Please contact us
with corrections
or breaking news
Animation Keeps On Truckin’, Despite Viruses Lurkin’ by Karl F. Cohen
Please support our stories by liking articles—thanks!
A scene from 'The Blacklist', the showrunners of which risked a lot by mixing their live-action show with animation. photo: courtesy NBC
NOTE: Cohen has been teaching animation history at San Francisco State remotely, using software provided by iLearn and Zoom.
IT IS NICE TO KNOW ANIMATORS ARE NOT
being forced to collect unemployment. Indeed, they are hard at work.
Perhaps most amazingly, on May 15th NBC’s “The Blacklist” aired its season finale, which mixed animation with live action. In a spectacular creative leap, the show runners dodged the pandemic shutdown's scuttling of a half-shot episode by adding animation. It was an ambitious collaboration stretching from California to England, with a lot of sound recording at the house of star James Spader.
Similarly, “One Day at a Time”, a live-action comedy from Pop TV, will run an animated episode later this month, with all production done remotely, mostly in Canada.
Meanwhile, you will see all the promised new episodes of “The Simpsons”, “Bob’s Burgers” and other shows despite Covid-19 lurking about. Voice actors are using home recording studios to produce the dialogue tracks, just as radio news reporters and commentators are bringing you the latest news from homes and garages converted into mini-sound studios.
Disney, Nickelodeon and other studios say they are managing to successfully work on a remote basis, although it took time to adjust. While the virus has sidelined a lot of live productions, animation studios are meeting production deadlines. I even read that Bento Box, which produces shows for Fox, is actually hiring animators to keep projects on schedule.
Keeping things going has been a major adjustment for a lot of people, including the unsung technology people who have developed the production and communication tools required to keep the world up-to-date with their favorite animated characters. Indeed, studios have worked out deals with all kinds of companies to keep animators working on shows in the safety of their homes.
Will the animation industry be the same after the virus is gone? More or less probably, but that is not the case with theatres.
Scene from 'Trolls World Tour', a new straight-to-streaming release from Universal. photo: courtesy Universal
Theatres may still have to compete with video-on-demand for the right to premiere new Hollywood features, even when the fear of going out to the movies is finally a thing of the past. The reason? The world premiere of “Trolls World Tour” on April 10th was an impressive financial success, according to The Wall Street Journal.
That achievement may soon be changing the way we see movies. Why? The feature has supposedly grossed over $347 million worldwide, which is more than the original “Troll” film did. And, to make Sony’s front office really happy, the studio’s share of the gross is considerably greater since they don't have to give theatre owners a cut.
In the future, families wanting to save money may be quite content renting the latest family film for $19.99 rather than dealing with high priced tickets, overpriced popcorn, baby sitting and parking fees and other costs.
Since then “Scoob!” was released on May 15th, and parents anxious to keep everybody entertained once more rented copies at $19.99 for the weekend, or bought copies for $24.99. This kids’ movie featuring a young Scooby-Doo, was actually scheduled to debut in theatres on that date.
Instead, with Amazon Prime promoting it, “Scoob!” was the most-watched film on that weekend and it did more business than “Trolls” on its opening weekend. (At this point there is no official site keeping track of VOD sales and rentals, so no one is sure how accurate box office figures actually are.)
Do the opinions of critics count during a pandemic? Although neither film was a smashing critical success, that didn’t keep crowds away. “Scoob!” was actually hated by The SF Chronicle’s reviewer, but it appears that doesn’t matter to parents desperate to find something for thier kids to do.
Indeed, while “Scoob!” got a 52% positive score from critics, the public gave it 67%. “Trolls”, on the other hand, received a Rotten Tomato rating of 70% from the critics but only 61% from the public. A $20 rental fee is apparently a bargain if it keeps the kids occupied for 90 minutes; and most kids don't read reviews.
Will VOD releasing of first-run features be the new “normal?” If so, I expect to see more movie theatres go out of business.
But of course, a kids' film would obviously do well if all the schools were closed on its release day. Meanwhile home viewing, by definition, doesn't involve parental escape from the house nor the quality of the big screen or mega sound system that can really enhance some cinematic experiences.
Turning to the smaller screen in your home, most animated series did not have to switch to reruns before their current season was scheduled to end. It may be harder to direct a film with your team of artists working at home, but the show must go on!
Karl F. Cohen—who decided to add his middle initial to distinguish himself from the Russian Karl Cohen, who tried to assassinate the Czar in the mid-19th century—is an animator, educator and director of the local chapter of the International Animation Society and can be reached .Posted on May 21, 2020 - 05:45 AM