PDI Dreamworks shutting down Redwood animation studio, approx 500 laid off

[ShogunGino]

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/business/breaking-dreamworks-animation-will-shut-down-pdidreamworks-studio-over-500-jobs-will-be-eliminated-108161.html

As a big animation fan, I was shocked to see this news. I did think it was rather crazy that Dreamworks released three full-length feature animated films in 2014, and it looks like it that kind of work didn't pay off. It seems it was Jeff Katzenberg who made yet more terrible decisions.

PDI Dreamworks in Redwood City, California is effectively shut down as of this moment. Having recently graduated from a college specializing in game and film animation, this hits me hard. One of my former professors who taught me 3D character rigging was working there (saw her name in the credits of the Penguins of Madagascar movie). I hope she gets on her feet quickly.

It was comforting to see in the article that representatives from Pixar, Rockstar, and Blizzard were extending hiring opportunities in response to this, but still, with about 500 immediately laid off, I have to wonder how many will recover. They deserved better than this.

 

[Vault101]

it seems to be the case in these kinds of industry's I wonder if outsourcing had anything to do with it

I Hope the best for everyone

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Disappointing but not surprising, the last really good Dreamworks movie was How to Train Your Dragon back in 2010, and since then the rest of their movies have been pretty average. Then again, the quality issue shouldn't really matter considering the movies still all grossed at least double what they cost to produce and I can't think of a single dreamworks animation movie that actually lost money.

 

[Queen Michael]

I can't think of a single dreamworks animation movie that actually lost money.

Me neither, and unless Madagascar 2 was just a fever dream of mine, that's an injustice we should all be mad about.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I can't think of a single dreamworks animation movie that actually lost money.

Me neither, and unless Madagascar 2 was just a fever dream of mine, that's an injustice we should all be mad about.

If any movie deserved to lose money it's Madagascar 3, because people should have known better after Madagascar 2, but that made like quadruple it's budget back. It's goddamn insane to me. It made almost double the money of How to Train Your Dragon.

Actually, scratch that. If any movie deserved to lose money it was fucking Shark Tale.

 

[Queen Michael]

I can't think of a single dreamworks animation movie that actually lost money.

Me neither, and unless Madagascar 2 was just a fever dream of mine, that's an injustice we should all be mad about.

If any movie deserved to lose money it's Madagascar 3, because people should have known better after Madagascar 2, but that made like quadruple it's budget back. It's goddamn insane to me. It made almost double the money of How to Train Your Dragon.

Actually, scratch that. If any movie deserved to lose money it was fucking Shark Tale.

I didn't see either of those two movies. My conscience is clean. [small]Despite what I did to uncle Sven with a screwdriver that one time.[/small]

 

[Story]

This is aweful. I feel for the people who have been layed off.
Reguardless I'm not surprised. Dreamworks animation has hit a rough patch lately. They are even having a hard time selling their shares from what I've heard. I'm not sure why this is either since the film's have been making money and are generally well received from audiences and critics. Maybe it is the new animation studios that are hurting their profits?
Scratch that, it seems that Penguins of Madagascar, Turbo and Shermin were big flops. Not surprising really as all three were underwhelming.

 

[CommanderZx2]

All of their movies are profitable, it seems a bit odd that they'd be making layoffs. Perhaps there's some sort of ulterior motive that is not quite being explained, such as plans to outsource.

 

[Ldude893]

Drat. So I'm not going to see another How to Train Your Dragon movie until the same time as The Avengers 3 comes out.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

Maybe they should've taken that offer from Hasbro. At least then they would have had money and the layoffs might not have been this big.

Still, this really sucks. I hope Dreamworks doesn't die. I really enjoy a lot of their films and the King Julian Netflix show...

 

[Lilani]

This is aweful. I feel for the people who have been layed off.
Reguardless I'm not surprised. Dreamworks animation has hit a rough patch lately. They are even having a hard time selling their shares from what I've heard. I'm not sure why this is either since the film's have been making money and are generally well received from audiences and critics. Maybe it is the new animation studios that are hurting their profits?
Scratch that, it seems that Penguins of Madagascar, Turbo and Shermin were big flops. Not surprising really as all three were underwhelming.

Those films at least met and slightly exceeded their budgets, and if nothing else How to Train Your Dragon 2 was the highest grossing animated film of 2014, even more than Lego Movie. Perhaps not all of them were megahits, but I don't feel confident saying Dreamworks has LOST money in the past couple of years. I think this is less about outright failure and more about studio executives wanting to make big Disney or Pixar bucks.

I read somewhere that the reason Peabody and Sherman didn't make a lot of money, according to people within Dreamworks, was because some of the jokes were "too clever." Which is wrong in so many ways and sounds like something an executive would come up with. While some have said the writing was surprisingly clever, it certainly didn't come off as very clever in the trailers. It was marketed pretty generically in many ways and came across as yet another one of those horrible adaptations of classic cartoons a la Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Smurfs, Yogi Bear, etc. There have been too many of those poor quality films out out recently for people to be able to see something like that with fresh eyes. It was really bad timing on their part, and it's crystal clear to anyone who isn't a studio executive trying to defend their marketing choices by blaming the quality of the product overall.

