Explaining strong profits in the second quarter of 2009, built upon robust DVD sales when other movie studios are seeing their DVD revenue streams dry up, Dreamworks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg gave all the credit to parents looking to glue their children to the boob tube.
"Our DVDs are purchased by moms and dads for their children and are more analogous with a toy purchase," he said. "There's no better baby-sitter for a child than an animated movie."
I will be the first to admit that I am guilty of using animated movies as baby-sitters. Hayao Miyazaki may have spent more time with my children than I have. But I'm not proud of it! For one thing, I feel ashamed for my complicity in yet another instance of technology eliminating good baby-sitting jobs from the economy. And I would also contend that that there is no better baby-sitter... than a real live good baby-sitter. Kung Fu Panda can rock the house with his chopstick-fu, but can he make popcorn? Call Mom or Dad when an emergency breaks out? Perform CPR?
Shares