Paramount Animation

[Sotiris]

Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc., has appointed veteran animation executive David Stainton as President of its new in-house animation division.

Stainton joins Paramount after a 17-year run at Disney, where he served as President of Walt Disney Feature Animation. During his studio tenure, he oversaw several dozen releases across various platforms that brought in $3.5 billion in worldwide revenue. He spearheaded Disney’s transition from its hand-drawn roots to fully digital animation production, led the successful Disney Video Premieres division, and oversaw the studio’s 150-person animation facility in Paris. More recently, Stainton served as Chief Executive Officer of family entertainment producer Henry’s World Media, which he founded in 2007.

In his new role, which takes effect this week, Stainton will report to Adam Goodman, President of the Paramount Motion Picture Group.

Paramount Animation aims to focus on high-quality animation with budgets per picture of up to $100 million, with an initial target of one release per year. The division’s mandate will be the development of the broadest range of family CGI animated films, with a key piece being titles under the label of Viacom’s Nickelodeon, the No. 1 entertainment brand for kids worldwide. Paramount will also build on Viacom’s already thriving global consumer products business by seeking to capitalize on merchandising opportunities tied to all Paramount Animation releases.

“The success of Rango this year helped us recognize our potential and ability to create wonderfully imaginative animated pictures with global appeal,” said Brad Grey, Chairman & CEO of Paramount Pictures. “David is a proven leader with a broad portfolio of experience in animation and family entertainment. He will be a welcome addition to Adam’s highly talented team.”

“David’s accomplishments speak for themselves, and I am glad to welcome him to the lot as we start this exciting new chapter,” Adam Goodman added. “With David’s leadership, we will look to build on what has been a very strong year for our studio in animation, with Rango and the upcoming Adventures of Tintin pointing to the kind of artist-driven, broad-appeal films we intend to make at Paramount Animation.”

“Today’s marketplace affords terrific flexibility as we set out to create fresh, new and different films and seek to attract great talent to Paramount,” Stainton said. “It is a great honor to be joining a company as storied and successful as Paramount and to be able to shape its future in animation. I look forward to helping usher in this new era.”

Source: http://www.deadline.com/2011/10/paramou ... tion-unit/

[Sotiris]

People in the industry seem to really hate him. Just look at all the comments on Cartoon Brew:

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film ... ation.html

[jpanimation]

To understand why he's hated, just go to his official site:

http://davidstainton.com/

Right off the bat you see a large image of Chicken Little, as he considers the transition from 2D to 3D one of his greatest achievements, along with his money making DTV business. Just listen to Stainton brag about these “accomplishments”:

“Before founding Henry's World Media in 2006, David was President of each of the animation divisions at Disney, including Walt Disney Feature Animation. In these roles, he attained unparalleled experience as a global leader in creating, developing, and producing family entertainment. His theatrically released movies alone earned over $800 million at the box office worldwide. Under his leadership, the Disney Video Premieres business flourished with revenues of over $1.7 billon. In all, David oversaw the release of 11 feature films, four animated shorts, 22 video premieres, and 12 animated TV series -- generating nearly $3.5 billion in worldwide revenues.

At Feature Animation, David transformed the division financially, creatively, and technologically. During his tenure, he cut overhead, production costs, and operating losses in half. At the same time, he revived the culture of creative excellence at the studio with a new line-up of films. Finally, his leadership drove the historic transition from hand-drawn to computer-generated animation at Feature Animation and his other divisions, bringing animation at Disney fully into the digital era.

The first fruit of David's turnaround of the division was the success of "Chicken Little", released in November of 2005. It was named one of Time Magazine's "Top Ten Movies of the Year" and went on to bring in $319 million at the box office worldwide. It remains Feature Animation's biggest hit since 2000.

Also, check out his filmography and just look at all the DACs made under him as president of WDFA (Home on the Range, Chicken Little, Meet the Robinsons). Is it any wonder Lasseter dumped his ass? Paramount can have him.

[Semaj]

At Feature Animation, David transformed the division financially, creatively, and technologically. During his tenure, he cut overhead, production costs, and operating losses in half. At the same time, he revived the culture of creative excellence at the studio with a new line-up of films. Finally, his leadership drove the historic transition from hand-drawn to computer-generated animation at Feature Animation and his other divisions, bringing animation at Disney fully into the digital era.

Yes, historical as in nearly destroying an American tradition, and putting thousands of artists worldwide out of work.

He can take his "accomplishments" and shove it up his ass.

[TheValentineBros]

The first fruit of David's turnaround of the division was the success of "Chicken Little", released in November of 2005. It was named one of Time Magazine's "Top Ten Movies of the Year" and went on to bring in $319 million at the box office worldwide. It remains Feature Animation's biggest hit since 2000.

Wait! Time Magazine rated this one of the Top 10 movies?



It's Disney's WORST animated film ever! I mean, come on. David should know better than just hiring CG animators and putting traditional animators out of work. Seriously though, fuck his "accomplishments."

[Sotiris]

David Stainton, president of Paramount Animation, resigned on Wednesday for personal reasons. Stainton joined the fledgling animation unit in October after 17 years at Disney, where once served as president of its feature animation division.

"We are grateful for the time David spent at the studio and we wish him well in his future endeavors," Adam Goodman, president of the Paramount Motion Picture Group said in a statement. Adam Goodman will directly oversee the animation development team moving forward.

Paramount formed its animation unit last year after the success of Rango, the Oscar-winning film starring Johnny Depp.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/ ... 8020120222

"You’ll never see us risk $300M on a single movie, or $200M — $100M may be the limit," Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman said today in an appearance at the Deutsche Bank Media & Telecom Conference. That also applies to Paramount’s new animation unit. "We will be releasing a SpongeBob movie at the end of 2014, which will serve to start off or be one of our films that starts off our new animation effort," he said. The studio only has about 40 people in the operation, and will outsource the handiwork. The films wil be "under a $100M price point, some of them way under." With advancements in computer animation, even a low budget film can "still look great on screen."

The first SpongeBob movie was produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studio

Source: http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/viacom- ... paramount/


Paramount Animation also has a "New Kid" project in the works:

Their first animation project was (or still is) NEW KID, based on a one-shot comic panel in Penny Arcade. That’s it. No story, no development, just an idea based off a one page comic.

Source: http://www.cartoonbrew.com/business/dav ... ation.html