 

[Albino Boo]

Those films at least met and slightly exceeded their budgets, and if nothing else How to Train Your Dragon 2 was the highest grossing animated film of 2014, even more than Lego Movie. Perhaps not all of them were megahits, but I don't feel confident saying Dreamworks has LOST money in the past couple of years. I think this is less about outright failure and more about studio executives wanting to make big Disney or Pixar bucks.

I read somewhere that the reason Peabody and Sherman didn't make a lot of money, according to people within Dreamworks, was because some of the jokes were "too clever." Which is wrong in so many ways and sounds like something an executive would come up with. While some have said the writing was surprisingly clever, it certainly didn't come off as very clever in the trailers. It was marketed pretty generically in many ways and came across as yet another one of those horrible adaptations of classic cartoons a la Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Smurfs, Yogi Bear, etc. There have been too many of those poor quality films out out recently for people to be able to see something like that with fresh eyes. It was really bad timing on their part, and it's crystal clear to anyone who isn't a studio executive trying to defend their marketing choices by blaming the quality of the product overall.

They lost money in 2012 and they haven't had a huge hit since then. The are cutting the number of films made from 3 a year to 2. One original IP and one sequel. I think the huge superhero films have squeezed them out of the 3rd film.

 

[faefrost]

Maybe they should've taken that offer from Hasbro. At least then they would have had money and the layoffs might not have been this big.

Still, this really sucks. I hope Dreamworks doesn't die. I really enjoy a lot of their films and the King Julian Netflix show...

It wasn't that Dreamworks didn't take it. Hasbro quickly withdrew interest when it became public. Hasbro's Board and stockholders went balistic. Especially when Disney, the prime licensor for their most profitable toy lines, pointed out that buying DW would make Hasbro a direct competitor and immediately invalidate things like their Star Wars and Marvel licenses.

The problems with Dreamworks aren't that the movies don't make money. It's just they don't make enough money to shovel the studio out of its debt hole or to shake loose greater financing at better terms. The individual movies turn a profit for the most part ( although they did take write downs on things like Turbo and rise of the Guardians ) but the studio as a whole does not. One steaming turd like Turbo can wipe the net profits of 3 or 4 good but not Frozen level succesful movies.

Let's be honest with ourselves, most of us know the bulk of Dreamworks films from FX's ever repeating rotation of them. Very few of us saw them in theaters. They have some great properties and franchises if the debt can be shed. I suspect it will eventually be Fox that steps in and buys them up at a fire sale price.

 

[Story]

This is aweful. I feel for the people who have been layed off.
Reguardless I'm not surprised. Dreamworks animation has hit a rough patch lately. They are even having a hard time selling their shares from what I've heard. I'm not sure why this is either since the film's have been making money and are generally well received from audiences and critics. Maybe it is the new animation studios that are hurting their profits?
Scratch that, it seems that Penguins of Madagascar, Turbo and Shermin were big flops. Not surprising really as all three were underwhelming.

Those films at least met and slightly exceeded their budgets, and if nothing else How to Train Your Dragon 2 was the highest grossing animated film of 2014, even more than Lego Movie. Perhaps not all of them were megahits, but I don't feel confident saying Dreamworks has LOST money in the past couple of years. I think this is less about outright failure and more about studio executives wanting to make big Disney or Pixar bucks.

I read somewhere that the reason Peabody and Sherman didn't make a lot of money, according to people within Dreamworks, was because some of the jokes were "too clever." Which is wrong in so many ways and sounds like something an executive would come up with. While some have said the writing was surprisingly clever, it certainly didn't come off as very clever in the trailers. It was marketed pretty generically in many ways and came across as yet another one of those horrible adaptations of classic cartoons a la Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Smurfs, Yogi Bear, etc. There have been too many of those poor quality films out out recently for people to be able to see something like that with fresh eyes. It was really bad timing on their part, and it's crystal clear to anyone who isn't a studio executive trying to defend their marketing choices by blaming the quality of the product overall.

Thanks for the info. At one point I was staying on top of these things but I've fallen out of the loop the last few years.

 

[Kolby Jack]

Disappointing but not surprising, the last really good Dreamworks movie was How to Train Your Dragon back in 2010, and since then the rest of their movies have been pretty average. Then again, the quality issue shouldn't really matter considering the movies still all grossed at least double what they cost to produce and I can't think of a single dreamworks animation movie that actually lost money.

I'm going to go ahead and disagree with you there. HtTYD 2 was phenomenal, Kung Fu Panda 2 stands as one of my favorite movies of all time, Shrek 4 was pretty good considering it's the fourth in the series, and I've heard from critics whose opinion I respect that the Madagascar movies get better with each sequel (RT shows this as well) even though I haven't seen them myself.

Well, layoffs happen. I doubt it will affect the quality of the products much. Kung Fu Panda and HtTYD at least should remain unscathed, which is all I care about. DreamWorks Animation, when they aren't making pop-culture referencing slogs, are WAY better at story-telling than Pixar, and I'd be devastated to seem them collapse.