Disney cutting 160 animation jobs in Burbank

Walt Disney Co., home to Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, plans to cut 20 percent of the 800 jobs at its animation unit following the purchase of Pixar this year.

Walt Disney Animation will eliminate about 160 jobs, an executive at the Burbank, Calif.-based company said yesterday. Pixar, with about 800 employees at its Emeryville, Calif., campus, won't see any cuts, the person said.

The reliance on Pixar, creator of "Toy Story" and "Finding Nemo," reflects the diminishing fortunes of the studio founded by Walt Disney in 1923. Disney dominated feature animation from 1937's "Snow White" to "The Lion King" 57 years later. Chief Executive Robert Iger decided to buy Pixar after realizing Disney, the second-largest U.S. media company, hadn't created a memorable character in a decade.

"Pixar has repeatedly shown it is a better developer of animation than Disney," Soleil Securities Group Inc. analyst Laura Martin said. "Regardless of Iger's personal affinity for the people in Burbank, he is keeping the people who maximize shareholder value."

Shares of Disney gained 5 cents to $33.10 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have gained 38 percent this year.

There are 350 union animation jobs at the studio, according to Animation Guild Business Representative Steve Hulett.

Disney will tell employees starting Dec. 11 whether they will keep their jobs, Hulett said, citing conversations with animators. Employees losing their jobs will receive 60 days' notice, Disney spokeswoman Heidi Trotta said.

"The management team at Walt Disney Animation has determined that each film will dictate its own appropriate production schedule," Trotta said. "The result of this necessitated a reduction in staff."

The job cuts will coincide with Walt Disney Feature Animation's release of "Meet the Robinsons" in March and a shift to an 18-month production cycle from one movie every 12 months, Hulett said. Disney handed production of the third "Toy Story" movie to Pixar, purchased for $8.06 billion in May.

Disney in July announced it would save $100 million a year by cutting 650 film division jobs at its live-action studio.