Vancouver: Walt Disney Animation Canada finally shone the spotlight on its Vancouver studio Dec. 5 with an official opening reception.

The stylish, 17,000-square-foot facility on two floors of the Scotia Tower in downtown Vancouver, employs 45 people, with another 15 to be hired. And all are currently working on the direct-to-home video release Beauty and the Beast: Christmas Belle.

Lenora Hume, senior vp of international production of Walt Disney Television Animation, takes credit for The Mouse’s move north. A Canadian with roots in Vancouver, Hume says opening conjoined studios in Vancouver and Toronto (which should open officially mid-January) ‘provides an opportunity for Canadian animators to stay home.’ The initial creative work such as storyboarding is still done in Burbank, so local animators do tasks such as in-betweening.

Says Hume: ‘Producing feature films for theatrical release out of the Canadian offices is a goal we are working toward.’

Keith Ingham is the company’s associate director in Vancouver.

The Disney opening, meanwhile, has stung the rest of the animation industry here by skimming talent.

Vancouver animator Chris Delaney says he lost a few people but, ‘that’s business. It’s meant that we have had to train more people.’

Delaney adds: ‘I see [Disney] as a net benefit to the industry. It raises our profile and it lends credibility to the idea that animation is growing stronger. The people they hired might have left Vancouver anyway. This way, we keep some of the better people here. And they may come back to work for us again.’