Drawing from experience

Tim Willert

It’s been called the hub of the animation industry, and for good

reason. Glendale is home to nearly a dozen animation studios,

including DreamWorks’ sprawling Flower Street campus.

A host of independent companies are based in the city, including

Creative Capers Entertainment on Broadway, Cornerstone Animation Inc.

on East Colorado Street, Hyperion Entertainment Inc. on Maryland

Avenue, and Rough Draft Studios on Brand Boulevard.

Disney Imagineering is in Glendale, while Disney animation has

called the Jewel City home at various times in the past.

Several Disney classics, including “Beauty and the Beast,” “The

Lion King” and “Little Mermaid,” were produced by animators working

inside warehouses on Flower Street.

“I would think it’s one of the main places for animation in the

world,” said Frank Gladstone, a former Disney animator who oversees

artistic development for DreamWorks SKG. “I’m not exactly sure why

it’s that way, perhaps because it’s a quiet place and the city’s

always been favorable to arrangements with studios.”

Before DreamWorks came to Glendale in 1997, there was Creative

Capers, now one of the industry’s largest independent animation

studios.

Creative Capers employs between 25 and 50 and occupies 1,500

square feet of space in two buildings on East Broadway. Co-founders

Sue and Terry Shakespeare moved the fledgling outfit to Glendale 15

years ago.

“Other than Disney, there was no one else here but us,” Sue

Shakespeare said Friday. “We chose Glendale because a lot of the

animation talent pool existed in the Valley, and we wanted a city

environment where we could walk to lunch.”

Warner Bros. Feature Animation, which as recently as two years ago

occupied five floors at 500 N. Brand Blvd., has left town, along with

Turner Feature Animation, which once signed a lease for 70,000 square

feet.

But those defections -- the result of downsizing and consolidation

-- have done little to tarnish Glendale’s image as an

animation-industry presence.

“The animation industry in the U.S. is pretty much centered in

Glendale,” said Sarah Baisley, associate publisher of Animation

Magazine, a Westlake Village- based trade publication.

Glendale is particularly attractive to animation companies because

of its proximity to North Hollywood, Hollywood and Burbank, nearby

cities where many animators live, Baisley said.

“Animation workers go from studio to studio, so it helps if the

studios are located near one another,” she said. “DreamWorks

purposely built its animation campus in Glendale to attract and keep

the talent that’s condensed in the area.”

Said Bill Damaschke, head of production for DreamWorks animation:

“Glendale was a great fit for our studio because many of the artists

in the animation community make their homes in Glendale and

surrounding areas.”

BUSINESS FRIENDLY

It’s virtually impossible to keep track of smaller animation

studios because the city doesn’t charge a business-license fee, said

Jeanne Armstrong, Glendale’s director of development services.

“We just know that we have a lot of small businesses that are

involved in different pieces of the animation industry,” Armstrong

said.

According to May 2001 figures obtained from the city’s parks,

recreation and community services division, five Glendale-based

animation studios employed nearly 700 people.

DreamWorks animation presently employs 600, Damaschke said.

Disney’s animation studio, which is now based in Burbank on

Riverside Drive, employs an additional 750 people, according to the

city figures. The planned expansion of Disney’s Glendale campus is

expected to add between 5,000 and 7,000 workers to 3,000 existing

employees.

The benefits of doing business in Glendale are mutual, according

to city officials.

“The industry brings a good tax base to the city and they hire

individuals who spend a portion of their salaries here,” Councilman

Gus Gomez said Wednesday. “To me, it’s a real plus having the

animation industry in Glendale.”

Cornerstone founder Larry Whitaker, who formerly worked as an

animator for Disney and Warner Bros., started the company in the

garage of his Altadena home three years ago. In 2000, he moved the

operation to a five-office suite on East Colorado Street that now

houses as many as two dozen animators, depending on the number of

projects.

“It’s convenient, and we got a good deal on office space,”

Whitaker admitted Tuesday. “Pasadena generally is more expensive, and

Burbank is a lot more expensive because of the major studios there.”

