Disney Announces Closure

Of Last Hand-Drawn Animation Studio

By Rich Drees

     July 29, 2005- The Walt Disney Company has announced Wednesday that it will close its last hand-drawn animation studio, DisneyToon Studios Australia in Sydney, Australia, sometime in the middle of next year. The closure will put the facilities some 250 animators and support and clerical personnel out of work.

     Employees of the facility were notified on Wednesday that there would be no further projects after they completed work on the sequels Bambi II, Brother Bear II and Cinderella III.

     In a statement released by Disney, the company stated that “it is with regret that DisneyToon Studios has decided to close their animation production facility in Sydney in mid-2006.” The company credited the decision “in large part to the changing creative climate and economic environment” in the field of animation.

     DisneyToons Studio Australia opened in 1988, initially producing much of the animation for Disney’s then current television output including the syndicated series Darkwing Duck, Goof Troop, Timon And Pumbaa, and Duck Daze. In 1994, the studio released its first feature-length project, the direct-to-video sequel to the theatrical hit Aladdin, The Return Of Jafar. The studio has also produced direct-to-video sequels of other Disney theatrical hits including The Lion King, Lady And The Tramp and Lilo And Stitch. The studio’s 2002 sequel to Peter Pan (1953), Return to Neverland, was its first project to receive a theatrical release.

     Disney has been moving away from traditional hand-drawn animated films, the films that founder Walt Disney built the company on, for the past several years.

     In recent years, Disney’s most successful films have been computer animated, produced by the independent studio Pixar Animation with Disney supplying distribution. However, after a long and public negotiation, Pixar refused to renew their contract with Disney, opting to find another studio to go into partnership with. (The final Pixar film to be distributed by Disney, Cars, is scheduled to hit theaters in June 2006.) Disney responded by opening its own computer-generated animation studio.

     In January 2004, Disney closed its Orlando, Florida hand-drawn animation studio, which had been responsible for the films Mulan (1998), Lilo & Stitch (2002) and Brother Bear (2003).

     In addition, the Australian dollar has grown stronger compared to the U.S. dollar, making it increasingly more expensive for Disney to fund the Sydney-based studio.