Screen Test
When a TV toon attains popularity today, the result is more media attention and possibilities for marketing over wider demographics. TV animation actually seems to be bucking the tendency of modern marketing, which breaks the population down into specialized "niches" in order to target choice groups for specific advertising strategies. The appeal of animation is broadening to include a demographic base much wider than children, with exposure that far exceeds the old Saturday morning "cartoon ghetto." With this dynamic in place, it is little wonder that several animated TV series are making the jump to theatrical release; their world is a bigger one now.
Animation also came to be a great investment after films began breaking the $80 million mark, but such features hardly existed (outside of Disney) until the late 1990s. The rise of successful rivals to the Mouse proved that corporate money spent on films could finally pay off. Oh, there were missteps, to be sure -- Titan AE and Trumpet of the Swan come to mind -- but overall the earning curve of animated features was clearly going up. A massive infusion of prime-time television animation may have been a failure but the time has never been better for toons making it to the movies; since 1998, the first year in which Disney faced major competition, animated features have averaged $80,251,586 at the box office. Twelve films have grossed over $100 million, and half of them were by studios other than Disney.
The Larger Picture
Of course, feature films are also part of a cycle; they help to sell merchandise. Small screen animation has generated more saleable commodities over the past few years. There is more Scooby Doo product available in more stores than there ever was in 1969, and the Looney Tunesters have easily followed suit. Walt Disney found out long ago that his characters were worth a fortune in licensing, and worked closely with independent businessman Kay Kamen in order to exploit the situation to the fullest. When Kamen died in 1949, Disney eventually replaced him with O.B. Johnson and finally Vince Jefferds (an in-house company man). Few other studios outside of Disney marketed as aggressively, so many famous characters appeared only as toys or board games or in comic books. Today, studios that feature animation have, or had, entire stores dedicated to a wide selection of animation-related product; The Warner, and of course, Disney outlets are an example, and other beloved characters are marketed in video outlets, novelty stores, or over the Internet. In truth, Warner, Disney, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon can't lose much money on an animated feature -- even should the film in question bomb -- since they serve as promotional vehicles for the proliferation of licensed products -- whether the movie busts the charts or not.
SpongeBob, Arnold, Doug, the Powerpuff Girls, the Recess and Rugrats gangs and the Looney Tunes do indeed seem to be harbingers of the future. If they are, they presage changes in animation and its production. Studio heads and producers may begin buying shows based on whether they can be translated into feature films in addition to a regular series; it may not be unreasonable that part of the agreement could be: "A feature film must be produced within eighteen months of a show attaining a certain number of rating points." Creators and writers may sweeten the pot (and increase chances of a sale) by presenting a rough screenplay when they pitch a series. Why? In order to take advantage of a show's popularity with all due alacrity. A lesson is in order here: When Pokémon became a phenomenal hit among prepubescent TV watchers in 1997, Warners immediately bought a pre-existing film in Japan and released it the following year in the U.S.A. -- just in time to catch the crest of the series' popularity. The result? $85 million at the box office and all the secondary profits they could catch.
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