>Phil Rynda, whose official title is Netflix’s Director of Creative Leadership and Development for Original Animation, was let go this week, along with several of his staff, TheWrap can exclusively report and Netflix has confirmed.
>According to several creators who spoke to TheWrap, the Kids & Family space at Netflix Animation has changed. Series that benefited from great word-of-mouth and critical praise aren’t being renewed and several high-profile projects have been unceremoniously canceled, including the long-delayed adaptation of Jeff Smith’s beloved comic book series “Bone” (first announced back in 2019). Netflix, which just saw its stock plummet more than 30% after revealing a subscriber and revenue loss during its first-quarter earning report Tuesday, isn’t just in trouble on Wall Street. It’s also facing complications in Toon Town.
>Rynda’s firing was perhaps an inevitable end to a deeply chaotic period for Netflix Animation, particularly its Kids & Family division, which saw a boom of talent and creativity give way to corporate pressure, mixed messages and accusations of “staged data.”
If Bone of all things is good as dead the Wings of Fire adaption i’be been waiting for on the back burner is probably triple dead along with it. Oh well.
Can’t Warner just take the show to another platform and continue or is it contractually tied to Netflix?
Matthew Ortiz
Good.
Nathaniel Ward
I thought Warner lost the rights
William Torres
poor jeff smith, he thought it was gonna happen this time
Cameron Wood
This ironically leaves Disney as the only network left that still greenlights original IPs and not just spinoffs or adaptations of existing properties.
And Disney is entirely going to BCG alumni episodic comedies for tva because of how bad Owl House damaged the company and Disney+ is 95% IPs lmao it's unironically over for this decade of animation
Cameron Sanchez
If WoY is of any indication, then I worry greatly, and would rather see them go to even fucking Amazon or Apple.
Joseph Watson
I blame the gays.
Thomas Ward
Both CN and Nickelodeon do that too. Quit dick riding Disney like some slut.
Evan Barnes
Some kind user posted the rest of the article on the other thread before it got archived. I'll repost it here. >Netflix Animation, especially when it came to Kids & Family content, was once considered a glittery Utopia. Superstar creators and visionary young talent were swayed by promises of unprecedented creative freedom and healthy production budgets, backed by the financial and promotional might of the Netflix empire.
>A few years ago, there was no place more welcoming or seductive to artists and animators than Netflix Animation. Netflix’s animation units, like its live-action divisions, were known for being a place that you could bring a project that might not have gained traction anywhere else, and suddenly have it produced, without much studio interference. Animation heavyweights like Craig McCracken, Elizabeth Ito and Jorge Gutierrez rushed to the service and quickly started working on their personal dream projects, while Netflix also courted younger artists and fostered productive licensing agreements, chiefly with DreamWorks Animation (Guillermo del Toro’s “Trollhunters” and its assorted spinoffs, “Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts,” and many more).
>But now you are seeing fewer of these creator-driven projects. New series aren’t as exciting as they once were. Many animators have left the studio, decamping to old standbys like Cartoon Network, Disney and Nickelodeon or other upstarts like Apple TV+ and Amazon. And Netflix’s focus has shifted noticeably too.
>One producer, whose show on Netflix wasn’t renewed, said that when they got to Netflix, Rynda, who served creative roles on groundbreaking animated series like “Gravity Falls” and “Adventure Time,” told Netflix creators, “We want to be the home of everybody’s favorite show.” By the time the producer left several years later, there was a “new thesis statement”: “We want to make what our audience wants to see,” Reed Hastings, Netflix’s Co-CEO, now told animation talent. As far as mission statements go, those are vastly different.
I don't recall any upcoming original shows on their slate
Zachary Baker
>True to this “new thesis statement,” several high-profile animated projects in the Kids & Family space have been outright canceled, including “Bone” (which Netflix confirmed), an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s “The Twits” that was meant to be part of several Dahl-based projects (Netflix insists “The Twits” is still alive, potentially now as a feature film) and Lauren Faust’s witchy “Toil and Trouble.” Netflix currently touts “Boss Baby” as the ideal of what an animated series on the platform should be and what kind of numbers those animated series should be bringing in (this was reiterated by almost everyone we spoke to) although Netflix doesn’t even own “Boss Baby” — it licenses the series from DreamWorks Animation. (A new “Boss Baby” series premieres next month.)
