This inquiry comes up with metronomic regularity. This article from the Sub-Continent Down Under highlights it:
...When [the animated feature] Alpha and Omega hits the screens in April 2010, it will be a turning point not only for Crest Animation, but for the entire Indian animation industry as well. The box-office fate of the first animated Hollywood film to be produced by an Indian company could well define how the world looks at Indian animators.
The movie, with a budget of US$25 million, is being co-produced by the U.S.-based distributor Lionsgate. It is the first production in a three-film contract between the two ...
Now, I'm not a person who never says "Never!" But here's the working reality as I see it.
The momentum is on the side of domestically-produced theatrical animated features because domestically-produced cartoons are the epics that have performed at the box office in a major way. Ice Age. Up. Kung-Fu Panda. Shrek. All these products were created in some part of the U.S.A., and all of them made their mother companies oodles of money.
Foreign-produced animated features (with the exception of Australia's Happy Feet)?
Not so much.
Now. The day may come when some Mumbai-based Pixar produces ninety minutes of animated splendor that makes a half-billion dollars in the world marketplace, but that hasn't happened yet, not in the twenty years that I've been thinking about it and anticipating it.
As a general rule, Hollywood producers are reluctant to take unconventional chances, because that can get their expensive derrieres fired. And the conventional Hollywood wisdom is that television animation, direct-to-video animated features and some digital visual effects can be outsourced with success, but the bigger budget theatrical stuff cannot. (Success is here defined as one hundred million or more dollars at the world box office.) Many point to Hoodwinked as the big indie c.g.i. hit from the Philippines, but the Red Riding Hood comedy, though profitable, was hardly a money-spinner on the level of Shrek or Ice Age.
My thinking on all this is that some theatrical animation work will probably find its way to the world's lower-cost neighborhoods over the next few years, but until an Asian studio hits a major home-run with one of its productions, the floodgates will not open.
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17 comments:
get ready its coming. i do not expect this film to be a huge hit based on what i know if it but studios will not stop trying to get countries like india and China up to speed in order to produce a mega hit. several large studios already have infrastructures with india partnerships.
and as long as veteran talent continues to go there eventually their skill set will match many of those in the states.
Believe me i wish we could keep all the jibs here, but the studios are focused on the lowest possible bottom line.
I'm not sure, Anon. #1. Maybe 3D will share a similar fate to hand-drawn animation. I can't think of too many successful hand-drawn feature films drawn off-shore.
While it may not hold in all cases, the fact is that audiences DO seem to appreciate the extra quality that goes into films like Up, Kung Fu Panda, etc.
The one advantage US animators have is quality. And a big part of that is the direct interaction and understanding of the director with his animation crew. So long as strong acting choices matter, directors will be loathe to send the work overseas.
The real cost savings would come if the work were done in places like India, Taiwan, Korea, etc. But as soon as you do this, you begin to run into communication problems. This would certainly be a problem when achieving sensitive, nuanced acting performances.
Just seeing the difficulty directors have articulating exactly how they want a character to perform to a crew whose primary language is English, and whose cultural experiences are identical, makes me realize the impossibility of doing this with a crew whose language, culture, and societal norms are all different.
Besides Happy Feet, The Simpsons is the only other in the top 20. Of films that have cracked $100M, you can add Roger Rabbit and The Rugrats Movie.
Dreamworks already owns a studio in India, and is constantly training them to come up to speed... All the while the animators in the States are being told, "All is well, not to worry, they'll only do small stuff".... But this comes from the same man in charge of the studio that told everyone, "Dont worry, Dreamworks will always do 2D animation"
I was at DreamWorks for all the hand-drawn features, and I don't remember Jeffrey saying that DreamWorks would always do 2D.
And as someone who has seen the results of the 'constant efforts' to train up India and Korean and Chinese animators, let's just say I don't expect to be an unemployed character animator in Los Angeles any time soon. Seriously, sending 2 or 3 animators to India for a few months at a time doesn't do it.
A lot of investors from the Middle East and other places have already found out what a money pit it is opening an Indian studio. I know a few studios who are now discovering how not-cheap it is to send work to China. Unless your goal is just-barely-adequate-for-TV animation, don't hold your breath awaiting all the work going overseas.
