http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200507/s1423134.htm
At 3pm Monday 25 July the entire studio was summoned for a staff meeting in which we told by the General Manager Phil Oakes that upon completion of their next production "Cinderella 3", DisneyToon Studio's Australia will be closing down after 17 years. They have cited current business needs and production schedules as the cause. So Disney hand drawn animation now ceases to exist.
the real reason as im told from someone who knows these things was a pure lack of communication between the american studio and the australian stuido. the content made form the australian studio was somewhat inconsistant to the original material. (ie: watch alantis and then it's australian made sequal and you'll know what im yapping about)
and for the record. Disney has also closed its other "out of the USA" studios around the world and is now hermiting in it's mother country..
then again as a cartoon fan the last "good" series they came out which was gargoyles.. after that the..standard of both storyline and drawing quality has been degrading. in the end it's always economics.
Man, what a bummer. I really hope those animators find a way to keep on using their talents and pass on the skills they've learnt rather than letting it all go to waste. I can imagine a tonne of [url="http://www.biteycastle.com/html.shtml"]Adam Phillips[/url] (ex Disney Australia animator) quality people from there. Perhaps they could group up and work on animated shorts, an animation series (ala South Park) or something. I guess the only good thing to come from all this is that they won't have to work on lame Disney sequel projects anymore.
I know I'm not alone on the sentiment that Disney have got it all wrong with 2D animation. Their most recent feature animations look fantastic but just didn't have good stories to go with them. My main gripe is that they're mostly rehashing of older stories (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Pocahontas, Hercules, Mulan, Tarzan etc. How about getting some good writers and creating some new stories? o_O
2D animation isn't dead. Far from it. Maybe Disney should take a look at Japanese animation and create stuff that is aimed more towards adults. And Disney's 2D animation is/was *incredible* (they've closed down a lot of their US studios as well). I can only dream of that Disney kind of quality on a science fiction movie aimed at adults ala Akira.
It was probably over a decade ago but I remember reading news that a Disney Studio was opening up in Sydney and they were expanding with over 50 positions. It seemed like exciting times for local animation back then.
So theyre the guys responsible for all the lesser sequels. Its a bit sad to see that facet of disney dying off (not to mention people loosing their jobs and such) but i can sort of side with the reasoning as to why.