Monday, March 04, 2013

Spanish Renaissance

As Variety tells it:

For crisis-slammed Spain, feature animation offers film production a lifeline.

The local toon biz’s flagship is Enrique Gato’s Indiana Jones parody “Tad, the Lost Explorer,” the third Spanish film in a row to open Cartoon Movie. Studiocanal-sold, “Tad” snagged $40 million worldwide through Feb. 17, becoming Spain’s highest-grossing Spanish toon ever ($24.6 million), distribbed by Paramount.

“Spain’s film sector now accepts animation as part of its industry,” says “Tad” writer-producer Jordi Gasull at El Toro. ...

New state incentives may goose animation investment. For the moment, most Spanish film producers must look for most — perhaps as much as 60% — of their budgets abroad. But animation breathes optimism into a Spain plagued by recession and piracy.

“Spanish genre filmmakers have made movies with international impact. The same could happen in animation,” Garcia says. ...

Spain has a long history in animation.

Some little while ago (like decades), Pete Young and I wrote Katie Caterpillar, an animated feature bankrolled by Mexico's Televisa, but animated in Spain. It didn't cause global turnstiles to spin at white heat, but it did well enough in South and Central America.

So Spanish filmmakers have been creating animated product for a long time. Tad, the Lost Explorer appears to be the kind of movie that will goose Spain's animation industry. In a country that has 26% unemployment, any ray of sunshine is welcome.

2 comments:

Alan Krows said...

Ilion Animation already blazed the trail with Planet 51, the biggest English-language grosser from Spain so far...but what is Ilion up to lately?

There is also Kandor Graphics, who are scheduled to put Justin and the Knights of Valour into UK theatres in August 2013, also in Spanish elsewhere.

If Tad joins the fray and succeeds, good for the folks at Lightbox Entertainment (where I assume the actual animators are located).

Chris Sobieniak said...

Some of us Americans might recall Katy Caterpillar very well from airings on The Disney Channel for on home video almost 30 years ago. Nice to know who co-wrote that film now, thanks Steve!

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