Happily N'ever After was animated primarily at Berliner Film Companie's 20,000-square-foot facility, using a 64-bit production pipeline.

Williams observes that Mental Images' founder Rolf Herken also was keen to support Berlin-based production. "Rolf definitely was instrumental in guiding the build-out plans for the BFC facility." But whether other productions will follow Happily N'ever After through the BFC pipeline is uncertain. The studio's website is inoperative and Williams notes that a principal in the German tax fund is reportedly being prosecuted. "So they've shut down all the tax funds in Germany."

The saga didn't end there, however. Once Lionsgate became involved with Happily N'ever After, Vanguard had the funds to complete some additions and revisions. According to Williams, Lionsgate also orchestrated the services of King of the Hill director Yvette Kaplan. "Originally we didn't know if there was going to be any money to do some additional animation work," he admits. To handle additional animation, Williams chose Nitrogen Studios in Vancouver Canada. Another Vancouver-based shop, Mr. X, provided the visual effects. The whole process required resourcefulness, asserts Williams. "One of the strengths -- and weaknesses -- of working with different crews is that you're always having to reinvent the process."

Once Lionsgate became involved with Happily N'ever After, Vanguard had the funds to complete some additions and revisions. King of the Hill director Yvette Kaplan was also brought on board.

The Shape Of Things To Come
The story behind Happily N'ever After highlights a key truth about feature animation today, especially for producers who want to keep a talented team together. As Williams observes. "You must have your next film in progress. Almost a year before you finish one film, you have to be able to roll over a full crew." With that in mind, Williams is currently building a Vanguard Studio in Vancouver and has brought over people from his Valiant team. They're christening the facility with the CG film Space Chimps (which has talents from Rugrats on board as well.) Set for U.S. release by Fox, Space Chimps also has the backing of IDT Entertainment, which owns a stake in Vanguard.

Keeping an eye even further out, Williams recently flew Oddworld games co-founders Lorne Lanning and Sherry McKenna to Vancouver to visit the new facility. Lanning's directorial feature debut Citizen Siege is on Vanguard's calendar, and Williams hopes the horror/thriller will attract Oddworld's many videogame fans.

But Canada may prove to be just one base for Vanguard, especially if U.S. and Canadian currencies continue to remain virtually equal. "Where there used to be a 30 cent savings on the dollar, it's almost at parity now. Canada has tax rebates, but it's complicated as to how and when you qualify. So these things really come and go. In the U.S. now there are lots of state tax incentives that are very significant, though those may be short-lived too. It seems these days that if you're trying to go the route of having some independence -- which to me is the Holy Grail of being more cost-efficient and creatively autonomous -- you've got to have independent financing."

Even though Williams has utilized a "good package of incentives" to animate Space Chimps in Vancouver, he says, "We're looking into the prospects of building a studio in the U.S. I'm very, very optimistic about that. It would be ideal if we could be Los Angeles-based."

But in the short term, you'll find John Williams flying regularly to Vancouver. After a very long-distance production like Happily N'ever After, he notes, "It's a much shorter trip than going across the Atlantic!"

Ellen Wolff is a southern California-based writer whose articles have appeared in publications, such as Daily Variety, Millimeter, Animation Magazine, Video Systems and the website CreativePlanet.com. Her areas of special interest are computer animation and digital visual effects.