Disney Cuts Jobs Again

According to the LA Times, Disney executives have announced plans to “lay off as many as 265 employees at its Burbank [animation] facility over the next year.” Last year Disney cut 500 jobs and reduced animator salaries by 30% to 50%. The company anticipates reducing its present animation department staff from 1300 to about 1000 by May 2003. Disney has confirmed that the company does not plan to abandon traditional hand drawn cel animation, but is reacting to increasingly poor financial returns from traditional animation in recent years. Disney does still have several traditional cel animation features in the works, including “Lilo & Stich,” “Treasure Planet,” “Sweating Bullets” and “Jungle Book 2.”

Source: Anime News Network