My New Gig Revealed!

I'm excited to announce that I've been picked up by the world famous Academy Award winning fx studio, Rhythm & Hues! Today is officially my last day at Disney and I just signed the offer for R&H late yesterday. I'll be working in their film division on a very cool project called The Golden Compass. It's a fantasy movie right up my alley and time-wise it lets me out right when American Dog is expecting to pick me back up... so it's perfect! This will be my first "live action" movie and I'm pretty darn stoked. I start April 9th so I have another week off.

TMNT Review

I have to be one of the most biased people to attempt to review this film. You see, this movie is going to compete directly with Meet the Robinsons starting this coming weekend (March 30th) so I really want this movie to be bad. Then everyone will go see MTR instead.... right? Well, low and behold, it's really really good. :( I can't believe it. $34m made in Hong Kong and it's good. Heck, I'll say it. It was great! I loved it. I actually thought it was better than 300... and more believable. The fight scenes were awesome and the story was pretty darn compelling. I give this movie 4 karate chops and a sweep the leg Johnny.

We'll all be working in Hong Kong soon. Good thing my girlfriend's Asian.

Back to Disney

So I've made up my mind to go back to Disney. I've talked with the guys up there and I'm convinced that going back is the right thing to do. I still have several months before I can start so I'll probably take a gig in the inbetween but unless something catastrophic happens (like they shut down the project), I'll be back to make American Dog... or whatever they are going to call it.

It was great to see what my options were as far as jobs and I still think one day I might jump ship and go into games. For now there is just too much momentum behind me in the film industry and I don't want to have to "prove myself" again somewhere new.

MTR had a great wrap party Saturday night and I got to see all my old workmates. Everyone seemed in good spirits and several people were doing the waiting game like me to go back to Disney. I also got to see Meet the Robinsons as a completed picture for the first time. It was very heart warming. It's a bit slow compared to current cg films and has none of the pop culture gags that we see today but it's a very good movie. Of course, I'm completely biased but I think it will do well.

Meet the Robinsons Update

I'm starting to see more and more ads for MTR but it still hasn't met the promotion blitz of TMNT which is a much lower budget film. We'll find out in a few short weeks if MTR is successful or not. I'm proud to have worked on this movie and I think it's very good. I just hope Pixar sees that too. The ads that I see don't do it much justice. Last word on American Dog (it's not even called that anymore) is that I can start work around October. The truth is, I'm thinking seriously about leaving film and going into the gaming industry. It's a very tough decision because Disney has been a great company to work for. The layoffs are what has stumped me about them and it's going to be hard to trust them in the future. I'll always feel like they will get rid of me or any other person that's paid well, no matter the talent level, with little regard to the person. It's a big company and they worry about bottom line not employee's or their families. It's the reason that we have the Animation Union to protect us. I didn't understand why we were in a union when I was working for Disney... now I know. ;)