Brooks Grad Produces Animated Feature The Wild for Walt Disney -- Film Open April 14

Santa Barbara, CA (PRWEB) March 15, 2006

An adolescent lion, a street-smart city squirrel, a maligned Koala bear and a cult of deranged wildebeests are just a few of the characters that Brooks Institute graduate Jim Burton has been spending time with lately. As associate producer on the upcoming Walt Disney Pictures digital animation feature film The Wild, Burton has worked on the project for the past three years. His efforts and those of the movie’s 275-person production crew will culminate on Friday, April 14, 2006 with the release of the CG-rated film (all audiences admitted) in more than 3,000 theaters throughout the nation.

“It’s a bit left of center for a Disney movie”, said Burton of his latest feature film, “and not all the best jokes are in the trailer. But you can get a feeling for the kind of look, production style and humor of the film if you visit the website (http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/thewild/).”

The movie was produced at Core Feature Animation in Toronto, Canada, in conjunction with Walt Disney Pictures. An entire studio was created in Toronto to handle the film’s production which, according to Burton, who was responsible for formulating the production plan and keeping the project on budget, has a “stylized photo-realistic look”.

The story focuses on a young lion cub and his father, who live in the New York Zoo. The cub wants to ‘find himself’ as a lion and escapes the zoo to seek ‘the wild’’. Led by the father lion, a motley rescue team is formed to retrieve the youngster…and they find out what a jungle a city can be. The film was directed by Steve ‘Spaz’ Williams in conjunction with creative producer Clint Goldman. Cast voices for the film include Keifer Sutherland, Eddie Izzard, Jim Belushi, Janene Garofalo and William Shatner.

Burton graduated from Brooks Institute in 1977 with a Bachelor of Arts in Motion Picture Production. While at Brooks, he co-produced and co-directed a short film, Dance with the Angels, which won festival awards from CINE in Washington D.C., Belgium and Australia, and was selected as one of 10 finalists in the live-action short subject category of the 1979 Academy Awards®. He credits his “friend and partner in crime” Franklin Mark Kyle, also a 1977 Brooks Institute graduate, with much of the success that the film garnered, noting that the production was actually acquired by Stanfield Production in Santa Monica, and subsequently distributed.

Burton’s 25-year career includes work with Columbia Pictures Television, ABC Circle Films and ABC Productions. In 1990, he joined Walt Disney Pictures, overseeing production finance, scheduling, tax and legal issues of the company for several Walt Disney, Touchstone and Hollywood Picture Productions, including The Rock, The Santa Clause, When a Man Loves a Woman, and many others.    In 1996, the feature animation division of Walt Disney began production on Dinosaur, the revolutionary digital and live-action epic. Burton served as controller for the division, and was credited with keeping the film costs and schedule within budget over the four-year production period. He also earned the title of line producer for the live-action plate photography unit, which spent more than two years photographing in locations throughout the world.

This work led to Burton’s position as director of digital production finance for Disney Feature Animation and The Secret Lab, where he oversaw digital production and finance for feature films, Disney’s production arrangement with Pixar (primarily during the production of Monster’s Inc.), visual effects for live-action movies such as 102 Dalmatians, Mission to Mars, as well as other film and theme park projects.

With the release of The Wild, Burton is leaving Toronto and relocating to the Los Angeles area with his family.

About Brooks Institute of Photography

With campuses in Santa Barbara and Ventura, Calif., Brooks Institute of Photography has a 60-year legacy of providing world-class visual arts education. Brooks Institute offers Master of Science, Bachelor of Arts, Associate of Arts degrees and diploma programs in the following fields of study -- Professional Photography, Visual Journalism, Film and Video Production and Visual Communication. Brooks graduates are visible nationally and internationally, working for distinguished organizations including National Geographic, Smithsonian, Los Angeles Times and other national media outlets, including Hallmark Publishing, Cousteau Society, HBO, Kodak and other industry leaders in visual media fields. For more information about Brooks Institute of Photography, visit http://www.brooks.edu.

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