Mike Milo's Journal

It’s the end of an era.

Warner Bros Animation, after almost twenty years of cranking out hits and more than 22 Emmy Awards is shutting it’s doors. I have heard they will restructure on the Warner Lot in Burbank and I am sure they will succeed yet again but for me it’s still the closing of a huge chapter of my life.

WBA started the 2nd Golden Age of Animation and really in a lot of ways ushered in the way for studios like Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Cartoon Network to start up themselves. Back in 1989, they OWNED kid’s TV and I am extremely proud to say I was a part of it.

It’s really sad to see WB close it’s doors. For me it is like a family moving away, one you’ll never see again. The kind folks at WB gave me my first break on Tiny Toons way back in 1989 freelance in-betweening for a studio called Kennedy Cartoons (when they sub contracted the work out to them) while I was still in NJ. Then again they gave me my next big break when they hired me to work full time on Tiny Toons, Animaniancs and Tazmania doing layout for them. They yet again helped me when they gave me first directing job years later on Pinky and the Brain (I moved up) Histeria and Detention.

They next gave me yet another big break when they collaborated with Cartoon Network to help me make Swaroop, the first cartoon starring an East Indian boy. But wait! There’s more! A few years later, they hired me to not only direct Xiaolin Showdown, but also picked up TWO development projects (Knights of Sherwood and The Jackalope Boyz)  with me at the same time!

I spent 8 years there off and on during my career and some of the memories were the best I’ve had professionally and personally. I met my wife through a P.A. working on Tazmania. I got married while working on Animaniacs, my wife had our first daughter while I was working on Pinky and the Brain and I lost my grandmother as well during that show’s production. We had our second daughter during the production of Histeria. I lost my mom during production of Swaroop.

A large part of my personal memories are tied in some way to that studio. I owe quite a debt to Warner Bros. and Jean McCurdy, Tom Ruegger, Christopher Keenan, Linda Steiner and Sander Schwartz. They have helped to keep me employed and gave me many good years of memories.

That’s all Folks!

Here’s a 2nd shot which is sort of a reverse view of the earlier pan down shot.

Here’s the Estab. shot from the storyboard of my newest short idea  For the Birds which revolves around a cardinal named Red trying to get a date for a school dance and his oddball friend The Captain who is sure aliens are attacking. This was done in Autodesk SketchBook Pro 2, an incredible drawing program that more closely mimics real pencil sketching better than even Photoshop!