Forming an Animation Department

The next day.

Zucker woke up in a foul mood. He was still sickened by what had happened!

Over a hundred million dollars in overseas box office!

Gone!

As soon as he entered the doors of Wald Pictures, Zucker headed straight for CEO Victor's office.

"Victor, how's our distribution network coming along?" Zucker asked bluntly.

Victor took a stack of documents from a cabinet behind his desk. "Boss, recently we acquired a small film distribution company in Utah and added staff to improve our distribution network in California. We can now handle releases of a modest scale in both states."

Zucker nodded.

Victor had managed to build distribution networks in two states in such a short time, using only three million dollars. That was about as good as it got.

Building a distribution network cost an enormous amount of money.

Zucker continued, "Victor, take ten million dollars from the company's accounts and keep building our distribution network. Before Hard Candy comes out, we need to establish networks in three more states. Can you do it?"

"No problem. I can get it done," Victor said confidently.

Not having a distribution network of his own was so frustrating!

Zucker didn't have enough money to build an overseas distribution network yet, so he wasn't considering it for the time being. But he'd set himself a goal for North America: within three years, he would finish building a distribution network across the region.

"Also, tell HR to hire a dozen or so people soon. No, make that twenty. We mainly need people skilled in computer animation."

After a moment, Zucker added, "If you can, poach people directly from Pixar. They've got plenty of talent."

That was right—Zucker was going to set up his own animation studio.

Zucker got along well with John Lasseter, but that didn't mean he couldn't poach Pixar's employees. It wasn't that he didn't want to hire from other companies; Pixar simply had too many incredibly talented people, and they were hard to resist. If he could poach even one or two of them, his own animation studio would be able to grow quickly.

Two days later.

Zucker and Martha, the company's big sister, flew to New York.

This time, Zucker wasn't going to New York to invest in stocks. He was there specifically for one talented person: the "father of SpongeBob SquarePants."

—Stephen Hillenburg!

Thirty-five-year-old Stephen Hillenburg was a marine biologist and teacher. But just last week, he had left his research institute because he wanted to pursue a career in animation. He had even spent several years studying experimental animation at the California Institute of the Arts, where he'd earned a master's degree.

He was puzzled by the visit from Zucker and Martha.

Martha had even contacted him ahead of time, a few days earlier.

The reason was simply too unbelievable!

"Mr. Wald, Miss Hopkins, you want me to head your company's animation department?"

"I'm sorry. I'm a little overwhelmed and surprised."

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

Stephen Hillenburg was so flustered that he could barely get his words out. He had a master's degree in experimental animation, but he had never actually started working in the field.

Zucker's visit had truly surprised him.

And to be asked to lead an animation department, no less!

Zucker immediately smiled. "Stephen, if you don't mind, I'll call you by your first name. A few years ago, I had the good fortune to see the short animated film about marine life that you made for the marine museum. It was absolutely wonderful—easy to understand, full of fun, and it made people laugh while they learned about marine life. I remember thinking that I had to find the person who created it and work with him to make a great animated series. That's why I'm here today!"

SpongeBob?!

Stephen took the SpongeBob SquarePants proposal from Martha.

As he read it, he kept gasping in amazement.

"Oh!"

"That's it! That's exactly the effect I wanted!"

"My goodness! A little sponge in a white shirt and red tie, a pink Patrick Star, a bald Squidward Tentacles, Mr. Krabs, who loves money more than life itself, and the one-eyed villain Plankton..."

"This is amazing! Absolutely amazing!"

"This is the animated series I wanted to make!"

There was no doubt that Stephen Hillenburg had been won over by SpongeBob SquarePants!

"Mr. Wald, I'm sorry I got carried away," Stephen said, blushing.

"It's all right. I was just as excited when I first saw your animated short," Zucker said without batting an eye at the lie.

Stephen continued, "I feel amazing today. SpongeBob SquarePants has given me a huge surprise, and I'd love to bring it to life. Sorry, I can hardly wait to get started!"

Zucker, Martha, and Stephen spent the entire day talking about SpongeBob SquarePants. In the end, Zucker got what he wanted: a major talent for the company's animation department!

So Zucker decided to allocate two million dollars to the animation department to start with, and add more later depending on how things went.

It might not sound like much, but it was more than enough.

After all, SpongeBob SquarePants wasn't Toy Story. It didn't need cutting-edge animation technology or visuals. What mattered most was the story and the laughs.

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

Zucker had the relevant materials provided by the system, but he didn't understand animation, especially when it came to the finer details. Stephen's contribution would be indispensable. After all, he was the true "father of SpongeBob SquarePants."

A few days later.

Wald Pictures' animation department was officially up and running.

All twenty of the animation artists they'd hired had arrived.

Zucker had them set up in Silicon Valley. He wanted to spin off the animation studio into an independent company in the future. After all, he wanted more than just SpongeBob SquarePants. With SpongeBob SquarePants, he could easily follow up with Finding Nemo. Aside from image quality and animation technology, the two shared plenty of similarities in their humor.

When Pixar's incredibly talented crew created Finding Nemo, they had even said they'd borrowed some of SpongeBob SquarePants' ideas and settings, and that it had inspired them.

Come on, it was Finding Nemo!

Never mind the sequel, Finding Dory. The first film, Finding Nemo, had a production budget of just over sixty-three million dollars and raked in nearly nine hundred million worldwide. Its DVD sales were also the highest of any film in Pixar's animation catalog.

"Huh?"

"David Maisel, a talent poached from Pixar?"

"Damn, could it be him?"

Zucker looked at the animation studio's staff list. When he saw the name David Maisel, he immediately had a thought.

There was no doubt that David Maisel was a talented man!

He wasn't just one of the writers of Toy Story; he later became the producer of Angry Birds.

At the same time, the idea for the Marvel Universe had also come from him.

To be precise, without David Maisel, Marvel wouldn't have gone on to achieve its string of incredible successes.