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Big bets on animation stir angst in biz
This summer may mark the resurgence of the R-rated pic, but don't think the entertainment biz has lost interest in playing in G-rated waters.
"Finding Nemo's" big splash at the multiplexes over the weekend points up the fact that there have never been so many feature-length toons in the works at one time.
Most boast big budgets, big stars voicing the characters, and the hopes of millions in revenues from ticket sales, DVDs, toys and other merchandise.
But they also come at a moment when the animation biz seems confused as to which stories to tell and which technology to embrace.
And there are plenty of shuttered animation studios and unemployed animators to demonstrate it. Their dilemma stems from costly misfires such as Disney's "Treasure Planet," "Atlantis: The Lost Empire," and "The Emperor's New Groove"; Warner Bros.' "Iron Giant," DreamWorks' "The Road to El Dorado" and Fox's "Titan A.E."
This year, six major animated pics will hit movie screens. Next year there'll be 11, and dozens more are being readied for 2005 and 2006 and beyond.
All this animated activity is guaranteed to give studio distribution and marketing toppers headaches as they jockey for position on release skeds and roll-out campaigns.
Dream Works and Paramount already had one such back-and-forth this spring over the June and July dates for "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas" and "Rugrats Go Wild."
Among the projects on the drawing board:
* "Nemo" is Pixar's fifth consecutive hit with Disney, and its first in the summer. Now releasing one pic per year, Pixar has two more pics with Disney in superhero laffer "The Incredibles" and the Route 66 comedy "Cars."
The looming question is whether the two partners re-up their distribution pact, since Pixar chairman Steve Jobs says he wants a George Lucas-like deal at the Mouse House.
* Disney has "Brother Bear" bowing at the end of this year, "Home on the Range" lined up for next year and its first all-CGI entry, "Chicken Little," for 2005, and continues to release lower-budgeted toons from its TV animation unit during the President's Day holiday. Through a Pixar-like relationship, it will release Vanguard's first CGI pic, "Valiant," in 2005.
One major goal...