INDEPENDENTS DAY

Independent studios such as Cornerstone, Creative Capers and

Jambalaya, a division of Hyperion, have thrived because they provide

a high-quality, cost-effective product to many of the big studios.

“It makes more financial sense for major studios to sub-contract

out because their costs have gone up,” Whitaker said. “We pour

everything into the production itself and keep the overhead to an

absolute bare minimum.”

Cornerstone is a full-service animation operation whose clients

include The Walt Disney Co., Focus on the Family, Mattel, Fox

Television and Big Idea Productions.

Cornerstone’s projects range from Disney to Anime, traditional to

digital, commercials to animated shorts for the Internet. The studio

presently has three feature films and two TV shows in development.

Creative Capers specializes in high-quality feature film and TV

animation. The studio animated portions of Disney’s “The Tigger

Movie,” and produced and designed a TV series called “Sitting Ducks”

for Universal.

Disney is one of Creative Capers’ biggest clients. The company has

produced more than 50 gaming titles for Disney Interactive, including

“Aladdin” and “Mulan.”

“We have had a unique relationship with the studios because of the

high level of work we produce and the lower budgets we are able to

achieve,” Sue Shakespeare said. “I think we’re going to see the

larger studios depending more on the independents as budgets have

been driven downward.”

Jambalaya produces “Proud Family,” an animated sitcom for the

Disney Channel that also airs as part of ABC’s Saturday morning

cartoon block. Jambalaya co-founder Bruce Smith is the co-creator and

executive producer of “Proud Family.” He was in production and could

not be reached for comment, Hyperion spokeswoman Crystal Wheeler said

Friday.

Rough Draft Studios, which produces most of the animation for

Fox-TV’s “Futurama” cartoon, employs between 30 and 135 people,

depending on the number of projects, producer Claudia Katz said.

The studio is currently working on “Fungus Among Us,” for Cartoon

Network, and producing a series of theatrical shorts for Warner Bros.

featuring Looney Tunes characters, Katz said.

A CULTURAL ATTRACTION

For years, The Alex Theatre on Brand has played host to the

Annies, the animation industry’s equivalent of the Academy Awards. In

September, Glendale hosted the Society for Animation Studies’ annual

conference.

Now a group of animators and animation executives, including

Gladstone and Melwood Pictures President Max Howard, are spearheading

a drive to convert the former Fidelity Federal Savings and Loan

building on Broadway into a full-service animation center.

In addition to a museum, Animation Initiative Glendale is

proposing a center that would include a gallery, library and archive,

screening room, lecture hall, classrooms and office space. Also being

considered for the site is an animation store or other retail

operation and a restaurant/coffee shop. According to the proposal,

the center could develop programs with local public schools as well

as various Southern California colleges and universities. Plans to

host an annual film festival are also being considered by Gladstone’s

group.

“I think it would be a great cultural attraction,” said Eve

Rappoport, community services supervisor for the Glendale Arts and

Culture Commission. “Glendale has very few high-quality attractions,

and this would put Glendale on the map.”

The Redevelopment Agency liked the idea so much it voted last week

to negotiate exclusively with the animation group to convert the

aging but historically significant building.

Eight other suitors, including Extended Stay America, Homestead

Studio Suites and PCS Real Estate, which proposed a 70-unit housing

complex, were passed over for consideration by the council, which

voted 4-1 in favor of the animation project. Councilman Dave Weaver

voted against it.

“This building will absolutely work for an endeavor like this,”

Councilman Frank Quintero said this week. “You can put up hotel

suites anywhere along Broadway; you don’t need to take that building

out to do that.”

The council gave the animation group six months to develop

architectural and business plans, as well as a timeline for raising

the estimated $3 million to $4 million the center is expected to

cost.

“We need to come up with new venues to draw people into the San

Fernando Valley area,” said Saul Gomez, director of economic

development for the Economic Alliance of San Fernando Valley. “The

animation museum is definitely something that’s needed.”

What better place than Glendale to house a shrine to the world of

animation?

“There would be no reason to put an animation museum in

Bakersfield,” said Gladstone, a Glendale resident who serves on the

city’s arts and culture commission. “Animation kind of grew up in

this area, which makes it the proper thing to do.”