Beyond Threshold of Animation

Beyond Threshold of Animation

3D Q&A, Video Gallery

Larry Kasanoff has blazed many trails in the entertainment industry in the past 25 years or so, piling up successes as co-founder of Lightstorm Entertainment and the producer of the first big videogame-turned movie “Mortal Kombat,’ among many other things.

For the past few years one of his primary focuses has been on his Threshold Animation Studios in Santa Monica, which makes family and kids CGI animated films for DVD, TV, and, perhaps most significantly, theme parks, leveraging popular brands from LEGO to Marvel as well as original characters.

<Story continues below following 3 1/2-minute video interview with Kasanoff and Threshold Animation president Joshua Wexler.>

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One of the keys to that success was Kasanoff’s technology alliance with IBM to develop new technologies to improve the animation process while reducing the cost of production.

Threshold has nearly completed three CGI feature films in the last year, two for DVD, including “LEGO: The Adventures of Clutch Powers,” “LEGO: Bionicle, The Legend Reborn,” and a theatrical feature being finalized called “Foodfight.”

But what really distinguished Threshold Animation from other companies is the 3D, 4D and even “5D” productions the company creates for customized attractions from Legloland in Carlsbad, Ca., to a domed Madame Tussaud’s theater in England featuring Marvel superhero characters. These productions can cost anywhere from $900,000 to $12 million each, and that’s just for the film content, not including the theater itself that must be rigged with effects that literally touch the audience. In “5D,” the audience interacts with the movie and the characters.

Kasanoff says that in order for movie theaters to continue to offer something more than viewers can get at home, theaters will have to deliver a far more immersive form of 3D and quickly move to 4D and 5D.

He and Threshold Animation president Joshua Wexler recently sat down with 3DHollywood.net to describe their projects and strategies, as seen in 3 1/2-minute video above).

— By Scott Hettrick

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  1. I think the guys of Threshold should have a go working on Darkstalkers 3D pitch for Capcom so they can do a Darkstalkers media in the future with feature films TV series direct to DVD projects, so this is a good thing for Threshold Animation Studios and Capcom together.

    Thank You.

    BRUCE ACOSTA

    AUSTRALIA