>Elizabeth Ito, whose deeply brilliant “City of Ghosts” was recently nominated for a Peabody Award and currently sports a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, reiterated, as many did, how much they enjoyed working with both the executive teams and Netflix’s marketing department. But she suggested that Netflix’s 360-feedback culture, which is espoused in its culture memo and trumpets full transparency as one of its core tenets, went out the window when the show was threatened with cancelation. Ito and others have complained of being presented with “staged data,” data meant to prove a point that Netflix has and squash conversation around it. Ito described the data as explaining, for the first time, “What they should have gotten for what they spent on the show.” (Netflix confirms their decisions are made using data, which takes into account viewing versus cost.) Creators have described the process as “manipulative.” One producer sent the data back, asked questions, and received a separate, different set of data that still reinforced Netflix’s position. Ito was left wondering, “Well, are you going to make more or not?” Netflix did not. Ito is now at Apple.
>Making matters more frustrating for creators are a set of imposed corporate guidelines that dictate, with Draconian exactness, the marketing and distribution of the series. Promotion doesn’t typically begin until a month before the shows premiere. (Sometimes they haven’t even been announced before then.) This leaves a very small window to build awareness and anticipation, much less cultivate genuine excitement. And once the show debuts on the platform, it can often get lost in the shuffle (how many times have you ever seen an animated series “above the fold” on the homepage?), leading many creators to become their own hype machines via various social media platforms.
CN seems to want to do this as well, but they’re taking their time with it.
Dylan Adams
>Levers that other animation studios at bigger corporations can pull, like consumer products releases or promotional tie-ins, aren’t pulled at Netflix. There weren’t “Kid Cosmic” action figures lining the shelves of Target. You couldn’t get a “City of Ghosts” Happy Meal toy at McDonald’s. There’s no theme park or dedicated retail space to exploit either. On the official Netflix Shop, there isn’t a single Kids & Family animated series represented.
>Guidelines that usually indicate the way Netflix shows are introduced fail for series in the Kids & Family Animation space. Ito, who has small children, says that kids are “complicated.” Netflix says that one of the things that sway the relative success of series is “word of mouth.” “But kids don’t talk to each other like that,” Ito said.
>Dominic Bisignano, an executive producer on Megan Nicole Dong’s musical animated series “Centaur World,” said that “Netflix is proud of its data.” He admits that this approach “brings up a lot of questions.” While Bisignano says that Dong was able to tell the story she wanted to over the course of “Centaurworld’s” episodes, Dong told the streamer, “If you want more, we can do that.” Instead, the team was presented with data but not given context for what that data means to Netflix. It seemed “Centaurworld” wouldn’t go beyond its initial commitment. When Bisignano asked questions about the data, Netflix stonewalled him. Bisignano is now at Cartoon Network.
There is no way that Netflix would have given Bone enough of a budget to animate it in a way that's actually any good. The line art is so fine and so detailed, animation would only compromise it. It's in the Cerebus category where it only works as a comic strip
It's not fucking hard to look at their slate of upcoming and current programs. Again, quit dick riding and do some basic research. CN and Nick are making new shows along with Disney.
Kevin Moore
last one >If an animated series receives accolades after its cancellation, as “City of Ghosts” did with several awards and nominations, including the Peabody, Netflix is even slower to act, if at all. (Look at Ito’s personal Twitter account for the one-woman campaign that finally got Netflix, after several hours, to release a single “City of Ghosts” Peabody sharable.) This is a dramatically different approach to their Kids & Family series content than even the Animated Feature space at Netflix, which launched an endless, elaborate campaign for “The Mitchells vs. the Machines” Best Animated Feature Oscar this year.
>With Netflix stock precipitously dropping and budgets being tightened or slimmed company-wide (from production to hiring), maybe these animation creators knew long ago what everybody else is figuring out now: that Netflix, while filled with great people, can be a wonderful place. But when you are being driven purely by algorithms and numbers, sometimes the math doesn’t add up.
tldr: netflix is cancelling big name projects (rip bone adaptation), screwing over creators, and overall marketing their shows like shit
Bro most of their upcoming animated properties are based on previous Ips. Wonder Park, Garfield, Monster High, Phoebe and her Unicorn, Max & The Midnights all are previously existing Ips.
Ethan Gonzalez
I'm pretty sure the firing of Phil Rynda is not worth mentioning. Anyone whose title is 9 words long most likely has the most pointless job. I'm pretty sure it also has nothing to do with Bone, it is probably just the studio cleaning house on useless execs and then canning projects associated with those people.
Christopher Parker
Sorry fags, you have to end your pretentious productions to make room for the actual animation money makers at Netflix
Wonder Park still isn't out? The movie was released like what, three years ago? What's taking them so long? You probably don't want a Wings of Fire adapted by Ava DuVernay. I heard that Netflix's rule used to be that a show gets renewed if it makes more money than it costs. I guess Netflix's strategy of greenlighting everything and see what works was a bad idea.
