January 9.

  The best way to limit a pany's success or fame is to end up in the hallway. The awards Lux Animation should have won would be ed by the hallways of different pahat advanced without fear of ing any success. Despite this, the pany ended up being nominated for two categories: Best edy or Musical Film, with Babe, Get Shorty, Sabrina, The Ameri President, and Ice Age as the main tenders, a inal Song.

  Billy based his pany on the impressive use of doing nothing—zero money for these iments. His awards year was set for 1997; year, they would fight for awards with all their might, in a way no one else would, eveantly pying politics, preparing the ammunition, and finding every possible way to credit his business’s success. It was the best way to move forward.

  -Nominees. It’s the moment! – Anne Hall murmured. She didn’t expect the two nominations, but it was undoubtedly a hard blow for the panies. Being 1 of 5 and not liking that feeling of failure, it was refreshing to see the success of their effort, promoting Autodesk and Pixar. The time was now.

  Anne Hall lifted the neer from her p and crossed her office quickly, not giving herself more time to wait. Although they did not pete for advertising or simpler methods, it was a getting some extra campaignsod option to get sn Globe would likely lead to an Oscar, and so on. They had five nominations in their books and still held them. They might fail a few more times, but that wouldn’t stop Lux Animation.

  -Rachel dear, I’m sorry to bother you, but I o discuss something with you. – Anne said from the door as Rachel looked up and nodded. Rachel, the Director of Operations, was in charge of all animated series and children’s el tent. She worked on promoting Ice Age to boost the animated el, which is why Anne had a premonition about needihoughts on what to do and not do for this campaign. It wasn’t about seeking an Oscar; it was about selling more.

  -Is something important happening? – Rachel asked, unaware of the news.

  -Nothing surprising… We have a Golden Globe nomination, so we’ll have ce. If we make better advertising deals and further exploit the Ice Age franchise, I think it would be good for you to discuss it with me. – Anne replied.

  Rachel was still in the dark… but Anne ying with Billy’s words about marketing and the supply and demand of people.

  -What do you think we should do? – Rachel asked.

  -We need ats, an idea about distribution, and perhaps a relevant a pn to promote our ories. 'The Musi' is one of our films, and we used a difficult and plex process to exploit it. Like Mun, which is our release for this year. – Anne expined.

  Mun was scheduled fust, The Musi for March. They were films geing signifit critical i, but perhaps it was the fact that they were still expanding their film produ team to a third team and a group of five for children’s programming, meaning they would hire 40 new employees. The risk was still high, but Billy’s fiden his success overshadowed Anne’s doubt about another success as signifit as this year.

  -I’m sorry, President, but I still don’t uand what we o do. I have in mind that we have a policy of not spending money in these cases. Is there something I o know that has geed some i? – Rachel said.

  -Well, few know this, but Billy wants to run a marketing campaign for brand reition. However, we will approach it from another perspective—advertising, toys, and, of course, other things I’m not certain about. – Anne said. It was a lie; Autodesk was going publi January 1997.

  -We have in mind a promotional campaign with Mald’s and a deyed deal with Hasbro, but we improve the advertising. They help us with the costs of some Ice Age shorts while we make our is valuable. And, of course, if Billy as a public figure speaks, people e like moths to a fme. – Rachel ented doubtfully.

  ***

  For many, 1995 was a year of great surprises in the animation world, but for Billy, it was just aep—a step closer to what he desired to achieve: a culture of many characters, opening up a new world.

  Alex Hunter, one of the new members of the film produ team, along with four other team members, was sitting in Billy's Los Angeles mansion. They were to uake one of the most ambitious projects ever ceived. The mere lising of Narnia cost 3 million, with the promise of 1% of the box office profits, along with another set of lises costing an additional 6 million. This gave Billy the fidehat his approach was on the right path. The step was to create a series of seven animated films.

  In addition to this, two swriters made a signifit tribution by drafting seven scripts of 200 pages each, with help from their children, recreating the world of Narnia in the best way they could. This, along with the promise of ic series, was just the beginning. Billy aimed to tinue creating stories and films, ushering in an Ameri era of animation that would surely explode in three years and fifteen years.

  -Thank you all for ing. – Billy said, dressed in a white suit, pants, and shirt, and with freshly showered hair. This meeting was meant to test a team that could potentially ge the history of animation.

  -As you may know, I have created a storyboard for how I want the Narnia series of seven films to be made over the seven years or more. I want to bine many animation styles. So far, we only have three styles, but this time, I want t Engnd to the big s. – Billy said, handing them the storyboard with some ideas about the color palette.

  To the five main animators chosen for the third team:

  -We have ideas, and sketches, and have worked on all the characters you’ve given us, but what is being asked is simply very ambitious. Even with the programs and staff, it’s not possible to release the film this year. It will take at least two years. – Carl Ogran said, surprised by the se drawings—a 300-page notebook seemed like a Herculean task, but this was Billy Carson, the man with a thousand ideas.

  -Then do it. One year and six months. I want the finished product. The color palette will ge for each film. The teiques are advanced, and the style is perfe every frame. – Billy said, wanting to create for these films an Ameri version of Studio Ghibli, infused with Disney magic, Pixar teology, and CGI. He reviewed the script with others and sidered it magnifit.

  -So the meeting... – Joe Brie.

  -The meeting is for you to dare, to do your best work. I believe you have a goal in mind—to achieve success in your work. You will work on Narnia for years, but during that time, I will help you grow as a professionals. It’s a promise. Push these films to the limit. With es to some people, you’ll have support from various experts. – Billy said.

  And he wasn’t lying. For four months, some of Jeffrey Katzenberg's team members would serve as mentors.

  -We will do what we . However, if we fail, the film will be celed. – Carl Ogran asked.

  I would never let that happen!

  -That is the least of your worries. I’m looking for art, the best product. I want each film not to be a tinuation of the previous o must have pure and unadulterated magic. We have the first and sed films in storyboard, but even if we don’t ge things, we must be creative. For example, some ses will have a color palette of green, wine red, and gray. We’ve hired a philharmonic orchestra to perform a 5-minute musical score. – Billy said, thinking slowly. - What more you add? Be creative, even if it means breaking the above rules. It’s a strict request that you must fulfill.

  ...