments...

http://biz.yahoo.com/fool/050413/111341686516.html?.v=2

Now, Katzenberg also said something with regard to the competition: "It takes a huge amount of capital and a tremendous amount of time and resources to create these films. The ability of companies to put all of those elements together are fairly few and far between."

I don't know if I agree with him on this count. I suppose there could be several interpretations to the exact meaning of his comments, but I take it to mean that he thinks DreamWorks Animation and its main competitor Pixar (Nasdaq: PIXR - News) -- which he singled out -- are pretty much the only real players in the computer animation field. That doesn't ring too accurate to me. That seems to ignore the success of a film such as News Corp's (NYSE: NWS - News) Robots, for instance. The article says that the context of his thoughts related to "budget-oriented players" trying to settle in on the Shrek turf, but the way I see it, conglomerates such as Time Warner (NYSE: TWX - News) and Disney (NYSE: DIS - News) always have the resources to mount assaults on either Katzenberg's or Steve Jobs' arena of success. Besides, a huge budget does not necessarily guarantee success; in theory, at least, as the timeline progresses, technology does become cheaper. When cheaper technology is married with a good idea (The Blair Witch Project), the results can be substantially valuable.

I do understand that keeping ahead of the sophistication level possessed by audiences does require a lot of capital, but if I were Katzenberg, I would assume that there's always going to be a "next guy" with a "bigger idea." In other words, hubris need not apply. He should never stop worrying that DreamWorks Animation's leadership is about to be usurped. I'm confident that his shareholders don't want a complacent CEO trying to maximize the return on their collective equity.

It leads to the next question if there is not a glut in animation, can there be such a thing as an Independant Animation Studio?

Discuss...

[ni_teach]

The problem is that we are going to see a lot of BAD CGI coming to the screen.

[Not Afraid]

If there was such a glut in animation, why were there only three animated films nominated for the academy awards?

His comment may be a reference to the tons and tons of Japanese Anime that is available, which, IMHO, is a whole different breed.