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Inside the dream factory
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10/10/2006
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If you were to compare the ongoing rivalry between chipmakers Intel and AMD to that between Buzz Lightyear and Shrek, you might get a few knowing smiles. However, were you to say the comparison should be taken literally, then quite a few people might think you were the one living in a fairy tale.
Yet that is exactly what has happened. The two aggressive cpu competitors have aligned themselves tightly with leading computer animation studios: Intel with Pixar Animation Studios, the Disney subsidiary that is home to Buzz and this year’s box office smash Cars; and AMD with DreamWorks Animation, the studio that boasts Shrek in its arsenal as well as Over The Hedge and the forthcoming Flushed Away.
Box office billions
The cartoon business used to be dominated by one company and, in many ways, one man – Walt Disney. But Disney could only produce one animaged movie every two or three years.
Animation was – and in some senses still is – horrendously expensive. What could be more labour intensive than drawing every frame by hand? Disney’s first effort, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was dismissed as a ‘folly’ before its 1937 release because it cost $1.5million, the equivalent of nearly $100m today.
Even if it did turn out to be a work of genius, almost 70 years ago nobody expected Walt to get his money back. Although Disney proved the sceptics spectacularly wrong, few others were willing to challenge his dominance; it was too expensive, too much hassle and too risky.
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Author
Paul Dempsey
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