DisneyToon Australia closes up shop

As much as I hate the cheapquels, it saddens me to see the Sydney animation studio following the path of the Orlando studio. Jim Hill (and others) are reporting that the animators were given notice that they would be closing up shop after the productions of the "Brother Bear" sequel and "Cindy III" wrap [shudder... cringe... bad memories of "Cindy II" flooding in... ok, all better now]. Given the constraints of having to put out low budget direct-to-dvd sequels based on mediocre scripts, this studio did produce some decent quality animation over the years. Among their projects were series work ("Winnie the Pooh", "Dark Wing Duck", "Goof Troop", "Aladdin", "Timon and Pumbaa"), both "Aladdin" sequels, "Lion King II", "Return to Neverland", "Tarzan 2", "Lilo and Stitch 2", "Bambi 2", "An Extremely Goofy Movie" and "Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure" among others. Up until recently, DisneyToon said "virtually all" of the company's hand-drawn animation was being produced in the Sydney studio.

Apparently costs have been rising there, and there are plenty of low cost animation farms in Asia to shift the business to, so we won't be missing out on the highly anticipated "Aristocats 6" or "Fox and the Hound 5" (sorry fellow cheapquel-haters)...

Sources: Jim Hill, NineMSN