Indie family films make inroads in Hollywood

With animated features such as Shrek 2 and The Incredibles continuing to rake in serious cash at the box office, big Hollywood studios are getting more aggressive in their hunt for their next winner and increasingly mining the vein of indie content for toon gold. In the last two years, Warner Bros. and Universal, for example, have set up distribution arms for the sole purpose of finding and signing up independently produced family-friendly films. Moreover, with the recent proliferation of portable media devices, alternative financing channels opening up and production costs coming down, it's getting easier for smaller prodcos to feed this emerging pipeline.