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From "The Hollywood Reporter" January 15, 2004
Special Report: Animation By Ray Richmond
A survey of innovative animation shops, plus hot toon properties at this year's NATPE conference.
Rough Draft Studios/Gregg Vanzo and Claudia Katz
Things continue to hum at Rough Draft, a
production house founded in 1991 by Gregg Vanzo, and Rough Draft Korea,
which Vanzo co-founded the following year with his wife Nikki. During
the past year, the companion studios, which have worked together on the
likes of Fox's "The Simpsons" and "Futurama", Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob
SquarePants" and Cartoon Network's "Dexter's Laboratory" and "The
Powerpuff Girls," have co-produced with Lucasfilm Ltd. the critically
lauded "Star Wars: Clone Wars," a 20-part series of three-minute shorts
for Cartoon Network. Rough Draft Korea is in preproduction on a
long-planned "SpongeBob" feature that will hit theaters in late 2004 or
early 2005. Meanwhile, in the 30,000-square-foot Rough Draft Studios in
Glendale, production is kicking off on the comedy series "Drawn
Together," slated for primetime on Comedy Central. Rough Draft senior
vp Claudia Katz says the show features "all kinds of archetypes of
animation living under the same roof. There's like a Captain
America-type superhero, a Disney-style princess, an anime character.
You've got all these genres represented. It's a really fun challenge
for us."
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