Disney/Pixar to Open Vancouver Studio
Animation Facility To Concentrate on Toy Story, Cars Characters
May 10, 2009
Disney/Pixar will open a new animation studio in Vancouver this fall.
According to the Hollywood Reporter and Vancouver Sun, the new 20,000 square-foot studio will focus on non-feature projects, mostly featuring "legacy characters" such as Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story or Lightning McQueen and Mater from Cars. Disney staffers are currently scouting locations in the downtown core of the city.
Pixar's New Vancouver Studio to Focus on Toy Story, Cars Characters
"The operation will be small in size and dedicated to producing short-form quality computer animation for theme parks, DVDs, television and theatrical exhibition... for several different divisions of the Walt Disney Co.," Disney/Pixar president Ed Catmull told The Hollywood Reporter.
"First and foremost for us is to concentrate on Pixar legacy characters," Amir Nasrabadi, who will run the new studio, told The Vancouver Sun. "We want to keep these well-known and well-liked characters alive without creating a distraction to those working on the full-length motion pictures in California."
"We have a somewhat unfulfilled demand (for those legacy characters)," Pixar general manager Jim Morris told the Hollywood Reporter. "We wanted to do various things with Toy Story to keep the characters alive. People like to see them somewhat regularly."
The new studio will employ between 75 and 100 employees, who will be mostly hired locally, claimed Morris. Pixar's main studio in Emeryville will still develop and animate the feature films, plus any post-production work that needs doing.
“There’s a huge, very robust, and mature talent pool in Vancouver that we’d like to tap into and continue to develop,” said Nasrabadi, who was recently the vice-president of operations and finance for DisneyToon Studios, the notorious direct-to-DVD studio responsible for the "dreck to video" animated releases during the mid-90's.
“I don’t have a particular number (of employees) in mind, but I can say the majority will be locals.”
Dylan Brown will be the new studio's creative director. He's a former Pixar supervising animation director whose credits include 2003's Finding Nemo and 2007's Ratatouille.
"The types of products we produce will be niche products, such as short films, whether they are standalone or episodic in nature," Nasrabadi said. "They will be helpful to all of Disney's ancillary businesses, such as television, compilations on DVD, Internet broadcasting, as well as theatres."
There were many incentives for Pixar to open a Vancouver studio. The fact that the city's on the same time zone as California was a major draw, as was the local talent pool and British Columbia's generous tax credits.
"Canada, and Vancouver specifically, has had terrific tax incentives for this type of work," said Morris. "I think they have a desire to grow this sort of business activity and get a critical mass. This will allow us to do more with the budgets that we have."
According to Morris, Pixar plans to use local talent as part of a start-up operation. "There is a great animation community in Vancouver," he says, "as well as post-production, visual effects and good schools."
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