GOOD RIDDANCE TO FATKAT! Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy lol.

Pirated software,extorting the poor community of the Miramichi for ever tax dollar he could possibly get then turning around declaring bankruptcy saying that money was never a goal.What a con artist.

I worked at Fatkat several years ago, when the studio contained fewer than a dozen employees, so my opinion should be understood with that context.

I remember working every night and every day of the week, partially because I was given an unreasonable amount of work to do and partially because I was a complete novice - Fatkat was my first animation job.

The money was a fraction of what I...

I was way underpaid for the amount of work, stress, time and revisions. Not sure I would do it again....

Great place to work, good benefits, fair salary. The owner of Farkat deserves a fair shake. He is a young man trying his hardest to make a good company. And he is a really nice guy too.

Well, well. $36,000 fine for pirated software. How's THAT for leadership at the top?

Hardly surprising from my experience. 1 of five companies fined from across Canada. What might be Fatkat's NEXT big thing?

https://ratemyemployer.ca/rater/user_rating.aspx?l=en&rateID;=3726

Pirated software.

Enough said.

The level of insecurity and immaturity at the top is frightening. If you are a yes person and like stroking someone's ego - this is the place for you. The infighting at the top is insane - and there is a constant sense of impending doom or fire fighting.

Avoid if you can..

For the record, I am not bitter towards any one person at Fatkat, however bad my rating may come off. There were a lot of things wrong with the company, but I don't believe any of them were intentional. I may be fairly new to the industry still (celebrated one year as an animator last week) but I don't by any means consider myself naive.

I know Gene has had a sorted past and still does things...

I know you will attack this, but I enjoy working there have been there over a year. I dont want to really say anything else as the amount of venom spewing here is incredible. no its not gene.(im a female)

Well, it seems the company will run out of money in exactly one month, again, due to poor management practices, lets' see hoe it turns out.

Funding will cease in a little while and who knows how many will end up working for free and for how long.

Fatkat is headed in the right direction, but needs to grow and mature a little more.

If you are a local, just graduated college, and are new to animation, this is a ok place to start. The studio is located in a very remote and small town, so there are no other animation studios located nearby. Lay offs happen all the time in animation, even at Fatkat. The studio has become a very unstable place to work recently because of very poor management. So,if you are laid off at Fatkat and...

Though I've been off the roster for a month or so now, I look forward to coming back. It's hands down the most fun I've had working anywhere, and while the city itself is very small-time, that appeals to me just fine. As long as you don't pretend you're bigger than everyone else, you don't get treated like you're smaller, and that's the way it ought to work.

I loved the show I worked on. (Happy Tree Friends)

I loved the people I worked with. (Although I agree that the drinking, playing guitar and general rowdiness did make it difficult to concentrate.)

When I worked there I put in an easy 9-5, which was nice.

The studio was cool and the atmosphere was enjoyable.

When I think back, Happy Tree Friends might have been the most fun and least...

Dermot here. (I hope this damned site supports paragraphs, otherwise this is going to be a huge block of text)....

I feel I should post my opinions on Fatkat, having seen this post.

When I moved to Miramichi to work for Fatkat, I was in a slightly different professional/personal position than most of the studio employees:

1. I didn't need the money.

2. I didn't need the work...

Hoo boy. I usually don't get involved with internet battles, but who knows, my 2 cents may be helpful to someone. So here goes:

I've worked at lots of different jobs. Fatkat is one of the good ones.

You can start slamming me now, if you like. I probably won't know, because I think I've had about enough of looking at this page.

I think that many of the comments here are designed to professionally injure Fatkat Animation Studios from a spiteful stand point. To say that Gene calls you a 'fuck*r' as you enter the studio can be taken hugely out of context and is used here, as I say to professionally injure the studio. To leave out the fact that Gene is joking when he says these things is just wrong. Maybe you don't like the...

No complaints here, other than this city does blow for our age ranks, but as for the company standings, sure all companies has it fair share of problems and benefits. In my state of mind, most of these people posting these negative comments are not currently working here and have left for different circumstances. Some on good terms, some on bad.

Lets just put it this way, Have you ever thought...

Fatkat rocks. I wanna work here forever. After all, all other companies are the same in this industry; even if they don't have the SAME problems exactly, they WILL have problems. I for one don't have the "grass is greener" symptoms. :D

Live and let live! If you're not happy, then just go, and most of you did, and all the best to you. But don't go around looking for ways to bash your...

ya its stressful...... ya it sucks some times, but in the end all that matters is your demo. Career suicide is a retarded statement, for the single fact that there are really talented people here, if your stupid enough not to learn from them and grow, then its your own fault your career is dead and gone. Im 1 of 2 people working from my graduating class. And im sure a few comments are from some...

public drunkenness, lude comments, racial slurs and the extreme amount of small town gossip run the streets in the studio known as fatkat. career suicide applicants need only apply as you'll find yourself wanting to dismember your eyes from your face and your heart out your chest as each day brings you closer and closer to the realization that you are no longer a human being, but an emotionless...

Fatkat Animation Studios runs contrary to all my years of experience. Dysfunctional, deceitful, and delusional are probably the better choices for wording, though still undermining. The talent pool on the floor varies from seasoned to raw, yet management and production seem to suffer from severe case of dementia for being so young. Location, although pleasant, really puts the studio at a...

given this many disgruntled people, if i were Gene I'd be ashamed at the colossal failure that is fatkat. I mean if it were one or two angry people i might understand. But this is alot of really unhappy people. you really have to be sticking your head in a hole in the sand to be thinking everything is right and swell in the miramichi.

