Jun 12, 2023

Third Appeal: Warner Bros. will once again renew its feature-length animation division.

Warner Bros.Discovery has renewed its feature-length animation unit and labeled Warner Bros. Pictures Animation (WBPA). This unit was previously known as the Warner Animation Group (2013-2023), but before that it was Warner Bros.It was known as Feature Animation (1994-2004).

Why the name was changed - no one can say for sure, but the new name probably marks the beginning of a fresh David Zaslav era for the company's feature-length animation unit, which had been treading water for years. The last bona fide hit of the previous Warner Animation group was the 2014 Lego movie, which was also the first film produced by the department. The new name may also have stemmed from Bill Damaschke's proposal, which was confirmed last month as the department's new top executive.

What is Bill Damaschke's vision for the WBPA - his goal is to eventually produce 2 theatrical releases each year. Damaschke aims to create films around the library IP as well as launching his own concept, but his main focus will be on filmmakers-driven films. He cited past successful animated films such as Iron Giant, Space Jam, Corpse Bride, Polar Express, Happy Feet, and Lego Movie, and recently told Deadline that these are "benchmark films that break new ground, new technology, and new ways of telling stories." Artistic and commercial."

Damaschke added"[Head of Warner Bros. Film Group] Pamela Abdi and Michael de Luca are inspiring producers and filmmakers themselves who are focusing on directors and writers as part of their studio leadership and we are excited to follow their creative lead at the WBPA." We are planning to do that.

How is it different from the previous Warner Animation group- With the exception of the Lego franchise, previous WAG failed to find a way forward with ingenious ideas and shifted its strategy to making movies with WB-owned IPS such as Scoob., Tom & Jerry, Space Jam: The New Legacy, and the DC League of Super Pets.

What are the current projects of the WBPA- Damaschke is new to the work, so the existing pipeline of the studio was mainly projects that were already in the works before he arrived, among them Coyotes vs. Coyotes. Acme (directed by Dave Green), the Cat in the Hat (directed by Erica Livinoha and Alessandro Carroni), and Flintstone Origin films Meet Flintstone (written by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jerenick). The latter 2 projects are still early enough, so Damaschke will leave his imprint on the finished film.

The studio also announced a few days ago that it had signed a first-look agreement with Locksmith Animation, the British company responsible for Ron's Gone Wrong. It also signed a first-look deal with Warner Bros. in 2019, but no films were made. Under the New Deal, the locksmith is currently developing two new projects: a musical comedy Bad Fairy, with screenplay by Deborah Francis White (host of the Guilty Feminist podcast) and director Megan Nicole Don (creator of Centaurworld), and a comic book series by Michael Kors. An adaptation of Lisa Meyer's novel series The May Chronicle, written by Kalen Egan and Travis Centel, is attached to the director by Noel Raffaele (director, DC Superhero Girls).

The size of Warner Bros. Pictures Animation – Currently, Damaschke oversees about 90 core staff in Los Angeles. There is no indication as to whether its crew will shrink or expand in the coming years. WB can be selected from Animal Logic (DC League Of Super-Pets), Framestore (Tom & Jerry), and DNEG (Coyote vs. Pet).We use third-party vendor studios such as Acme for animation production.

Please forgive me for being skeptical of a dedicated Warner Bros. feature-length animation program. Through various management structures, he has repeatedly started and abandoned Warner Bros.'s feature-length animation efforts with the Warner Animation Group.

Among Warner Bros. majors is a strange strange thing. As Damaschke points out above, there were some notable hits in the studio. But every time they have a hint of a good idea or do something remarkable, they shoot themselves in the foot. Think back to when they produced one of the greatest animated features of the modern era – Brad Bird's Iron Giant – then the greatest marketer of all time whose historical blunder exacerbated the entire industry of the company and revealed that their feature-length animated games should not be taken seriously.

Then, when they started the Warner Animation Group, they announced that they were going to put together a "think tank" that nodded to Pixar's famous brain trust. We have added a new version of the app. The great surprise that this group was in charge of joyless duds like storks and smallfoot, and their huge influence on the division sealed Wag's fate as a second-rate contender.

And try this for size: The only time Warner Bros. won the best animated feature Oscar was when the Wb closed its internal feature animation division and was producing animation directly through Warner Bros. Pictures. It was for The Miller's Happy Feet. This interim period has also brought in projects like Polar Express, Corpse Bride and Scanner Darkly, but all of these arewbが実際にアニメーション部門を運営しているときに作pic.twitter.com/68y33lBgZj

-Hanna-Barbera ScreenCaps(@HannaBarberaCap)2023年6月9日

Now they are starting again from scratch.This time we're with Bill Damaschke, the executive who left Dreamworks at the creative bottom and has been blamed by more than a few people for leading the company up to that point. Perhaps the third time is charm. Alternatively, Warner Bros. is intended to remain bungling feature-length animation studio that can't get its act together forever.