I have tried to compile OpenColorIO with the Ninja generator and it fails with:

FAILED: ext/Yaml-cpp-prefix/src/Yaml-cpp-stamp/Yaml-cpp-build ext/dist/lib/libyaml-cpp.a
cd /media/gga/Datos/code/applications/mrv/dependencies/imageworks-OpenColorIO-67cb724/build-fails/ext/build/yaml-cpp && /usr/bin/cmake --build . && /usr/bin/cmake -E touch /media/gga/Datos/code/applications/mrv/dependencies/imageworks-OpenColorIO-67cb724/build-fails/ext/Yaml-cpp-prefix/src/Yaml-cpp-stamp/Yaml-cpp-build
ninja: error: build.ninja:296: bad $-escape (literal $ must be written as $$)

The line that fails in build.ninja says:

COMMAND = cd /media/gga/Datos/code/applications/mrv/dependencies/imageworks-OpenColorIO-67cb724/build-fails/ext/build/yaml-cpp && $(MAKE) clean && /usr/bin/cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release /media/gga/Datos/code/applications/mrv/dependencies/imageworks-OpenColorIO-67cb724/build-fails/ext/Yaml-cpp-prefix/src/Yaml-cpp

The Unix Makefile generator, however, works just fine.  It seems $(MAKE) clean is the culprit here.