Gabriel Brown
WoY got fucked because Disney XD. Nowadays that channel is Deh and Disney Plus exists so their cartoons have a better chance to succeed now.
Owen King
>Nowadays that channel is Deh and Disney Plus exists so their cartoons have a better chance to succeed now. They kill off shows they want to kill off Look what happened to Caballeros
Julian Powell
Fwir, it was originally a Disney Channel show.
>Look what happened to Caballeros And Motorcity, BH6 TAS, Owl House as of recent etc.
Samuel Myers
>BCG alumni
not just them, there are also the P&F Alumnis as well, besides, most of the shit I see coming from one of the said BCG alumnis pretty much sucks ass, quality-wise, the only one that might be the golden apple would probably be the Magic Children pilot from a BCG director Monica Ray, The rest are shit. After all, once Big City Greens after it's 4th season, there will be nothing left but souless shit comedies except for Molly McGee, Magic Children pilot and possibly Hailey's on it or adding Greenblatt's upcoming pitch. The rest can burn in hell for all i care.
>anticipating ANY home video release of a netflix show ngmi
Nicholas Powell
Green Eggs and Ham got a DVD release, and I saw one of Kipo at my library.
Sebastian Allen
NPC response
Logan Smith
Kipo is a Dreamworks show and GEH is Warner Bros. Maybe Sony can do something since they own the Hilda studio now
Adam Harris
Man, I'm going to die and the only Bone shit we'll have is the Telltale game that barely covered anything.
Camden Lopez
Netflix was never involved in its production barring putting it on their platform to begin with so they probably already could. My guess is Silvergate didn’t want to bother with finding a distributor.
Connor Ramirez
Green Eggs and Ham was good.
Brayden Nguyen
Sony no longer has a service. Their best bet is to work with someone like Netflix or Amazon.
Would Sony ever team up with Apple though?
Camden Ross
Imagine getting fucked over because even streaming services use the "spongebob test" to determine whether or not they keep a show around and their spongebob is the fucking Boss Baby
Thomas Clark
why do children gravitate towards ugly cgi baby shows like cocomelon and boss baby?
>Sony owns Hilda Can't wait to kick butt with Hilda in Playstation All Stars Battle Royale With Cheese 2 (Prepare to Die Edition)
Lucas Green
Assuming this really is going impact a lot of productions, the one I’m most worried about is Patrick McHale’s Redwall series, just because I and the rest of the world has eagerly been awaiting his OtGW follow-up. Actually, if this in any way affects Del Toro’s Pinocchio I’d be devastated, but I don’t think so because that’s so far along.
Josiah Russell
It probably will user. Same for whatever Genndy is doing. He went to CN recently probably to ask for a job there.
Adam Parker
I was referring to a physical series release not streaming. Sony has plenty of experience in that regard.
What does Genndy have to do with Netflix? And Pinocchio already has a trailer and is being produced at another studio, so I’m almost positive it won’t be affected. Am I missing something about your post or are you one of those industry user larpers?
Jacob Nelson
It's literally Crack to them.
Nathan Hall
It seems Kids and Family series and Feature Animation are two separate departments, and the latter gets much better promotion than the former so movies are probably safe.
Cameron Morgan
ah ok, for a moment I thought you were teying to pull some mystery project from your ass
Henry Turner
So essentially, Netflix will likely go the way of Blockbuster, while companies further gatekeep their content behind their own subscription services?
Fuck.
Anthony Thomas
>52K likes Holy shit, also I suppose this kills the rumor that he was back at Disney.
Angel Moore
Because parents will let their children watch literally anything that can shut them up for more than 10 minutes
Kevin Baker
Did that hold any weight? The rumor I heard was that Rebecca Sugar and Ian JQ were working for them
Asher Rodriguez
I think they will become the streaming service of asian shit (k-dramas, anime, chinese animated movies, etc.).
Cameron Nguyen
Trannies are everywhere, infected all of the cartoons you love, turning your children into weak defenseless sissies to be raped by an army of uncaring demons that wanted to kill your culture and your traditions. You must kill them before that come to past, it must happen.
Purge the Weak Breed the Strong May the Aristocrats show the way to Holy Glory. ALL HAIL THE RIGHTEOUS EMPEROR OF THE WHITE RACE! this is what homophobes believes
David James
>CocoMelon is made to be addictive to toddlers more than freemium games. This is the most important part. Low effort YouTube videos rot small children's brains more than the television produced specifically for babies because there's an actual standard for what gets on television.
