When Disney Pixar unexpectedly closed down its Vancouver studio in October, it was a major blow to animation in the city, as well as the country.
When Pixar left, Canada lost a mainstream animation studio and people began to worry Canadian animators would leave the country alongside the studio.
Former Ottawa animator Trent Correy moved to California to achieve his dream of working for Disney.
“I could only go so far in Canada because unfortunately there is only one Disney, and it happens to be in California,” he said in an interview with the Ottawa Citizen. Correy was part of the team that won an Oscar for Frozen earlier this month, arguably something that could not be achieved in Ottawa.
Ottawa has great animation programs such the one Correy attended at Algonquin College. As well, every September the city hosts the Ottawa International Animation Festival, the largest of its kind in North America. Though there are more than 30 animation companies that are part of the Computer Animation Studios of Ontario none are in Ottawa.
Can Ottawa become a rising hub for animation, like Vancouver? Sixth months after Pixar shut its doors, the future doesn’t seem so bleak for Vancouver. Industrial Light and Magic is moving into the same studio that Pixar left. The company provides the visual effects for another Disney owned company, Lucasfilms, the empire behind Star Wars franchise.
With the newest Star Wars film set to begin production, the company plans to produce up to a third of the visual effects in Vancouver. The company hopes to stay in Vancouver for eight to ten years. Along with the latest Star Wars movie, Canadian animators will have their hand working on Jurassic World, Transformers: Age of Extinction and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles during that time.
Pixar studios shut its doors in Vancouver because it wanted to concentrate all its efforts under one roof. A hundred Canadian animators lost their jobs, which were picked up by the Pixar studio in Emeryville, Calif., by both Canadian and American animators. ILM currently has 60 workers in Vancouver and plans to bump those numbers up to 200 by the summer.
There are now nearly 50 visual effects companies in Vancouver, including Sony Pictures Imageworks. The company announced last month that it will hire more people in its Vancouver location when it begins production on the new Angry Birds film, based on a widely popular game for smartphones and tablets.
What first attracted Pixar to come to Vancouver was the Digital Animation or Visual Effects (DAVE) tax incentive, which B.C. brought forward, that awards a 17.5-per-cent tax credit to animation companies. Ontario has a similar tax credit, called the Ontario Film and Television Credit that awards a 20-per-cent tax credit to film and television corporations, including animation corporations. So the question is why is animation booming Vancouver and not Ottawa?
When companies like ILM and Sony Pictures Imageworks come to Canada, even if they do not plant roots in Ottawa, it still means more Canadian animators stay in Canada. By keeping Canadian talent in Canada, hopefully Canadian-owned animation companies will become more prominent and recognizable around the world such as Disney Pixar and Lucasfilms and create the next Star Wars franchise.
Why shouldn't Canada be among the major animation nations when we have the potential?