The Cartoon Productions Among Us

Being a post about productions happening in L.A.'s Cartoonland, the following will have omissions and possibly errors, because they happen. And because I'm no longer plugged into the day-to-day hubbub of animation production, but have to rely on spies and stoolies willing to talk. Also, too, the internet. ...

BENTO BOX

Bob's Burger

The Awesomes (Atlanta)

Legends of Chamberlain Heights

various pilots

The studio has two Southern California locations in Burbank and North Hollywood. Also facilities in Atlanta and Canada.

CARTOON NETWORK STUDIOS

Wee Bare Bears

Ben 10 (newer version)

Power Puff Girls

Samurai Jack (10 episodes -- in post production)

Steven Universe

Mighty Magiswords

OK KO (Let's Be Heroes)

Summer Camp Island

Various unannounced series, including a prime time offering.

Clarence (wrapping up)

Regular Show (wrapping up)

Adventure Time (wrapping up)

Uncle Grandpa (wrapping up)

CN's L.A. County Studio snugs up against the Burbank Police Department in Burbank, California. CN also has a studio in Atlanta. Many "Adult Swim" offerings are done by non-signator sub-contractors because "doing it on the cheap" is an operating philosophy.

DISNEY TELEVISION ANIMATION

Mickey Mouse shorts

Star Vs. The Forces of Evil

Pickle and Peanut

Sofia the First (wrapping)

Elena of Avalor

Duck Tales

Country Club

Olaf's Frozen Adventures

Mickey and the Roadster Racers

Milo Murphy's Law

Big Hero 6: The Series

Muppet Babies (CG)

Three Caballeros

The Lion Guard

Wicked World

Disney TVA is located in Glendale on Sonora Avenue ... and next to the Burbank Airport in what is known as "Media Center North". The division is outsourcing more of its shows as a cost-cutting move (studio overhead ain't cheap). L.A. subcontractors include Wild Canary, Rough Draft Studios, and Titmouse/Robin Red breast.

DISNEY TOON STUDIOS

Planes 3

Animation veteran Mark Dindall is at work on "Planes 3".

DREAMWORKS ANIMATION

Larrikins

Captain Underpants (wrapping in Canada)

How to Train Your Dragon 3

Shrek 5

B.O.O. - Bureau of Otherworldly Operations

Puss in Boots 2

Madagascar 4

With the purchase of DreamWorks Animation by Universal, changes are ongoing, with various management changes (Chris deFaria comes aboard; Chris Meledandri will be a more active consultant, focusing in "Larrikins" to start with). Expect changes at both DreamWorks Animation and Walt Disney Animation Studios. At both places there have been layoffs over the past few months.

DREAMWORKS ANIMATION TV

All Hail King Julian

The Adventures of Puss in Boots

Rocky & Bullwinkle

Vegitales (Louisiana)

Dinotrux

Voltron

Home

Dragons, How to Train

(new version)

Harvey Girls

Trolls

Spirit Riding Free

DWA tv continues to produce a variety of series for Netflix distribution. The division is located in Glendale on multiple stories of a skyscraper on Central Avenue. It has been a large employer of animation and CG artists since it was created four-plus years ago.

FOX ANIMATION

The Simpsons

Family Guy

American Dad

Fox Animation hs two locations: one in Burbank at the Pinnacle on Alameda, and a larger facility on Wilshire (los Angeles) where "American Dad" and "Family Guy" are produced.

FUZZY DOOR PRODUCTIONS

Seth MacFarlane's production company, headquartered in Beverly Hills, developing various live-action and animated projects.

HASBRO

Stretch Armstrong

Transformers (winding down

Micronauts (scripts in L.A., most of production at Hasbro subsidiary Boulder in Ireland)

My Little Pony (scripts in L.A., production in Canada)

Hasbro recently moved to the Yahoo complex next to the Burbank Airport. Before the move they were further north in a building shared with Film Roman/"Simpsons".

MARVEL ANIMATION

Spiderman (newer iteration)

Avengers

Guardians

Marvel Animation, a Disney subsidiary, has two animation facilities in Glendale, on and near Flower Street. Marvel Animation will be moving to a new location on Main Street in Burbank the middle of the year.

