Animation is the most lucrative business in Hollywood-thanks largely to product tie-ins. These days everybody’s going after a piece of the action, though it’s unclear whether they’ve got the know-how to build their own Magic Kingdoms. An unmerchandised “Prince of Egypt” may seem appealing at a time when Disney’s Hercules action figures and Meg dolls are poised to assault the American pocketbook. But the film’s a tremendous risk. It will cost $100 million to make, and the animation studio that DreamWorks is building in Glendale, Calif., will cost even more.
And DreamWorks is not the only studio in a gambling mood. Warner Brothers and Twentieth Century Fox are also spending hundreds of millions building animation facilities from scratch. At Thanksgiving, Fox will release the Disney-ish “Anastasia,” a quasi-historical fairy tale with Meg Ryan doing the princess’s voice and a Rasputin whose curse on the royal family causes the Russian Revolution. Half a dozen more major animated films will open during 1998, including Warner Brothers’ Arthurian musical “Quest for Camelot” and Dream-Works’s “Prince of Egypt.” So far, Disney’s rivals have spent about a billion dollars.
All this may make for the most expensive suicide mission of all time. Disney, after all, has absolute dominion over the world of animation: Walt made his name a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval in the field. Today Disney-owned ABC, The Disney Channel, Disney stores and Disney theme parks all fuel the demand for the movies that plug the goods that plug the movies. Last weekend Disney even closed down Times Square for a “Hercules” parade. With this sort of clout behind it, the disappointing “Hunchback of Notre Dame” managed to make $100 million in the United States and churn up hundreds of millions in bottom-line profits. Before the Disney juggernaut really got rolling, Steven Spielberg scared it a little with “An American Tail.” But his latest, “Balto,” left theaters with its tail between its legs. Since 1989 exactly one non-Disney animated feature has made even $50 million: “Beavis and Butt-head Do America.” “Disney has made brilliant films,” says David Kirschnet, producer of Warners’ giant flop “Cats Don’t Dance.” “But if I’d done those same films, they would’ve made $1.50.”
An obvious measure of Disney’s success is that once upon a time it trained its own animators, and Fox Studio chairman Bill Mechanic. The current rivalry has so much demand for artists that salaries have have tripled–the average animator now makes $125,000 a year. Animation historian Charles Solomon worries that the available talent is being stretched so thinly that some new films could be “just awful. It took [Michael] Eisner and Katzenberg 10 years to rebuild Disney to the point where they could create ‘The Lion King.’ Will these other studios give animators that kind of time to grow?”
And will anyone ever catch Disney anyway? It recently doubled the size of its already immense studio, and its track record is still a nearly irresistible draw for talent. “Cats Don’t Dance” suggested you don’t want to work anywhere else. Warners’ movie cost $45 million and got great reviews, but there was no marketing, no merchandise- no audience. “If an animated movie is not an event, it’s a rental,” says one key “Cats” artist, who returned to Disney after the devastating experience. “I wanted to be back with a company that understands that.”
And don’t think Disney can’t play hardball. In 1994 it re-released “The Lion King” in time to eighty-six Fox’s “Pagemaster.” When Katzenberg’s “Prince of Egypt” opens, it will have to go head to head with the Disney-sponsored “Bugs,” the new film from the folks who brought you “Toy Story.” One week before Fox’s “Anastasia” hits theaters, Disney will re-release “The Little Mermaid.” Nice guys. “Disney’s going to defend its title,” says Don Bluth, the animator who created “Anastasia.” “The giants are in the ring.”
“Cats Don’t Dance” producer Kirschner thinks a merchandising blitz is the only way to compete with Disney. Katzenberg, however, believes “Prince of Egypt” is simply a great picture, and he’ll be pitching it to an older audience anyway: ages 9 and up. If he succeeds in bucking the trend he helped create, it could mean fewer cutesy fast-food tie-ins. It could also mean more inventive films, without the jut-jawed heroes, the wise-cracking animal sidekicks and the radio-ready power ballads that have become part of the corporate package. “Creativity comes up from the basement, not down from the boardroom,” says Spike Decker, whose innovative Spike and Mike Animation Festival discovered John Lasseter of"Toy Story." The battle for young America’s hearts, minds and allowances should be fun to watch. Here’s hoping the movies are, too.
