Vinton Studios hops on animation wave

By Jennifer Anderson

The Portland Tribune, Jun 29, 2004, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Will Vinton Studios wants to be known for more than just California Raisins and M&M’s.

The Northwest Portland-based animation studio has hired a new supervising director with the goal of aggressively pursuing family-friendly feature films.

Henry Selick, a writer and director known for his stop-motion animation in Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” joined Vinton Studios last month.

It’s all part of the studio’s plan Ñ in the wake of a round of layoffs three years ago Ñ to grab some of the national popularity of animated films, said Jeff Farnath, Vinton Studios’ chief executive officer.

“The studio’s history in entertainment has been primarily television in the past,” Farnath said. “The opportunity for a studio like Vinton Studios is just much, much larger in the feature animation space.”

Farnath pointed to the recent success of animated films such as “Shrek 2” and “Ice Age.”

“All of a sudden now, all of Hollywood realizes you don’t have to be from Disney to be successful in animation,” he said. “The demand is a lot higher now.”

During the next year, Farnath said, he wants the studio to get at least five feature-length animation projects into active development. Selick will work on some ideas he brought to the studio, as well as others that have been in the works internally.

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