NICKELODEON

Bunson Is A Beast

Fairly Odd Parents (last of new episodes wrapping in Canada)

Sponge Bob Square Pants

Loud House

Harvey Beaks

Ninja Turtles (new version)

Shimmer & Shine

Pinky Malinky

Glitch Tech

Hey Arnold (long form)

Rocko (long form)

Henry Danger

Nickelodeon has recently consolidated animation staff from Third Street in Burbank and Brand Boulevard in Glendale to its new skyscraper on Olive Avenue in Burbank.

RENEGADE

Tom & Jerry

Renegade is a non-signator animation studio in Glendale California. It has done sub-contract work for WB Animation, also provided content for the website "ABC Mouse".

SHADOW MACHINE

Bojack Horseman

Shadow Machine is located in the east Valley, yet another non-Guild studio.

SPLASH ENTERTAINMENT

Run by Mike and Liz Young (and a non-Animation Guild studio), Splash is located in Warner Center out in the west San Fernando Valley. Recent projects: "Norm of the North" (feature) and "Kulipari: An Army of Frogs (series). If you know what they are currently working on you are more knowledgable than Hulett.

STARBURNS INDUSTRIES

Rick and Morty

Animals

Starburns in located in Burbank; "Rick and Morty" is a Guild show, its other projects are non-Guild.

TITMOUSE/ROBIN RED BREAST

Big Mouth

Nikko and the Sword of Light

Moonbeam

Son of Zorn

Future-Worm!

Goldie and Bear

Hanazuki: Full of Treasures

Megalopolis

The Venture Brothers

Super Jail

Titmouse/Robin Red Breast is located on Lexington Avenue in Hollywood, with anothe facility in New York. They were an early sub-contractor for DreamWorks Animation tv, and have also worked on a variety of Disney shows, Netflix shows, some of which are listed above.

2 STOOPID BUDDIES STUDIOS

Super Mansion

Robot Chicken

2 Stoopid Buddies is yet another east San Fernando Valley studio, located in Burbank. It's a non-Guild studio.

UNIVERSAL CARTOON STUDIOS

Curious George

Chipmunks*

Land Before Time*

In the past few weeks, UCS moved to the DreamWorks Animation campus in Glendale. At least, the Curious George unit did.

WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIOS

Wreck-It Ralph 2

Gigantic

Frozen 2

Zootopia 2

Let's take it for granted, Hollywood culture being Hollywood culture, that any feature that grosses $1 billion or more will automatically generate a sequel before many years have passed. No self-respecting conglomerate will do anything different. (What do you think this is?! 1943?)

WARNER ANIMATION GROUP (WAG)

The Lego Movie Sequel

Scooby-Doo

Smallfoot

The Lego Ninjago Movie

The Lego Batman Movie (completed)

Warner Animation Group recently lost one of their top execs (Chris deFaria) to DreamWorks Animation; the Time-Warner division is located in Hollywood near Melrose, on the Warner Bros. lot, and on the Warner ranch.

WARNER BROS. ANIMATION

Unikitty

Bee Cool Scooby Doo

Wabbit

Bunicula

Justice League Action

Mike Tyson Mysteries

Teen Titans Go!

DC Girls

Green Eggs and Ham

Wacky Races

Warner Bros. Animation has locations at three Burbank locations: the Warner Ranch, the Pinnacle, and the Burbank Studio (formerly NBC Studios).

Trends in Los Angeles animation? Television animation is roaring and will continue to roar. The big drivers here are the new media players Netflix and Amazon. Both are ramping up their kids' content. My informants tell me that Amazon is going to be doing a lot more children's programming in the coming moths/years.

Theatrical animation, on the other hand, is in a holding pattern. As stated above, both DreamWorks Animation and Walt Disney Animation Studios have laid off staff. Retrenchment is the order of the day. Illumination Entertainment, which does most of its production in Paris, continues to hire freelance board artists at favorable pay rates in Los Angeles to work on features.

But overall? It looks as though animation employment will be robust in Southern California for some time to come. (And look for this post to be updated over the next few days).