The San Bernardino County Sun from San Bernardino, California • Page 47

D12 The Sun SATURDAY, December 26, 1987 American animators finding foreign competition hard to fight "There's just too much cheap animation available. It would be nice if there were only three or four studios doing it." Not all of Scheimer's problems have come from the Orient. Disney Studios sued him to prevent him from using the name "Pinocchio" in the title of Filmation's new movie. Scheimer won that battle. "Our film cost $9.5 million.

Too much," Scheimer says with a friendly scowl. "I have absolutely no idea how it will do It's a sequel to to animated movies. "You go through cycles in children's taste," says Scheimer, a former art major who graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology. "You have to watch the world around you. 'Rambo' was a disaster as an animated show.

And 1 think doing straight adventure shows for the next year or two will not be enough. There's been an onslaught of 'muscle-guys' shows." What Scheimer fears is the inevitable the move to the an For years, television supported the animation industry." The recent success of Disney's re-issues "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and "Cinderella" can only help, Scheimer estimates, because his philosophy is, "Every animated film that works helps every other animated film that works." What Scheimer is critical of are the toy-related animated features that he says have been so badly done as to turn children off imation studios in Korea and Japan, where the work comes cheaply and the care that has characterized American animated productions is rarely to be found. "If we continue to do feature films," Filmation's president admits, "it's likely that a portion of the ink and paint work we do will be done overseas in the Orient, as much as I dislike the idea. "I've sweated this out and thought how we could avoid it, but I just don't have the answer. The Japanese junk you see on Saturday morning TV deserves not to work.

We buy their TV shows, but they protect their animation industry. They won't buy our stuff. Americans don't protect their ow industry. "And the truth is, no one can do an animated film as well as Americans can. "We're in the midst of being forced to do the same thing," Scheimer says of animation studios that have set up shop in Korea and Japan to save money.

on i I Li Lv 3 iLJ 'I i ft' By JOYCE PERISCO Newhouse News Service PHILADELPHIA For 25 years the animation company Lou Scheimer founded has been turning out animated features and television shows. But now Filmation, the San Fernando Valley-based company that was bought by Westinghouse Broadcasting six years go, will be joining the crowd that is looking to the Far East to provide cheaper animation. "I think it's a damn shame," the outspoken Scheimer said during a recent Philadelphia stopover. "I think the American public ought to be made aware. 'Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night' is the last animated feature-length film to be made entirely in the United States." "Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night" is Filmation's Christmas Day release.

The company's founder is candid about admitting that he's tried everything to keep his productions in the United States. A year ago, Filmation employed 650 people. Now there are only 250. "It's crazy," the Pittsburgh-born Scheimer barks, angrily. "We're now selling 1989 production to television.

How the hell do we know what kids will want to see in 1989?" Scheimer is something of an expert on the subject, having produced the animated "Superman" in 1965 and followed it with "Batman," "Aquaman," "Archie," "Journey to the Center of the Earth," "Fantastic Voyage," "Star Trek" and "Fat Albert" for what he calls "the children's ghetto" of Saturday morning TV. Currently, Filmation syndicates "Ghostbusters," "He-Man" and "She-Ra: Princess of Power." "Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night" is the first of Filmation's "New Classics Collection," a series of animated features based on famous characters. "When I started the company 25 years ago, it was literally the end of the Hollywood studio system and animation was mainly used in (television) commercials. But TV as we know it was not really a source for work," Scheimer says of his early days. "The advent of Saturday morning television as a children's ghetto opened up all sorts of work and, in 1965, we did the animated Bible stories a success on videocassette By JOHN KIESEWETTER Gannett News Service "The Nativity" is the seventh in Hanna-Barbera's series of animated Bible stories on videocassette, and the first new release since the original six hit the market 18 months ago.

It was a huge gamble. Illustrator Joe Barbera had talked Taft Broadcasting now Carl Lindner's Great American Broadcasting Co. into spending $2 million for the home video series, an unprecedented commitment to an animated project not destined for television or movie theaters. But the greatest stories ever told have become the greatest home videos ever sold. Christmas orders and sales have topped 1 million.

"We had hoped we'd sell 500,000 or more," says Bill Bau-mann. Great American's Cincinnati-based senior vice president for planning and corporate development. "When we first started, we did not think we could sell the number we have by now We're very, very pleased with the results." "The Nativity" has topped 80,000 orders, a mark surpassed by "Moses," "David and Goliath," and Delilah," "Noah's Ark," "Daniel and the Lion's Den" and "Joshua and the Battle of Jericho." The newest ideo includes the voices of Gregory Harrison (Joseph), Helen Hunt (Mary) and Vincent Price (Herod). The Bible cassettes are proof of Taft's trust in Barbera. after the TV networks turned down the series two decades ago.

"Twenty years ago, Joe took this idea to the networks. They kept rejecting it, saying it wasn't the right thing for Saturday or Sunday mornings," says Bruce Johnson, the Los Angeles-based vice president for Hanna-Barbera's special programs. "But Joe knew these were good stories." Johnson says. In April, "The Creation" will be released, he says. Each tape retails for $19.95.

They are available in eight languages and in most parts of the world. "We think these programs will have a life that will go on for years and years and years," Bau-mann says. Jut like the boot they're based on. A 1 IPBCsDffi I 8 i Sl 1 1 i Furniture with it jf KiM fc A 9 ft fc- 4 J. -1 I i i X.i lists fr Mf II 3.

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