keyleedaud (REAL ESTATE)

Several recent events have reminded me of the risks involved in animation. Brenda Chapman's dismissal as director of Pixar's Brave is old news, but she recently spoke out   about being fired. Henry Selick's untitled film with Disney was cancelled , forcing the layoff of over a hundred artists at the Cinderbiter studio in the San Francisco area. Finally, and this won't be as well known, the CEO of the Go Go Gorillas operation, Christopher Turner, is under investigation for fraud .  Further details here .  I've written about John Celestri in the past.  John's a friend and former co-worker who was looking for an alternate financial model for animation and connected with Christopher Turner.  The company was attempting to use a restaurant/arcade to fund animation.  That's the reverse of the typical approach where popular cartoon characters are used to brand other enterprises like theme parks.  In any case, it is doubtful that the company will be able to mo...

Animator and friend John Celestri ( Rock and Rule , Space Ace ) now has a blog . John made some contributions to this blog early on, so it's nice to see that he's set up a blog of his own. I've added his link to my list of links.

I met John Celestri at Nelvana in Toronto, even though we were both New Yorkers by birth. At the time, John was animating on Rock and Rule . In the years since Nelvana, John has worked for a variety of studios including Don Bluth. Currently, he’s the COO of Grace Global Media Corp. which is trying a new variation on an established business model. Lots of cartoon series spin off merchandise or themed locations. Lots of brands spin off cartoon series. Go Go Gorillas! was created to simultaneously be both a retail brand and an animation series. The first facility opened last December 3 in Danville, Kentucky. It’s 30,000 square feet housing a restaurant and indoor theme park, which contains a rock climbing wall, an arcade, mini-bowling, bumper cars, blacklight miniature golf, party rooms and an educational space for classes to use for field trips based on Kentucky’s core curriculum . The characters are the Avenging Apes of Africa , a group built around the themes of ecological and s...