It was a complete waste of time to go to Miramichi.

I'm sure my rating will mirror many people's feelings about this but I'll try and keep personal attacks to a minimum.

Facts:

unprofessional. People don't really take the time to look at the quality of the industry compared to what they're producing. Again I see time and again mentioned in this blog that people are ashamed to have Fatkat...

I enjoy working here despite the problems that Fatkat has. There does seem to be a genuine attempt to try to fix the problems that have arisen and I respect that. There are some people who I don't think should be doing the jobs they are hired for like certain accountants. But at least I get paid every two weeks and I have steady work.

Now on to the fun stuff. I have been reading all of these...

To the person who posted about illegal software:

I am not sure who you are or when you left but I believe the studio recently upgraded everyones computers to the Adobe CS3 suite. And I do remember their computer guy telling me that they had bought it LEGALLY. While I might agree with some of the things said here I do not agree with accusing a company of committing illegal actions when you have...

Not so long ago, I was a part of the "Fatkat Family". Truth be told, working there felt more like being a member of a unorganized, dysfunctional cult than an actual place of employment. I have never met so many individuals in upper management roles who were that unprofessional and unwilling to listen to their employees. I have also never met so many employees who were so blindsided by the lies...

There is a lot of slag thrown at this company for being young and trying something a bit different then the rest. Not that I'm going to come to it's rescue because I work there. No, but I do want to give an honest opinion on this company/industry for those who have read all the previous comments. Take everything with a grain of salt, this is the entertainment industry. One day you're hot and...

The quality of Fatkats business model, vision and strategy is good at heart but extremely flawed. They went a number of years with no layoffs, something unheard of in this industry and for that I commend them. The thing is, when they grew to over 100 employees, what worked for 20-40 employees before was not going to work now. They tried to stick to that vision but to no avail, and with no...

Location alone has slaughtered this company, besides everything everyone else has mentioned. Being a former, disgruntled employee, I am very happy to be out of the black hole they call "Miramichi." If the company doesn't want to make you slit your wrists, the city will. A place where old people come to die.

If I could summarize my experience with this company in two words, it would be these: SLAVE LABOR.

Never in my life have I ever felt so utterly un-appreciated and depressed about my job and my life in general as I have here. This place was the one place I've ever worked at that seriously made me consider why I'd ever gotten into the animation business in the first place. Even my friends and...

I have to say that I very much LOVE my job at Fatkat. I work hard, yes, but if you have the proper skill level and focus, you'll not work that much overtime. I do find that management and organization is not as good as it should be, and I do feel that sometimes the sales team undercuts to get projects, while we end up under-funded and struggling. BUT, Fatkat is still better than many other...

I've worked enough jobs to know I've got it pretty good at Fatkat, and I've worked in a wide variety of departments here.

Cons - Sometimes workload is heavy and deadlines are tight. Meetings are often canceled due to schedule conflicts, and sometimes they don't happen at all. Disruptive coworkers are not dealt with in a satisfactory fashion, and seating plans sometimes place you next to...

As a former employee of the company, I must gather arms with the side of opposition against this establishment. Everything that has been mentioned in other complaints is identical to my claims. Akin to all starting artists, they need a place to gain experience. No one wants to hire someone without experience. Result? The Catch 22, and enter FatKat Animation Studios. An underpaying,...

If the Devil owned a studio, this would be it.

There have been some very underhanded business transactions, some illegal labour, and quite a bit of unpaid labour in exchange for 'experience'. The majority of the crew was once asked to commit fraud to the government and lie about their residency. This was presented to them under threat of losing our job. The owner once stole some equipment...

Badly managed by a few bad producers with terrible communication stills... Doug Little to name one. Although there are usually good intentions by management.., there is not a whole lot of follow through and I wouldn't nessessarily recommend this company to anyone I call a friend at this point in the game. It's still got a lot of growing to do, and one step in that growth is actually paying...

to be associated with this company is to commit career suicide.

distance yourself immediately.

even from this post.

the choice to work elsewhere is the right choice.

one more employee for someone else puts fatkat closer to the edge of demise.

you have been warned.

Fatkat Animation Studios, the name echoes even when I have left the burning pit. As an ex-employee, I left to a better job that respects me as an employee, but most importantly as a human.

One person can only do so much, the 100+ hours a week like management lays around on the weekends, come into work at 11 or noon at their leisure and enjoy the immense amount of pay difference from an...

If there was an option for 'slave labour' i would pick it.

Unfortunatly there is no option for that. There is also no option that says Gene Fowler is an uninformed, ignorant hack.

I'm torn on which topic to write about.

The money wasting, the 3rd world country treatment of artists or the poisonous atmosphere that is a direct result of an environment created by a 'man' who has no idea what...

The project management in this animation studio is absolutely appalling. The artists are given too much work to complete in a normal forty hour work week, and are required to work evenings and weekends to meet the unreasonable quotas. The pay is salaried, and therefore the artists are not paid for overtime.

When problems or concerns are brought to the attention of the management or human...

Not happy with this company at all. Organization is terribly lacking and stress levels for all employees is sky-high. They reel you in with a salary job (that's really low-pay), but expect you to work 80+ hours, weekends and all-nighters to make quota on shows that are weeks if not months behind because of poor management choices/organization and under-cutting to get said projects. Advancement...