Definitely, India is a low cost destination, but quality wise US rules the world. I am not sure as to what kind of quality can this company deliver but at the same time one can't take any Asian countries for granted, the centre of gravity is shifting from US to Asian countries in all the fields, so its dangerous to be complacent, the moment quality clicks and with the cost advantages, it can change the game because the US cannot compete in costing at any level.
Waiting to see the movie.
Beware Indians are coming...Like technology sector, they will nibble away the whole pie in few years, their film industry is as old as our Hollywood, unlike other asian countries, India is a dangerous cocktail of low-cost production, creativity and technolgy, which is what an animaion industry requires. Like one cannot compete in electronics with Korea, manufacturing with China and garments with Bangladesh, same way India will take away the animation pie, without we realising, the rug will be pulled up beneath our feet. If Crest fails, their other 3 companies, which are trying and one of them will succeed. Its matter of time and few more movies...
Many point to Hoodwinked as the big indie c.g.i. hit from the Philippines, but the Red Riding Hood comedy, though profitable, was hardly a money-spinner on the level of Shrek or Ice Age.
Actually, Hoodwinked was almost completely redone in India because the work that came from the Philippines was so bad. And even with one of the top Indian studios reworking the film, it still looked like sh*t.
India is a dangerous cocktail of low-cost production...
This is another exaggeration that most Indian studios hide. The actual cost for Indian animation, when everything is figured in, is about 75% of the cost for the same work done in the states. That's for work that is less than half the quality. The cost savings are more illusory than the press, and many animation execs, will admit. If they were 20 or 30% our cost, I'd be worried. They aren't, and I haven't seen their improvement over the last 5 years, despite A LOT of money being dumped on studios there.
Hmmm, a careful reading of the anonymous from two posts above (the one from 2:18 am) reveals a few clues that it was written by a someone for whom English is a second language, who didn't learn English over here. I suspect it's an Indian animation exec with some wishful thinking.
Korea has been doing 2-d outsourcing for decades. And where is their animation industry? Still trapped in outsource. Foreign animation studios doing low-cost outsourcing has never been the path to taking away the kind of high-quality jobs that have been centered in north America and Europe. I ain't losing sleep over this B.S.
I agree with B.S.. I am an Indian exec doing wishful thinking, but the real issue is quality and my apprehension is that we are years away from US in terms of quality, scale,IPR, storyline and investments. Till now, not a single film from our 100 years old Bollywood i.e. Hindi film industry, has caught the attention of the global audience. Even the recent oscar for Slumdog was made by a foreign director. But at least, we hope to be an efficient tech / outsourcing partner for a global giant.
Being an Indian, i can tell you one thing, that except for a few potential studios like DQ and others, there is nothing to be talked about them. Its only a hype created by the media, and even if the majority of the studios under operations can still remain an outsourcing partner for TV serials, & DVD's for an US company, i will be happy, forget theatricals.
Of course, everyone here seems to be making a direct correlation between quality and American box office. This isn't always the case. Look at the dismal returns for Miyazaki's pictures. You can't knock the quality there.
It is absolutely true that quality is no guarantee of financial success. Look at Iron Giant, Surf's Up, and Bolt. The fact is, even though it is no guarantee, it IS the best bet, in a very high-risk business. Frankly, what other metric do we have in trying to produce a success, other than making the best movie we possibly can?
"You can't knock the quality there."
Yes you can. Princess Mononoke was an eyesore and a bore from beginning to end.
Bolt has made $300 million. That's a failure? I'm sure it cost them a lot to clean up the Chris Sanders mess of a film. But it seems to be doing well.
I don't work for Disney currently, but have seen the American Dog version, and it was a disaster. Just awful.
I'll try my hardest to refrain from insulting the last poster.
Miyazaky is a master of storytelling. PERIOD. He's got a very important ingredient missing in most american made features. IMAGINATION! And he's got in in spades.
R.
I agree with Mr. R, Miyazaky is really very good, Americans can't think, that they rule the world. Even Disney made lots of blunders and though they were the pioneers in animation, their CGI venture was a big failure and the rest is history.
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