Sunday, January 10, 2010

Leaving A Legacy...


Amazing what a day brings...

At an event honoring the life of Roy E. Disney, the Walt Disney Company announced that the studio's animation building will be named after him. It's not known if this is the original animation building or another, new one. If it's a new one, The Roy E. Disney Animation Building would be built on the studio lot in Burbank, not in Glendale next to WDI on Flower Street as John Lasseter and Ed Catmull originally wanted.

Unlike the Hat Building, which was designed with Michael Eisner's ego in mind, this one would be designed with animators in mind. You know them, right? It would be filled with open spaces designed to make people bump into one another, kind of like that other animation complex in Northern California run by the Lamp. If it's a new building, the exact location on the lot wasn't revealed, but in all likelihood it will be placed in the parking lot across the street from the ABC Building. This is where it was originally planned over two years ago, but was nixed because of the cost the underground parking structure was deemed too expensive for that time. It's unknown what changes have been made, but if built, the designs would be heavily influenced by John and Ed with a little advise from Steve.

More to follow...

UPDATE:
When I first heard this, I was curious as to why an announcement would be made on a Sunday, and it appears that this wasn't the original animation building, but the Hat Building, guys. A re-naming, not a new building. Big news like a new building would arrive on a weekday to get the most press. Renaming a building that isn't built for animation for a man that helped bring about the animation rebirth of the company isn't nearly as big of news as we would like. Check out the story here. It would be nice to see some of those other plans for the original "new" building. Being as we're in a recession right now, I'm not sure that we'll see a new structure unless WDAS starts making major box office which sadly, "Princess and the Frog" hasn't achieved.

More to follow II...

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cool news.

But I'm slightly confused; does this mean that the name "Walt Disney Animation Studios" is gone completely?

Dysitopic Enuciator said...

It's a building renaming not the company. READ PLEASE, before you post.

Anonymous said...

The Disney Blog now has an update to its article from this morning. Their sources are stating that WDAS is moving into a new building on the main lot, to be named The Roy E. Disney Animation Building.

Anonymous said...

/\ I KNOW that the company is not getting re-named.

If you READ my question AGAIN, you will see that I was asking if the NAME of the ANIMATION STUDIO BUILDING was getting re-named. Not the damn company.

So, YOU need to read before you post.

(You know, I second before I made the first post here, I thought to myself, maybe I shouldn't, because there is a good chance that someone will be rude... It looks like I was right....But I never guessed that it be because someone MISREAD my question.

So, good job Dysitopic Enuciator. Thank you for being rude.

Anonymous said...

If you click on the link Honor provided there is a video that shows Bob Iger talking in front of a screen. On the screen is the Hat Building with the new name as the Roy Disney Animation Building. Why would they name two buildings as this? That's not likely.

Anonymous said...

...I asked the question before Honor gave the updated info.

Thanks for the updated information Honor.
So, since the Hat building is getting re-named, does that mean that the "Steamboat Willie" logo in front of the animated films will have the new name as well?

Anonymous said...

"I'm not sure that we'll see a new structure unless WDAS starts making major box office which sadly, "Princess and the Frog" hasn't achieved."

And that is a real shame.
Both "Bolt" and "Princess and the Frog" were well done films.
It seems that people are still learning to trust Disney animation again.

Anonymous said...

The building is being renamed. The place that they reside is becoming the Roy Disney Animation Building.

That's "Building." Walt Disney Animation Studios is the name of the company or division. It ain't changing its name. Is everyone clear about that? Sigh..

Anonymouse said...

In the abc news video, you can clearly see the new sign on the Riverside Drive animation building. It's above the entrance, under the blue hat, and it reads "Roy E. Disney Animation Building".
However, there's no reason why they couldn't build something new on the Disney lot across the street in the parking lot someday. Even Pixar is in multiple buildings now.

Kevin Willis said...

If I'm not mistaken, there still remains a lot of foreign box office to count on The Princess and the Frog, because it didn't open worldwide. Maybe I'm wrong, but the foreign box office for the Princess and the Frog could be substantial. It wouldn't be the first time a movie did better with its foreign grosses than domestically.

perfectly flawed said...

Honor,

Even though "Princess and the Frog" wasn't the box office success that Disney fans and execs had envisioned, it's one more step to the right direction for the animation studio. Both "Sleeping Beauty" and "Alice in Wonderland" were considered bombs in the box office as well, but each film had long lasting effects and garnered fans generations after it's release - I'm pretty sure that the latest release will do the same as well.

Anonymous said...

"Sigh.."

That was a little unnecessary.

Sure, when people are hiding behind a computer, they can act however the want toward complete strangers without worrying about consequences.

Anyway, this is very interesting news to say the least.

I really do think that the reason why Disney Animated films don't do as well at the Box office as Pixar films is because people are still learning that they can trust Disney Animation again.
After all, for a long time, Disney was making sub-par films. Its only in recent years that the management changed and things started to get back on track.
Of course, it also doesn't help that there is a lot more competition that people eat up; movies about vampires and singing chipmunks...

Anonymous said...

Is this the news Honor was referring to in his last post that was a big secret? Doesn't strike me as something that would warrant secrecy or anything. I hope there's more to come. Honor?

Doopey said...

The announcement was made on Sunday because that was Roy's birthday.

MarkTwain said...

This is touching, but a little disappointing. I was hoping the big news would be a new building.

I'm glad to see Roy being remembered in this way, though.

Boring said...

Who cares?

So much for the big news.

Anonymous said...

Even though its not a new building, this is still a nice way to honor the memory of Roy E. Disney.