Establishing an Animation Department

The next day.

After Victor woke up, his expression was far from pleasant; he was truly disgusted!

Hundreds of millions of dollars in overseas box office!

Gone!

As soon as he entered the gates of Wald Pictures, Victor headed straight for the office of the CEO, Victor.

"Victor, how is the construction of our distribution network coming along?" Victor asked, getting straight to the point.

At these words, Victor took a stack of documents from the cabinet behind his desk and said, "Boss, recently, we acquired a small film distribution company in Utah and added manpower to perfect our distribution network in California. Currently, we can handle average-sized distribution in these two states."

Victor nodded.

For Victor to have developed a distribution network across two states in such a short time with only 3 million dollars in funding was already the limit.

Building a distribution network was simply too capital-intensive.

Victor continued, "Victor, take 10 million dollars from the company's accounts and continue building the distribution network. You must establish a network in three more states before Hard Candy is released. Is that a problem?"

"No problem, I can do it," Victor confirmed.

Not having his own distribution network was truly stifling!

Victor didn't have enough capital for an overseas distribution network for the time being, so he wasn't considering it for now. However, for the North American region, he had set a goal: to complete the construction of the North American distribution network within three years.

"Also, notify the HR department to hire a dozen—no, make it twenty people—in the near future. Mainly talent in computer animation."

After saying this, Victor added, "If possible, poach people directly from Pixar. They have plenty of talent anyway."

That's right, Victor wanted to build his own animation studio.

Victor had a decent relationship with Lasseter, but did that mean he couldn't poach his staff? It wasn't that Victor didn't want to poach from other companies, but the number of "cheaters" inside Pixar was just too high, making them incredibly tempting. As long as he could poach one or two talents, his own animation studio would surely develop rapidly.

Two more days passed.

Victor and the company's Martha boarded a flight to New York.

Victor wasn't heading to New York for stock investments this time; he had come specifically for a talent—the "Father of SpongeBob SquarePants."

—Stephen Hillenburg!

The 35-year-old Stephen Hillenburg was a marine biologist and teacher, but just last week, he had resigned from his research institute because he intended to pursue a career in animation. To that end, he had spent several years studying experimental animation at the California Institute of the Arts, where he earned a master's degree.

He was full of confusion regarding the visit from Victor and Martha.

Even though Martha had contacted him a few days prior.

The reason was simply too unbelievable!

"Mr. Victor, Ms. Hopkins, you want me to serve as the head of your company's animation department?"

"I'm very sorry, I'm just a bit too excited and surprised."

"After all, I haven't officially worked in the animation industry yet."

For a moment, Stephen Hillenburg was incoherent. It should be known that although he held a master's degree in experimental animation, he had yet to start a formal career.

Victor's visit truly caught him off guard.

And to top it off, it was to be the head of an animation department!

Victor smiled immediately: "Stephen, oh, please allow me to address you as such. A few years ago, I had the honor of seeing the marine life animation short you created for the ocean museum. It was truly fantastic—not only simple and easy to understand but also full of fun, allowing people to laugh heartily while learning about marine life. I thought to myself back then, I must find the creator of this short film and create a great animated series with him. That is why I am here today!"

Little Sponge?!

Stephen took the proposal for SpongeBob SquarePants from Martha's hands.

As he read, he kept letting out exclamations.

"Oh~!"

"This is it, this is exactly the effect I want!"

"My God, the little sponge wearing a white shirt and a red tie, plus the pink Patrick Star, the bald Squidward Tentacles, the money-obsessed Mr. Krabs, the one-eyed villain Plankton..."

"This is amazing, this is absolutely amazing!"

"This is the animation I want!"

Undoubtedly, Stephen Hillenburg had already been conquered by SpongeBob SquarePants!

"Mr. Victor, I apologize for losing my composure." Stephen blushed.

"It's alright, I was just as excited when I watched the animation short you created," Victor lied without even blinking.

Stephen continued: "I feel fantastic today. SpongeBob SquarePants has undoubtedly given me a huge surprise, and I am very willing to bring it to life. Sorry, I'm just a bit impatient!"

For the entire day, the three of them chatted about SpongeBob SquarePants. In the end, Victor successfully recruited a major talent for the company's animation department!

To this end, Victor decided to allocate 2 million dollars to the animation department for the initial phase, with more to be added later depending on the situation.

Don't think the money is a bit small; it is definitely enough.

After all, SpongeBob SquarePants is not Toy Story; it doesn't require high-end animation technology or visual effects. It relies primarily on the plot and the laughter it brings.

With Stephen on board, Zucker had every reason to believe that SpongeBob SquarePants would be a success.

Zucker had the relevant data provided by the system, but he didn't understand animation production, especially regarding the details; Stephen's role was absolutely indispensable, as he was, after all, the true father of SpongeBob SquarePants.

A few days later.

The animation department of Wald Pictures was officially established.

The 20 recruited animation creators had all arrived at their posts.

To this end, Zucker arranged for them to be based in Silicon Valley. This was to prepare for spinning off the animation studio in the future, as Zucker wanted more than just SpongeBob SquarePants. With SpongeBob SquarePants, Zucker could easily follow up by launching Finding Nemo; aside from image quality and animation technology, the two shared many commonalities in terms of entertainment value.

Those cheaters over at Pixar had once stated that when creating Finding Nemo, they drew upon some of the settings and creative ideas from SpongeBob SquarePants, and it was because of that show that they found their inspiration.

Man, that was Finding Nemo!

Not to mention its sequel, Finding Dory, the first film, Finding Nemo, had a production budget of over 63 million dollars and raked in nearly 900 million dollars at the global box office, with its DVD sales being the highest among all Pixar animation films.

"Huh?"

"David Maisel, a talent poached from Pixar?"

"Holy crap, it couldn't be him, could it?"

Zucker looked at the personnel list for the animation studio, and upon seeing the name David Maisel, his heart skipped a beat.

Without a doubt, David Maisel was indeed a talent!

He was not only one of the screenwriters for Toy Story, but he later served as the producer for Angry Birds.

At the same time, the concept of the Marvel Cinematic Universe also originated from him.

To be precise, without David Maisel, there would have been no subsequent series of crazy achievements from Marvel.