November’s Biggest Stories From The World Of Animation

In November, the animation industry experienced incredible highs and disappointing lows. Leo and Trolls Band Together debuted as hits, numerous studios in the U.S. and Canada unionized, and we got our first look at some exciting new titles coming in 2024.

On the other hand, Disney’s box office struggles continued with Wish, studios around the world laid off workers, and another fully-finished film got canned by its distributor (although there may still be a happy ending on the horizon for Coyote vs. Acme).

Here are ten topics that had our readers talking in November.

1) Artists’ Rights: The Animation Guild has had a banner year in 2023 and is finishing even stronger than it started. Production workers at Walt Disney Animation Studios voted to unionize in a Labor Board election. Whiteboard Geeks became the first studio in Virginia where workers unionized with TAG. It was also a historic month north of the border, where workers at Wildbrain Animation Studios and DNEG Vancouver are unionizing. And 10 Walt Disney Animation Studios workers became the first group of remote employees to attempt to unionize with TAG.

2) Artificial Intelligence: Former Dreamworks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg turned heads when he predicted that AI would cut animation labor and production time by 90% within the next three years. Warner Music revealed it will use AI to recreate Édith Piaf’s voice and image in a new animated biopic. Disney asked Microsoft to take steps to prevent AI users from infringing on its trademarks. And several tech companies submitted open letters to the U.S. Copyright Office claiming it’s not their fault that their machine learning programs produce copyrighted materials, even though they are the ones who trained their systems on stolen copyrighted material.

3) Box Office: NBCUniversal’s outstanding year at the box office continued when Trolls Band Together debuted earlier this month, pulling in $30 million during its domestic opening weekend. At the other end of the scale, Disney’s brutal box office run continued in November when the company’s new animated feature Wish debuted with an uninspiring $19.7 million Thanksgiving holiday opening.

4) Layoffs: The hits kept coming in November as animation, vfx, and gaming companies laid off workers. Destiny developer Bungie laid off 8% of its workforce, or 100 people, as part of more extensive cost-cutting measures at Sony’s Playstation unit. Netflix cut one-third of its feature animation division as part of a strategic overhaul; we were told that no artists were included in these layoffs. Amazon’s games division laid off 180 workers in an effort to focus more on its own titles rather than third-party-developed games. Unity laid off 265 engineers at its Weta Tools division. And Embracer Group continued a string of layoffs by cutting roles at two Hungarian studios, Digic (35 employees) and Zen Studios (30 employees).

5) Business: After years of speculation, Disney announced it has agreed to acquire an additional 33% stake in Hulu, currently held by Comcast Corp.’s NBC Universal, making it the sole owner of the streaming platform.

6) Upcoming Features: Several upcoming high-profile features got new trailers in November, including Inside Out 2 and The Garfield Movie. For more information on these and many other animated features set to release next year, check out our 2024 Animated Movie Calendar, which we’re updating as new details are announced.

7) Streaming: In addition to hosting many of this year’s Oscar-qualified animated shorts, industry streaming platform The Animation Showcase is also home to two of the year’s top international animated features, Perlimps and Titina. Netflix released its new Adam Sandler animated feature Leo this month, which enjoyed the streamer’s biggest debut ever for an original animated feature.

8) Coyote vs Acme: Warner Bros. Discovery shelved its fully finished Wile E. Coyote film earlier this month, and the decision blew up in the company’s face like a stick of Acme dynamite. After tremendous backlash from fans, artists, and even politicians, the company reversed its decision and said it would entertain offers for the film from other distributors. We got to attend a screening of the film, and it’s delightful. We’re really hopeful that Coyote vs. Acme finds a new home and audiences will see the tremendous work done by the film’s crew.

9) Events: Australian producer-distributor Glitch Productions launched Glitch Expo, an online event dedicated to independent animation. The CEE Animation Forum handed out awards to the most exciting Eastern European animated projects. Madrid’s Next Lab opened its submission window for next year’s vr, xr, and ar workshops. And the Titmouse Foundation teamed with Warrior Art Camp to launch a new animation education scholarship program.

10) Interviews: Cartoon Brew’s exclusive online event partner, INBTWN Animation, sat down with Trolls Band Together’s director, co-director, and creative supervisors to discuss how collaboration was the key to their production. Former Pixar animator Sanjay Patel joined us to discuss his new Youtube series Ghee Happy. And we really enjoyed this interview with Across the Spider-Verse lead editor Michael Andrews.